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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

My first attempt at doll carving: Hitty

 

Wood Hitty_1I’ve wanted a real wooden Hitty doll since I first read Hitty: Her First 100 Years, by Rachel Field.  I had (well still do) an issue of Doll Reader in the early ‘90s that featured Robert Raikes line of Hitty dolls as well as those by other doll artists’ and I desperately coveted them. 

I had tried my hand at woodcarving before, but ended up carving more of my fingers than the actual wood.  However, I have recently been introduced to the wonder tool that is the Dremel.  So, donning a pair of safety goggles and a dust mask I went to work turning a block of pine into my very own Hitty. 

The base pieces, the body, arms, and legs were cut using scroll saw, then individually dremeled (is that a word?) using variety of different dremel heads into their final form.  Then each finished piece was sanded with increasing fine grit sandpaper and buffed with a canvas cloth. 

Hitty was assembled using wooden pegs (no glue or nails) then lightly stained and painted with the same minimalist style as the illustrations from Rachel Field’s book.  A final polish with beeswax for varnish, and I think she turned out pretty well.

Well here she is-assembled, stained and painted. 

These are a few of the dolls that I hate...

For your reading pleasure I present a short list of some of the collectible dolls/doll genres that I detest most of all...Remember the number one Rule of doll collecting is:  If it was sold as a collectible when you bought it, it's probably not collectible now.....