The Apple Doll by Elisa Kleven is the story of a girl named Lizzy who loves to play in the apple tree in her yard. When she starts school for the first time, she decides to take a piece of the apple tree with her. She makes a twig body for her apple and names the doll, Susanna. Lizzy's mother shows her how to turn Susanna into a real apple doll that will last a long time. Susanna helps Lizzy overcome her shyness at school and make plenty of new friends.
I love everything we have read by Elisa Kleven, and this book is no exception. The story is so sweet, and there are directions for making your own apple doll at the end of the book. Of course, C and R had to make apple dolls.
We found two unblemished Granny Smith apples, peeled them, and carved noses, eyes, and mouths on them.
The next step is to place the apples in a bowl and cover them with lemon juice. I put a bowl on top of them to keep them submerged in the juice.
Thirty minutes later, we removed the apples from the juice, placed them on a greased cookie sheet, and put them in a 200 degree oven for thirty minutes. Once the thirty minutes passed, we alternated drying the apples in the oven and on a sunny windowsill. According to the directions, this typically takes about three days, but it was very humid when we started the drying process and our apples were not dry until the sixth day. Maybe they would have dried faster if I used the oven, but I didn't really like the idea of having the oven on all day long.
When they finished drying, we used feathers, fake flowers from a lei, pipe cleaners, beads, and cotton balls to turn the apples into Grandma and Grandpa Apple. C and R begged to do make these, but I have a feeling that the apple dolls will never be played with again.
I think they are kind of cute. What do you think?
9 comments:
Those turned out great! My grandmother had a case full of dolls she had collected, and/or made, and in it was an apple doll couple. They had aged to the point of looking dark skinned, and very wrinkled, as if they were very old people. When she told me their faces had started out as fresh apples - I was amazed, and intrigued. We will definitely have to check out that book!
This post brings back great memories! My elementary school art teacher had us create apple dolls! We even sewed clothes for them. What a fantastic project and I didn't even know about the book. Thanks for sharing!
I just read about the book and about apple dolls in one of my WMCIR posts. I already put the book on hold in the library, so there might be apple dolls in our future too. I suspect, however, that we might stay with temporary fresh apple dolls :)
PS - I think you grandpa and grandma look awesome - I especially like their eyes and mouths.
OMGoodness!! They look great! Another fantastic use for apples! :-)
Very cute! I love how they decorated them.
These look really cool! I never heard of apple dolls before, that's cool that they can be preserved like this. I wonder if they will really stay dry in MA humidity, though, or if they will eventually grow mold?
Those did turn out neat, but I know if I tried them they would be scary looking! LOL!
Still haven't had the chance to try this out but do plan to make a few eventually. I like the bead eyes.
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