Saturday, January 28, 2012

Ndebele Dolls


One year, we made dolls. Lots of dolls. A grandmother donated a treasure trove of crafting materials. Oh, the adventures we had! I was going through my photos and these popped up. I don't have photos of the construction -- back then digital cameras had just come out and we were constantly borrowing them from people so photos are a precious few.

These Ndebele dolls are made from cardboard thread cones. The arms are of rope. The heads are styrofoam balls covered in jersey held together with a string. The thread cones are open on two ends and we were able to pull the string through the top opening and glue the end of the string at the bottom of the cone to secure the head.

The jersey fabric scraps were cut to fit by the children and they used glue guns to glue the fabric on after wrapping it. The beauty of using jersey is that it stretches and holds temporarily when wrapped -- long enough to get that hot glue on! The beads were threaded on mostly wire though some children chose to make hair using yarn. The beads were then connected to the dolls using ball point pins. Sequins and pins became eyes.

9 comments:

  1. I love these Lesley & they are so obviously made by the children - thanks for sharing, Kierna

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  3. Sorry, had to edit that -- The children who made these dolls are now 13 and 14-years old. Wow! I wonder if any of the dolls still exist.

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  4. They are beautiful Lesley. Did you know that they are fertility dolls? My daughter brought some back from South Africa for my kindy kids. They may just inspire some home-made ones too. We have an enormous box of these cones! Thanks for the inspiration! :)

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  5. Oh Karen, I am glad you posted. I thought I saw the dolls your daughter got you on your Flights of Whimsy blog, but I couldn't find the photo. I wanted to link over. It is best if they have the real dolls to look at. I borrowed some from a shop in DC to show the kids. Your daughter, of course, rocks because she knew just what to buy when she was abroad!

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  6. We still have Eric's! Have always loved it.

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  7. I still have mine! Actually I think the one in the picture might be mine!

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  8. It is Jenna! I will have to see, but I think I have a photo of you with a hat that you made in class!

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