THIS IS LEAH

If you have been following my blogs for awhile, you know that I made porcelain dolls when I lived in Stockton, CA over 20 years ago. When I first started blogging 2½ years ago, I did a post about this doll that I had named Leah. Since she is all dressed up for the 4th of July I thought I'd repost about her.

Here's Leah with two other dolls I made. Notice she doesn't have glasses in this last picture. It was taken before I had her eyes checked and found out she needed glasses. LOL 

Leah lived in my doll room for several years, but about 17 years ago she moved to India to live at the Kulpahar Kids' Home. The lady that founded the Kulpahar Kids' Home (along with another lady) was back in the states and when she got ready to go back to India, I gave her this doll. When I named the doll Leah I had not met Leah Moshier, in fact did not even know that she existed. After I met Leah, I looked at my little Leah doll and it even reminded me of the real Leah. I had the strong feeling that this doll should belong to Leah. 

When I made little Leah, I dressed her in red, white and blue. She is the only doll that I didn't dress in pastel  or "muted" colors, which are the colors I like best. 

When we visited India in 1999, little Leah looked right at home there. I am glad she likes her new home. Of course it isn't her new home now. She has lived in India longer than she "lived" in the USA. Sort of like the real Leah. The real Leah has been in India for over 60 years and will celebrate her 92nd birthday in October. She is still active in the mission. 

Leah sent me this picture when she returned to India after I had given her the doll. 

If you haven't visited my doll blog, and would like to see some of the other dolls I made, you can click HERE to go to that blog.

MY DOLL BLOG

I just received a blogger award for my Dolls Dolls Dolls blog and I posted my Show & Tell for this week on that blog --- sooo, if you haven't been there in the last day or two, you might want to jump over there for a look. The award is so neat. I love it.  A blogger called Tardevil gave it to me. That should peak your curiosity. 

I also would like to remind you that the linky will be up tomorrow for Spiritual Sundays. We hope you will consider joining us by posting your inspirational/spiritual posts and going there to find the links to others.

Two Faced Doll

This is certainly not one of my favorite dolls, but I think it is interesting. That’s why I made it in the first place. It can be turned to one side for a happy face and the other side for a sad face. I like the happy face side the best.

Here the two faced doll (with the happy side up) is pictured with the doll that IS my favorite. She is the largest doll I made. I will feature her sometime in the future and tell you more about her.

The buggy was a Christmas present from my daughter many years ago. She thought I needed a buggy for my doll room. She was right.

San Joaquin County Fair

The only time I ever entered anything in competition in a county fair I won two first place and two second place awards. These are the winning dolls. I took first place in the 15 inch doll category and the 10 inch category. Also won 2nd place in each of these categories.

These dolls and many more are in a photo album at the end of my blog for anyone interested who has not seen it. People ask me all the time if I still make dolls. No I don't. These were all made back in the 80's. I was totally into doll making at that time. Guess what I'm into now? BLOGGING!

A Cat, A Pillow, A Doll and A Rabbit

Thought I would share a few more things that I have made in the past. Here they are - a cat, a pillow, a doll and a rabbit. I know. I’ve shared the doll already but not with the cat, the pillow and the rabbit. This is new.

My porcelain doll making days were over when I left California. I guess I was still a little in the doll making mood because shortly after we came here I made these two cloth dolls. The picture below was taken in our back yard. Her wool yarn hair was part of a sweater that I bought in Greece years before. I had remodeled the sweater and had some left over so I unraveled it. I thought it made great hair.

OK It’s back to dolls again. This is my Jeannie Walker doll, (a Madam Alexander doll) that I got for Christmas in 1942. This was never one of my favorites. I was partial to baby dolls. I do think it’s neat that I have a picture of me holding the doll right after I got it. I’m wondering why the Christmas tree was outside. Maybe to take pictures. They didn’t have flash bulbs. That’s my cousin Jerry holding the football. My mother always said this picture should win some kind of award. How many people have a picture of themselves at Christmas with their finger in their nose. But then again how many people would want a picture like that.

