Let it be known, should you fall in love with this little boy, that he is a custom doll and therefore he already has a doting mother waiting for his timely arrival. His name is Elijah and we, at home, think he is the greatest (and cutest) thing since sliced bread.

Creating custom natural fiber art dolls, via Fig and Me.

Now, not every time I make a custom doll do I have to work with a real human child as inspiration. Often times I create from the imaginative wells but very often I am asked to create doll-similes (versus facsimiles) of children, young or old.

I have created entire siblings before and let me tell you, that was a racket. So much fun and so much work. I think I forget easily what it entails because I have done it a couple of times. Always a priviledge! Check out this master trio, and these three as well though at separatime times, I started with the sisters and then their little brother.

This time, instead of creating them all here with me at the same time, their mother and I are working slowly through the creative process.

It allows me to dive right in to other projects that consume creative energies, while knowing I do get to make the others; just one at a time. I am enjoying it so much. I started with Hannah and now I’ve had the chance to make Elijah.

Little Elijah, a custom order natural fiber art doll, 18” tall in my Figlette style. By Fig and Me.

Creating after a real boy, one I have seen grow up from afar, is a rare but wondrous occasion.

It is no news that I have met many friends through my dollmaking journey, and that many of the families that welcome my dolls over the years have become really more like a second family to me. It feels very special for these little hands to have the chance to turn them all into wool children, a frozen version of their younger selves for their mother.

It also poses a lot of hard questions. How close do I get? What features I focus more on? Trying to match skin colour, hair texture and their lively eyes seems at times daunting.

I don’t really create copies in wool of the children’s facial features, I rather love to hint at them. Their bone structure, their smiles full of mischief, the twinkle in their eyes. Leaving room for their mother’s heart to expand and fill in all those other details that only she knows best.

That is what I love most about this style of doll. They can have detail, they can be unique, and it is a fine dance between what is too much and what is just enough. I absolutely adore having that dance with the felting needles and sculpting the fabric.

Elijah, a custom natural fiber art doll by Fig and Me.

Speaking of hair texture, isn’t his hair so glorious? I do have hair envy from most of my dolls I confess. Even when they look disheveled and downtrodden, they look much better in the hair department than me.

Since I know you are going to ask, his hair is made using Suri Alpaca locks, sewn into wefts by yours truly and then handsewn to a cap I made with Mohair yarn. It is my method of choice when I make wefts now and if you want to try it wefting yourself and would like a step-by-step, you can check out this wefting tutorial I published a while ago.

Now, if you excuse me, I must go and keep working on his clothes and all the little girls clothing. You must have seen pics of them on the Instagram feed or the Facebook page. See you all very soon with more on all of them.