The History of Faceless Dolls Copyright © 2004-2015- All Rights Reserved - Written by By Linda Walsh

I wanted to reblog this wonderful post about the History of Faceless Dolls by Linda Walsh.  Click the links below to read the articles on her site.

Linda's Blog

Part 1 -  Corn Husk Dolls and Native American Indian Faceless Dolls

Part II - Amish Dolls

Part III - Marafona Dolls of Portugal

Part IV - Dominican Republic Dolls

Part V - Russian Folk Rag Dolls 

Part VI - Japanese Sarubobo Dolls

Part VII - Goddess and Spirit Dolls

Part VIII - American Primitive, Prairie, Pioneer, Wagon Train, Appalachian and Folk Art Rag Dolls

Part VIIII - Hankerchief and Pillowcase Dolls

Part X - Twig, Pine Cone, Willow and Nature Craft  Dolls

Part XI - Worry Dolls and Toothpick Dolls

Part XII -  Fairies, Gnomes, Elves, Wee Folk, Bendy's, Pixies, and Trolls

Part XIII -  Waldorfs

Part XIIII -  Muslim Dolls

Part XV -  Yarn Dolls

Part XVI - Mixed Media Faceless Dolls 

Part XVII - Faceless Dolls of Francoise Bosteels 

Part XVIII -  Faceless Dolls From Carole's World Costume Doll Collection

Part XVIIII -  The Ruth E. Aten World Doll Collection: Americas

Part XX - Other Faceless Doll Art 

Part XXI - Books To Help You Create Your Own Faceless Dolls

Part XXII- A Very Famous Faceless Doll 

Part XXIII - Faceless Dolls For Charity

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Spirit Dolls

I have several boards on Pinterest that I collect photos of dolls from around the world.  (Click on HERE and HERE),

Apart from Waldorf dolls of all sizes and shapes I have a particular interest in Spirit Dolls, Russian Folk dolls and Japanese Kokeshi dolls.    For quite awhile I have been researching and gathering materials to make Spirit Dolls, also known as Medicine Dolls, Healing Dolls,Art Dolls, etc.  (At the end of this post are links for directions.)

Just before Christmas my adult daughter, Alice, asked me to make her a doll.  I thought she meant a Waldorf doll and sent her the link to my Pinterest doll board.  She chose several spirit/goddess type dolls and wrote from Germany "mom, I want you to make me an elemental doll with all your insight and love and intuition built in. not big. not tiny… everything else is up to you and your genius."

How can a mom resist that?

I peculated on materials, faces, fabrics, hair types, embellishments, etc. for awhile.  I made several paper patterns of archetypal goddess or spirit doll shapes.

I settled on wool felt because it is strong, easy to use and embroider on and sensual.  I have some ceramic faces I purchased on Etsy that you can see in come of the photos but I did not use one for Alice's.  I did for a succeeding doll which I intend to give to my sister, Karla.  She saw the doll I made for Alice on Facebook and said "I need a chakra doll" so that gave me her theme.

I did not plan out out how I would embellish the doll.  I just picked out the colors and started stitching.  I have a number of sectioned trays with beads, charms and collected ephemera from which to choose that I looked through as I worked .  I also have every color of curly wool locks for hair.  I wanted her hair to be somewhat wild.

 I added the spirit doll as a Made to Order item in my Etsy Shop.  I immediately got an order and this is the result.  The listing is set up so body and hair color are choices.  Design preferences can be written in the comment section.

Then I set to work on a doll for my sister.  She is covered in semi-precious bead chips aligned with the chakras.  her hair is recycled silk strips form saris.

Now I am working on a self care doll made of rosy pink and hearts and pastel glass beads.  She is not finished yet.

Directions from Joanna Powell Colbert's blog: Gain Soul

http://www.gaiansoul.com/2012/10/how-to-make-a-spirit-doll-step-1/


Directions from Silver Raven Wolfe's blog, The Crow at the Crossroads

https://silverravenwolf.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/new-moon-spirit-dolls-the-journey-of-magickal-design/

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Rainbow Heart Garland

On my workbench for August..