As I said, this was never one of my favorite dolls, I don’t know how it is that I ended up keeping it all these years. It even still has the original dress on. Anyway, I’m glad now that I kept it. Man, that doll is 65 years old. If it was a person it could be getting social security.

It’s funny the things I do remember. I remember that the outfit I had on in the picture my Mom ordered for me and when it arrived it was too small. I wore it anyway. I remember a lot of things that happened years ago. Now if I could just remember yesterday.

MARY

I venture into other areas of writing, but always seem to come back to dolls. I have so many dolls to write about, but this one isn’t about one of my dolls. It’s about a doll that belongs to my daughter.

Way back before I ever dreamed of making porcelain dolls, I made this doll for my daughter. I made it for her for Christmas when she was seven years old. She still has the doll and thinks it was one of the best Christmas presents she ever got. She named her Mary.

My Aunt Ruth made a life size rag doll for me when I was about 10 years old. It was beautiful. She made one like it for one of my cousins. Boy, I wish I still had that doll. I don’t remember what I did with it. I probably thought I had outgrown dolls and got rid of it. I didn’t realize that I never would truly outgrow dolls. My all time very favorite doll was a Sparkle Plenty doll that I got for Christmas one year. Actually it was the last doll I would receive for Christmas. Younger people than I will have no idea what a Sparkle Plenty doll was. It was all the rage back in 1947. It had what was called “magic skin” and yellow yarn hair. My parents and I drove all the way to Long Beach to a Bullocks store to buy it. After we brought it home, it was put up in the closet until Christmas. I talked my Mom into letting me look at it a couple of times before I got to have it for good. I did love that doll.

Violet Eyes

I decided to go back to my dolls today and talk about Elizabeth. I found some beautiful violet eyes at a doll show. I didn’t have a doll for them, but I bought them anyway because I liked them so well. I figured I’d decide later how to use them. I ended up putting them in this doll and named her Elizabeth, or Liz. (The pictures don’t do justice to the color of her eyes.) I just took this picture of her. As soon as I saw it on the computer screen I noticed that her hat had slipped a little. Too much trouble to do it again, so this will have to do. I also made the shoes she has on. The other picture is one with her coat and cap on. She doesn’t wear this much in Arizona. In fact, she hasn’t had it on in over 18 years.
P.S. To see more of the dolls I made, scroll all the way to the bottom of my blog to see a scrapbook.

Leah Becomes "Little Leah"

When I made this doll, I had no idea that one day soon I would meet a wonderful lady named Leah and I would give her my doll to take home to India with her.

Leah and her friend Dolly (I just now noticed the “coincidence” as I was writing this.) went to India when they were both in their early 20s to spend at least three years doing missionary work. They planned to come home after three years, but God had different plans for them. They founded the Kulpahar Kids' Home and have raised hundreds of children. They also built a school and a hospital. Leah is almost 90 years old now and is still in charge. Dolly is buried in their little cemetery by their church which is also on their compound. When we (my husband and I) were there in 1999, Leah showed us the spot next to Dolly where she will be buried.

I first met Leah when she came home shortly after we came to Phoenix in 1989. At that time the church we came to had been her Living Link sponsorer for almost 50 years. After that, we got to see Leah every three years when she came back to the U.S.A. for a visit. The last time she was here was over two years ago. Each time she came home, we would think “This will probably be her last time to come back.” I don’t know if she will be back again but I wouldn’t be surprised. When she celebrated her 80th birthday, she asked God for 10 more years.

When I gave Leah to Leah, she said, “I’ll call her ‘Little Leah’”. She sent this picture to me of her and Little Leah right after she got back to India. “Little Leah” has been in India a long time now. When I saw her there in 1999, she looked right at home.

Here is the website for the Kulpahar Kids' Home:
http://kulpaharkidshome-school.wmww.org/index.html
This is another “miracle”. They didn’t even have electricity when they first went there.

