The "Suppose" Poem

 

Suppose

Suppose I harness
up some crows
And drive them
through the air.
Suppose I settle 
down with pride
In my best
rocking chair.

Suppose!

But then, who knows,
perhaps my crows
Might drive
unwillingly...
Suppose my crows
kicked up their toes,
What would be-
come of Me?

Who knows?

More Poetry, Crafts and Stories for The Birds!

• Coming and Going
• Bird Index at Thrifty Scissors
• Search query for birds at my Easter Egg Craft Blog

Print by Bessie Pease Gutmann for Your Dollhouse

       Bessie Pease Gutmann (April 8, 1876 – September 1929, 1960) was an American artist and illustrator most noted for her paintings of putti, infants and young children. During the early 1900s Gutmann was considered one of the better-known magazine and book illustrators in the United States. Her artwork was featured on 22 magazine covers such as Woman's Home Companion and McCall's between 1906 and 1920. She also illustrated popular children's books including a notable 1907 edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Although the commercial popularity of Gutmann's art declined during World War II, there was renewed interest in her illustrations from collectors by the late 20th century.

      Gutmann was born Bessie Collins Pease on April 8, 1876 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Horace Collins. After graduating from high school, she studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. From 1896 to 1898, she attended the New York School of Art (later Parsons, The New School). She also attended Art Students League of New York from 1899 to 1901.

      Bessie initially worked as an independent commercial artist drawing portraits and newspapers advertisements. In 1903, she gained employment with the publishing firm of Gutmann & Gutmann which specialized in fine art prints. Her first illustration of a children's book, published in 1905, was A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. Gutmann illustrated several more books including a notable 1907 version of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She also created artwork for postcards and calendars, and her art adorned 22 magazine covers for McCall's, Collier's, Woman's Home Companion, and Pictorial Review, among others. Her greatest recognition came from a series of hand-colored prints which highlighted the innocence of young children. Two of her most notable works were A Little Bit of Heaven and The Awakening which both focused on the face and hands of an infant tucked under a blanket. Gutmann's work was popular through the 1920s, but by World War II, interest in her style had declined. Due to failing eyesight, she retired from drawing in 1947.

      In 1906, Bessie married Hellmuth Gutmann, one of the brothers who co-owned the publishing firm where she was employed. The couple had three children, Alice, Lucille, and John, who became the models for Gutmann's illustrations.

      She died on September 29, 1960 in Centerport, New York at the age of 84.

      I've restored the few examples of her work, for this article, that I have in my collection. Not all of Gutmann's works are in the public domain. But certainly those illustrations published by companies other than her own prior to 1923 would be.

A few samples of Bessie Gutmann's paintings of children. Left, child on the telephone, Center, child in
a red highchair and Right, a child falling asleep under the bed covers.

Print by Maud Humphrey for Your Dollhouse

A restored photograph of 
Maud Hemphrey in her
youth.

      Maud Humphrey (March 30, 1868 – 1940) was a commercial illustrator, water colorist, and suffragette from the United States. She was also the mother of actor Humphrey Bogart and would frequently use her young son as a model.
      She was born in Rochester, New York in 1868 to John Perkins Humphrey and Frances V. Dewey Churchill. She studied at the Art Students League of New York and in Paris at the Julian Academy.
       She married Dr. Belmont DeForest Bogart (1867–1934); they had one son, Humphrey, and two daughters.
      She won a Louis Prang and Company competition for Christmas card design and then began working for publisher F. A. Stokes as an illustrator. From the 1890s through the 1920s, her work Included child portraits, "illustrating calendars, greeting cards, postcards, fashion magazines, and more than 20 story books." She earned more than $50,000 a year while her husband's surgical practice brought in $20,000 a year.
      E. Richards McKinstry of the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library observed in his article Heres's Looking at You, Maud, that the Gerber Products logo she illustrated for its strained baby food was not created until Humphrey Bogart was an adult. So, they do not believe that he was depicted in this particular portrait.
      Maud Humphrey died in 1940 and was interred in the Columbarium at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale).

