Who is Marjorie Tudor?
Marjorie Tudor first came to Vermont one lovely, greening spring day many years ago. It was a trip made with a school chum, and the wonder of the place permanently lodged in her heart. So it is not surprising that years later a way was found to live and work in this place. Marriage to Seth Tudor followed and eventually, with Tasha Tudor's encouragement, she was able to leave teaching to take care of her family at home and to explore the world of art and dollmaking, as well as so much else. Marjorie comes from a creative family; her father was an architect, her mother an artist; so it was a familiar world and a very happy one. Encouragement to persevere and "keep at it" was always forthcoming from Tasha Tudor and many joyful moments were spent in the garden sketching as well as weeding and planting rosebushes. "Just keep at it"! That's the best advice to give anyone interested in such pursuits.
Marjorie remarks "I met Seth at a neighborhood party. In the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I was missing a gray striped cat, and wondered if he'd seen it anywhere. MMMM, said he, a cat fitting that description had wandered recently into his mother's barn and perhaps it was mine. Would I like to take a look? So he came by the house one snowy afternoon and we walked up the long drive to the as yet unfinished house. Of course I was invited to tea and Tasha admired a knitted sweater I had made and was wearing. She particularly liked the crocheted edging around the sleeves. To make a long story short, Miss Puss (as Tasha had named her) was comfortably ensconced on a pillow in a ladder back chair and pretended she didn't know me. So I had not the heart to claim her and just said, "No, that's not my missing tabby cat." Miss Puss spent many happy years living with Tasha Tudor and during that time we nodded politely to one another when our paths crossed. "
As one of only a few students Tasha ever taught, Marjorie remembers " winter afternoons around tea time and a warming fire in the winter kitchen with lessons on light and shadow techniques using pencil or watercolor, quick sketches of objects and seated guests, ways to develop shades of green using colors other than a green out of a tube of watercolor paint. Tasha often said that getting the right shade of green was very difficult. I have many happy memories of taking a garden tour on a lovely summer afternoon to pick a spray of some lovely
blooming thing to sketch and paint while we enjoyed late afternoon tea."
Marjorie Tudor is a gardener; watercolor artist; doll, marionette, and cut wool animal maker. Her dolls are in private collections across the United States, England and Japan and she accepts commissions on a very limited basis. Marjorie is Tasha Tudor’s daughter-in-law, having married Tasha’s elder son, Seth. She has four children who grew up at her feet as she carved wooden pieces for the marionettes and sewed frocks for the lady dolls. Marjorie co-founded the family business with her Mother-in-law, Tasha, in March 1999; most appropriately over a cup of tea.
