Several people we know have said that "there is a certain haunting beauty and serenity about her."
I liked this comment about her.
I intended to dress her in the rare pale aqua dress silk with silver gilt thread from 1750 and use a really nice silver stomacher I made a while back. I even had her shoes made out of the aqua fabric but the colour just did not look good on this doll. It really did nothing for her. On the other hand, this early wool that I had was the perfect match for her and just made the doll stand out beautifully.
The fabric patina matches the dolls patina perfectly making it look as if the dress has been on her for many many years.
I was able to do some creative matching up of patterns with the wool of the dress to work into a very lovely and intricate mirror image pattern. She has a very fancy pair of shoes I made for her but chose to make her a more simple (not simple to make mind you) pair of traditional leather lace up shoes to wear. She can keep her fancy shoes for a special occasion.
I am very pleased with the patina I was able to accomplish on the brown leather shoes and they fit tight as a glove.
I am particularly pleased with the early antique trim and lace detail work around the top of the bodice and stomacher because of the patina which worked out just as I had hoped. Its very hard to make even very early fabric, trim, lace and such as I have used here to appear to have been almost fused onto the doll like when you see a antique example with all original sewn on clothing. It's very hard to explain just what I mean when I say, the dress looks like its been on the doll for 250+ years but you should get a idea when you look at the detail photos.
You may notice in the detail photos, she has what appears to be a couple hundred years of accumulated dust and dirt that shows up around the bust line where you just can't quite clean it out, just like the coal dust on a antique example from setting around or laying around for a couple hundred years in a 17th or 18th century cottage in England. OK so my dolls 250+ year old patina and 250+ years of coal dust and dirt happened in just a few days but no one would know that who didn't know she is a Old Pretender.
The last 2 photos attached here is the 1750's aqua silk, silver stomacher and shoes I made which I had planned on dressing her in but it just did not work on this doll.
I am now working on a doll for the 18th century aqua fabric and the silver stomacher....hopefully this will be the one it works perfect on.
David
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