The New Dutch Touch

I am so excited that I just finished a glorious week learning from Ankie Daanen and Marlaine Verhelst along with 11 other enthusiastic doll makers!

The week was organized by Marla of Blue Moon Winery in Courtenay, BC on Vancouver Island. The weather was typical west coast with gentle rain and gray skies (normally it is much drier at this time of year) but nothing could dampen our fun.

Ankie and Marlaine were such fun and very good teachers.  We started with an oval ball that was covered in a thin layer of paper clay and then we started to build our "little princess".

This is a fairly new class for them and is a departure from the emphasis on heavy costuming.  This doll has a paper clay bodice that can be decorated and painted as part of her outfit.

Painted heads (with watercolour paint) waiting to dry

As you can see, although we were following the same steps for building her face, all the heads are unique depending on the slight differences in the size and placements of the features, just like us!

The paper clay was fun to work with as it was supple and could be smoothed with your own fingers and water.  We did have paper clay tools that we used as well.

The most challenging part was learning how to build slowly by adding clay and them smoothing well to blend the added clay into the face.  The little hands were the hardest part for me!

The bodice was easy and fun to decorate.  Some of us used a stamp to emboss the clay, others a piece of lace and still others embedded metal bits into the bodice so that they would adhere once the clay dried.

Face in progress

Face a little further along

Bodice with embossing using a stamp

I cannot describe the fun and positive energy that I received from spending an entire week immersed in creating a little doll with like-minded ladies!  Marla, our host was so gracious and showed us her past work and her wonderful marionettes.  Snacks, tea and coffee were available all day long and a local chef, Laura made us the most tasty lunches using organic, local produce. Marla provided her local berry wine.  This is my idea of heaven, creating, laughing, eating and drinking surrounded by the positive energy that is in all of us!

Here is a group portrait of the little princesses:  They once all lived in the same magical kingdom and then met their special someone and moved a little bit away to a castle of their own making.  The little princesses were determined to  connect at least once a year with their sisters in spirit and share their varied and eventful lives in the peaceful setting of Vancouver Island.

I will add my little princess' solo picture a little later as soon as she receives her special book and necklace so stay tuned!

Our host Marla was not able to take the class with Ankie and Marlaine and was very sad so her friend Angie suggested that if there was time, perhaps we could build her little princess for her together.  We thought that was an excellent idea and so it happened that Marla too had her own little princess with bits from many hands including mine.  Here she is wearing Marla's favourite colour, sky blue:

Marla plans to have Ankie and Marlaine back in 2016.  I can hardly wait!  Bye for now.