One of my most recent and prized doll acquisitions is a carved redwood art doll by master carver Kor January. This mixed media piece can be displayed as a seated "doll" or as an elaborate wall hanging. I display it as a wall hanging as illustrated next.
It is an elaborate piece of doll art.
See more pictures and the description of this 39-inch art doll in a recent Virtual Black Doll Museum installation here.
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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As soon as I saw Sarah Niemela's completed photos of the custom 8-inch clay doll that I commissioned her to make for me, I began singing Stevie Wonder's song, "Isn't She Lovely?"
"Isn't She Lovely" is the 11th song on Stevie's Songs in the Key of Life album released in 1976. It was written after the birth of his first child, a daughter named Aisha. I know exactly how he felt to see something beautiful that "you" created (or that you commissioned someone else to make). That is why I named this doll Aisha.
It was a joy to work with Sarah. She had recently completed and shared photos of another doll that inspired me to request mine, which was made to my specifications.
I wanted my doll's complexion a little more brown than the other doll's. I liked the two Afro puffs the other doll had and wanted to keep those. Instead of a blouse and skirt, I wanted my doll dressed in an African-print dress.
Expressing my desire for a dress to Sarah is when I discovered that the other doll's entire costume was made from clay! I was very impressed.
Lovely pleated dress trimmed at the bodice and hem in African print
Sarah asked me to provide examples of the style of dress I wanted. I searched the Internet and found a cute little girl's dress and shared the above photo with Sarah. She replicated it quite well.
My final request was for the doll to hold a doll and Sarah came through with that request, too.
Enough of my excitement about the makings of my Aisha. Below are several pictures I took of the doll after she arrived.
Aisha, her doll, her dress, and shoes are made from clay.
She has such a precious face.
She has a rope headband with clay flower petals attached.
So-so beautiful!
Dolly's hair is accented with multiple tiny beads.
A white strip of clay is attached to the back of the doll's dress that bears Sarah's signature and the 2021 copyright.
Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? Isn't she precious? Less than a few weeks old (Sarah works very fast!) The doll was completed within a few days. I would have received Aisha sooner, but Sarah and I both agreed for her to delay shipping until the arctic weather I was experiencing in Texas subsided. That plan worked out well. The doll was mailed on a Friday and I received it the following Tuesday.
Am I happy? No. I am thrilled!
Sarah sent one of her beautiful doll cards to thank me for the purchase. The front of the card is shown next.
This thank you card from Sarah Niemela features two of her beautiful life-size dolls.
Aisha fits in well with similar dolls her size that range between 7-1/2 to 8 inches tall as illustrated in the next two pictures.
She stands out among other similar-sized dolls that are displayed underneath a globe, the base of which is wooden, swivels, and has several spaces to display dolls on doll stands.
Here is another view of Aisha and her friends.
I love her! If you desire, listen to Stevie Wonder sing the song he wrote for "my doll" before she was even a thought. :-)
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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
Anita Gold arrived in early March and has been patiently waiting on my desk for me to photograph her and share the photos with you.
Anita wears gold-tone jewelry and has painted pink fingernails.
Made by Joffee Diva Dolls, Anita Gold is a one-of-a-kind art doll that stands 10-inches tall. Her head, hands, and feet are made of polymer clay. She has painted facial features and synthetic dark-brown hair with auburn highlights.
Anita's hair can be worn loose or in a ponytail.
Anita's burgundy and pink fabric catsuit is sewn to her cloth body. It is embellished with gold brocade at the shoulders and lacy gold trim at the sleeves.
Her waist belt is seen in this close-up photo as well as part of her sculpted buttocks.
As illustrated above, she wears a gold-tone Bollywood-style waist chain and gold lamé slippers. She has permanently applied acrylic earrings that were clear when she arrived. I painted the earrings gold. She wears a gold ring on the middle finger of her right hand and an identical ring on the ring finger of her left hand.
The armature within Anita's body allows her arms and legs to be posed in different positions.
So happy to have been photographed and shared, Anita did a little styling and profiling in the last two photographs.
Anita Gold wants to remind you to take care of yourself, your family, and to stay safe.
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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18-inch papier mâché doll made with love by Svetlana Lukina
Before going on a self-imposed 30-day doll-buying fast, the opportunity to own a one-of-a-kind Izannah Walker/Martha Chase-inspired doll presented itself on January 2, 2018. Made by skillful doll artist, Svetlana Lukina, my first doll purchase of 2018 arrived from Russia on January 16, 2018.
One corner of the doll's shipping box was covered with Russian postage stamps
As always, I waited for the perfect box opening moment so my new-doll bonding and photographing time would not be interrupted by anything or anyone. Because of the Russian postage stamps, which my husband was fascinated by, I photographed the box prior to opening and cut away the stamps, still attached to the cardboard box, and gave that part of the box to my husband. He wanted one stamp of the three different monetary values, but was only able to remove one.
