Bitty Hitty Vada is the second doll I carved. She is about 4.5 inches tall and made of mahogany. It was an easy wood to carve, though this particular piece was old and kind of dry. I found that misting it with a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and water helped reduce splintering pretty well. (That was tip from Bonnie, my carving mentor.) I liked the wood grain, so I kept her mostly unpainted. Vada was one of two dolls that I entered in woodworking contests at the Dixie Classic Fair. There weren't many entries, but I was still surprised when Vada won a blue ribbon. The second doll, Dixie (who you'll meet next), won 2nd place in another category.
The dress Vada is wearing is made from Susie Graber's free muu-muu pattern, sized down to fit. I sew all of my Hitty clothes by hand. Her patterns can be found at http://home.earthlink.net/~dollhausart
I think I began to get a better idea of how to carve working on Vada, though I still have a long way to go!
1 comment:
My carving friend Karla and I are going to try to enter our Hittys in our local fair this year, too.
Post a Comment