Ever wanted to learn the secrets behind creating cloth dolls packed with personality. Leading international dollmaker Ray Slater is on hand to guide you through every step of the process: from initial inspiration to drawing up your design, all the way through to adding the finishing touches. Simply mix and match the faces and bodies to create a first-class collection of characters!

I particularly like the templates at the back of the book and help on drawing faces. Anyone who enjoys art and being creative would find this book very interesting. Before reading this book, I never knew a cloth doll could be so expressive!

Customer Review
Angela Merritt

I was excited to receive a review copy of this book by Ray Slater book from the publishers, Search Press.

It’s a new area for me, but combining textiles with painting would broaden my skills especially in the latter area.

The book starts with materials and tools needed and moves onto inspiration and design. She takes her inspiration from many sources – anything with a human face, such as portraits, sculpture, paintings, film, and fashion. Slater’s design development is so logical and developed in small steps which can be followed easily.
She then moves onto drawing faces and provides plentiful diagrams of how to draw each feature – eyes, noses, mouth, eyebrows. A great feature of this book are the galleries – copious drawings of facial features in different styles – simple faces, long faces, square faces etc. Some are fantasy/ decorative while others are realistic.
Faces can be formed in several ways. Flat fabric can be shaded by painting. They can be further developed by needle sculpting. Or they can be totally 3D, with features such as noses and moustaches made separately and sewn on. Ways to add hair? That's there, as is adding real eyelashes. All those techniques are shown and explained.

Throughout the second half of the book Slater has examples to inspire you, showing design sheets as well as finished faces.

The book isn’t primarily about doll making as it concentrates on how to construct faces. However towards the end she discusses – again in depth – how to make basic doll shapes and includes templates for this. She also has a plethora of templates for faces.

This book gives me the confidence to expand on my textiles and sewing activities, and to be creative in a new way. It’s the most exciting book I’ve seen in a long time and one I would purchase. Definitely recommend this.

Whether creating a doll or incorporating faces within your embroidery Ray Slater's new book is full of inspiration. It is full of tips on how to get that unique look.

Ray explains that it all begins with the design, and she proves that faces are not as scary as you might think.

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There are plenty of examples in their various categories, line drawing, realistic faces and decorative faces ... Ray finishes the book with a quick workshop on making a basic doll, with plenty of templates of the suggestions to encourage all ages to have a go. This book deserves a place on the bookshelf of everyone who is young at heart and still enjoys doll. I know that copy will end up on mine.

Leading international dollmaker Ray Slater reveals her secrets to creating vibrant and dynamic faces in cloth.

Using just three basic head designs – flat, dimensional and collaged – discover how to make a whole host of personalities with different looks and expressions. Learn how to transform your inspirational sources into a three-dimensional head, and follow Ray’s tips on adjusting proportions, hues and positioning of the features to create a face that’s unique to you.

• Illustrated step-by-step instructions for every type of doll face, including how to make ears, hair and beards
• EXTRA addition of three basic doll body patterns – male, female and collage – also with illustrated step-by-step instructions so you can continue to compose your final character
• Inspiring galleries of faces and finished dolls throughout, to encourage the development of your own unique doll
• Templates for tracing doll faces and bodies are included.

Brimming with ideas and practical advice, this is an invaluable guide for cloth dollmakers everywhere.