Earl, I tried to email you again but your email address failed - please contact me again!

Almut's sister made all of the clothes.

Even to this day, Louisiana duck carvers prefer to carve the roots of swamp trees: cypress and tupelo gum - only the part of the tree that grows under water!

"Soon Bella and her sons went into the field (or swamp) to dig up some cypress roots, and before long she was experimenting in carving." Her husband also helped her collect wood from the wild for many of her projects.

Bella's early dolls had painted faces and simple forms. Sometimes she made the eyes from beads.

Quickly her taste in wood switched to tupelo gum - no longer painting the faces. Bella left the natural wood color, using a protective sealer and a little "makeup". She also started to add a lot more detail and started carving her dolls' fingers. Her dolls quickly improved so by 1982 she was considered "an artisan of the first degree" and was invited to join ODACA.

Bella's dolls range in size from 14" to 19" and have a carved wooden torso - solid wood from head to waistline. The body is stuffed from waist to knee, and the lower legs are wooden. The upper half of the arms are stuffed with cotton over wire, and the lower arms are carved wood.

Bella used embroidery thread, goat's hair, or even carved her doll's hair for some of her later dolls.

Bella enjoyed sewing and found it easy to make of her own patterns and dresses. She enjoyed creating  the old-fashioned long Cajun gowns and bonnets, and also adaptations of 1800-vintage costumes. Her tailor-made ruffled gowns were elaborate, delicately trimmed with lace and pleated ruffles. Her dolls often came with custom-made crochet accessories. 

In 1983, Bella told a friend that she was working on an old Cajun man and hoped to do a series of first ladies in their inaugural gowns.

He also promoted a renewed interest in an old folk doll, the "Dancing Dan", by teaching a seminar on carving these fun folk dolls at the 1997 NIADA conference.

all photos thanks to Floyd Bell

Eva started to make wooden dolls in 2001. Eva's work method is complex. She sculpts her original in polymer clay, then has a bronze casting made from it, to be used in the manufacture of the wooden doll parts. The maple wood parts are shaped by a "duplicating macine" by tracing these bronze forms. Each of the parts is then hand finished. As Eva explains, "Afterwards begins the important and crucial fine quality work, since the carving machine leaves no really precise edges and I carve for a very long time to get the desired form."

Eva's first wooden doll edition represents a little girl with joints at the neck, shoulder, upper arm, and hip (see photo) - well designed and very charming.  Eva's dolls are marked on the neck. 

Eva states that the doll magazine "Dollami" published a detailed article her new wood dolls in 2001.

She was also very eager to encourage other doll artists and wanted people to know how she made her dolls. She left many of her dolls, tools and information about her doll making process to the Rosalie Wheyl Museum of Doll Art where an educational display with some of this is now on display.

Frances worked in a 1-1/2" to 1' scale making her adult dolls approximately 9". She made hand carved Alaskan cedar dolls jointed throughout with springs and swivels. Frances individually hand carved the heads of her dolls but the bodies were machine duplicated from her originals. Her dolls were dressed in historically accurate, perfectly scaled clothes. Her dolls are shown in the NIADA book "The Art of the Doll", they are in several museum collections, and are sometimes available on the secondary doll market. 

At some point, Pat turned to making polyclay dolls, but she will always be best known for her mastery in wood.

From 1993 - 1995, Pat designed 4 holiday theme wooden dolls which were manufactured by the Hamilton Collection in China. These dolls are well loved and considerable care was given to the manufacture of these dolls. But still no one can compare the quality of ANY manufactured doll to those created by an individual fine artist. Pat should be remembered by her own hand crafted original dolls.

Then Pat seemed to disappear from the doll making world for a while in the late 90’s. During that period, Pat says that she was worked for Danbury Mint for 3 years as a designer – often designing just the clothes for the company’s misc. dolls. Pat also spends a lot of time traveling as a professional photographer leaving her little time for her doll art. She looks forward to working on her dolls again – possibly wooden dolls again! I'm encouraging Pat to start carving her fabulous one of a kind wooden dolls again!

