A Katherine Doll ----from "Taming
of the Shrew"
Nick
Baldasare,
AKA the "Bard of Education", takes his one-man presentations
of Shakespeare's classics into public schools
around Ohio and to other facilities as well. Classic characters he brings
to life include Horatio's Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Taming of
the Shrew. Recently he has added Edgar Allen Poe to the repertoire as well.
Click here to view a
short movie clip about these productions, and find out more about booking
these events.
However, even the best of actors needs an occasional co-star.
He commissioned The Polyclay Gallery to create a cloth doll, life size
and capable of playing "Katherine" to his "Petrucchio".
I went shopping at the local thrift store to get shoes, fabric, and
a start on her jewelry.
A selection of brocades (a table runner and place mats), a scarf, and
a decorator sheet provided the fabrics for her outfit.
Gold tone mesh shoes and the golden earrings with "jewels"
provide a little richness, but all need further decoration!
The queen sized sheet
had a green background and geometric figures in magenta and blue. There
is quite a bit of fabric in a large sheet.
Fabric paint was added to make the figures co-ordinate with the red
found in the other fabrics.
Stamped and painted embellishments were also added. to make all the
fabrics "go" with each other. I chose to go with sturdy cotton
for the sake of less weight and more durability.
I drafted a paper pattern that was a much larger version of an original
doll body pattern I had made previously. This had been for a quarter scale
doll, and the sizes were not correct for Katherine, but the pieces gave
me a general idea of the shapes needed.
Katherine is full scale--the finished doll is 5'8" tall. She weighs
15 pounds, fully stuffed and dressed.
The body was made of a red and cream cotton print found at a local store,
along with trims and many pounds of stuffing.
She may eventually be put on a further "diet" and re-stuffed
with foam pellets in part, to make swinging her around a little easier
on Nick!
Beanbag chairs are a good source of a lot of these pellets.
Don't use packaging peanuts though, as some will wear
down quickly and others are water soluable!
The head and shoulders were made of hand dyed cotton canvas, and white
cotton gloves were dyed to match.
A wig purchased inexpensively at auction from Ebay was sewn to her head.
Ebay, other on-line auction sites and thrift stores as well as vintage
clothiers, are wonderful places to look for elements of costumes.
The picture above right shows her body parts propped together but not
yet sewn in place.
Her shoes were sewn to her feet for ease in handling the doll, and her
jewelry is also attached.
At left you can see the original design rendering, made
to establish style.
It was drawn before the actual purchases were made--this
always leads to design changes, as much depends on available materials
within a budget.
Beads and wire were added to the earrings and used
to form a necklace.
This makes for a more dramatic look as well as making it more in tune
with the period.
Facial features were drawn freehand with a permanent ink pen in brown,
then colored in with acrylic paints.
In many ways it is similar to the faces on my paper
dolls.
Here's Nick and Kate at work!
