Aug 29

Aug 29 Ezra, a Natural Fiber Art Doll ready to play

Let me introduce you to this sweet fellow: his name is Ezra and he is 16” tall, full of childish mischief, great adventures, an insatiable need for play and stories.

Ezra, like most dolls, likes to play by himself first. He comes up with his own games, once he figures out how to be really good at them, he then introduces you to the game. I do confess he makes convoluted rules, but he is pretty transparent so it’s easy to indulge him.

Natural fiber art doll Ezra, by Fig and Me.

As I was working on another doll, he started rummaging through the tins in the doll studio. There is a plethora of treasure in them: victorian laces, entredeux, velvet ribbon, twill tape…all to become his building materials to put together crafty contraptions to catch needle felted rabbits I have been making.

He did try to involve the latest colony of baby bats, but they were not interested in catching rabbits as they spend most of their day hanging from a branch and by the time they wake up Ezra is quite safely tucked in bed.

Once he got bored of so-easily fetching rabbits into this nets made of my ribbons, he then discovered the rose-covered tin. I was fearing this moment.

Not particularly interested in seeing part of my collection of lovely shell buttons get trampled by his chubby feet, I opened the tin for him. We moved packets together and I bribed him with the gossamer bag full of extra large wooden buttons.

If you are a long time friend of Fig&Me, you might remember I used to sew quite chunky decorative buttons on my dolls’ clothes. Since the dolls are much smaller nowadays, and they don’t require such artifice, I thought they would be the perfect toys for Ezra to entertain himself and luckily I was right.

He loved the owls, the chunky apples, a wandering polar bear, the funny elephant…but most of all he loved the whale.

I told him the story of Jonah and the mystery of James Bartley. This of course captivated him as I obviously was not going to read him Moby Dick. Much too young in my opinion to trouble him like that, but he really took to playing with this little whale.

We started naming all the big mammals of the sea and I told him of my adventures in Maui, where I got to see the whales with their babies. He was very impressed and wondered if he could build himself a raft with the ribbons and head out to sea. I could see his young architect mind coming up with all sorts of designs involving more of my ribbon and maybe even some of my watercolour pencils.

I left him to his own devices as he built towers of buttons, made scary-to-contemplate bridges and started such a ruckus that Luna, our resident Labrador, came to inspect what was all the hoopla about. She is getting old and considers it an affront when there is adventure and we don’t include her. Therefore she makes sure to give her seal of approval of any shenanigans, wether human or doll ones.

After Luna sniffed the button towers, playing the city safety inspector, she went away and Ezra started begging to be decked as a proper sailor to go and find more whales. I told him the part about the Falkland Islands and he wanted an aran sweater to go with his shorts. The very idea!

Fearing for the amount of time it would take this very slow knitter to properly knit him an aran sweater, I decided to cheat yet again. We dove into the sweater collection and in this case he immediately picked a rather destroyed shawl that had just the perfect stitches for him. I thought it was too chunky but he said the sailors must weather all storms and wool is best. I believed him.

After all, there is a reason aran sweaters exist.

All sailors in his opinion must wear bright yellow, it’s for safety reasons he tells me. So we also made him a toque, this time I did knit it for him. A sort of replica of another number I knitted a long time ago with cashmere for my sweet Penny.

I accompanied him outside, wondering wether he was going to be persuaded by the fairies to come up with a bundle of berries in his pockets, or wether he was going to start pointing out all the things that matched his hat.

He chose the latter.

Of course there aren’t as many as a a month or so ago but the daisies are still going strong. At least where they can and the locals don’t go mowing them down, for aesthetic purposes they tell me. Vandals the lot of them!

We met my dear old friend goldenrod. He asked me if I had dyed his hat with this flower, as the colours were almost the same. I told him the truth, that I did have a batch of goldenrod-dyed yarn in my basket but that I had forgotten all about it when I made his hat.

He got a little cross with me when I said that and walking ahead of me ignored me for a good part of the walk.

I won his trust again when we met the tansy. They are so tiny and precious and they made him giggle, so all was right between us. I don’t like it when the dolls get cross at me and that is one of the main reasons I am just their humble servant.

Following them around, with a camera in hand. Witnessing what they point at me. Listening to their stories.

I hope you enjoyed the adventures of Little Ezra and that you consider offering your home to him. He is looking for a family that will welcome his engineering spirit and that will indulge him with a story or two when the time is right.

Ezra is a natural fiber art doll, sculpted and stuffed with wool, with a tummy full of dollmaking glass beads. His freckles are hand-painted and his eyes are embroidered. His hair is made of ultra soft and curly wool locks and can only be styled quite gently with your fingers.

Ezra wears underpants, wool tweed shorts with four pockets and snap at centre front. He doesn’t like taking his shorts off, so you are warned. He also comes with a waffle shirt and a cosy aran sweater and a pointy toque, both made of wool. His shoes are made of lambswool.

If you would like to offer your home to Ezra please enter your details in the form below. His price is $1565 USD, postage within Canada and to the US is $50. International destinations will need a revised quote as he must travel with tracking and insurance.

- LITTLE EZRA HAS FOUND A HOME. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR LOVE FOR THIS LITTLE GUY. IF YOU LIKE BOY DOLLS THERE WILL BE ONE MORE COMING TO MEET YOU ALL IN A FEW WEEKS.

Of course I am completely enamoured with this wool child and hope he finds a loving home where his soft nature and splendid imagination can be of help. If you are interested in bringing home, we thank you from the bottom of our heart.

May your lucky star shines bright on you! See you on Thursday.