Odds, ends give birth to rag doll called Chloe

Martha Crouse of Eddington can take a seemingly unrelated jumble of items, mix them with a liberal dash of imagination well laced with a runaway sense of humor, and see what someone else might not.

Take, for example, an old wooden chair bought for $2 at a yard sale, a piece of quarterinch plywood, a sports bra, coat hangers, a pair of white satin sequined shoes, the lower half of a white cotton nightgown, pantyhose, a pair of antique crocheted gloves, gaudy costume jewelry, masking tape, a purple silk dress and raffia.

“What I got from all that,” Crouse said, “was Chloe.”

Crouse, a special education teacher at Reeds Brook School in Hampden, fashioned Chloe from the disparate materials listed above. She cut from the plywood the shape of a “head” and an armless torso. She drew a woman’s features on the plywood ‘head’ with crayons. She duct-taped the plywood piece to the back of the wooden chair. She pulled an old sports bra down over the torso and padded the front with shoulder pads cut out of an old shirt. She cut a split in a pair of old pantyhose and pulled that down over Chloe’s head. She cut coat hangers, bent them into “arm” shapes, taped them to the torso, padded them with plastic bags, and pulled the legs of the pantyhose over the ‘arms’ to serve as ‘skin.’ She shaped hands and fingers.

She dropped the purple silk dress over Chloe’s head and down over the chair. She put the crocheted gloves on Chloe’s hands. She tucked the old nightgown up under the dress to serve as a petticoat. She set the shoes under the hem of the dress, which draped on the floor.

Then using the raffia, she did Chloe’s hair – neatly fashioned into a single braid. Chloe wears earrings and a bracelet. And a straw hat. And a little purse embroidered in a Scandinavian design of stylized flowers.

Crouse created Chloe without instructions or patterns. She just made it up as she went along.

“The problem with Chloe,” Crouse said, “is that she’s become a real clothes horse and has this big wardrobe now, and she likes to change her clothes, especially when the season changes. She has a gardening outfit with gum rubbers she wears when she looks at seed catalogs. She never wears jeans, though.” But she has a fishing pole.

Apparently, Crouse said, Chloe likes cats because they sleep under her skirt and she doesn’t kick them out.

“She has other people shopping for her, too,” Crouse said. “My sister works at a Caribou thrift shop and I have another sister in Troy, N.Y., – they find things for Chloe. They see something and say, ‘Wouldn’t this look great on Chloe?’ Chloe’s satin shoes came from the sister in New York. And before we give away any clothing we don’t want, we think of Chloe first.”

Chloe has many special items in her wardrobe.

“She wears things that belonged to people I love that are gone now,” Crouse said, “like my grandmother’s bib apron, and a hanky that belonged to my Norwegian great-grandmother. Or she’ll wear a necklace my father bought at Ames and gave to me. I share my things with Chloe and she lends me things to wear sometimes.”

Chloe spends her time “sitting” on Crouse’s screened porch where she greets visitors with a benign smile. No one has ever heard her say anything.

“Chloe’s past is very mysterious,” Crouse said. “One fall I went out on the porch and she had a cigar in her hand. Once, I found her holding a teacup that had something in it that might not have been tea. I just don’t know. We do know that Chloe has a sister in Cherry Hill, N.J. I think she would like to have more sisters because she has an exchange closet and is willing to trade just like my eight sisters and I do.”

For readers who want to create ‘sisters’ for Chloe, Crouse has this advice: “Use your imagination and have fun. The more you get into it, the more fun you’ll have.”

Snippets

If you want to try your hand at molding clay and learn more about shape, texture and pattern, or if you want to go to the “ultimate exploration workshop” making goddess adornments such as tiaras, headpieces, masks and jewelry, Carol Shutt of Bar Harbor is offering classes in those crafts. Call her at 288-5478 to learn more.

Ardeana Hamlin can be reached at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.