Close-up of her beautiful face
I removed the bubble wrap that had been carefully wrapped around the 18-inch doll, gazed upon her delightful face, and thought, "She is more beautiful than I had imagined." With painted brown eyes, full nose and lips, brown hair made from sheepskin with texture that mimics that of natural Africanoid hair, papier mâché head, arms, legs; and firmly-stuffed cloth body, she is perfect from head to toe. The main color of her exquisitely sewn dress is peach, which is also my favorite color. There is a matching head wrap, shown below. The overskirt of the dress is multicolored. She wears an off-white undergarment. Accessories of beaded earrings and beaded anklet complete her costume.
She can stand with the assistance of a doll stand or sit as shown in the first and final photos of this post.
Her dress buttons in the back and has a brocade ribbon waistband.
Off-white undergarment is lace trimmed. A portion of her beaded anklet is visible in this photo.
Fingers and...
... toes are separately stitched. A better view of her anklet is shown here.
The back of her breastplate bears the artist's name.
Her beautifully designed hang tag provides the artist's contact information.
The soft hair has a nice curl pattern.
Sculpted ears are adorned with earrings.
Fabric used to create head wrap was neatly folded inside the shipping box.
Original headwrap fashioned by Svetlana
I could not recreate the turban-style headwrap, so I opted for the more modern headwrap as illustrated here and in the following photos.
The headwrap almost completes her look.
Before introducing her to a few new vintage-to-modern doll friends, I added a multicolored beaded necklace that picks up the colors in her dress. This necklace is only temporary until one that better matches her earrings and anklet is found.
As illustrated in this final photograph, she has settled in nicely with friends who have welcomed her warmly.
Unnamed by the artist, I have chosen the Egyptian/Arabic name Layla, which means dark beauty.
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I "met" Svetlana Lukina online in 2017 after learning of her generous two-doll donation to the National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture in Mansfield, Massachusetts. We communicated about the dolls on Facebook and I offered to share her artist profile with the readers of Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black. That profile can be read here.
Svetlana maintains a blog about her doll art and beautiful doll photography. Her blog is written in Russian but can be translated into different languages.
She sells her one-of-a-kind Izannah Walker-style dolls on Etsy.
Joy is a one-of-a-kind art doll by Sharon E. Tucker.
After seeing Joy's adorable face as the doll advertising a Dollmaking Party event posted on Facebook by the artist who made her, I thought "how precious!" The event is a cloth dollmaking workshop, which takes place on May 6, 2017, in Philadelphia. I knew it would be impossible for me to attend, but that did not prevent my adoration of Joy.
Later that day or within the same week, the artist, Sharon E. Tucker, posted Joy for sale along with several other 8-inch-in-the-seated-position Tub-It Dolls, some of which were already marked sold. I considered inquiring about Joy, but the price was not indicated, so I did not bother to ask. An update to that post a day or so later revealed the price after someone else inquired. The price was reasonable, so I named and claimed Joy as mine.
She arrived quickly. It was at that time I discovered her head is permanently positioned slightly to her right, which gives her an inquisitive demeanor. Something has happened or she has heard something she is not quite sure about. She wants to know more.
Joy has a light brown upholstery-type fabric face, onto which most of her features are hand drawn. Two tiny black beads serve as eyes. A cowrie shell headband frames her forehead, and she has a beauty mark on her lower left cheek.
The artist added her signature and included the year made on the back of Joy's right arm.
Her arms, as shown here and immediately above, are made of the same fabric as her face. Her legs and feet are sewn of pink fabric. A ribbon with cowrie shell is tied around her left ankle. Her sewn-on clothing consists of two pieces of multicolored floral material, the bottom portion of which is pellet weighted.
Joy's hair is made from tan, white, and brown yarn. A section of the top is pulled up into a top-knot with a PVC-coated wire clip. Take a closer look a the back of her hair below:
Too cute!
Joy wears a necklace of three wooden blocks that spell out J-O-Y in any direction the blocks are turned.
She is made to sit, but...
...with the assistance of a doll stand, Joy can stand, too! In the standing position, she is 14 inches tall.
The artist drew this sketch on the back of a handwritten thank you note that accompanied Joy.
This is my second doll by Sharon E. Tucker. My first one, that I named Sandy in honor of Sandra Bland, was purchased in 2015 and can be seen here.
I received a very special art doll from artist, Wyatt E. Hicks. I never imagined I would own one of his three-dimensional works of art, but now I do. It was made especially for me.
After his acceptance of my offer to share photos of his dolls and HIS-story this past July in the post linked to above, Wyatt informed me of his plan to make a doll for me as a gesture of his appreciation. My doll-art gift was accompanied by a note from the artist and an inspirational poem he penned. A scan of the poem, which includes an image of the doll, is shown below, followed by actual photos.
Standing 8-inches with one foot atop a rock that reads: I can be great, he looks upward with wire framed glasses resting on his brow with one hand in his pants pocket. This little fellow with wired armature and a beautiful mane of brown locs wears a green long-sleeved shirt, multicolored vest, denim pants, and sneakers. A gold-tone hoop earring adorns each ear.
He has a head full of lush locs.
He is priceless.
I have framed the poem and will display it alongside my one-of-a-kind doll in a special place. As now one of my forever treasures, I will fondly think of the artist, his generosity, and his greatness each time I view this piece.
