COV-IE

A single tear was the prompt for COV-IE a soft textile sculpture.

COV-IE is composed of a turn of the century leather covered doll body from Germany. When I found her she did not have a head nor arms.

The original made in Germany label is left on her front chest. The lower legs are covered in a cotton muslin and the the rest is leather covered. Her legs are a bit uneven, but I love that about her. Her little cotton feet are slow stitched with Black darning thread.

There are rivets with wire at the upper and lower leg joints.

The head and arms made of an unevenly dyed machine embroidered linen. The angular design in the embroidered linen was the inspiration for COV-IE’s headband. As well was the basis of the stitched design on her arms.

A loosely woven linen (almost looks like bandage gauze) was used for her hip tutu, her hair and breasts. As well various extra frayed linen thread pieces that I bunch together and re cycle used as more hair and throughout the body. And lastly of course the cotton embroidery thread.

Her Covid mask is made from a vintage Kantha scrap. Matches her eyes nicely don’t you think.

Her cheeks have a tiny square cut from a Vintage Batik and appliqued tribal wear scrap worn by The Hmong women. I carefully cut them out and hand stitched them on but…If you look closely, you can see the extremely tiny applique work from the original cloth.

Her neck piece I brought back from Morocco in 1985.

Her earrings are Tin Heart shapes with a tiny Ivory bead at the bottom of the Heart.

She was made with much attention to detail and love for textures and bringing an antique piece back to life in a much newer imagined way then the original purpose of a doll at that time to a modern folk art textile doll.

Details:
She measures 26 “ tall and 8“ wide at her head with where the hair fluff is the fullest and hips at the point of the linen tutu.