I'm participating in a swap on the Facebook group Fairies and Gnomes Handwork.  The theme is Rainbow bridge birthday celebration in the Waldorf tradition.

The hearts measure 4 x 4 inches each and are made from 100% wool felt and stuffed with wool batting.  They are strung on cotton floss and 7 rainbow colored wool felted beads are spacers.

If you enjoy crafting for your children check out my previous blog on the various swap groups.

http://bridgitsbell.blogspot.com/2015/02/swaps.html

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Walking Around the Yard

 Here's what I found on a walk around my New England yard today.

I was excited to get this photo as these cardinals are so skittish!

Lasting only day these lilies are so brilliantly orange.

My yard is on the wild side-no manicured lawn for us.  But we like it that way.  In the spring are white and purple violets, may flowers, bluets, etc.  In the summer the mushrooms pop up and are gone just as quickly.

Some grow singly, some bunch right up on one another.

Today I found 7 types of mushrooms.  I have such a fondness for them.

Many of them show signs of nocturnal foragers.

Do toads eat mushrooms?  This one hopped out when I moved the hose to fill the birdbath.

One lonely pink wild flower in the whole lawn!

Under the shade of the human made Amanita is what we called smoke bombs as children.  What a delight to find and step on a dried one, releasing the spores.

These mushrooms can be found in my Etsy shop.

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Blue Jeans Gnome Family

What do you make with old blue jeans?  An extended family of gnomes! 

 I had a lot of fun making this family.

Grandma and grandpa.  I gave him a braided beard after rewatching the Lord Of the Rings movies. Gnomes and dwarfs are different creatures I think, but I am not sure, never having seen a gnome.  At any rate the braided beard is in honor of Gimli, son of Gloin.

Grandma has a long gray braid and I think she must have help with it every morning.  Maybe her grandchildren help.

Aren't they cute!  I especially like the girl's stick-out hair.  They are 3.5 inches tall.

Here they are with grandma and grandpa.

Mom and Dad.  All the men in this family braid their beards.  The adults are 5 inched tall.

More photos in the family album.

Father and son.

Mother in law and daughter in law.

Mom and the twins.

Dad and his treasures.

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and other elementals Here 

AND DOLLS HERE 

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What's New

You may remember that I made a Celtic goddess peg doll back in January as a special request. The same person asked for a stag king. He is now finished and ready to greet the world. There are many examples of stag kings, AKA the Horned God in Europe. He is a nature god of the hunt and the cyclic year, the embodiment of fertility and masculine power.  Some call him Cerununnos.

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He lives and dies each and every year.  Born at the winter solstice, he mates in the spring at Beltane with the goddess and dies at Halloween or Samhain.  

I have chosen to give him antler horns, sometimes he has ram or bovine horns.  He holds a staff and a snake.  Around his neck is a torc, a male neck adornment and symbol of power.  He is dressed in green with a brown cape and a Celtic knot.

He is dressed in green with a brown cape and a Celtic knot at his waist. His hair is long and wild. Here is a photo of the Cerununnos on a Celtic cauldron.

Every year I create a design in my garden from ocean beach rocks.  I have done labyrinths, spirals, hearts and a medicine wheel.  Since I have Celtic theme going this year in the dolls I am making i decided to do a Celtic knot.  This is a trinity Celtic knot representing the 3 fold nature of the goddess-maiden, mother and crone; or the human-mind, body spirit; or in Christianity-the father, son and holy spirit.

By the way, that is a patch of day lilies in the upper corner.

What else have I been working on? Here is a sample of things I have made for swaps (Read about swaps HERE.

Witches are probably the most popular thing in my Etsy shop.  After a long hard winter I made spring witches with embroidered pussy willows and snow drops.

And a Turquoise witch in the largest peg size:

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AND DOLLS HERE 
AND WITCHES HERE

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