Information About Doll Making & Clothes Making

Puppets in the 1600s were carved out of wood.

As early as the 1400s, the English were importing French dolls dressed in the latest Parisian fashions. Wood was one of the first materials used in doll making. Since most dolls were customarily clothed, the extremities were most appealing, especially the head. Carving wood developed into a sophisticated and expensive craft. As a result, doll makers throughout history explored a variety of materials to create heads and limbs. By the 19th century, the ingenuity and invention of different materials used to create lovely dolls brought about many special and enchanting dolls from all around the world.

Wood Dolls

Papier mache dolls were cover with wax-overs in the 1700s.

The early wooden dolls of the 16th century had hand-carved head and limbs. The wooden dolls had jointed, pegged-on arms and legs. They even had real human hair and painted features.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, wooden dolls were turned on a lathe. The bodies were of hand-sewn kid with heads, upper torso and legs made of wood that was given a coat of gesso before being painted and varnished. Most of these dolls were made in England and Germany.

Fine fabrics of silk, cotton and satin were elaborately sewn with laces and piped trims for the doll's clothing.

Wax Dolls

Many doll bodies are made with fabric and then stuffed.

By the 18th century, dolls were made out of wax. A hot mixture of East Indian wax and beeswax with rouge, added as a color agent, was poured into a mold and left until a shell formed. Hair was inserted with a needle, and the eyes were weighted blue glass. A cheaper method of using wax was the wax-overs, made by pouring wax over a paper mache-formed head and a body of stuffed calico.

One of the finest examples of wax dolls is the Montanari dolls of 1851 to the 1870s. They were poured wax dolls with muslin stretched over the wax body. They were dressed in fine fashionable silks, cords, pique and other luxury materials embellished with lace and silk ribbons. Low-cut gowns showered off the shoulders.

Composition Dolls

Many types of dolls are made with glass eyes.

A composition doll is made with a collective material of natural and artificial substances and additives. Composition dolls were made to be lightweight and sturdy. A leather board paste was applied to the doll parts and then placed into hot press molds under pressure. The two halves of the body parts are then put together with glue. Clay was used to cover any irregularities where the two halves were put together. The doll bodies were covered with material and stuffed. The dolls were given a coat of varnish, and then glass eyes and hair were added. These dolls were first introduced in 1887.

Factory-made clothes were simple. The outer dress was often made of stiffened muslin.

Gutta Percha and Rubber Dolls

Dolls were clothed in the fashions of their day.

Gutta percha is a substance that comes from Malaysia. It is similar to rubber. Blends of gutta percha and rubber were made. Dolls' heads and bodies made of this material were molded and then spray painted. The dolls were then given glass eyes and real hair wigs.

French fashion dolls were made with gutta percha bodies, and head and limbs were made of bisque. These dolls wore fashionable attire. Silk trims and brocades were common.

China Dolls

China is glazed porcelain. The doll heads were made in plaster molds, prepared from a master. Fifty heads could be made from one mold before the mold was no longer useable. The heads were painted and glazed after the first firing and then refired at a lower temperature. The arms and legs were glazed, but the bodies were made of wood, cloth or gutta percha. The china-head doll became popular in the late 1800s.

Celluloid Dolls

Celluloid is a highly inflammable substance that is regarded as the earliest form of plastic. The chief ingredients in celluloid are nitrocellulose and camphor. The celluloid is prepared in sheets of a certain thickness. While heated, the material is pressed into molds. These are then put under pressure until the celluloid takes shape and is removed.

These types of dolls gained popularity in the decade preceding World War I.

References

• “The Complete Book of Doll Making and Collecting”; Catherine Christopher; 1971
• “Dolls”; Antonia Fraser; 1973
• “Fun with Historical Doll Making”; Valerie Janitch; 1973