OK, I think I can make this work.
So for years we played around with Izannah, even making some kind of goofy ones.
I know...I was playing, OK?
So years passed, grandkids and furkids get born, tomatoes get raised, husbands have major surgery, and then one day, earlier this year (2010), I was cleaning (!!) and I found this doll. The head is pressed cloth, and it is dated and signed by Ralph, 2008.
I couldn’t remember how we had done it. And why did we make only one? I dug around some more, and found the mold….making that first head had destroyed that mold! So we searched some more, and found the masters.
This was our first serious attempt at an Izannah. The clay head is from the mold, but the doll has a pressed cloth face, and the two halves are stitched together. This doll has molded ears, and a bun on the top of her head.
So now the game is on. This time, I resolved to make a diary as I worked. The first date is around September 1, 2010.
We first collected all the pictures and information we could about the Walker dolls. Fascinating!
We sent for the old magazines, we dug out the entire collection of old doll books, we acquired the UFDC study disk for Izannah, sent for more books, and stumbled on to a most excellant website, The Izannah Walker Chronicles, run by Dixie Redmond.
Together, Ralph and I studied all the Izannah faces we could find, and then he modified our first mold to reflect those changes.
He made new molds, and multiples of those molds. I could hardly wait until they were dry!
By pouring plaster into the clay that has set up in the mold, you create a stable surface on which you can resculpt and make changes.
Finally, I had molds to work from, and this is what happened next.