COLLECTABLE PORCELAIN DOLLS
BYE-LOS - 4½" and LOVE HEARTS - 5"
How They Are Made
These baby dolls are handmade using porcelain which is a fine clay made from kaolin (a decomposed clay) with added minerals.
For the Bye-Lo babies a plaster mould was taken from an old doll. The Love Heart babies were sculpted by a modern artist and plaster moulds made from his creation.
Porcelain slip (a liquid form of the clay) is poured into the moulds and, as the water soaks into the plaster, a 'skin' is formed inside the mould. The excess slip is poured out of the mould and, after a standing time of about half an hour, the casting can be removed. You now have a first view of your new baby albeit in pieces!
The porcelain pieces are very fragile at this stage but, once they have hardened a little, (leatherhard) some work can be carried out, e.g. stringing holes and starter holes in the torso for limbs made. The castings are now left to dry - 2 - 3 days. Once they are completely dry, they are fired in the kiln to a temperature of approximately 700 degrees (softfired). This process is mainly for health reasons as porcelain contains loose silica which can be very harmful if it gets into the lungs! The softfired porcelain can now be worked on either by soaking in water or using wet tools. There are many different tools on the market for working on the greenware but Maureen mainly uses scalpel, various grit scrubbers and pieces of old tights for the final polish. All seams must be removed and holes in the torso made large enough for the head and limbs to fit into and move freely. Finally, the castings must be smoothed all over. Once they have been rinsed, they are ready for a bisque (matt or biscuit like) firing. The kiln is now fired to 1200 degrees and must be fully loaded to achieve a true firing. In Maureen's kiln this firing takes between 7 and 10 hours depending on the age of the elements. It takes about the same amount of time for the kiln to cool down enough to open and hopefully see a perfect firing!
When the bisque is removed from the kiln it has a rough surface and must be rubbed down with a grit scrubber and washed before painting.
Maureen uses china paints which have been developed especially for doll painting and mostly fire to the same temperature - 700 degrees.
Blushing the body and limbs and painting the facial features usually takes 3 - 4 firings. Once the painting is finished the babies are ready to string together. This is done using special stringing elastic which comes in various thicknesses to suit different size dolls.
Now you have a baby ready to be dressed. Maureen has designed her own knitting patterns for the dolls she makes and uses DMC crochet cotton No.20. "I like to keep my fingers busy when I sit down in the evening!" She also has a range of fine knitting needles made specially for her - English sizes 14 - 20.
