What a doll!

One of our favorite customers brought this in, explaining that she had been meaning to frame it for years but wasn't sure what to do with it. She had been storing it all that time, carefully, because of what it meant to her. Her mother made this as a little girl, by hand, as one of her only toys. (There are two smaller dolls that accompany it, which you'll see next time!) Little scraps of fabric, put together lovingly, can turn into such a special memory!

I loved the black and red fabric of the blouse. I wanted to highlight that and the detailed drawn-on face. I immediately thought of this moulding, with its lines and dots that would echo the lines on the doll, and it's red shading that would bring out the colors of the shirt.

With a moulding on the busy side, and such detail of the doll itself, the matting needed to be more simple. But it needed to be a fabric mat to tie everything together. We chose an acid-free white linen and provided enough space around the doll to give it room to breathe, at least visually.

Everything we do to special items has to be reversible, meaning it can be undone without any damage to the momento or artwork. We sewed the doll to the matboard, and made the moulding into a shadowbox. Now our customer can show off her mother's work and keep it protected at the same time!