Casgliadau Arlein

Head and hair: Her head is made from moulded black caked mud. This appears to be applied over a base of cream cellulosic tabby-woven fabric. Her eyebrows, nose and lips are moulded from mud, but her eyes are made from mother-of-pearl buttons. Her cheeks and corners of her eyebrows are decorated with short lengths of green-dyed straw. At the sides of her head the mud is shaped into 3 rigid bunches. Again, the mud is caked around a base of the cream cellulosic fabric. Black cotton threads emerge after c. 4cm length from the bottom of these bunches; these, in turn, are c. 6cm long. The ends of each strand of cotton are caked with mud (slightly conical shaped). At the interface between the rigid bunches and the black cotton ‘hair’, red cotton threads are tied on, threaded with mother-of-pearl buttons, and strings of beads (red, gold and white). A large bunch of the same type of ‘hair’ protrudes from the back of her head. (c.11cm long). The ends of the hair seem to be purposefully tangled / plaited together. Brass earrings are attached with red cotton thread between the 1st and 2nd rigid bunches on both sides of her head. 1st and 3rd bunches are connected by strings of beads.

Decoration of the head: Octangular fish-scale-like disks of paper (of slightly varying size) are cut. Each paper has an impressed textured surface which has then been painted or printed with a rusty-red base coat and a green top coat. These ‘scales’ are adhered in rows to the top and back of her head. In-between the rows are red cotton threads (S-twist) threaded with beads (red with white centre, oblong white beads with black ends and faceted gold-coloured beads). Where there are no beads, the threads are matted into the mud of the head. A braid of red cotton thread is wound over the crown of her head; at the top is a knot from which extend 4 strands of braid. The ends of two of these are knotted together and another beaded thread is tied through the resulting loop (red, white-with-black and gold-coloured beads).

Construction of body and limbs: Her torso and neck are made from a single stick of bamboo (at least 16cm long) wrapped in cream-coloured cellulosic tabby woven fabric using thinner yarns (singles yarn, Z-spun) in one, and thicker yarns (singles yarn, S-spun) in the other weaving direction. Both arms are made from one continuous filled ‘sausage’ (covered in same fabric with soft filling) and are stitched to the back of the bamboo-stick torso, c. 5-7cm above the waist, where her long neck extends upwards by a further c 8.5cm. The arms end in stiff claw-like hands with 5 fingers. Hands and each finger are wrapped with cotton tabby fabric of a finer weave. It is twisted round the fingers and is adhered with a glue that has darkened and stiffened the fabric. The fingertips are covered in grey-black mud. In-between her arms are two small pointy breasts moulded from black mud. These have been stuck onto the cotton fabric covering the bamboo stick.

Skirt and belly: Doll wears a printed cotton skirt: red print on white ground, consisting of horizontal bands of three different patterns divided by a narrow double-stripe. Fabric is fine, loose tabby weave (singles yarns, S-spun [warp or weft] Z-spun [warp or weft]). Lower hem has single turn-back (width = 0.4cm) held with large running stitches using a white cellulosic thread (2-ply, S-twist). Skirt is made from one single piece of fabric joined together along one vertical seam on the proper left side. This is also stitched in running stitches using the same thread. The seam allowance on the front is c. 3cm wide, while on the back, it is only 0.7cm wide. The skirt is gathered around the waist. The belly below her skirt is thick and round and padded firmly. It is covered with the same fabric as the torso and arms. Legs are made from Bamboo sticks, are 16cm long and have a diameter of 1.5cm. At the bottom, they are roughly cut off and are caked with grey-black mud (mostly missing from proper right 'foot'). Legs are also covered by the same fabric in a tight fit.

Seams joining legs to belly and running down the leg are large overcast stitches (S-twist, two threads used as one). The fabric seems to have an inner lining of a more tightly woven tabby fabric of the same colour.
Both arms and both legs have torq-shaped bracelets / anklets with crudely incised decoration (diameter c. 0.5cm). They are of a silver-grey colour and as the metal appears soft enough to be incised, could be, or at least could contain, lead.

Necklaces / decorations around waist: A very thin cord twisted together from red and white threads is tied loosely round her neck (cord = S-twist, threads = Z-twist). Also round her neck are a row of 5 tight fitting necklaces of gold and white oblong beads on red cotton thread. Further down is a necklace of yellow and red beads with an extended section (c.5.5cm long) where white oblong beads are strung up as in a ladder between the others. Knotted together with this one is another one of red cotton thread strung with gold and white oblong beads. Below is another one the same but looser.

Further down at the base of her neck is a tight fitting length of red cotton thread (Z-twist) which has a braid extending from it: this braid is tucked under her fringe belt and ends in 6 ends, each of which are strung with 2 white beads. Small rectangular pieces of leather have been folded in half and have been adhered around the thread.

There are also two further long necklaces one of which is strung with red, gold, and white oblong beads. The other one is similar except it has long sections where it is only strung with black beads.
Below her breasts she wears a strip of red-brown leather which is tied into a bow.
She also she wears a string of very large beads round her waist: faceted clear yellow, rounded red-brown, cylindrical white with black sides and rounded yellow.

Finally, a fringe of dark red/brown leather is tied round her waist. It is c. 9cm long although some fringes are longer. Each fringe is very thin = c. 0.1cm in width. At the top, the fringe is held together with black leather.

Bracelets on right arm: Bracelet 1: The doll wears a bracelet made from blue and white beads which are strung onto white cellulosic thread (S-twist). Two c. 5cm long ends hang from this bracelet: one is also made of blue and white beads, the other of yellow, white and larger, red beads. On the bottom of each of the ends there is a c. 1cm long loop of white beads.
Bracelet 2: She also wears a bracelet made of plaited strands of thick red cotton thread onto which one large blue glass bead is threaded. Each cotton thread consists of a great number of spun strands that are twisted together (in an S-direction). Bracelet 3: She also wears a beaded bracelet made from white, blue, dark blue, black, yellow and red glass beads: they are strung onto white cellulosic thread (S-twist). A sequence of 9 small beads are strung up on three different threads, these then pass together through one large red bead, then separate out again into three separate strands. Finally, the six strands from both ends of the bracelet feed through an even larger red bead and form a tassle with 6 beaded ends. On the ends of each of these, the cellulosic core-thread is tied off around two (?) strands of the thick red cotton thread (same as used in bracelet 2). Bracelet 4: Further up her arm she wears another beaded bracelet of white and black glass beads strung onto a thinner strand of the red cotton thread. The thread is knotted and 2 black and 1 white beads are strung onto the ends of the ties (c. 4.5cm long).

Bracelets on left arm: She is wearing the same sequence of bracelets on her left arm but the loops on the bottom of the ends of bracelet 1 are hooked over her little finger.
Bracelet 4 is as on right arm but the white cellulosic thread is tied off around a red cotton thread of a different (more vivid) colour of red. Also, there are a few strands of black: these strands don’t seem to be twisted into thicker threads but remain as singles yarns (Z-spun). In addition, she is wearing a bracelet of red glass beads, faceted gilt glass beads and oblong white beads with black ends. These are strung onto red cotton thread.
She also has an additional bracelet of (mainly) black glass beads, interrupted twice by a sequence of red/yellow/black and white beads. This bracelet is wound four times round her wrist and ends in a little ‘tail’ of beads (sequence of coloured beads as above). It is strung up on red cotton thread, which is tied off at the end of the ‘tail’ around a length of the same thread folded twice into 4x its original thickness.