Finally, the Frog Gardener is complete (see Work in Progress)! His clothing is made of velvet, Japanese kimono silk, Chinese silk jacquard and leather for his boots. Dressing him was a challenge because of his pose. The shirt and vest could be sewn, while the pants had to be glued. I ended up making my own buttons when I couldn’t find any small enough. The hard part was hand sewing the buttonholes on his vest. Why didn’t I do that before I dressed him? Everything turned out fine in the end.

Now to dress Alice…She is 8.5 inches and will be my next challenge. Her dress will be made from a light blue Swiss batiste and antique fine cotton lace, as will her undies. She will have the traditional black and white striped stockings. I want to use leather for her tiny shoes. We’ll see how goes, since her feet are about .75”! A costume drawing is in the Work in Progress section of this site.

People wonder why handmade art dolls are so expensive. It has taken about 40 hours for the frog and another 20 just for the stand! I estimate that Alice will have taken at least 60 hours. Over one hundred hours for this piece is a conservative estimate. Of course, it’s all been fun for me to make. At this point, I think it’s become a compulsion, I enjoy it so much!

More to come…