I said that I wasn’t going to post any more of the Laura Ashley consort dolls until they were all finished, but a small but firm petition on Saturday convinced me I was wrong. So here is the magnificent Keith based on the sketch I made at the weekend:
Well, I decided to go with the Paul McCartney look, although I do fancy the idea of putting the Lennon glasses onto another doll. This doll has a nice brown early Laura Ashley print shirt and has that sixties Carnaby Street look. He has Chelsea boots and tight hipster trousers and a silk scarf and a fur jerkin. I half wanted to make him an afghan coat, but to be honest it almost took longer to make and fit that jerkin than it did to make the doll. He is a funny shape. I spent ages making a toile and then found myself stitching amid a ridiculous amount of bits of fur fabric which shed from the cut edges.
I think Keith either went on the Magic Bus to India or pretended that he did. He has got a very ethnic woven belt, probably from Nepal:
You can also see his little curls at the back of his neck. I think that the sixties were the best time of Keith’s life. He went to art school like John Lennon and Stewart Sutcliffe, and he once danced at a party with Julie Christie which he lets no-one forget. Of course, he traded on the fact that everyone told him he looked a bit like Paul McCartney, and that did no harm with the ladies. Keith was very grateful for the invention of the pill:
I have really enjoyed making these male dolls and giving them faces. I have experimented a bit with Keith here and given him rosebud lips and the suggestion of longer hair. I like making the dolls but the real fun is in giving them accessories.
Keith, by the way, is named after people who had a great time in the sixties and early seventies: Keith Moon, Keith Richards and the Medieval Historian’s disreputable friend, Keith, who seems to have had a whale of a time all round.
