Felt Doll by Mary Vasquez

Brown felt doll by Mary Vazquez

This circa 1980s doll by Mary Vazquez manufactured by Lloyderson Dolls of Spain was recently offered on eBay during a time that I obviously needed low-cost retail therapy.

She is 20 inches tall, made of brown felt with a brown felt shoulder plate. Her hard molded, Tweety bird-shaped head is covered with brown felt.

Yarn was used for the baby's short black hair.  She has black side-glancing eyes and a cute pouty mouth.

The body and limbs are stuffed cloth. The limbs are brown felt; the body is white cloth.

She wears a brass-tone bracelet.

This baby wears her original pink and white striped romper, matching bonnet, and a brass-tone bracelet with a charm that reads Mary Vazquez. I'll add white booties to complete her look later.

I think she is adorable.

I have not found much information about the artist or the company for whom she made dolls (Lloyderson Dolls of Spain) but my research will continue and I will update this post accordingly.

dbg


There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for following, commenting, and sharing using the share button below.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

2020 Annual Club Doll

Sculpted head of our 2020 annual doll

The members of my private Facebook group commissioned doll artist, Karen Oyekanmi to make our 2020 club doll, which will be the group's last annual doll.  As usual, we voted on the face sculpt, hair, clothing, and the doll's other details.

During the doll-making process, Karen shared photos of the different stages of completion.  Some of the beginning stages of the dolls are illustrated below.

The bodies have been added to the sculpted head.

Fully sewn with arms and legs attached, the faces have been partially painted.

Hair has been added, faces fully painted, and the dolls have been dressed.

The club doll comes with two dolls to hold, a boy and a girl.  The mini dolls are shown here before they were dressed.

The minis are made of felt, too.

The result of our choices and Karen’s doll-making magic resulted in twenty-five, 16-inch felt dolls inspired by the 2018 most beautiful girl in the world, Jare Ijalana from Lagos, Nigeria.  While the dolls look like sisters, because each one was hand-sculpted and hand-painted, they each have different personalities. They are each one-of-a-kind.

After I received the dolls from Karen, each doll was removed from the cellophane Karen had shipped them in. I individually inspected them, fluffed their hair in place, wrapped each in bubble wrap, and placed each one back into the cellophane in preparation for boxing and mailing individually to each club member.

After the dolls were completed, Karen shipped them to me for me to ship out separately to each club member.  I inspected each doll prior to boxing each doll for mailing. 

Some of the club members who shared photos of their dolls gave me permission to share the photos here.

Jackie Harpp included her doll's certificate in the photo.

Cheryl Bruce's doll took a cute seated photo with the Ava Duvernay doll by Funko.

Bonnie Lewis posed her doll with the 2019 club doll by Goldie Wilson and the 2017 club doll by Sue Sizemore.

Cathy Runnels added hair to her doll before sharing this close-up photograph.

Debbie VonHendricks' doll posed with a variety of other dolls in Debbie's collection.

Deborah Johnson also included her doll's certificate of authenticity (COA) in the photograph she shared.

Looking quite confident, Dorothy Singleton's doll took this laid-back photo after the doll's arrival to her new home.

My next-door neighbor, Florence Evans (next city over, that is), took this group photo that features her 2020 club doll.

Anita "Nini" Ornsby's doll holds her two mini dolls securely.

Shawatha Kendrick's doll is surrounded by other dolls in her collection.

Vicky Williams shared this pretty photo of her pretty girl and minis.

Wanda Richardson, whose doll's delivery was delayed by the USPS for unknown reasons, shared this photo of her doll and the doll's COA.

Phyllis Burns gave her doll a coordinating ribbon headband and bracelets.

Sheila Young said her doll loves the color orange.

******

It took me a while to take photos of my doll, but I finally took some a few days prior to sitting down to write this post.  My girl's photos are incorporated in the following description.

Description

My doll and her mini dolls

The 16-inch all-felt dolls have sculpted mask faces with dark-brown 4C natural-textured hair, painted black eyes that have blue irises, and painted lips that are highlighted with gold paint.

This close-up of my doll's face illustrates her eye color.

They are dressed identically in an orange floral-print dress, orange panties, and silver pumps with a silver bow at the vamp.

The 4-inch minis are made of felt. The boy's complexion is light brown; the girl's complexion is medium brown. The larger doll's fingers are wired for posing.  The fingers can be clasped, as shown, or unclasped. The fingernails are painted.

