About the Author

Ray Slater trained as a textile artist at Goldsmiths, University of London. She also trained as a costume maker for theatre and television. She curated an exhibition of cloth dolls from the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK in 2003 and is now one of the leading teachers on the subject in the UK, where she is based. She is also embarking on a teaching tour in the USA. Ray lives in London.

Reviews

Oct/Nov 08 Perhaps you have never made a cloth doll and would like to try. Or perhaps you have made many dolls, but feel it's time to branch out into more elaborate and unique textures and effects. Either way, this book is for you. About half the book covers doll-making styles (stump, wired, stuffed cloth) with patterns for body parts and diagrams for faces. The other half of the book concentrates on textile techniques, with photos and instructions for making layered background fabrics, machine-wrapped cords, coloring with paints and dyes, adding creative embroidery, fused appliqué, soldering, and more. The author trained as a textile artist at Goldsmiths College at the University of London and also as a costume maker for theater and television. In this book, she brings together the creativity and techniques of the former with the fashionable flair of the latter. Cate Coulacos Prato
*Quilting Arts*

Nov 08 Textile artists will find plenty of inspiration with these amazing cloth dolls. Beautifully decorated in intricate detail, these fabulous dolls incorporate a variety of techniques to create realistic faces, vibrant outfits plus wild and woolly hair. There are full instructions and patterns to create three types of doll – a simple stump doll, a spindly wired doll and a traditional stuffed cloth doll. Close up photos and illustrations are used every step of the way so that the reader can recreate the dolls with ease and learn a whole variety of decorative techniques as they progress. These include free motion stitching, creating cords and making layered fabrics, plus ideas for using paints, dyes, water-soluble film and soldering irons. There is also specific guidance for doll making showing how to needle-sculpt faces, create realistic hands, shape limbs, attach hair and work with different types of filling and stuffing. A useful suppliers list will help source everything that's needed.
*SEWING WORLD*

Dec 08 I'm not really into dolls but, if I were, I'd love Ray Slater's. However, this book is about so much more than doll making and I think it deserves a place on every embroiderer's shelf. This is because of the methods that Ray uses. Most of them are known to us but she does such lovely things with water-soluble fabric, a soldering iron, appliqué and other such techniques, that there is much to be learned. The book is divided into three main sections: stump, wired & stuffed dolls. However, within the making instructions are sections such as creating texture with hand stitching, working with layered fabrics, machine wrapped cords and braids, all key topics in their own right, whatever your textile leanings. An excellent book.
*Workshop On The Web*