I've restored these illustrations by Maud Humphrey for those of you
who would like to decorate an old-fashioned doll house with them.
Do you think any of these babies or children are of her son
Humphrey Bogart?

How to Reverse Mold A Fancy Fluted Fruit Bowl

        To reverse mold an object you will need to add a aluminum foil layer. This layer helps to support walls of hollow shapes while these are constructed. The aluminum is always covered with masking tape both inside and out so that paper pulp or paper strips will stick to it easily throughout the shaping and decoupage process. Once the layers of glue and paper are allowed to harden, the bowl shape will remain sturdy for play and display.

Reverse molded, fluted bowl done using 
kitchen foil.

Supply List:

• one lemon juicer
• masking tape
• kitchen foil
• thick shredded paper
• 2 colorful tissue paper sheets
• white school glue
• Mod Podge
• decorative flower stickers
• paper egg carton
• decorative scrap papers may used alternatively for the decoupage

Three steps to molding this bowl's sides before adding the base and painting. The central
ribbed cone used to grind and squeeze the pulp of fruit is called the juice reamer. 

Step-by-Step Instructions:

• Wash and dry the lemon juicer before beginning this craft. 
• Tear off pieces of kitchen foil to wrap around the juice reamer. This is the part to reproduce the fluted walls for a fancy doll fruit bowl.
• Second cover the kitchen foil carefully using masking tape. Smooth each section down as you go and thoroughly cover the foil layer. You may find it easier to work with these surfaces by letting small sections of the masking tape stick onto the fluted areas just beyond by about a half inch. See photo above in center.
• Now shred some thick paper to layer on top of the masking tape. This paper should also have good amount of glue layered on top of it as you proceed to cover the juice reamer. Let this final layer dry hard over night.
• Carefully peal the bits of masking tape up and gently remove the fluted part off of the lemon juicer. Do not remove the foil from the interior.
• Use masking tape to line the interior foil layer. While proceeding to do this, reinsert the juice reamer into your working reverse mold so that the fluting retains it's shape. 
• Once these steps are accomplished, gentle apply white glue to the inside of the bowl with a layer of colored tissue or paper if you are having difficulty keeping the tissue unwrinkled. Set the bowl aside to dry hard. Then repeat this process again.
• Now cut a small, shallow stand from the paper egg carton to rest the fluted bowl part into. 
• Fill in the spaces remaining with crushed tissue and masking tape.
• Mask the outside surfaces of the bowl and it's stand.
• Decoupage several layers of tissue paper on the outside until it is smooth and pleasing to look at. 
• Cut from decorative paper, a few flower accents to glue on the outside and inside of the fancy bowl if you like.

Similar Project(s) Using Same Techniques:

• How to craft a colander for your dollhouse kitchen...

Craft a Romanesque Column Pedestal for Doll Bust

The plastic bust here is of Napoleon, a historical figure. I
purchased a bag of cork stoppers to craft with
and he was inside of it. 

       This sample pedestal is just the right size for a Barbie or Fashionista to display their marble bust upon inside of a gallery or dollhouse. You could make a similar version for an 18" doll using an oats can or Morton salt container.

       Make certain that while you gather your supplies, choose a cap that is slightly larger than your pedestal for the bottom platform and then a cap that is similar to the size of your pedestal for the top platform wear the dolls may display a pretend marble bust or some other kind of sculpture. 

       I only had the example of Napoleon at hand while making the pedestal. I painted him white to make the plastic look like a plaster cast.

