Sally Gavney's Dolls

	Hitty. She is the first doll I have made since 1987. I received a great deal of encouragement and help from Jean Lotz to try again. Whittling came back to me very easily, but it was hard for me to paint her. She also turned out bigger than she should be. She is 7 inches tall and should be 6 1/4 inches. The hardest part was trying to get her to look like Hitty.
	Since I made my first Hitty, my goal has to make one the same size as the real Hitty, 6 1/4 inches tall. Here she is. I call her Hitty D. She is made of Jelutong, which, so far, I find to be an easy wood to work with. It's not hard to carve, yet doesn't get as fuzzy as something like Basswood. However, it does have some imperfections, which don't show after the doll is painted. After my husband cut the wood into the right size pieces on the band saw, I sawed her out roughly with a coping saw. Then I only use a whittling knife and sandpaper to finish her, the same way that I have made all of my dolls. Recently we obtained access to a scroll saw, which should make future Hittys a little easier. This Hitty is wearing a dress that I made many years ago for another little wooden doll. It only needed to be shortened to fit her.
	This is a Hitty paperdoll drawn by my daughter, Becky Driscoll, who has been an artist since she could hold a pencil in her hand. She used my Hitty D as her model. The doll is done with colored pencil and has 5 articles of clothing plus accessories. She and her belongings are done on two sheets of paper and would look nice framed or can be cut out . Anyone interested in the paperdoll can e-mail Becky at DrisGav@aol.com.
	Angela and Mary. These are among the first dolls that I made. They represent ladies from around 1860. I tried to make their faces resemble those in the fashion plates of the time. They are both made of pine with peg-wooden limbs. Their faces, arms, and legs are painted with watercolors and then shellacked. Their hair is left the natural color of the wood and then shellacked. I found shellac hard to work with. Sometimes it darkened or took a long time to dry, so I switched to artist's fixative. Angela's dress is made of polished cotton trimmed with black cotton lace and jet beads. Mary is wearing a lavender gingham dress. They both have lavish lace trimmed underwear with corsets and a hoop for Angela.
	Liza. Some of my dolls have wardrobes. Liza's is among the most extensive. She is shown wearing her dressing gown and nightcap. Also in the picture is a cotton lawn dress, a red silk spencer and bonnet, and a straw bonnet. She also has several other dresses and a coat. Most of her wardrobe, which is from about 1810, is made from patterns by Susan Sirkis.
	Debbie. She is made of white pine and copied from a picture in a bride magazine of 1975. She is fully jointed. Her dress is white silk bombazine taffeta trimmed with lace and pearls. Debbie won a blue ribbon in the wooden doll category of the UFDC Region 10 convention in Chicago in 1980.
	Petronella. She is made of mahogany and only her features and shoes and socks are painted. Her hair is black mohair. She is about 8 inches tall and is a modern little girl.
	This is a rubber stamp design that my daughter Becky drew. She used my Sunbonnet girl as a model. She also has drawn some Hitty stamps. To order them go to: Hitty stamps