Dolly Mixtures - talk by Angela Neilson

We were really happy to welcome Angela back to give us another talk, this time on the wonderful dolls she makes, and she had brought along a huge family of quirky characters for us to marvel at. Angela gave us a slide show about her research into dolls in history, their roles in society, art and religion, which was extremely interesting, and pictures of Barbie, and paper dolls from comics brought back many memories.

Angela described her journey from making her first doll with no moveable joints and a flat face, through to making more complicated jointed dolls and sculpting faces to give features and expression, making them more realistic. It has been quite a learning curve and the dolls have evolved into unique characters with their own stories. A lot of the clothes are from the lovely scraps of fabric we all hoard, or finds in charity shops, such as leather hot pants being turned into boots, and bits of jewellery. Imagination is the only limit of what you can do, and I'm sure a lot of us are inspired to give it a go.

Angela also teaches, mostly adults but made us laugh with descriptions of a term teaching school children, letting their imaginations run away with them. She is such a lively speaker, we could have listened for hours, and we are looking forward to her day school next week when we are going to make quirky birds.

Angela can be found at www.facebook.com/ondineisnotofthisrealm
Or on her Pinterest page
https://pin.it/nmrutf6fjsd6yp

Click on the pictures below to enlarge.