The elderly man's gnarled hands worked earnestly before him, under the dull glow of a lanterns warm orange rays. The piece of wood in his hands sung to him, and he gripped it tenaciously, running his thumb over every groove, every piece of fiber, getting a feel for the thing as a whole. The wood was a very rare piece from across the sea in another nation. He had stumbled upon it by mistake at an auction and had set to purchase it as soon as his old eyes had laid eyes upon it. The wood was exquisite and even its raw form, displayed sheer beauty. It would be prefect.
He set the wood down on a bench then, to pick up a small chisel and wood carving tools. His fingers danced across the wood with a pencil trailing them, marking the dimensions of the object he was going to carve with fine delicate lines. The lines represented places he would have to carve around, and what remained inside would need to be removed, to become sections that could be used in the joints, or as finishes.
With a steady hand he began his work then, after assessing his work, making sure that there were no errors to be made. A mistake would be irrevocable and thus there was room for none to be made. The chisel scraped away a fine, slender shaving of wood that curled in on itself alone the plane of the line that he was carving into. With a small breath he blew it away and began again, tracing away slivers of wood that were not necessary, that hid what he wished to reveal.
Slowly, but surely an object began to take shape. It wasn't completely discernable, as he cut of large segments of the wood to set aside to be used for shaping other features, later, but it could be identified, if barely. The torso of a young female began to take shape. A female that had just reached an age of adolescence. Finely curved breasts became apparent gentle slopes in the wood, as he fashioned it in the shape of perfection, his thick bushy brows drawn downwards in concentration.
The torso and the head would be the hardest parts of the doll to perfect, so once he had finished the former, he began on the latter, picking up a discarded piece of wood and rounding it off with a manual sanding tool. This task was both arduous and time consuming, but in no time the curve of a girls head could be made out, with a petite mouth and fine, sharp nose set below a gentle brow.
The man's heart raced with the revelation that his beauty was taking shape. In the form of a daughter he had always wished for, but never had. The head became another segment that was set aside so that he could begin on the legs, arms and joints. All these were completed quite quickly and easily, the fingers and toed being the hardest, and the joints being quite difficult to shape and fit.
He completed it all though, and the little girl was taking shape. The man gently picked up the head and with a joint, attached it to the body. The arms followed, with their little tiny connections for the fingers, and then the legs. Finally his construction was complete. It was colourless and without hair, but at least it the worst part of it was over. Well, that was until he started on painting her.
The man worked at mixing the paints to an ideal colour. He wished for a pastel, porcelain coloured skin that would accentuate cornflower blue eyes and rosebud lips. He worked at bathing her in the initial colour, bringing her skin to like with a vibrant flush. The eyes and lips followed next, bringing the doll personality, and emotion. Finally he finished with using a dash of rogue mixed with a red base paint to paint on the nipples. Things were looking better and better.
Finally, to complete the doll, the man grabbed some locks of hair that he had managed to nab and twist into three coiled locks. With careful precision, he attached these, two to the doll, effectively giving her a look of wholeness and realness.
The man laughed and jumped up and down on the spot, clapping his hands together after placing her onto a cabinet to view.
"It is done. My dear little puppet, I shall call you Cornelia."