Izannah Walker - Noh Really - News from Saho in Japan

I thought you might like to share something Lynne Roche passed onto me - which was news of Izannah Walker doll workshops - on-line and at the American Museum in Bath. Izannah Walker who was born in 1817 in Bristol, Rhode Island was one of the earliest known female doll makers in America. She and her sisters made the cloth dolls which resemble the naive, direct country portraits of the time. In 1997 an Izannah Walker doll was featured on a US postage stamp.

If you are interested in making your own Izannah Walker Doll, Dixie Redmond runs on-line classes and you can obtain more details for that by clicking here. For details of a past course at the American Museum in Bath click here - another is planned for later this year.

E J Taylor's dolls are sculptural textile works of art. He also runs on-line rag doll courses - for more details click here.

And here you can see one of E J Taylor's masterpieces - entitled Noh Masque based upon Japanese Theatre, it leaves unresolved the question of who, exactly, is behind the mask. For details of on-line tutorials for these pieces just click here.
Saho sends us this news from Japan: The Tsunami-destructed areas in the Northeastern Japan are very widespread; geographically, the area is trapped between the mountains and the sea. The main method of transportation is by car, but the roads are destroyed, trains have stopped, airport was wiped out by the tsunami, and they are short on fuel, so even those who have caring friends and relatives outside the area have no way of getting there. In the refugee camps, they need water, food, and medicines; however, the roads are wiped out and the goods could not be transported to the sites; wired telephone, cell phone and the Internet is damaged and the information is very limited on "what is needed where". So even in Japan, we are very limited on what we can do to help. The money will become useful once the way is cleared for the goods and people to go to and from the affected areas, and later on when they build temporary housing and start renovating- that will be years from now. It does seem strange to be carrying on an everyday life, even stitching, when something so terrible is happening. I hope there was a way of letting the affected people know that the whole world cares.
Do make a donation to your local appeal for Japanese victims of the earthquake and tsunami - although the money cannot be used immediately, it will be required as soon as transport and communication links are re-established. By sending a few words via the Book of Condolences and Comfort we can let the people of Japan know that the world cares about their suffering. See the top of the right hand column on this blog. My apologies for the frustrating ads in the Book of Condolences - it seems that ads are a feature of our lives!