Coming to America

Surfing the Internet for “black cloth doll” approximately 7 weeks ago, led to my discovery of beautiful soft sculptured dolls made in the United Kingdom by talented artist, Teresa Terry Churcher, aka clothchick on Deviantart, where I found her dolls initially.  The only contact information for her there was that she sells on eBay. A quick trip to eBay ensued where I located her and sent an email inquiry for details about her lovely dolls and the specifics on how I might possibly obtain one.



Chubby soft sculptured baby by Teresa Churcher

While awaiting her reply, I reviewed her Deviantart images and I fell in love with her doll making style—the sweet, innocent, and sometimes pensive facial expressions of her dolls captivated me. Two of them in particular made my heart palpitate with excitement and my palms perspire with anticipation. A chubby, seated baby (above) and a chunky toddler (below) with her very own doll caused my emotions to stir greatly.


Soft sculptured toddler with doll by Teresa Churcher

Teresa's response to my email was prompt:

Hi Debbie,

It's amazing that you managed to contact me through e-bay after having seen my work on Deviantart. The doll you are interested in is 16 1/2 " tall. I'm afraid I don't know how tall her little doll was as I never measured it, probably around 15cm. My dolls are made of hand-dyed woven cotton. The faces are cloth covered masks taken from my own sculpts and hand painted in mixed media. Arms and fingers are wired for articulation and the legs are disc jointed. Hair is made from mohair or on the black dolls from wool. I use only good quality fabric and trims. The toddler dolls start from $490 depending on outfit and accessories. Each doll takes around 5 weeks to make. I do a lay-away scheme, with a non-returnable deposit of $150 with monthly increments to be discussed (payable through Paypal). You can view more of my dolls on my Facebook page under Teresa Terry Churcher (please note that there is no H in Teresa). Also on my Facebook page is a link to my Etsy shop. Hope I have covered everything; if not just e-mail.

Best wishes

While I pondered the notion of adding one of her beautiful one-of-a-kind dolls to my collection and wondered where I would place another 16-1/2 inch doll, I visited and revisited her Facebook photo wall. While there, I studied two mini polymer clay sleeping babies that I had not seen on Deviantart. Another email inquiry about these babies followed.

My decision was final. Instead of a soft sculptured doll, I will soon be the proud owner of Churcher’s first dark-skinned mini polymer clay baby… one with open eyes... with the tip of her tongue showing between her parted lips, and... she has her very own doll, hand sculpted by Teresa!


Adorable OOAK mini polymer clay baby by Teresa Churcher

View a slideshow of other dark-skinned dolls and additional images of the coming-to-America baby, here.
Teresa can be contacted via email (artdoll.churcher@googlemail.com) or through Facebook where there are more doll images and a link to her Etsy store under the Photos and My Etsy tabs, respectively.

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