The History Of Faceless Dolls - Updated February 2015 - Part XXI - Books To Help You Create Your Own Faceless Dolls

One of the greatest things about creating art dolls is they can be made out of any media and be an expression of whatever the artist or maker wishes to convey. Sometimes the art doll is funky, wild, out of this world, happy, sad, or just plain "out there!"

When making art dolls nothing is more fun than mixed media art dolls. There are no boundaries and no limits where they are concerned - including "faceless" mixed media art dolls.

Sarah Lawrence is a contemporary textile artist who exhibits her creations all over the world and has written several books. One of her books, Art Dolls - 20 To Make contains the directions for making 20 of her art dolls, 7 of which are "faceless" and would be fun to make.

The 7 faceless dolls include: Jumping Jack who is a wooden bead doll, Timelines which is a textile figure doll, Statuesque and Painted Lady which are four-sided paper dolls, Angelica and Angel Choir who are wooden doll peg painted angels, Wired  Woman which is a bended wire doll, Heart Of Glass which is the beaded doll shown in the picture to the left, Man Of Dreams and Woman of Soul which are four-sided paper dolls, and Button Up which is a wood bead and button doll. Templates, if required, are included in the book but would need to be re-sized as they are shown at 67% of their size.

If you would like to see pictures of some of these dolls please click here for the Amazon.com page and then click on the book image to look inside.

You can also see pictures of Jumping Jack, Timelines, Statuesque - Painted Lady, Angelica - Angel Choir, and Heart Of Glass here.

I love angels and all the beauty, goodness, and protection they represent and especially love, guardian angels whose job it is to protect you, groups of people, even the world.

For artists and crafters angels take all sorts of shapes and sizes and can be made out of just about any medium.  That's why you find folk art angels, primitive angels, mixed media angels, Victorian angels, paper angels, woodcraft angels. glass angels, fabric angels, beaded angels, metal angels and so much more.  Angels may have faces or even be faceless - which, of course, I love.

In doing my research for this article I found a wonderful Making Angels -Ornaments, and Dolls By Hand - Step-by-Step Instructions for 47 projects by Holly Harrison.

Out of the 47 angel projects in this book 19 are faceless.  There's Kitchen Spice which is a cinnamon and nutmeg angel, Dieter's Delight which is a cooper metal angel, Sugar Shell Angel which is a spoon and cooper angel, Domestic Bliss Angel which is a wire and cloth angel, Rose Angel which is a beautiful corn husk angel, Art Deco Garden Angel which is a embossable copper sheet angel, and Maia - Springtime Angel which is a painted paper angel.

There's Crystal - Dewdrop Angel which is a wood and silver tin angel, Summer Angel which is a beach glass and crushed shells angel, Fall Harvest Angel which is a moss covered angel, Angel In Brown which is a raffia angel, Earth Angel which is a driftwood and branch angel, Winter Solstice Angel which is a copper wire mesh angel, Marina - Dancing Angel which is a seashell and wire angel, and Ballerina Angel which is an adorable cloth angel.

There's the Real Woman Angels which are cloth angels that I absolutely love, Happiness Angel which is a wire angel, Blue Angel which is a glass angel, and Valentine Angel which is a paper angel.

If you would like to see pictures of the Kitchen Spice, Dieter's Delight, Sugar Shelf Angel, and Domestic Bliss Angel please click here.



Faceless dolls can be made in just about any medium - including paper.

If you would like to learn how to make some beautiful "faceless" paper doll origami creations "Creating Lovely Paper-Flower Dolls: Using Kusudama Folding Techniques To Make 3-D Paper Figures by Joie Staff" will show you how.

This book will teach you how to make paper dolls using the Kusudama method of origami, which is basically a paper folding technique whereby multiple folded units are sewn or glued together.

Out of the 50 projects in the book 26 are for creating "faceless" paper origami art dolls.  Full-color photographs and black-and-white diagrams with detailed instructions will show you how.

Since I am partial to everything and anything Victorian my favorites are the Edwardian Ladies, Southern Belles, MissCaroline, Afternoon Tea (like the doll shown in the picture to the right from the front cover of the book), Evening Gown, Parasol Princess and Sheer Fantasy.

I also love the7 different designs for the Bridal Party doll creations, the Anne of Green Gables (like the doll shown in the picture to the left from the front cover of the book), and the 8 different Asian Folk Dolls.

If you would like to see a preview of" Creating Lovely Paper-Flower Dolls: Using Kusudama Folding Techniques To Make 3-D Paper Figures by Joie Staff " please click here.

In the book Dollmaking For The First Time By Miriram Gouley in Section 3 - Beyond The Basics there is a project showing you how to make doll into an ornament by creating two different versions of a creative embroidered faceless angel. Pearl fabric paint, seed pearls and satin roses are used to embellish the faceless angels.