As illustrated in the members' photographs and my photograph immediately above, our dolls hold a boy and girl doll.  The minis and their clothing are made of felt.  The boy wears a blue nautical romper; the girl wears a red dress with iridescent stars applied.  They both have black yarn hair. The girl's hair is adorned with a blue bow.  Both minis have painted facial features and painted-on socks and shoes. 

Also noted, each doll has a signed and dated certificate of authenticity which certifies each as an "original art felt doll limited edition of 25 hand crafted by artist Karen Oyekanmi."

My doll is displayed with other felt dolls in my collection.  Another Karen Oyekanmi creation, named Toddler Baby that holds a doll stands next to the 2020 club doll.  A needle-felted doll made by Sue Sizemore; and Destiny, a tribute doll to Ruby Bridges, made by Rachel McCullough of Starkey's Daughter Cloth Dolls are the other two dolls.

Based in Oakland, CA, Karen Oyekanmi is the 1984 founder of American Black Beauty Doll Artists.  She did a fabulous job of completing this commissioned work and keeping us abreast of the doll-making process throughout. 

dbg


There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for following, commenting, and sharing using the share button below.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

Floria by Anili

Floria by Anili is shown in her original box with the box top removed.

When an opportunity to purchase a doll presents itself that is too good (in your mind) to refuse, you do what your mind tells you to do... buy it!  That is exactly what I did when I saw Floria, who was included with a group of other dolls being offered for sale by a fellow doll connoisseur.  When I asked for additional details about the doll (whose name and maker I did not know at the time, but the doll looked like a Lenci to me), the former owner readily replied:

Debbie, this is Floria by Anili. She is 17.5 inches and is felt. She was an exclusive doll made for Loretta Barrett’s Under The Lilac Store, a local (Laurel, Maryland) doll store which is no longer in business. This one is #2/10.

The seller's drastically-reduced price and Floria's original price were shared and the purchase was finalized.  Floria arrived approximately a week later after having been delivered to my neighbor across the street by mistake.  Thank God for honest neighbors.

Floria's first close-up photo was taken while still in the box.

Floria has a pressed-felt face with dark brown side-glancing painted eyes.  Her hair is a black curly Afro-type wig.

This is Floria's first out-of-the-box photo.

With her head slightly turned, another close-up of Floria was taken out of the box.

Brown cloth was used for the body which is marked 2/10/86 on back, which must translate to mean she is #2 of 10, made in 1986. Her arms and legs are made of felt.

She wears a yellow felt hat that is embellished with multiple colors of felt flowers.  It has a bright pink hat band and is tied in the back with bright pink ties. Her long-sleeved felt dress is royal blue with diagonal bright pink stripes that form a diamond shape.

From the back, Floria's pink scarf and pink hat ties can be seen along with her round paper Anili tag which is sewn to the back of her dress.

A pink silk scarf, white pantaloons, and black felt slippers, which are piped in hot pink, complete her fashion.

Floria's black felt shoes are illustrated here.  Her white pantaloons are also visible.

Floria's basket of flowers is shown from a side angle.

With her right index finger, Floria holds the handle of a natural colored basket in which are multiple felt flowers.

In this different angle, her index finger can be seen which is curved around the basket handle.

Anili paper tag

As indicated and illustrated more closely above, a circular Anili paper tag is sewn to the back of her dress.

Under the Lilac business card

The business card of Under the Lilac (doll shop) is pinned to the front side of  Floria's dress.
Handwritten on the business card is Floria Black #2/10 Exclusive for UTL (Under the Lilac).

According to Doll Reference (an online doll reference site), Anili Dolls were made from 1948-1986.  Therefore, Floria might be one of the company's last brown-skinned dolls.  The site further states:

The Anili Doll Company of Italy, was founded by Anili Scavini the daughter of Elena Scavini (founder of Lenci). 

Anili made Lenci like sculpted cloth dolls and also dolls made of celluloid. Operations ceased in 1986.

Some Anili dolls are marked with a circular paper tag, one was a heart symbol with Anili, Italy inside and they probably used other tags over the years, as well.

After Floria arrived, I shared with the former owner how pleased I am with her and, because of her pristine condition, I asked if she had ever displayed her.  Her answer was, "Yes, I did but not since around 2006 probably. I’m glad you like her!"

Felt dolls are not plentiful in my collection.  I will gather them soon and feature all in a separate blog post.

Doll Reference, Anili Dolls

dbg
__________
Thank you for following, commenting, and sharing using the share button below.

Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black
View the Doll Events page for upcoming doll shows. Check out my eBay listings here.
Thank you for your continued support