The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-04

London, June 15.-(Reciprocal News Service.)-A Russian refugee in England, Madame Wolkoff, born Princess Troub- etzkoy, has stumbled upon new craft which may well develop into an art and which, she declares, is revealed to her as she gains in skill, by direct inspira tion.
 However this may De, there is certainly something very unusual about the fig uriness made by this woman of middle age, and about the woman herself Madame Wolkoff is very tall. Her face must have been strikingly beautiful when she was young. Now it is mask, deal white except for the eyes that burn with almost religious fervor in it's immovable expanse.
 Rag modelling is what she calls her craft and that is as good a name as any for the present; but her manipula- tion of stuffs and her incomparable mas tery of needlecraft are likely to lead her a long distance beyond toy making.
 In little scraps of explanatory conver- sation at her first London exhibit she unconsciously drew vivid picture of her own life in Russia and the lives of other high-born women. Wild bursts of dizzying gaiety and amusement during certain months of the year then-pouff- and they were whisked off hundreds of miles to the family country home, where for months on end no stranger entered the gate and where the children were dependent upon themselves for every. thing. As a girl at these times she amused herself by making dolls, cutting out the bodies from bits of discarded finery, modelling them after her sisters and brothers, and embroidering their features with tinted silks
 Now Madame Wolkoff makes portraits, constructs whole scenes, from stories of fairyland, and above all she has req, genius for modelling animals.
 It is naturally her portraits that have created the greatest sensation. She has made figurine of Irene Vanbrugh, the popular actress, almost uncanny in its likeness. The whole figure is not 1uite foot high. but the face is modelled to life All the coloring is done by needle work, the cheeks are tinted silk and the eyes are worked so that even under magnifying glass they are complete n every detail, even to the eye-lashes of hair like floss. The hair is of fine silk exactly matching Miss Vanbrugh's own and done in the way she affects. Perhaps even more surprising than the face, how ever, are the hands, finished down to the finger nails and dimpled knuckles. And all with the exquisite delicacy of Tanagra statuette. The texture of tha material, a fine close woven velvety sur race. the dCtudi pldStIC QudHty dhu tiiS faint shadows and veinings produced by the needlework are truly lifelike
 Then to complete the realism, every de- tail of dress is carried out with meticu- lous care. Real laces, silks and cloths which exactly reproduce the clothes of the subjecture used; cut and fashion are exactly reproduced in miniature.
 Each portrait figure. is mounted upon a small platform or seated in chair or upon a settee and the figures are flexible, so that they can be moved at will. some of the most successful portrait studies are of children, mounted on their ponies. or with their dogs.
 The illustration of scenes from fairy land or from plays are just as success fully reproduced. There is a lovely bai-- cony scene in which young girl leans over balustrade gazing into fountain basin. The whole production is less than two feet square. The water is tinted gauge drawn over Jagged basin which is made of cloth embroidered even to the messy rim. The reflection of the girls face in the water is a triumph. A water lily, embroidered in low relief, floats on the surface of the water tiny frogs are half concealed beneath the leaves which lie on the surface. The bodies of these frogs. half in and half out of the water .are so made that their outline is blurred and distorted below the surface of the gauge as they would be seen in water.
 From commercial point of view, the greatest returns are likely to be had