Supply List:

• recycled cardboard toilet tube
• tacky white glue
• scrap corrugated cardboard
• a couple of large caps, make sure one of them is larger for the base of the pedestal
• white acrylic paint
• Mod Podge
• masking tape
• hot glue gun and glue (optional)

Left is the unpainted pedestal. Right is the painted version
for a gallery of even a display inside of a doll family mansion.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Take your scrap corrugated cardboard and carefully peal away one side of it so that your are left with one side of the exposed bumpy texture.
2. Squeeze out and smear across the surface of a clean toilet paper tube the white school glue.
3. Wrap the corrugated cardboard around the tube with the bumpy side facing out. Secure this temporarily with a little masking tape while it is let to dry.
4. Once the surfaces are dried together, remove the masking tape carefully.
5. Now you can glue the caps on both ends of the tube to shape the pedestal. Let dry.
6. Paint the surface of your pedestal to compliment the interior of the room you would like to display a bust or sculpture inside. The pedestal does not need to be white. This is a traditional color often selected for gallery spaces, but you may wish to paint your own black or brown or even something more colorful!
7. Mod Podge the finished surface to keep it clean and durable for play.

6 Printable Mosaic Designs for Your Dollhouse

        These mosaic tile designs would look stunning on a floor or wall inside of just the right room of a dollhouse! They are free for young students to experiment with and enjoy...

The Goblin Spider

The giant goblin-spider is wounded. From a 
Japanese folk tale.

        In very ancient books it is said that there used to be many goblin-spiders in Japan.

       Some folks declare there are still some goblin-spiders. During the daytime they look just like common spiders; but very late at night, when everybody is asleep, and there is no sound, they become very, very big, and do awful things. Goblin-spiders are supposed also to have the magical power of taking human shape — so as to deceive people. And there is a famous Japanese story about such a spider.

       There was once, in some lonely part of the country, a haunted temple. No one could live in the building because of the goblins that had taken possession of it. Many brave samurai went to that place at various times for the purpose of killing the goblins. But they were never heard of again after they had entered the temple. 

       At last one who was famous for his courage and his prudence, went to the temple to watch during the night. And he said to those who accompanied him there:— "If in the morning I be still alive, I shall drum upon the drum of the temple." Then he was left alone, to watch by the light of a lamp. 

        As the night advanced he crouched down under the altar, which supported a dusty image of Buddha. He saw nothing strange and heard no sound till after midnight. Then there came a goblin, having but half a body and one eye, and said: "Hitokusai!" (There is the smell of a man). But the samurai did not move. The goblin went away. 

       Then there came a priest and played upon a samisen so wonderfully that the samurai felt sure it was not the playing of a man. So he leaped up with his sword drawn. The priest, seeing him, burst out laughing, and said: — "So you thought I was a goblin? Oh no! I am only the priest of this temple; but I have to play to keep off the goblins. — Does not this samisen sound well? Please play a little."

       And he offered the instrument to the samurai who grasped it very cautiously with his left hand. But instantly the samisen changed into a monstrous spider-web, and the priest into a goblin-spider; and the warrior bound himself caught fast in the web by the left hand. He struggled bravely, and struck! at the spider with his sword, and wounded it; but he soon became entangled still more in the net, and could not move.

       However, the wounded spider crawled away, — and the sun rose. In a little while the people came and found the samurai in the horrible web, and freed him. They saw tracks of blood upon the floor, and followed the tracks out of the temple to a hole in the deserted garden. Out of the hole issued a frightful sound of groaning. They found the wounded goblin in the hole, and killed it.

Print by Grace Drayton for Your Dollhouse

Cover of "Molly and The Unwiseman
Abroad" 

          Grace Drayton (October 14, 1877 – January 31, 1936) was an illustrator who created popular period comics Dolly Dimples (1910) and The Pussycat Princess (1935). She created the "Campbell Soup Kids" advertising campaign and is probably best known for her popular Dolly Dingle paper dolls in the women's magazine Pictorial Review. She frequently collaborated with her sister, Margaret G. Hays, also a comic strip author and writer.
       Christened Viola Grace Gebbie, in 1900 she married Theodore Wiederseim and started signing her work "Grace Wiederseim." In 1911, Grace divorced Wiederseim and married W. Drayton, and started signing her work Grace Drayton. She divorced Drayton in 1923 but continued to sign her work "Grace Drayton" or "G G Drayton."
       She was an early member of Philadelphia's The Plastic Club.
       Some of Draytons' work is in the public domain and some of it is not. Be careful to scrutinize the publishing dates when looking at her work.

