55. Amy and the children or We come to a close of "Puppenmitmacherei" project

As we are drawing to a close of making dolls together in the event "Puppenmitmacherei",

a project organised by Maria from "Mariengold" and Caroline from "Naturkinder", 

I am inviting you to my final day. 

Last Wednesday the wether was bad in Wrocław. It was cloudy and rainy. 

Nevertheless neither me nor Amy paid attention to it, because we were occupied with preparations for an appointment we had on that day. So exciting!  We were invited by Mrs. Ola Węgrzyn to visit children in her small Waldorf nursery school called "Słoneczko".

When we came children already waited for Amy. They were really curious to get to know her and to learn what she was like. We started taking about Amy, about how she would love to be with children and play with them.

They immediately became fond of Amy. I took a few photos and decided to look and listen.

From the beginning Amy's clothes seemed were important. The children glanced at them willingly and then started experimenting with them. So they took them off  first, and then they redressed Amy. 

They soon discovered Amy was lovely to touch. They hugged her, held her hands, stroked her hair... and they talked a lot. One girl wanted to be Amy's Mum, another one her dad, and an aunt, and so on.

Then they had an idea to put Amy to bed. But first they wanted to put on her bootees. They examined them carefully. They really liked them. While Rose put on the bootees, another girl held Amy's head. Did you notice how delicate and careful she was?..

Then Amy went to sleep.

No, no. Before Amy fell asleep she wanted to have her hands lying on the quilt, 
not under it. 

So the children did, as she wished."Are you all rigth now?".. - they asked.

Amy's bed was placed in the play corner and Amy could sleep.

Her "Mummies" stayed with her stroking her cheek and singing her a little song...

After a little while Amy woke up.

It was then that I took this photo of Amy with the children and Ola.

As you may expect Amy stayed with the children.

The next day Ola emailed me, "Amy united the whole kindergarten in a big family: there was Mum, Dad, sisters and brothers, cousins and all possible folks."She added: "For a long time I haven't seen such a good and peaceable play of all children." I was proud of Amy. Well, well such a little cloth doll, I thought, and she evoke so many good feelings in children - liking, sympathy, care, joy.

Yes, children love cloth dolls.

In the end I would like to thank Ola for the invitation. Thanks to her kindness I spent a lovely afternoon with the children from her kindergarten. 

I do not worry about Amy any more. She has met a big loving family. Is there anything else that such a little doll could dream about?

*

It is a bit sad that the project "Puppenmitmacherei" is about to finish and that this is my last post dedicated to it, but on the other hand I am glad I have met a lot of new dollmakers.

I would like to thank Maria from "Mariengold" and Caro from "Naturkinder" for the idea and organisation of the project, for their advice and lots of tips on how to make dolls. 

I would like to thank all participants in the project. Beautiful dolls were created and wonderful stories written. On their blogs you can find plenty of interesting comments and reflections devoted to doll making.


And above all my special "thank you" to my lovely readers.
Sometimes my posts were delayed, so I am really grateful you waited patiently.


I wish you all a lovely weekend.

For the last time here you will find all participants' blogs (Scroll down to the end of page please.)

47. The beginning of a year

I wish this new year 2015 would be happy, healthy and creative for all of us!

And now I would like to introduce my new doll.

Her name is Tosia. (Just to explain that Tosia is a Polish diminutive of Antonina which is quite unusual since it is Nina in other languages.) 

Her hair is unruly. It sticks up in different directions for most of the time. .
And it has a lovely ginger colour of its own.

It seems Tosia's hair has foredetermined her character. 
Not only is she unruly and scatterbrained but also cheerful, amusing and dear. 

And yet I wonder if it is possible that all these advantages
and disadvantages can be derived from the fact that someone has such hair. Hmm..
.

Tosia has in her a bit of Anne of the green gables, 
but she would never ever change the colour of her hair.

One day we had a chat about her name.

"Tosia is a lovely name." - started Tosia, but then she added that it was a bit too short.

"We must add something to make it sound better." - she concluded.

"... for example?" - asked I.

"For example Tosia-Reddie." - She answered immediately and turned bright red. - "Just to emphasise the colour of my hair, you know."

"Yes, I understand... I did not know it was so important for you."

"Yes, it is, because when I think about my hair I am always in a jolly mood. So it is important, isn't it? - explained Tosia.

