Amongst my mom's things I found a collection of old old old dolls that I remember playing with at my grandmother's house. I think they must have belonged to my mom and my aunt, but there were also some really old ones that I didn't remember. The dolls were mostly in bad shape, needing restringing and so forth, so I took them to Barbara, a lady with a "Doll-ee" hospital in her house. Now that was a really interesting experience... fascinating and kind of creepy at the same time. So many dolls... I wouldn't be able to sleep in a house with that many eyes staring at me, they were everywhere.
While waiting for the dolls to be repaired, I washed the clothes that weren't too fragile and gave them a good long soak until they were lovely and fresh again. The dress above goes on a tiny Effenbee baby doll. When I get her back from the doll lady I'll take some more pics... she is so adorable.
I knew I wanted to display some of the clothes, so I got these shadowbox frames from Ikea (have I mentioned how much I love Ikea?) wrapped the back in fabric, strung some baker's twine across the opening and used little clothespins to hold the dresses. They went together really fast and easy. Don't you love it when your ideas actually work out?
These are my favorites. They're tiny tiny tiny... the inside of this shadowbox is only five inches. They were for Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls. I loved these little dresses, and begged to play with the storybook dolls whenever I stayed with my grandmother.
I feel like I was somehow influenced by these. Do you ever get that feeling? Like something from your early childhood had an affect on your art? It was kind of eerie when I was going through the box.
More pics when I get the dolls back from the doll lady. And I hope to get the frames hung along with some other things and take some photos of the studio, cuz so many of you have emailed asking about it.
Cheers,
Jenny
