To Russia with Love

"...that which we call a rose

by any other name would smell as sweet."

I was asked to show a doll through NIADA in the upcoming Doll Show in St. Petersburg, Russia. I thought about what I wanted to create for some time and came up with a new series called "Le Fleur" or The Flower. With summer coming and flowers blooming so beautifully this year, I found my inspiration to be all around me. Rose...roses are in full bloom right now and as I walk down the street from my studio they are blooming in their full glory...Rose.

I sometimes turn to words for my inspiration and came upon the above quote from Romeo and Juliet. Although, it is a bittersweet story of star-crossed lovers, it is about love. I thought about my love of doll making and my love of nature and designed a French Doll named Rose.

Designing can sometimes be challenging, especially when creating a new concept- in a limited amount of time. So I translated the quote into French and printed it along the dress hemline...

I knew I wanted her dress to be in rose colored silks and to have the essence of roses on her hat...

I used vintage lace that
I made in to leaf shapes.

Needless to say I made three dresses, my first dress. I dyed the top to depict the golden center of the flower, it turned out too muddy. My second was too fussy with many many seams and petal hemline- good concept...wrong application.

I needed the dress to be soft and full- like a petal of a rose. I also wanted the doll not to be too sweet and so incorporated the color black into my palette.

For some reason I feel that creme and black check is very French..who knows where that came from but I think it works.

After a few 12 hour days, I made my deadline and now...

May I present to you... Le Fleur- Rose.

A final note-Many thanks go out to my dear friends, Deborah Pope and Shelley Thornton for carrying my doll to Russia for this show. I know that she will be in good hands!