When I posted Dinah on my Facebook page, quite a few people commented that they thought she looked sad. I have to agree that she definitely has a slight melancholy that I hadn’t planned. I’d always imagined her as having quite a sultry, cat like expression and she ended up with a much more fragile look.
All of my dolls and creatures have hand drawn faces, so I never know what sort of expression they are going to have until it is drawn on. Sometime, no matter how I try to plan it or draw it, a face will just take on an expression of it’s own and no matter how much I try to tweak it or change it, it will be the way it wants to be.
One commenter described Dinah as having a “Monalisa” smile, which I thought suited her very well. She actually reminds me a lot of a beautiful Welsh friend who I haven’t seen in too long. Maybe it’s time head south to go visit her.
Dinah is made made mainly from calico, but her stockings are made from scraps of a baby blue Chinese silk blouse. Her hair was originally part of an Edwardian christening gown that I found in a charity shop in Glasgow and bought for a whopping £3! The fabric was decaying and falling apart but small parts of the delicate cotton lawn were still holding together. I dyed them with onion skins to make the beautiful soft peachy colour. Her hair is decorated with chocolate alpaca fleece needle felted into little balls and embroidered with blue silk thread.
Dinah has a slightly more voluptuous shape than a lot of my dolls, I drew her pattern free hand and loved seeing her curves come to life as she was shaped, tucked and sewn. Her curves did make her slightly more difficult to pose though, so I think I may have to make her a chaise longue, probably from red silk velvet.
