Elizabeth passed in December, 2014
Elizabeth was creative since childhood. As a young adult she became an accomplished pianist and organist as well as an award-winning painter. Her creativity was called upon by the community and church as she raised a family, maintained a large home and struggled with health issues. Later in life she channeled her talent into a variety of crafts. Building upon her seamstress and needlework skills, she took up embroidery, learning the Oriental style from a local master. When she and her husband (71 years) moved to the Gold Country foothills, she found great joy in ceramic doll making. Although she applied her artistic skills to the painting of the porcelain faces, she soon gravitated to the dressing of the dolls in beautiful outfits. She became widely known in the doll community, becoming a sought-after award-winning doll costumer for several years.
In the development of her couture doll costumes, she began to acquire antique materials to make the dresses, hats, shoes and accessories in authentic designs. This sparked and rekindled her love for buttons. Beyond their utilitarian use on doll dresses and coats, she found so many interesting and novel buttons. She began to collect them in earnest as she invested in rare, unique, and beautiful buttons found throughout history and the world. Of course, she wasn't content to leave them sitting in trays or stuck away in binders or filing cabinets. She put them to work decorating the walls of her home in artistic displays! This became all the more passionate when she also fell in love with antique lace, ribbon, trims and fabrics - combining them all into unique works of art.
In the past few years, we have placed much of her materials into the hands of other collectors and artists. While she enjoyed these displays for almost 30 years, now the time for downsizing has come. Over the last several months the family is taking on the project to catalog, photograph all the remaining collections. These include an extensive antique lace, figurines, dolls and designer doll clothes, antique furniture, and collectable art glass.
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