This is Leah

This is Leah - the doll with the sailor dress on. After I took this picture, I thought she still needed something. Yes, that's it. She needs glasses. So I bought her some glasses. There, isn't that better? I also bought Joy a pair of glasses.




Leah lived in my doll room for a few years but has lived in Kulpahar, India, for about the last 17 years. Tune in tomorrow for the "rest of the story".

ANOTHER DAY

Well, the knee injection went much better than I had anticipated. (I decided to call it an injection. That doesn't sound as bad as "shot".) Now I have four more injections to go, one a week for four weeks. The doctor said I might not get any pain relief until I have gotten all four of them. He said it helps 80% of the time. Sure hope and pray I'm not one of the 20%. I am thankful for all of you that are praying for me.

Today I want to talk a little about making doll clothes and shoes.

I searched around in my doll room closet and came up with a shoebox size plastic box that I had stored extra doll shoes in. I bought patterns for the shoes and bought remnants of leather from a store that sold leather. The remnants were not very expensive. Making shoes was not hard, but it was a little tedious, especially the smaller ones.

Making clothes was really fun. Here is a picture of some of the patterns. Collecting lace, small buttons and buckles, etc. was fun too. A lot of the stuff I bought at doll shows. They had some wonderful doll shows in California where they sold all kinds of stuff for making dolls and, of course, they sold dolls too. There were also some stores that stocked a limited supply of doll making stuff.

Leisel and the Red Cross

The doll in the middle on the left is Liesel. I made her for my daughter Carol. She gave her the name. Carol was working for the Red Cross at the time, and wanted me to make her a little doll to put in her office. So, I made the doll on the right. I don't remember her having a name.
The little black doll on the left I made for one of my nieces who lives in southern California. During one of their earthquakes this doll fell and broke her head. I made a new head for her.
Liesel was made from the same mold as Joy. This was a very popular mold. I think everyone in the class made at least one doll from that mold.

After Pierre and Gloria there was Joy

My intentions to make one doll were blown away after I made the first two dolls. I was hooked already and didn't know it. I thought "I'll make just one more doll". I named this doll Joy. Picture on the left is how she looked originally. Later, I made her a new outfit. I sold the original dress to a lady in the doll class that didn't sew. (Luckily her purse went with both outfits.) I also made the shoes she has on in the picture at the right. Making shoes was fun. I'll talk more about that later.
One of the fun things about making dolls was changing their wigs and outfits to make them look different.

The Beginning of my Doll Making

When our son moved out of our home after graduating from college, I decided to turn his room into a sewing room. So - out went the waterbed. Up went the wallpaper (another thing I learned to do while living in Stockton, California.) I had loved to sew since I was about 10 years old when I learned to sew on a treddle sewing machine, making doll clothes incidentally. The theme I had chosen for my sewing room was "Love Makes the World Go Round".

When Carol Wyrick announced at church that she was going to start a class on making porcelain dolls, I was excited. I told her I wanted to make a clown doll for my sewing room. She said she recommended making two dolls at once because you could be painting one of them while the other one was being fired. So, reluctantly I started making two dolls. Here are those dolls. I no longer have the clown doll, but the other doll I named Gloria. I named all my dolls, but for the life of me I can only remember the names of a few of them now. I knew I should have written them down.

Picture at the right is the greenware for one of the dolls I made. This is how each doll started out. Carol had the molds and she made the greenware for the students. We smoothed them up and she took them home and fired them. Then she brought them back and we painted them in stages with firings inbetween.

Where Do I Start?

They say to start at the very beginning. That's a very good place to start, and that is what I planned to do, but since the first person to comment on my blog mentioned the doll in the window, I decided to start with her. I made two dolls like this one. One of them I gave to my daughter. She wanted a bunny suit for her doll, so I made it a bunny suit. One of the fun things about making dolls was making their clothes. For some of them I made their shoes too. I'll talk about that in a later blog. For now, here are pictures of the doll in the window.

My Doll Room

One of my favorite rooms is my doll room. I took this picture this morning. While I lived in California, I made over 30 porcelain dolls. I will be featuring some of them in the coming days.