A Delightful Time With Romantic Art Dolls

I've had a delightful time the past few weeks making the dolls for Hally Levesque's"Romantic Rosabella" class in Session 1 of Artful Gathering.  I was only going to make 2 dolls but could not decide which color I wanted the base to be so I ended up choosing seven different colors from solid color fabric my sister had given me.

I figured at least one or two of the dolls would come out nicely and was pleasantly surprised when they all did. Even though the dolls are all similar looking they all ended up having their own little personalities. To no surprise most are "Diva's" or at least they think they are.

I had been saving some of the beautiful hand dyed and batted alpaca fibers my sister had given me over the last two years and was thrilled I would be able to utilize some of it here. Her alpaca roving batts worked beautifully in creating my dolls long, braided hair. If you would like to see more of my sister's alpaca fibers she sells her alpaca fiber products in her Rock Garden Alpaca's Etsy shop here.

Each of the dolls is handmade with hand sculpted paper clay faces, arms, and bonnets. Each has handmade silk ribbon flowers as well as painted flowers down the front of the dolls dress. Handmade silk ribbon flowers are also used for their bouquets and to decorate their bonnets. Each doll also has lace and tulle gathered overskirts in the back which combined with the silk ribbon flowers makes the doll very romantic and very elegant looking.



I'm currently working on naming each of these dolls. They're "diva's" after all and are insisting on it and insisting on individual posts with more pictures of each doll in the posts that follow. These "dollies" are just so demanding - aren't they? It's a good thing I liked how they turned out or they'd be out in the trash. YIKES!

This year as I scanned the classes in Session 1 and Session 2 my eyes were immediately drawn to two classes in particular and I knew, after looking at their descriptions, that the decision was out of my hands. "Dollie's" always win and Hally Levesque was teaching two doll classes: Romantic Rosabella in Session 1 and Wee Winter Whimsies in Session 2.

2016 - Hally Levesque - Romantic Rosabella - A Ribbons & Roses Doll Project 

2016 - Hally Levesque - Wee Winter Whimsies - Primitive Folk Art Dolls for the Holidays  

I absolutely LOVED Hally's "Romantic Rosabella" class and I'm looking forward to her "Wee Winter Whimsies" class in Session 2.

Session 1 runs from June 6 to July 17 and Session 2 runs from July 16 to August 26, If you'd like to see the  Artful Gathering 2016 Workshop Catalog please CLICK HERE.