Handmade fishwife dolls recall a bit of Scotland's

Handmade fishwife dolls recall a bit of Scotland's past
In the mid-19th century, the Scottish fishwife was something of the traditional figure. She could be identified by her striped apron or overskirt,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], walking to market together with her ''creel,'' or basket, of fish on her behalf back; or she may be sitting in her coastal village, baiting a line with mussels and cockles. Within the 1840s it had been the Newhaven fisherlassies in particular who were captured for posterity in the photographs (''calotypes'') of Hill and Adamson - slightly sentimental pictures, perhaps, but nevertheless recording the tough nature of these women's work.
Today the old-time fishwives have grown to be an inspiration for artist Sheena Macleod. But she doesn't make calotypes. She makes dolls, eight inches high. She makes almost 3,000 of them a year, by hand.
Mrs. Macleod's dolls are her quality response to the cheap and careless Scottish tourist souvenirs that too often present her native country as a land of only tartans and haggis - as an array of garish bagpipers and kilted Highland chiefs.
It had been when she was just leaving art school in Aberdeen in early '60s that Mrs. Macleod suddenly felt it was time something ended about this distorted image. She has certainly proved her point.
In her surprisingly small workshop in Perth,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], she shows two visitors one of her first attempts at dollmaking, an extremely primitive little character, perhaps, but decidedly honest. ''We've advanced significantly,'' she says having a chuckle.
Gradually she acquired more accurate skills and found causes of genuine materials. She studied old photographs and paid attention to stories. Her dolls became strikingly authentic. Initially she sold half a dozen a year to a shop in Fort William. Now she has over 40 outlets in Scotland alone and employs part-time assistants.
''The first doll I sold,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],'' she says in a lilting voice, ''the first doll I made, I was wanting (to purchase) a pair of shoes. They were (STR)2,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], 10 shillings or something like that.'' So she made the doll cost exactly the same. Today, although she now prices them properly, they are still comparable price like a footwear: (STR)24 or (STR) 25 ($36 approximately). It does not have a connoisseur to see that they are a great value.
Her voice reflects a nimbleness that echoes the precision of her fingers because they paint a doll's face, or tie on a head scarf, clothe its wire shoulders inside a diminutive, softly colored tartan wrap, or adjust an apron of specially woven, striped drugget cloth.
Mrs. Macleod has grown her range until now you will find 12 figures available. To the four types of fishwives she has added fishermen, island women, and crofters. The ''Hebridean Woman'' carries dried peats, for fuel,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], in her creel (the miniature peats are made of cork). The ''Skye Woman'' carries seaweed for spreading as fertilizer about the potato fields. (The seaweed may be the genuine article, a miniature species specially collected, except when export regulations abroad dictate an artificial substitute.)
An old crofter is seated along the way of creating a creel. He wears a knitted jumper and tweed plus fours and cap. His creel, like all the tiny baskets, is beautifully woven of a very fine Malaysian cane. One fisherman includes a herring basket by him. They are made,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Mrs. Macleod explains, ''by a retired schoolmaster living up north.'' He learned the craft from his father growing up, though on the somewhat larger scale.
Enormous care is taken to make these astonishing dolls not just the best scale but completely authentic. The ''Shetland Woman'' is really a delight, her knitted shawl of the naturally dyed,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], hand-spun wool unique to people islands. (Shetland sheep are grazed on hill pastures, based on the label attached to the doll, to ensure they are produce fine wool; rich Lowland grass results in coarse fibers.) This happy old woman is busy together with her knitting. A ''West Highland Woman'' sits at her spinning wheel (a miniature that actually works - although made, ironically, with a craftsman in Wales!). Even the heads of these ''Highland Character Dolls'' seem Scottish: They've the high cheekbones, the recognizable bone structure, from the Celt.
Yet for those her scrupulous accuracy, Mrs. Macleod does not want her dolls to appear too real. She is about to alter the materials for their faces, hands, and feet from plaster composition to polyester resin. They'll remain precisely true to her original little models; however the trial polyester heads were too fleshlike. She's had to change their color. ''I want them to appear like dolls,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], '' she says with a laugh.
There is little change wonder the quality of her dolls has brought Sheena Macleod prizes with Scotland but from as far afield as Poland. And she is currently demonstrating her craftsmanship, for that second year running,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], on the tour of Japan (where she now sells many dolls). London's Design Centre includes her operate in its honorific ''Index.'' Shops in Sweden purchase from her. So shops around australia. And an increasing number in the United States are regularly selling her dolls - in Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Missouri,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Ohio, and California. She also offers a mail-order service.
相关的主题文章：

http://www.benicarfnmql.fora.pl/when-dinner-base-of-coumadin-drugs-strong-hands-coreg-and-slow-heart-beat-reached-bloody-wrestler,1/fashion-and-you-is-here-to-stay-and-how-spun5,2883.html#2897

http://www.xanaxnoprescription.fora.pl/forum-testowe,1/attain-a-totally-free-liebeskind-buff-back-pack-wh,3235.html#3261

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

http://www.hardpartyprodss.fora.pl/hard-party-production,3/december-2010-birth-club-spun2,3007.html#3039

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

http://www.luntacunt.fora.pl/snapshots,10/cheap-jordan-shoes-150-present-resources-spun5,9525.html#9827

[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]

The post has been approved 0 times