Kids' How to Make Corn Husk Dolls

If you are the parent or caregiver of a child from preschool through middle school age, you probably have many of the supplies on hand to make corn husk dolls. All you will need to procure is corn on the cob! (Please, buy it with the husks - do not husk it at the market.) I am giving my suggestions, modifications, and experiences based on the excellent book Native American Gardening - Stories, Projects and Recipes for Families by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac.

Carefully peel the husks off the cob, trying hard to keep them intact. A trick I learned from a friend is to cut across the bottom with a paring knife before peeling. This helps immensely. Save these husk leaves and also save all the corn silk for hair.

I have only made the dolls after an overnight of drying. If you make them immediately upon husking, I have no idea how this will work. If you try it, please write a comment to let me know.

Most of us have these in our home:

String (or twine or embroidery floss or dental floss)

Scissors

Glue

From the photographs, you may already be wondering why are some husks are flat and some are curly? I think the big factor is humidity. When I make corn husk dolls inside an air-conditioned house, the husks stay flatter. When I make them in non-air-conditioned places and try to keep them flat by putting a plate over them, they get mildewy. Not good. Therefore, I leave them alone and they curl a little. This could actually be good for frills on a skirt, but you will hope for some relatively straight pieces.

Trim the pointed ends from the husks with your scissors. Also, trim the wider ends to be straight across.

The best way to explain the next step is with excerpts from page 103 of Traditional Native Gardening.

"...the little bulb of husks will become the inside of the head.

"Turn the whole bundle over. Now invert the long pieces of husk down and bend them over the bulb...Gather these husks in tightly under the bulb and tie them off to form the neck."

This works beautifully and i find that using string enables one to really make a firm connection. That said, I wish I could be with native children to see their tips for secure ties with thin strips of husk.

To make the arms, take a few of the thinner husks and roll them together to make a straight line as long as two arms fully extended. That is, two doll arms! :D Tie the ends to make wrists and trim the edges to even out the hands.

Lift the the front half of the husks under the neck. Place the arms piece across perpendicularly and centered. Tie the body with another piece of string underneath to secure the arms and create a waist.

All my photos are of female dolls. If you want to make a boy or man, now is the time to make legs instead of a skirt. Separate the husks hanging below the waist into a left bunch and a right one. If you need to use scissors or a knife to make an even division, use them. In the traditional method, thin strips of husks are wrapped around each leg like the diagonal stripes of a candy cane or a barber's pole. The bottoms are then tied securely and ends trimmed to have evenly-lengthed feet. I would again use string over husk strips.

If you desire extra length or thickness in the skirt (or the curled husk ornamentation), add more husks around the waist and tie in place. Furthermore, a wide husk waistband can be added over the top of the skirt and tied or glued in place.

Finally we turn to the glue and the corn silk. Place a generous number of gobs of glue on top of the head and pat the dried corn silk in place. My kindergarten helper wanted to make Rapunzel and what a great supply corn silk is for that sort of hair!

The traditional native American method is to have No facial features. Certainly imagination can fill in whatever one wants to see. I am familiar with faceless dolls from our local Amish children, so this does not bother me. However, my helper needed to use a fine-tipp marker to draw eyes and a mouth. It worked well on dried husks.

My helper is a gentle child who lives in a central air-conditioned house. Her dolls (oh yes, we had to make several once she made her first one!) stood up well to her playing. How will your dolls do? I cannot predict. I also wonder about the little ones who made dolls and practically lived outdoors. Please let me know what your family's experiences are.

PS - When you are done with this doll, it can go into the compost pile. What a bonus!

Copyright 2011 all photos and text to Maren Morgan