PHOTOS TO STUDY FOR INSPIRATION
This page was created for inspirations for molded hair. The photos in the top section are of historical dolls and in the lower section are some of my workshop participants work using the GW Make Your Own Doll.

The photos below are of historic dolls. Although it is true that my first love is papier maches, I have included each picture regardless of the medium used for the doll (wood, china, papier mache, etc.), but more for the modeling employed for the desired results. It is helpful to see how different effects are achieved. The obvious place to add PaperClay on your doll head is the hair, but notice that how things are painted can be just as suggestive (the long picture below has views of heads with no molded hair in case you wish to follow that idea).


This one has an amateurish look, but it has its charm alongside the professional look at the right, which is one of my all-time favorites.

This is a good example of a very non-descript series of undulations in the sculpting of the hair, but you hardly realize this due to the overall charm of the doll.


The two pics with blue backgrounds and the one below are of real Greiners, perhaps the most well-known of the American papier maches.

Good boy hair.

The above three views show a doll who had to have it all. Quite the excess, but nevertheless is a good example of various hair effects even if they are all used at once.
   

Different styles of shoes/boots.Most of this is done with paint, but a few have raised lines to help define.

GALLERY OF WORK

This is the beginnings of a gallery of work made from the GW Make Your Own Doll series. It is decidedly harder to get pictures of dolls than to make the dolls themselves, thus there are not many pictures. If you have made a doll, send digital picture(s) to Gail by email or a real photo. You do not have to have your name if you do not wish.


The doll on the right is simply painted as is from the mold. The doll on the left has added PaperClay hair. Ears were just covered over for this style.

Victor Brandt's doll front view above and back at right.

by Marion Murray


Pam Anderson got a start using the GW Remember Angel head. Her doll seems as if she could have stepped out of a Jane Austen story.



Josephine (in the works) of the 1830's in her corset with Apollo's Knot style of hair by Bobbie Atherton.

Doll made by a rising star, Hadleigh, age 11. Hadleigh has also made my Springfield Wooden jointed dolls and redesigned her own joints so the arms will move independently.

Hadleigh's mom, Heather, made this doll. Heather was once a little girl herself who got one of my very early dolls and now is watching her own daughter make dolls.

The two dolls in pink below were a joint effort to make a pink princess for Hadleigh's sister (6), Ada, whose name is Magnolia Rose. Hadleigh was responsible for her molding and painting and the concept, with sewing help from her mother.

Marion Murray used a molded MYO as a base for a peddler doll.
 


Emily by Sarah Kochanowski


Karen Gates made the two shown above and the views of the back hair below.
Julie Lewis came to one of my early retreats as a beginner. Now, many retreats and dolls later, she is now teaching herself. The doll at left is one of hers as are the two below.

Painted shoes and stockings by Julie.
Below you will see pictures taken in a class taught by Julie Lewis using the GW MYO molds.

 

© COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: Patterns, instructions, molded parts or pieces made from any of these may not be reproduced and/or used for finished items for any commercial purposes without a license - see more info at www.gailwilsondesigns.com. These items are not suitable for children either as toys or projects due to various small parts and/or craft methods used.