The Pierrot Clown

Many years ago perhaps in 1989 or 90, my youngest daughter had become interested in the pierrot clown and she wanted me to make her one. Now for me this was cause celibre as neither of my daughters ever showed more than a passing interest in dolls growing up. Duncan Ceramics had put out a series of animal doll heads/ arms/ legs about this time and I was avidly buying them up as fast as I could. It was great fun dressing them and putting them into interesting poses.

When Duncan came out with what they called their Pierrot clown, I could only see a doll with a pretty face. I was later told that this was the German Mein Leibling doll that this mold was made from. I had much on my plate at this time, several dolls in greenware on my shelf, husband and kids, not to mention a full time teaching job. So months went by and I would periodically think about the clown and how I would dress him/her. Even the gender wasn't decided at that point. Life went on in its dependable little groove as life does and the predictable events lull us into a suspended state of complacency. Easy to put things off because there is always tomorrow. My daughter, Carolyn died quite unexpectedly on April 22, 1992 . There are no words to describe what we went through as a family, and this is the doll' s story so I will leave our family tale untold for now. Suffice it to say my doll making came to a screeching halt I couldn't even think about picking up a paintbrush. Then about a year and a half later I saw the doll head on my greenware shelf in the garage. I remembered the promise I had made to make a pierrot and thought that its time had come.

I cleaned the greenware and fired it, but the more I looked at that beautiful face, the less I saw a clown.  Sometimes a doll much like characters in a story, want to tell their own tale.  Try as you might it is useless to fight them, they always seem to get their own way.  So the clown idea was shelved while a new road began.  I had made many blue eyed blondes so started looking for a brown or red wig.  No soap.  Next I searched for some big brown eyes, none were what I wanted.  When I started the search for the dress pattern, what I thought I wanted and what I wound up with were very different.  When it all came together, it felt exactly right.  It was only when it was completed that I realized I had  re- created Carolyn as an  Angel.