Carving Coriander
Crack of dawn
At the crack of dawn a few days ago I hopped onto the Coho ferry to Port Angeles, Washington with a basket of Hittys. Then I drove south for hours and hours…
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Sunset
…to my favourite place on the Oregon coast, where I visited a carving friend with a house full of Hittys!
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Blank
Our plan was to carve as much as we could in the four days I was visiting…we both think more little wooden dolls in the world is a good thing!
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a beginning
After a day, our birch blanks were well on the way to becoming dolls, but we put them aside to try and work on the White Ash blanks. They were hard as rock…
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Aviation Gin
…so we soaked the Ash blanks in 50/50 Aviation Gin mixed with water. Alcohol softens up the exterior surface of the wood, making it much easier to carve. The white ash soaked up a lot, perhaps because of the porosity of the grain…
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Ash and Birch
…and after the second day of carving we each had two sweet almost-dolls! These two are mine – ash on the left and Birch on the right.
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Legs
Ash Hitty was very glad to see legs appearing after the third day…
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So happy!
Can arms be far behind?
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Elastic
We whittled and chipped and tinkered, checking the fit as we went along, and once everything seemed to work, the dolls were ready to sand and paint.
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drying
The channels in the wood was a bit worrying! What if we applied paint in one spot and it emerged in another? We spritzed the dolls with extra coats of spray lacquer to seal the surfaces…
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drying
…and happily, the paint stayed where we put it!
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Goodbye
The doll on the left is my friend’s doll Juniper, and the one on the right is mine, Coriander (both names are derived from ingredients of Aviation Gin). On the last morning they bid each other, and their primordial gin a fond farewell…
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Waiting for the ferry
…then Coriander and I and my basket of Hittys travelled North by land and sea to the Hitty Cupboard…
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A little Spice
…where she found some familiar things in the spice cupboard…
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Friends
…and some new friends in the Hitty cupboard!
Birch girl came home too, and will be chipped away at here…four days of carving wasn’t quite enough for two hardwood dolls, but we sure had fun! Thanks so much to my friend for the excuse to make more dolls, and for the fun and the food and the friendship!
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Quimper Hittys 
Oh, how wonderful!!!! The new HIttys are absolutely delightful! I love them! Brava ❤
Thanks! We had so much fun and brought new dollies to existence – what could be more satisfying!?
Always a joy to hear of your adventures and the birth stories!aurel
It was an adventure – the best kind, with friends, and dolls sprinkled throughout!
Coriander is beautiful, you’ve given us a wonderful story of her origins…and what a blessing to have a carving friend “relatively” close by to enjoy a carving session together with. Thanks for sharing that time with us.
You are welcome, I am also so glad we can spend time together – it is so enriching to be with creative, like-minded and playful friends!
Love hearing about your visits south to OR to carve! The Hittys are so delightful and seeing them emerge is fun. Two talented carvers!
We had so much fun, I can hardly believe we spent only four days together! Time flew by!
I love this so much!
Janet
Thank you! It was not the same without you but we had fun, and we missed you! See you soon! ❤ ❤ ❤
Me too I loved all these moments, How lovely Hitty Dolls, you are amazing, fascinating once again. Welcome to new Hitty Ladies… Thank you, Love, nia
Thank you nia, the moments are special – I am so grateful to be able to treasure the time we had and then remember with pleasure!
The world can never have too many little woodens. It is interesting how different woods can be so different to carve. I had never heard of Aviation Gin but it seems like a rather expensive bath. Welcome to the Quimper Hitty cupboard Coriander.
The Aviation Gin was the bottle in the cupboard that had the least use for the humans so we used it for the Hittys! The human hands were grateful, and the Hittys emerged and relatively quickly, so everyone was happy!
So interesting. Thank you
You are very welcome!
I didn’t realize the lovely dolls were carved in Oregon the state I used to live in – awesome 🙂
I have been visiting Oregon to carve with my friends for a few years! I love it there, and the dolls that appear, though some dolls also come into being in Canada where I live.
That sounds a lovely adventure! I have never heard of softening very hard wood in gim – obviously only practical for small bits! Coriander looks delightful.
These small bits fit perfectly inside instant coffee jars! I have also used 50/50 ethanol/water for dolly-soaking, I think it depends on what is able to be sacrificed from the storage cupboard!
I would be happier sacrificing ethanol than gin!
🙂
what a fun adventure…carving with a good friend and the result is 2 beautiful little girls to come home with you. Sounds pretty perfect. thanks for the carving tip about gin and water to soften the wood.
It was such a short trip, we couldn’t possibly have finished a doll-and-a-half if we hadn’t soaked the girls in gin – the white ash wood was just too hard!