It always makes me sad to hear that an art skill is dying and future generations wont be able to enjoy it anymore. One dying art that I have a great passion for is doll making. In October of last year I got an amazing opprtunity to take a long weekend with my mother to Washington to learn the techniques of lace draping. Jeanette is a master at porcelain. She makes and sells her own line of porcelain slip and has been in the doll business for years. Her talent is absolutely amazing. Twice a year she opens up her shop and her home (Jeanette and her husband Ralph are very welcoming and friendly people) to complete strangers who are wanting to learn this skill. For several years my mom had wanted to go and learn more about lace draping after purchasing some doll molds from an older woman and there were lace drape molds in the set. Fianlly we had the chance. Jeaneatte and Ralph welcomed us like we were family and it was a blast. It was all work with Ralph and Jeanette. The amount of time and detail work that goes into each doll can be exhausting. We only had 2 full days to take in everything we could and to get our dolls finished. Our mornings started early and we literally didn't stop for 10 hours. After the class mom and I would go out to dinner or to our hotel room and try to write down everything that Jeanette had told us. She overloaded our brains with information and I know there is no way we got all the information down in mom's little notebook. I was sad when class was over. I want to go back so badly. Maybe by next October mom and I can have enough money saved up again to go back. I worry that if I don't get the chance soon I will miss out on the oppotunity for good. Jeanette will be the last of all the great doll makers when she retires in the next few years. All of her students that attended the classes were much older than mom and I. She said we rare. The younger generations just aren't as interested in dolls anymore and they don't understand the time and expense that goes into handcrafting each doll. Who would want to purchase a doll for over $100 when you can buy a cheap mass poduced porcelain doll at the supermarket for $10? It's sad.
To explain to you just what lace draping is so you can understand the delicacy and patience required. You take your porcelain greenware (porcelain slip that has set up in a mold and been dried for a few days) and after very carefully cleaning it you are ready to add your lace. With 100% cotton lace you take your colored porcelain slip and you soak your lace in it. Carefully remove excess slip from the lace and with a very small needle like tool begin to pleat or gather your lace onto your mold. The wet slip should "melt" with the dried porcelain to bond together. Each layer has to be done slowly and carefully. If you bump your lace as it is drying you can still break the lace unknowingly until it fires and then you would have holes and missing pieces in your lace dress.Once you have your dress desing onto the doll and it is dried it will go in a kiln for several hours to fire. During the firing process all the lace under the porcelain slip burns out leaving an extremely delicate and detailed fine layer of porcelain. The look is AMAZING! I can't wait to do my next lace drape doll.
Here are some pictures from our class. If anyone is interested in ordering a doll or trying the technique let me know, I would love to spark someone's interst in this art. But be prepared to spend some good money. A doll can easily cost $300-$400 made to order or $100+ and 2-3 days to make one yourself.
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