In December 2001 Pat told me, “The Dorothy doll that I exhibited at the Atlanta NIADA Conference in 1994 was the last wooden doll that I carved, and I have not made ANY dolls since 1998.  I DO miss it terribly and want to get back to it very much. Commercial Designing took quite a toll on me and I just got to total burnout in 1998 ... I want most in all the world to return fulltime to making dolls.”

Pat states that she also designed some dolls for Bell Ceramics from 1994 to 1997 and they are still selling these molds.

The book, "Babes in Wood: Intro to Doll Carving" by Patricia Ryan Brooks which is occasionally available from on-line auctions and out of print book dealers.

Dorothy created wonderful miniature doll house sized figures. She managed to create 1/12 scale dolls with ball joints! All of the clothing and accessories are in perfect scale. Dorothy sculpted each doll's face with a lot of character! She was first inspired to make scale dolls to fill her grandchildren's doll house.

She was given some early encouragement and tips from Bob and June Beckett and she studied with them at least one of their wood carving workshops. The Beckett's were ODACA artists who actively promoted wooden dolls as art.

In a letter to Bill Fifer, Dorothy explained that age has forced her to stop making dolls. Some of Dorothy Brower's figures are featured in The Kansas City Toy and Miniature Museum.

See the photo at right of Snow White held in someone's hands to see how very small this fabulous doll is!

I need a better photograph.

Judy is rightfully proud that she is a self-taught wood doll sculptor who got her initial inspiration in 1975 from the McCall's how-to publication featuring a circa 1810 peg wooden. She has enjoyed wood doll making ever since. 

Judy created the 1991 Williamsburg, VA UFDC Regional Convention Souvenir. 

Judy has contracted Collectible Concepts to allow them to produce a reproduction of one of her Hitty dolls. These Collectible Concepts "Judy Brown Hitty" dolls are carved in China based on Judy's pattern and proto-type. One of these "Judy Brown Hitty" reproduction dolls was given as the Sirocco Production's 1998 Hitty Luncheon Souvenir. This "Williamsburg luncheon Hitty" was dressed in Hitty's pink dancing dress.  The first Collectible Concept Hitty released to the general public (early 1999) was dressed as a bride.

Judy actively promotes wood dolls by offering a "no excuses Hitty carving kit" for those who want to test their skills at wood carving and then also released a Hitty carving video in 1999. In the past, Judy also held doll carving seminars.

* Judy is a personal friend. Judy was enthusiastic about this document and an early supporter who sent me several photos of her dolls and information about other wood doll sculptors - Thanks Judy!

Ruth Brown is one of the artists featured in the 1983 ODACA publication, "ARTISTS and ORIGINAL DOLLS - A Compendium of the Members of the ORIGINAL DOLL ARTISTS COUNCIL OF AMERICA" by Joan M. Ross:

Children, portrait, and character: all in wood. Ruth has been carving child dolls since 1976. Each is an original, one-of-a-kind in which she captures a particular childlike expression and large expressive eyes. She makes the entire doll out of wood and dresses it in modern or period outfits. She likes to do portrait dolls and always uses photographs of her subjects. 

Ruth also made a popular Hitty doll out of oak and made little outfits that fit most modern Hitty reproducitons. In 1999 Ruth Brown created a "very special order dress" for Andrew Tabbat's Lotz Hitty so that she could look like "Raggedy Ann" for a special "1999 50th Birthday Party" for Andrew's favorite doll. Andrew, an avid Raggedy collector and author, raves over the extra little details that Ruth put into this special Hitty costume. Andrew proudly displayed this special ODACA artist collaboration at the Raggedy function and gave both artists a lot of kudos.