Read more about Grace Drayton:

• I've created some coloring pages of Grace Drayton's Children at the Crayon Palace for little ones.
• Grace illustrated "Molly and The Unwiseman Abroad"
• Ask the Archivist: Grace G. Drayton
• PDF from The Historical Society of Pennsylvania "The Plastic Club Records: 1888-2007"

illustrations by Grace Drayton

How to Craft Doll Bowling Trophies

The finished trophies for champion doll
bowling leagues.

       Once your dolls succeed at showing-off all of their bowling skills, they will need to be rewarded with a few faux brass trophies! Below is a quick easy way to make your own...

Supply List:

• plastic doll-sized bowling set from a Dollar Store
• gold tissue paper
• white school glue
• Mod Podge
• black acrylic paint
• paper egg carton
• masking tape
• scrap cardboard

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut the bases for your doll bowling trophies from select parts of a paper egg carton. Only use a clean recycled carton for this craft.
2. Position the open end of each base on top of a piece of scrap cardboard and trace around the outside edges with a pencil.
3. Cut out the cardboard and glue it to the bottom of the egg carton open parts. Let this dry completely before you continue crafting.
4. Use a small amount of masking tape to cover the bottom areas of each ball or pin that you will be gluing to the bases. This step will ensure that the two distinct surfaces stick together prior to decoupaging with tissue. Let this glued contact dry.
5. Brush on slight amounts of white school glue and layer torn pieces of gold tissue onto the trophy forms. When working with tissues do not apply glue on top of the surfaces until the glue has dried underneath. This keeps the process clean and less prone to wrinkles!
6. Once you are satisfied with the coverage, Mod Podge the outer surfaces and set the doll-sized trophies aside to dry and harden completely.
7. Use a bit of paint to add the finger holes on the bowing balls and then decoupage one last finishing layer.

Left the egg carton stands cut out and ready to close their open ends. Right, I found these plastic
bowling balls and pins at a dollar store.

Make Your Own Super Hero Clothespin Dolls...

        To make super hero clothespin dolls you will need the following supplies: felt for capes and some trim, acrylic paints for parts of the costumes and facial features, embroidery floss for hair, tiny beads for the noses, white tacky glue, and wooden clothespins.

Left to right: Batman, Robin and Superman finished with felt capes and small details complete.

 Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. First make sure to clean off the surfaces of the clothes pins. 
2. Paint simple designs for your favorite super hero costumes. You may copy my simplified designs below if you wish. Robin and Batman required 5 different paint colors: red, green, black, silver and a flesh tone. Superman required: blue, red, and a skin color. 
3. I cut yellow, red and black paper to make the emblems, belts and masks for the peg heroes. Then pasted these on with tacky white glue. 
4. Then I cut hair using embroidery floss for Robin and Superman and glued this on with tacky glue as well.
5. Paint the skin and faces.
6. Then the last step is to cut the capes from felt and glue these to the back of each super hero's neck. 
7. Cut a long strip of matching felt to wrap a collar around the neck securing it on with glue.
8. Batman needed additional bat ears cut from felt triangles to glue on to the back of his head. 
9. Coat the painted wooden surfaces with Mod Podge.

Left are the unpainted clothes pins plus wooden stands. Right, here you can see the first steps
involved with painting simple color blocks for the costumes. Robin and Batman are featured
 in the center.  Superman, Wonder Woman and Spiderman are shown on the far right.
 I have yet to finish the last two. But once I have done so, I will post them below. 

Prints by Pyle for Your Dollhouse

      Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.

