MAKING A ROLL.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 February 1922, Page 4

MAKING A ROLL.

(By a Doll Maker.) Scarcely 1 per cent of the hundreds of thousand’s of people who buy a Christmas doll realise that each one requires the joint labour of from ten to thirty workers. Let us watch. The doll’s body is built up o,f brown paper. Sheet after sheet is well moistened with paste. The paper is then placed in an iron mould and hammered well with a mallet until it takes the required form. As soon as the trunk of the 'body is moulded the same process is repeated in the case of the legs, feet, and hands. The moulds thus filled are hung up to dry, a process which occupies from one to four weeks.

From the drying-room the moulds pass to the painters, who give each part or member its fix’st layer of “skin” by means qf a coat of flesh-tinted paint. Next, the dolls head is made. This is done by filling face-moulds with a milky fluid, which flows from a tankard with lancets somewhat like tlioso of a soda fountain. When the contents of the moulds have set they are placed in a huge oven and baked. This takes from 24 to 30 hours. After this each face is given a flesh tint- by means of paint, the rouge is put on the cheeks and tlie eyelashes and eyebrows are formed. Tlie hoads are then dried in some airy place, and subsequently thoy are put in the ovens again for a further 30 hours’ baking. The heads are now ready to receive the eyes. These are of glass and enamel. Each eye is made in a darkened room into which the sunlight rarely peeps. The eyes arc carefully matched and then glued into the head, while the head is “rounded out” by means of cork clippings.

Not until each portion of the body lias received at least five coats of paint and varnish are they all ready for “assembling.” This process c<Mls for the highest art in tlie doll’s creation. First, the different members are “assembled” on pieces of elastic. 'Wooden sockets are put in the shoulders, elbows and knees, nncl littlcs wires or “airtioulators” are inserted and the necessary adjustments made until every limb moves in a more or less “human” fashion. The doll now passes to the coiffeur. Great boxes of hair, varying in colour, from palest gold to raven black, arc tried in turn, until the shade best spited to the complexion ds found. When the correct shade has been found (he locks are tacked on to the head hv small brass nails.

Next and finally, the hair is dressed, the dimpled feet are put into dainty Louis XTY slippers, a white chemise is put on the figure. The doll is ready for sale.

CUHLS OF OFFICE. ALLAHABAD, Dec. 22. An interesting story of his experiences timing eleven months’ stay in Lhasa was told u> a representative of the Allahabad Pioneer by Mr C. A. Bell, the British Envoy, who lias just returned to India. Mr Bell lived in the l house of a former regent placed at his ' disposal by the Dalai Lama, half a miV* ! from his own residence. | The Dalai Lama, Mr Bell says, is a j strong ruler anxious for the British I friendship. Mr Bell was the first white ....... llm ii-.iliniinn nf new offi-

P.iiin to see the initial ion oi cials, a festival of the Tibetan New Year. These officials, on initiation,. <ease wearing their hair in a pigtail and coil it on the head in cylindrical curls. Last March, according to Mr Bell, relations between- the Army and the monks were strained, and an outbreak was feared. Such outbreaks are dreaded in Lhasa, since they have given rise to terrible massacres, the Tibetan when his blood is up being thorough in his methods of slaughter. Fortunately the trouble blew over, and on its threatening to break out again in August a notable tribute was paid to the British visitor by the monks seeking his arbitration in their quarrel.