Alone in the Great Woods
Months ago (has it really been that long?) I started a Lonely Lisa project. Lisa was a floppy, filthy mess. She was cleaned up, re-stuffed, accidentally ripped and mended. Today, she’s a tidy girl, and warmly dressed for woodland adventures….. Continue reading
Yoko
Big eyes. You can’t avoid them if you collect dolls or kitschy art from the sixties and seventies. As it happens, I’m into that sort of thing, so today I thought I’d pay homage to the queen of big eye culture, Margaret Keane.
The before picture
I thought it might be fun to blog the make-over of a vintage Lonely Lisa doll, from start to finish. I’m not a doll restorer, so my methods might not be the best. However, the dolls that find their way into my hands are usually one step away from the land fill, so I don’t think I’m ruining anything precious. Here we go!
Lonely Lisa in 17″ and 22″ versions
Love them or hate them, big eyes were everywhere in the sixties and seventies. If you were alive, you might have had a Margaret Keane-like painting of a sad waif on your bedroom wall. Or maybe you knew someone who had weepy, creepy clowns decorating their family room. At the time I had little appreciation for this artwork (it gave me the willies) but I did (and still do) love the dolls born out of this era, especially Royal Doll Company’s Lonely Lisa.
Matilda Pink 