I recently joined the United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC) as a member-at-large. UFDC has been kind enough to let me post PDF's of past Doll Reader articles focusing on Izannah Walker on this site. You can find these and other articles in the list in the sidebar.
UFDC also publishes an excellent magazine called Doll News, a magazine well worth reading. When you join UFDC, you receive the magazine as part of your membership. UFDC has other resources as well. One example is the wonderful Izannah Walker Study Set by Linda Edward, which a kind reader of this site sent to me. It is a slideshow of Izannah Walker dolls in CD format narrated by Linda Edward, who wrote Cloth Dolls Ancient to Modern. I learned some interesting things about Izannah Walker dolls from this study set. For example, I had assumed cotton was the stuffing in the dolls, but apparently Izannah used a variety of stuffing materials such as bran or sea grass as well as cotton. Like doll makers of today, she used what was plentiful at the time.
In becoming a UFDC member, you can join a local UFDC doll club and have full voting rights OR you can join as a member-at-large, which is great if you can't fit another meeting in your life.
I considered joining in the 90's but their website was a hot mess. It's even worse now. I'd like to get Linda's disc. How did you manage to purchase the disc? The online store is an error page. Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteI would call them. The disc is well worth the call! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks! That's a ringing endorsement. :7D
ReplyDeleteI did get the disc. Today. I had to call them. It is $10 including shipping. It plays in my DVD player.
ReplyDeleteIt's OK...a little short. The jazzed up scene changes are a bit distracting. You can hit pause and photograph the screen...for your own study, of course.
The narrative is the standard list of bits of information that most of us already know....
EXCEPT; She mentions that the back of every IW doll has a sewn on PATE.
But the DVD doesn't show it.
If there is a pate on the back of the dolls' heads, I sure can't see it in any of the photos I have of these dolls.
And I cannot imagine what the function of that would be....unless it is meant to represent the bun that should be there, at the back of the head, when the hair is tied up and enough left to make the ringlettes. Maybe they thought that was too grown up for a little girl?
And what she did not mention is that from the photos, it looks like there is a reinforcing or joining band around the neck, just under the chin?
But it is a nice DVD just the same. Good pictures, and good show of hands and feet.
Hi, Mary -
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a short video/DVD slide show but I enjoyed it. I loved seeing pictures of dolls I've never seen. :-)
I looked again. There IS a pate!
ReplyDeleteI think it is meant to be the bun.
That accounts for the unique shape the back of the head has in profile.