" Certainly. So from now on we have Tosia-Reddie." - I summed up.

A few days later we went to the department store to do some shopping. Afterwards we sat on the bench in a big hall to have a rest. I started tidying up Tosia-Reddie's hair with my fingers. Near us there was sitting a little girl with her Mom. I noticed that the girl was playing with a smartphone...

"Did the dolly want you to scratch her head?" Suddenly I heard a question.

I looked back and saw a girl standing in front of Tosia-Reddie. It was this little girl with the smartphone.

"Did the dolly tell you this?" - the girl enquired looking at me...

She amused me with her questions... (It did happen really. Well, to be precise, it came about at the craft fair ... not in the shop, but does this matter?)

*

Thank you for dropping by. 
I hope you have a nice weekend.

13. It's high time I introduced Anja

ANJA * Waldorf doll * companion doll * child-doll 

Anja is my next doll I have made myself. She is 36 cm (14,5 inches) tall. 

In the story below I described one of our last walks we had together. 

Anja is a lively, nice girl-doll. She is ready to meet her new Mom. 

She is waiting impatiently to get to know her new family and start with 

them a new adventure in her life. 

What is Anja like? Just listen!

It was hot late afternoon, when Anja ran out towards a meadow near our house.

I followed her without delay. She ran fast to the place we went to yesterday. 

She was a bit tired, I think, because she sat on the soft grass the moment she reached this place. 

I sat by her, and for a while we enjoyed watching the grass and flowers surrounding us... 

On the right there was a group of white wild flowers. They were the colour of Anja's hair.

 And then Anja asked me:

You know,  I wonder what my new Mom will be like.

I am sure, she'll be your best friend, I answered and added:

You will play, tell stories, laugh. You will be together. 

  Oh, how nice, Anja was delighted. 

She started making faces and hopping, she was so happy.  

When her hat fell down, she didn' t want to let me put it on 

laughing "No, no, it doesn't matter."

 

In the end the hat found its way to Anja's head, 

while Anja was still in a very good mood. 

She began climbing the twigg because she noticed a liitle snail on it. Yet it was difficult for her to reach the top of the twig, 

so I lifted her up, and she could see the snail from near. 

Nice house he has... she announced.

The evening was approaching... 

I took another pic of Anja and we went back home. 

 She has to get enough sleep because we are going down to town tomorrow. 

We are inviting you to visit us and follow Anja's adventures. 

 

                                                      

My best wishes to you. 

Till then.

3. "Dolls with soul"

How I became interested in Waldorf style dolls

To answer this question first I need to move back to a certain radio programme I listened to quite accidentally and fragmentarily some time ago. Yet I was interested enough to search for it on the Internet, find it and listen to it again. The programme entitled "Dolls with soul" was dedicated to Waldorf dolls. Two ladies Lidia Michałowicz and Agnieszka Nowak, invited to the studio, talked about Waldorf dolls with such an interest...

As it happens I started to look for books on this subject. The following books turned out to be the most interesting for me: "Mam czas dla dziecka" by Barbara Kowalewska (published by Impuls, Kraków 2011), "Zabawki z naturalnch materiałów" by Freya Jaffke (published by Genesis) and "Making Waldorf dolls" written by Maricristin Sealey (published by Hawthorn Press, 2005). I have decided to make such a doll. I joined doll making course, organised by Agnieszka whom I mentioned earlier. Soon my first doll was finished, and now slowly there are coming new dolls... For me making dolls turned out to be fascinating and absorbing.

I make dolls for children who will play with them. Waldorf dolls are handmade, simple and natural. They are the dolls to be played with, to be dressed and undressed, and washed, to become part of the child's every day life, to be a friend and a confidante - they are "the dolls with soul".

Freya Jaffke, the author of many books on the subject of waldorf toys, says:

Toys stimulate power of fantasy and an object of play should give a feeling of naturalness. So it is better to give a child a piece of tree branch rather than a matematically contructed building block. This is also important in case of a doll. Doll is an image of human. For each child, then, she is a toy which helps experience its own developing being... (p.19, Zabawki z naturalnych materiałów).

And Maricristin Sealey adds:

For a child, play is their work and just as a craftsman cannot achieve good results with inferior materials, so children need toys with integrity if they are to find play satisfying (p.7, Making waldorf dolls).