      In 1894 he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry (now Drexel University). After 1900, he founded his own school of art and illustration, named the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. The scholar Henry C. Pitz later used the term Brandywine School for the illustration artists and Wyeth family artists of the Brandywine region, several of whom had studied with Pyle. Some of his more notable students were N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Elenore Abbott, Ethel Franklin Betts, Anna Whelan Betts, Harvey Dunn, Clyde O. DeLand, Philip R. Goodwin, Thornton Oakley, Violet Oakley, Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle, Olive Rush, Allen Tupper True, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Arthur E. Becher, William James Aylward, and Jessie Willcox Smith. Pyle's home and studio in Wilmington, where he taught his students, is still standing and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

      His 1883 classic publication The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood remains in print, and his other books, frequently with medieval European settings, include a four-volume set on King Arthur. He is also well known for his illustrations of pirates, and is credited with creating what has become the modern stereotype of pirate dress. He published his first novel, Otto of the Silver Hand, in 1888. He also illustrated historical and adventure stories for periodicals such as Harper's Magazine and St. Nicholas Magazine. His novel Men of Iron was adapted as the movie The Black Shield of Falworth (1954).

      Pyle traveled to Florence, Italy in 1910 to study mural painting. He died there in 1911 of a sudden kidney infection (Bright's Disease). Read more . . . 

Below I've restored a few of Pyle's paintings. You can visit a collection of his illustrations restored for children to color at my Crayon Palace blog here.

Left, an illustration of Captain Keitt, Center, an Attack On a Galleon, and Right, an illustration from "The Price of Blood."

More Related Content:

• How to plan a pirate themed birthday party...
• Coloring pages for life at sea.

Prints by Rackham for Your Dollhouse

Illustrator Arthur Rackham.

      Rackham was born in Lewisham, then still part of Kent as one of 12 children. In 1884, at the age of 17, he was sent on an ocean voyage to Australia to improve his fragile health, accompanied by two aunts. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.

      In 1892, he left his job and started working for the Westminster Budget as a reporter and illustrator. His first book illustrations were published in 1893 in To the Other Side by Thomas Rhodes, but his first serious commission was in 1894 for The Dolly Dialogues, the collected sketches of Anthony Hope, who later went on to write The Prisoner of Zenda. Book illustrating then became Rackham's career for the rest of his life.

      By the turn of the century Rackham had developed a reputation for pen and ink fantasy illustration with richly illustrated gift books such as The Ingoldsby Legends (1898), Gulliver's Travels and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (both 1900). This was developed further through the austere years of the Boer War with regular contributions to children's periodicals such as Little Folks and Cassell's Magazine. In 1901 he moved to Wychcombe Studios near Haverstock Hill, and in 1903 married his neighbour Edyth Starkie. Edith suffered a miscarriage in 1904, but the couple had one daughter, Barbara, in 1908. Although acknowledged as an accomplished black-and-white book illustrator for some years, it was the publication of his full colour plates to Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle by Heinemann in 1905 that particularly brought him into public attention, his reputation being confirmed the following year with J.M.Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, published by Hodder & Stoughton. Income from the books was greatly augmented by annual exhibitions of the artwork at the Leicester Galleries. Rackham won a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906 and another one at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912. His works were included in numerous exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914.

      From 1906 the family lived in Chalcot Gardens, near Haverstock Hill, until moving from London to Houghton, West Sussex in 1920. In 1929 the family settled into a newly built property in Limpsfield, Surrey. Arthur Rackham died in 1939 of cancer at his home. Read more . . .

I've restored samples from Arthur Rackham's illustrated volume of English Fairy Tales: left is "fee-fi-fo-fum," I smell the blood of an Englishman, Center is Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar at home, and right is "She went along, and went along..."

Click to download the largest available size, print and frame for your dollhouse.

Read and Color More Fairy Stories:

• Fairy Tales by The Brother's Grimm - The ongoing collection in progress here...
• My Fairy Tale Coloring Pages - for adults and children to color in...