Girl in an armchair

Look what arrived in an email this morning!

I remember my mother making these....she gave them to her close friend Fran, who has emailed these photos to me. Fran says Sarah gave most of the prototypes to her, for either birthday or christmas presents - these two she treasures the most.

'Girl in an armchair' is in the same style as my 'Lady on a Sofa'. It is Sarah's early beginnings with painted calico; making a textile padded painting and playing with perspective. She painted seperate pieces of the fabric with acyrlic paint, then layered them together using wadding and stuffing between the layers, making them semi-3d. By this time, Sarah wasn't making her more traditional dolls.

Sarah made a lot of these harlequin dolls and sold them at a local shop in Helmsley. I helped her piece the bodies together. I have seen similar, but older, harlequin dolls like this appearing on Ebay, so perhaps those inspired Sarah to make her own version with all her left over scraps of fabric! Despite not making her traditional dolls at this time, she still painted her beautiful stylised signature faces.

I know for certain that Sarah made a few dolls for Liberty, using their fabrics. The only evidence I have found for this is a letter of enquiry from Liberty address to her, and nothing else. It has also been mentioned by a family member, but no-one seems to recall any details. A line of enquiry I should pick up....