A Gloria Grandy Cre8tiv Glory

One-of-a-kind 20-inch cloth doll by Gloria Grandy of Cre8tiv Glory

Doll artist, and Facebook friend, Gloria Grandy, makes dolls under the name, Cre8tiv Glory.  After viewing photos of some of her past dolls, I inquired about the above doll's availability in late November 2017.  Because she was still available and had already begun tugging at my heart strings, I made the necessary arrangements to bring this doll to her new home.

Her entry in my spreadsheet reads as follows:

OOAK 20-inch cloth doll with hand-painted facial features, Afro hairstyle, dressed in faux fur zebra dress with black faux leather belt, strappy black sandals; wears gold hoop earrings, and brass-colored beaded necklace with ankh pendant.

This profile photo illustrates the realistic texture of her Afro and also provides a close up of her brass hoop earrings.

Her handmade strappy sandals are made of cloth with felt insoles.  Her toenails, like her fingernails, are painted pink. 

Because of her huge black Afro, I named this doll Angela.  A few friends, six in all, traveled with Angela to her new home:

Ms. Grandy also makes flat felt bookmarks.  Each is a one of a kind with sewn-on fabric clothing, yarn hair, and painted facial features.

Close up of three of Grandy's flat felt bookmarks

Three more bookmarks by Gloria Grandy

I placed one of these inside the Florence Griffith-Joyner book that was sent to my niece for Christmas.  I now have five of Gloria's bookmarks.  They sell for $5 each plus shipping.  No two are alike.  Visit Gloria's Cre8tive Glory page on Facebook if interested in acquiring bookmarks and/or to view other dolls she has made.  

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Celebrate the Magic of Christmas, Art Dolls by Daisy Carr

Books of the Bible 11-1/2-inch cloth doll by Daisy Carr, photograph courtesy of Cheryl Bruce

The above Books of the Bible doll was created by Maryland-based doll artist, Daisy Carr, circa 2007. It is featured in chapter 2 of  Black Dolls a Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion. This interesting doll has the names of the books of the Old Testament on one side of the body and the books of the New Testament on the other.  Both sides have a face.   The photo of this doll brought Carr's doll artistry to my attention in 2008.

Several years after including the Books of the Bible doll in my book, I contacted Carr to feature her dolls on this blog.  She sent several hard copies of photos by mail to me that had been taken in low lighting.  I scanned these but was unsuccessful at achieving publish-worthy copies of the photos. Therefore, the feature post remained on the back burner, until now.  In addition to wanting to feature Carr's dolls here, I also have wanted to own at least one of her one-of-a-kind art dolls.  Little did I know this would eventually happen.

This past Christmas season, Cheryl Bruce, the owner of the Books of the Bible doll, who has been a long-time member of my doll group, asked me if I received a package she had mailed to me. At the time she asked, I had not.  Last week, however, after three months, the package finally arrived!

I opened the package before returning home and shouted for joy upon viewing the contents:  a doll ornament by Daisy Carr!  Finally, I own at least one Daisy Carr piece.



The front and back of the ornament are shown above.  What appears to be a long strand of hair are loops of yarn by which the 9-inch ornament can hang.

In this photo, the loop of yarn is extended to illustrate how the ornament will look when hung.

Along with the Daisy Carr ornament, a Christmas greeting from Cheryl was in the package which reads:  Celebrate the magic of Christmas!

I am still celebrating.

Thank you again, Cheryl, for your thoughtful gift.  I am thrilled it finally arrived.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Below are more enhanced versions of the scanned photos Daisy Carr sent in approximately 2009. The images are still rather grainy which compromises details, but they are much better than they were initially.

In this photo, lying on the table are a couple of Carr's Books of the Bible dolls.

What took so long for Cheryl's package to reach me?  It was addressed to my former PO Box, which was closed November 30, 2015, but a forwarding address form was in place two weeks prior to that PO box being closed.  Why it took the PO three months to complete the forward, remains a mystery.


