Making Creative Cloth Dolls
Making a malleable cloth doll is the closest you can get to  enjoying godlike powers. When you create and embellish the  doll's human form, it sometimes seems to take on a personality  of its own. For this intermediate-level cloth doll-making  manual, Le Van designed three blank canvas doll patterns  representing three human qualities: clarity, energy, and  strength. Then she invited five doll artists (Tracy Stilwell,  Lynne Sward, Arlinka Blair, Pamela Hastings, and Barbara  Carleton Evans) to create dolls based on the patterns. The  result is a gallery of individual art dolls that can be used as  a jumping-off place for your own creative efforts. In addition,  there are 12 pattern projects with full-size patterns and  guidelines for making dolls that range from a simple "Wily  Woman" doll with a bent wire frame to an elaborate, embellished  "Personal Symbol Figure." Those new to the art of cloth doll  making might start with Jodie Davis's Teach Yourself Cloth  Dollmaking or Mariam Gourley's Cloth Dolls: How To Make Them  before tackling this one. A good buy for large public libraries  and textile collections.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.