The First of the Hopestill Clan

May I introduce you to Starr Hopestill? 

After making hand sculpted dolls for years, I decided to have a mold made of my antique Izannah Walker doll. How this came about - I was working on making my antique Izannah Walker doll  a new arm (not sewn to her directly) and a new foot (not yet attached - to be attached to clothing, not the antique doll). Anyway, as I was really studying Hope (my antique doll) so closely, I wondered what she might have looked like when new, with a different hairstyle, or skin color, etc. So I set off on a journey to have a mold made. Fragile Hope was NOT touched in any way with mold making materials - technology helped with that. It has been a years-long process to get from that thought to a reproduction doll, but I have completed that circle with this first doll of the Clan Hopestill. 

While I was painting this doll, with current events playing in the background, a classmate of mine from high school came to mind. I haven't seen or heard from her since high school (I moved away), but I remembered her as a beautiful spirit. When she smiled, she shined like a star. And so the name Starr. I will be keeping this doll for myself, at the advice of my friend Edyth O'Neill who is a long time doll maker and doll collector. But Starr needs sisters and perhaps a brother and some cousins.