Apple Head Folk Dolls

       In colonial America, children's toys were often fashioned from utilitarian objects and materials on hand such as corn husks, clothes-pins and rags, using ingenuity and imagination. The use of apples as doll heads was a Native American practice and may have originated among the Iroquois or Seneca people. 

       As colonists came into contact with Native peoples, they copied their dolls; Native peoples also began to make brightly and elaborately costumed apple-head dolls to sell to tourists. Skookum dolls in Native dress, which were popular novelties between 1913 and the early 1960s, were originally made with apple heads; however their creator, Mary Dwyer McAboy, was not Native.

How to Craft Dried Apple Dolls

       For an interesting and inexpensive hobby you need only apples, a little lacquer or shellac, some wire and a few scraps of material.

       First step in making doll's head is proper selection of apple. Yellow delicious apples are best because of their size, and they will not be as dark as red apples after drying.

       Peel apple, leaving stem attached, and carve rough facial features with an ordinary kitchen knife or small spoon. Peel another apple and cut into quarters. Cut one apple quarter into thirds, to be used for hands.

       Dry apples by placing whole carved apple and pieces for hands in a tinfoil covered pan to prevent discoloration in drying process. Place in oven with Pilot Light Only lighted (or very low electric oven), and allow to dry for approximately five days. Hands may dry in two or three days, since they are thinner, and should be checked each day. After oven drying, allow apples to dry two or three more days in open air.

       Finish features now, by painting cheeks, lips and eyebrows with water colors. Cut hands from smaller pieces with a pair of scissors, and dip tow or three times in shellac or lacquer. by Skip Cypert 1970 (open source)

More Apple Themed Doll Crafts:

• Cut, color and assemble sweet Annie and Adam Apple paper dolls

 Return to the Doll Guide Index Page

The Twelve Miniature Clay Beauties of Jinling . . .

The names of the Chinese Beauties are read opposite of English, in order right to left.

        These miniature clay dolls are based upon the 12 female characters from classic Chinese literature found in the novel, “Dream of the Red Chamber.” 

       The story contains an extraordinarily large number of characters: nearly 40 major archetypes, and over 400 additional ones.The novel is known for complex portraits of its female characters. According to Lu Xun in the appendix to A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, Dream of the Red Chamber broke every conceivable thought and technique in traditional Chinese fiction; its realistic characterization presents thoroughly human characters who are neither "wholly good nor wholly bad", but who seem to inhabit part of the real world. 

See detailed painting on several of the clay dolls up-close.

       Do to their popularity in Chinese literary culture, the 12 beauties often make appearances in opera performances, television and movies. Their names are

1. Lin Daiyu - The tragic poet, who refuses to conform to social expectations. She is a misunderstood character that always chooses emotional purity over wealth and status.
2. Xue Baochai - The idealistic matriarch who plays by the rules. She is considered the perfect wife.
3. Wan Xifeng - The ruthless manager who 'rules the roost.' She is often portrayed as cruel and iron-fisted.
4. Jia Tanchun - a ambitious reformer who pioneers for women's rights. 
5. Shi Xiangyun - a free-spirited tomboy. She is often portrayed in modern film as everyone's best friend and the comic relief.
6. Miaoyu who is a zealous Buddhist detaches herself from 'worldly' society in order to maintain her spiritual purity.
7. Jia Yingchun is submissive and weak minded. She avoids confrontation and eventually is destroyed inside of an abusive marriage.
8. Jia Xichun after observing the moral decline of family members decides to become a nun.
9. Jia Yuanchun is successful in the Imperial Consort but is held captive there is a 'bird in a gold cage.' She becomes isolated from the family she has worked so hard to have the approval of.
10. Li Wan is a proper single parent who invests every moment in raising her son.
11. Jia Oiaojie is the darling of her wealthy family. Once that family looses all prominence and importance she is rescued from poverty and certain death by a humble country woman.
12. Qin Keqing gifted with unearthly beauty is doomed by romantic entanglements and ultimately destruction follows wherever she goes.

More About Chinese Folk Dolls:

• Learn more about the thousand years of China's dedication to the production of folk dolls representing their literary heritage here . . . 

  Return to the Doll Guide Index Page

How to assemble pantry canisters for a dollhouse...

       Our dollhouse pantry is filled with realistic looking canisters of grains, baking ingredients and some glitters that look like sugar. Children may search their kitchen cupboards at home for similar additions to their own dollhouse pantry or larder. 

       You will however, need to acquire some very tiny acrylic (plastic) containers in order to make some realistic accessories like the ones you see here. They are common place in the United States.

       Also take the time to select a decorative paper for the lids of these canisters. Choose something that will compliment the decor of your doll's house kitchen. We selected a classic pink and white check pattern to go with our 18" doll's kitchen color scheme. 

Our AGD doll canisters full of baking supplies.

Supply List:

• clear acrylic containers approximately 1" or smaller
• natural colored glitters: black, white and brown
• tacky white craft glue
• masking tape
• decorative sheet of paper (small amount)
• real backing ingredients too!
• Mod Podge

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Make sure the tiny acrylic containers have lids and are clean. Choose clear ones so that you and your doll may 'see' what is inside of the container. Containers like these may be purchase for pocket change at a Dollar Store of some kind. The lids do not need to be transparent as these will be eventually covered with paper anyway.
2. Fill each container roughly 3/4 the way with glitters or real baking ingredients.
3. Along the inside edge of each container's lid squeeze out the tacky glue. When you replace the lid back onto the container, this will seal the baking powders and/or glitter inside of the canister so that the toy may be played with without mess and contamination.
4. Use masking tape to cover this lid after the glue has had time to dry shut over night. Masking the plastic surfaces of the lid will help the layering of paper on top to stick.
5. Cut and paste decorative papers onto each lid to cover both the tops and lips of each cap.
6. Seal the surfaces of the paper with Mod Podge to make the crafted canisters more durable for play.

I used 6 fillers for our dollhouse kitchen pantry canisters: 

1. flour for flour
2. cream of wheat for cream of wheat
3. brown glitter for brown sugar
4. white glitter for white sugar
5. fine ground yellow corn meal for corn meal
6. short grained rice for rice

More Doll Larder or Pantry Crafts:

• See how Lena Wiese stocks her dollhouse pantry
• Skeletorama makes miniature pantry foods - recycling a cookbook cover for pantry...
• 30 Vintage Labels for Crafting Doll Canned Goods
• How to decoupage spools to look like canisters too!

Jack-O-Lanterns for Sale!

        Color and cut-out these paper pumpkins for sale. Bend back on the dotted lines to make each spooky jack-o-lantern stand up on it's own. There are also fall leaves to color red, yellow or orange and little cats you may color black or orange too! Every paper doll will love to shop for their Halloween pumpkin at your doll's festive veggie stand...

• Harvest and color more pumpkins - these are without carving here...
• Practice writing skills and color children harvesting pumpkins from a field

These Halloween cut-outs are for student fun, not real adult resale.

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