Nancy won the 1990 Award of Excellence in the Wood: All Prices Category. This very prestigious prize was won with her edition named Marcolm (or Malcolm???). His head legs and arms are made from cherry wood. He has a cloth body and clothes that are hand made by the artist

Her early dolls were rather primitive and some were possibly made from balsa wood. But she refined her doll making into a unique style using many types of wood. Helen did a set of wood dolls of each of Alice's size situations in classic John Tenniel style. The tall one with the stretched out neck is outstanding. Luckily the set of 3 stayed together. I recently saw a slide of these wood dolls and they looked like she enjoyed carving them. 

Helen also asked Rachel Fields if she could make a Hitty doll since she liked the book ("HITTY HER FIRST HUNDRED YEARS by Rachel Fields) so much, but Rachel said "no". Helen made the doll anyway but had to call it "Abby" not "Hitty". Her "Hitty doll" is displayed on the Lotz Hitty gallery.

Both boys and girls have been produced. Some of their dolls have been named: Peter, Rachel (with a wooden cat) and etc.

One of these auctions described the Camelot doll, Rachel, a 16" doll with a carved wood head, hands and lower arms and legs from knees down on a stuffed cloth body. The doll carries a wooden cat in her left hand. 

Rachel's neck is marked, "Original Design." While the doll's arm tag reads:

"RACHEL, Camelot Handcrafted Dolls. *Meticulously crafted in fine porcelain or specially-selected woods. *Authentically attired and superbly detailed . . . . Not found in even the finest stores or collectible doll publications, Camelot dolls are available exclusively through QVC".

(I will accept a collector photo for any of Dewees wooden dolls)

Janet said, "I am a professional woodcarver, and have been for 34 years ... For information about the carvings that my family do, you can look up the July 1975 National Geographic."

I have seen her Hitty doll and I've seen a photograph of a fabulously jointed baby that was featured in the Chip Chat's magazine. This doll was obviously greatly influenced by the work of Martha Armstrong Hand - essentially a wooden version of Martha's original porcelain joint and body design. I've always thought that Martha's joints would work well in wood and Janet's doll proves it.

Janet wrote to me via email promising to send some photos of her work, but unfortunately her email address is no longer good. Janet, please contact me to let me know your new email address. I would love to post a photo of one of Janet's art dolls, but In the mean time, I'll post a photo of Janet's Hitty doll from a friend's collection.
 

She started her own business in the mid '80's, and carving soon became her main interest. She says, "I have carved all varieties of rock, exotic woods, fossilized Ivory, and other mediums .... Now my favorite carving mediums are Fossil Ivory, and Hardwoods."

Her childhood love of dolls, and doll making came back to her and she started carving little wooden and fossil ivory dolls. She explains, "I had no market for my little jointed people, but it was without a doubt a perfect fit for me. At first I kept them a secret but, when I did finally show them, other doll enthusiasts appreciated them too and encouraged me to continue, and to work my dolls into my business."

DeAnn says that she had a special interest in antique wooden dolls and after studying antique examples, she developed her own patterns, sturdy doll joints, and style. She says, "One of my favorite pieces is an articulately jointed 1800's European style peg, carved from Fossil Walrus Ivory. She's fairly small, about 3 to 4 inches tall, and is so elegant and life like in her movements." DeAnn also explains that although most of her carvings are her own unique work and design, she also enjoys doing some replication.

DeAnn is quite well known for her interpretation of Hitty in wood, fossil ivory and resin. She also creates "Friends of Hitty" dolls which are cut from the same basic Hitty pattern but have different hair styles and coloration. Her "Friends of Hitty" dolls are also available in resin.

This is one of the large carving companies in this famous carving region who machine carve rough outs then do the finish carving and painting of items by hand. This cost-effective process allows such large editions to be made efficiently and consistantly.

• The earliest Dolfi dolls were lovely carved hair, jointed wood dolls with well designed clothing in fine fabrics with nice hand work like smocking and embroidery.
• For a short time Dolfi offered a very large version of their carved hair wooden dolls.
• Later they introduced another set of soft body dolls that were wigged and dressed in less expensive materials.
• Dolfi also produces a companion set of small "doll figurines" that they call "Free-standing Dolls". They are really sweet compliments to the larger look-a-like dolls.