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2001 Dolls of Color Calendar and Sharon E. Tucker Original Doll

In 2003, I became aware of Sharon Tucker's Dolls of Color 2001 "New Beginnings" calendar  (shown above) which features a pair of her Raggedy Butt kids on the front cover.  It was in 2003 that Janice Larsen-Tyre became a member of my former Yahoo doll discussion group.  In her introduction post, Janice shared that her doll, Jimmy, is the January doll featured in this calendar.  Even though the calendar had been published for the year 2001, I wanted to include it with my black-doll memorabilia.  Janice made that happen for me.

Back cover of 2001 Dolls of Color "New Beginnings" calendar

The back cover of the calendar contains images of the variety of soft-sculptured and mixed media art dolls featured for the 12 months of 2001.  With the exception of the January doll and artist, the other images do not include the artists' names.  My calendar is still shrink wrapped; therefore I am unable to identify the artists of all dolls or know whether each artist provided a quote as Larsen-Tyre did.  Base on individual styles, however, I am able to recognize some of the featured artists.

January - As indicated, Janice Larsen-Tyre's doll, Jimmy is the January doll with a quote from the artist which reads:  Like a sunrise on the ocean, one of God's many gifts to us, I thank him for the inspiration & Talent to create Jimmy. The other artists that I recognize are as follows:

February - Anne Myatt
March - Paula Whaley (sister of the late-James Baldwin)
April - Unknown artist
May - Patricia Coleman-Cobb
June - Contains four doll images; one is by Rose Chapman.  The next doll appears to be one of Sharon Tucker's dolls.  Two dolls are in a single image by an unknown artist and one additional doll by an unknown artist follows.
July and August - Unknown artists
September - Doris McGillan
October Tonia Mitchell-Floyd (possibly)
November - Unknown artist
December - Kor January

For years I had wanted to own one of Sharon Tucker's dolls but, until recently, never took the steps to make that happen.  She and I have been Facebook friends for quite some time, but it was just recently that I saw images of her newly created art dolls in posts by her on her timeline as well as in two Facebook groups where we share membership.  After viewing the photos of several, I chose the one that pulled at my heartstrings the most.  I have named her Sandy.

Original art doll by Sharon Tucker

Sandy is 18-inches tall, hand painted with sculpted features.  She has black yarn hair styled in three braids hidden underneath her funky hat which matches her Bohemian chic-style clothing.  She has painted fingernails and toenails and wears platform sandals.  This one-of-a-kind doll was completely handmade by the artist.

After Sandy arrived, I was as pleased with her as I had been based on her online images.  I took several photos of my own which are shared below.

This close-up image shows Sandy's wooden necklace of beads and spool.  She has permanently attached gold tone earrings and a beauty mark below the corner of her mouth.

The trim around the soles of her sandals matches the trim at the hem of her pants.

Yarn was used to create her three fat plaits which are held together at the ends with fabric that matches the top of her hat.  The same fabric was used for the bands and soles of her sandals.  Sandy's original jacket matched the yellow fleece of her top and pants, but after a few messages back and forth between artist and collector, Sharon changed the coat to the tan and brown jacket. That change met with my approval and, in my opinion, bumped up her Bohemian look a notch or two.

Sandy's asymmetrical top can be seen better with the coat removed.

The flip side of her hand-signed tag contains the artist's contact information including email which is sharontucker3@hotmail.com.  Tucker can also be reach through her Etsy shop.

Contact her if you are interested in adding a one-of-a-kind original art doll to your doll family.  Better yet, she is hosting a Doll Making Party on August 22, 2015 where attendees can construct their own doll using materials provided in the prepaid party package.  If you reside in the Philadelphia, PA area, this might interest you.  For more information contact Sharon for specifics.


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Brooke-Nicole's Ethnic Transformations

Are you interested in the art of reborning dolls? Would you like to get to know a reborn doll artist and see the remarkable dolls she transforms into lifelike babies? If you answered yes to either question, read my article on talented and highly-gifted reborn doll artist Brooke-Nicole in the February 2009 issue of DOLLS magazine.  (This issue can be backordered.)

If you are not already a DOLLS magazine subscriber, the digital edition is only $12.99 or the print edition (10 issues) is only $17.47 with the following code:  A94322.  Order online at http://www.dollsmagazine.com/ or call toll-free at 800-331-0038, Ext. 1.


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