Dolls in all their finery

Press, 10 January 1984, Page 6

Dolls in all their finery

rs Robin Eden of Somerfield and two of her periodcostume dolls, one a Jacobean man from 1614 and the other a Victorian woman from 1874.

The carefully constructed dolls have faces crafted in porcelain by Mrs Eden. Two to three months of work goes into each miniature which stands about 30cm tall. However, six months was spent reproducing the complex garb of Henry VIII.

Scraps of fabrics are saved and jewellery, shoes, hats and wigs created by Mrs Eden to clothe the dolls as authentically as possible. Research ensures that all items of dress, including underwear, properly portray their period. The dolls represent the nobility of their time and are clothed in fine fabrics such as brocade, velvet and taffeta. Because of the bulk

and scarcity of the fabrics historically used, Mrs Eden adapts with lighterweight cloth where necessary.

An interest in fashions from 1535, the time of Henry VIII, until the 1880 s led Mrs Eden to make her first doll five years ago. Now a cabinet in her hall houses 20 intricately attired figures, and her work has been sold and shown.

Modern fashions hold little appeal for Mrs Eden. “They don’t have as much scope,” she says. Cloth heads were used on the early dolls but Mrs Eden has since learned to sculpt in porcelain and make moulds for faces, hands, and feet. She thinks she is the only South Island doll - maker to fully craft her figures from her own moulds.