Respect......Sensitivity.......
It is with much respect and the utmost sensitivity that I embark on my latest obsession....isn't she wonderful? Isn't she just amazing? "Grete, as my Dear Friend Edyth & I affectionately call her, is an antique, c late 1830, early 1840, 33" tall papier mache doll. The above photo was taken on the 14th December, 2008. Her profile is so striking.......her dress is a shredding MESS.....c1870 and has already been cast aside. Her previous owners loved her dearly~ it is easy to see why~ yes? She speaks directly to my soul~ it is destiny that we have come together


Grete on the 4th of Jan, this year. Wonderful early head, on most likely the original early cloth body~ stuffed with wool and horsehair....it has been carefully and neatly covered, and I have decided to leave as is. But as you can see, she has been entirely repainted. Even so, this is the Grete I fell in L*O*V*E* with. I have decided to share 'our' journey together on the blog, so I hope you enjoy seeing her transformation. She will have her own tab on the sidebar, so if you want to keep up with her only, just look for it over to the right. At first I wanted to repaint her~ up close you can tell she has had much work done around her eyes, and her entire forehead is a slightly different color than the lower part of her face. BUT... I love her character~ and I DON'T want to cover over her years and years of life. We have talked alot today, and I have decided to just touch her up a bit here and there, over her obvious patches, and take her down to original paint where possible


This is Grete this morning. You can see she has been to doll hospital alot in her 170 some odd years of life....on her right eye, a hint of glass is poking thru. Carefully, I slowly chipped the olde varnish off, and


hello! Grete has blue eyes! Tho they are antique paper weight glass eyes, they were most likely replacements for her original eyes, that would have been dark brown pupiless glass. You cannot tell in the photo, but Grete has once a nasty fall, and needed her forehead patched. While nicely done, and she was very grateful for it, it wasn't sanded don flush with the rest of her, so we will take care of that!

From the earlier repair, her eyes are no longer accessible from the inside, so they will stay, I will enamel them a nice dark brown after we get her hair and skin toned down a bit. She is quite enthralled at how clear everything looks now~ so many decades her vision has been so cloudy....she has refused to look in a mirror until her new brown contacts are in place.
She is resting now~ such a long trip home from Texas!