Amethyst. Not a Christmas Elf.

When I tell people that some of my doll heads

 are made of leather

they pull a face,

like I've made some kind of 

monstrous mask of rawhide.

I can understand that 

'leather head'

doesn't seem like a 

pleasant description of a doll.

Amethyst is a cloth doll

whose head is made of
stiffened and moulded leather.

I actually made her about seven years ago, 

and she came back specially

for a photo shoot.

I started making dolls

 with leather heads

because I wanted to make cloth dolls

with three dimensional profiles

and realistic features.

I'd tried felt

and I'd tried cloth over paper mache

but neither of these had been satisfactory.

Then I saw some moulded leather masks at a craft fair.

Remember those, way back in the 90's?

I had to guess at how they were made.

Fortunately for me, my first attempt,

using thin leather soaked

 in diluted PVA (white) glue 

worked well enough.

The leather was draped over a cheap bisque doll head,

and pushed and moulded into shape.

I found I could influence the expression of the doll, 

depending on how I squeezed and shaped

the leather while it was drying.

Usually the leather dries to a warm yellow.

 Like Bess, here.

Amethyst, however, is painted.

And she's painted because

I buggered up the original  face.

Originally, she was going to be a boy Elf.

But I had real problems

getting his face to look masculine.

(Even for an Elf.)

He got cute ears, though.

So I made him into a girl

and she belongs to my dear 

sister-in-law, Cherie

Amethyst has a gown of vintage green satin

and lilac silk,

with a dark green velveteen bodice.

She has little green leather ballet shoes

made over a tiny last.

Green glass leaves hang from her chain belt, 

and she wears

an enameled and jeweled headpiece 

and over-sized brooch to match.

The jewellery was the original inspiration

for the design of the dress.

She even has a green leather dagger sheath to match her shoes.

With removable dagger, obviously.

I didn't know how well the 

leather heads were going to last, 

when I first made them.

But Hubby has a little boy doll

I made over ten years ago, 

and it's exactly the shape

and the colour is as bright

as the day it was made.

And I'd make more

and put them on Etsy,

I just still don't know how to describe a

leather-headed doll

without it sounding a bit

creepy...

Talking of creepy,

this is my Christmas door wreath.

"And then let any man explain to me,

 if he can, 

how it happened that Scrooge,

 having his key in the lock of the door,

 saw in the knocker, 

without its undergoing any intermediate process of change 

-- not a knocker, 

but Marley's face..