Bleuette Bodies --I'm asked this one a lot! What is the best Bleuette Body for my doll? I feel that the choice is ultimately yours to make, but you do have a choice!
One popular body used with today's artist made bleuettes and daisyettes is the Global Wooden body. This body, sometimes also called the JN Body is partially made of wood and partially of another composition material. Its strength is that it's fairly durable and so if you plan to play dolls and change outfits frequently, this makes this body a good choice.
After a lot of research, I found a mold for a french body that is very similar to a lot of pictures I've seen of the antique bleuettes. This is the Belgium Bleuette Body, and since I was able to get the molds, I can make this body myself and more closely match the coloring of the doll's bisque. The belgium body also has some features that make it desireable, it has very lovely and delicate hands, closed shoulder caps so that little sleeveless dresses won't show a slit in the shoulder joint.
Both bodies are durable and will last a long time with careful handling. The most common breakage with composition doll bodies are the little fingers getting caught in sleeves, or of course a major fall onto a hard surface could also suffer damage. To protect your little ones hands/fingers when changing clothes, make two mitts for her. I cut off the ends of two rubber gloves and place these over her hands to protect them.
Size-wise, both bodies wear and share the same clothing and patterns, shoes and footwear sizes. Both are 11-piece bodies, fully articulated, bendable/posable at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists/hands, hips and knees. Bleuette and Daisyette are active girls and need that flexibility!
If you should experience a problem with broken fingers, you'll just need to contact me and have her hands replaced, so not to worry. Below is a picture showing the variations of the two bodies....
