Eva is a beautiful brunette doll with big brown eyes. This is a photo taken of Eva while she was hunting in her backyard for Easter eggs this year. She holds a silver basket with blue flowers and four Easter eggs speckled with pink, blue and yellow. She is now resting barefoot in clover.

This life-size little doll has an old fashioned head… This 0-3 month size baby doll can be dressed in real human baby clothes. She has a carved papier-mâché head covered with a piece of cardboard, and Gesso which is then sanded smooth before painting. It’s my “unbreakable” version of a baby doll that I handcrafted in the late 90’s. The back of her head, which is not shown here, is reddish. She wore a christening cap and a Christmas plaid romper, both of which my oldest daughter wore when she was only three months old. Her eyes and eyebrows are […]

The following strategies, written by Cathy Grimm, are published here to help teachers develop their own objectives and scenarios for formal puppet play activities in the classroom. Levels are achieved at different rates due to the environment, information, and experiences. Sometimes the levels are affected by age, interest and adaptability. Strategy for Dummies: Level 1 Read labels on toys Group things into categories Interpreting a social response related to a scenario or event Compose a story about a picture Looking at a series of pictures and seeing how something is made Remember a story you’ve heard many times and put […]

Above are three clergy clothespins: a priest holding a wafer and a cup, a monk carrying hymns and a nun carrying a rosary. A foil is cut out of paper and glued to one On the other hand I glued a small plastic communion cup filled with colored wine paint. This was cut from the inside of a recycled plastic egg carton. Since the Catholic clergy wear customs/uniforms, they are easier to identify than the mostly Protestant ones. Here I have provided some simple representations of this church for children who would like to include them in their play or […]

Astrid, dressed as a grandmother, lives in a small wooden house near the Hardanger Fjord in Norway. Throughout the long winter Grandma dressed up dolls to sell to tourists next summer. She enjoyed sewing with Astrid because she thought the doll looked like her grandson Borghild, who lives with her. Grandma cut Astrid’s black woolen skirt with red braid and tied her red woolen stockings. She sewed colored beads on Astrid’s bodice and hat. The beads sparkle like Christmas tree ornaments.

Gosbo is from Lapland, that arid country that stretches across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. There the winter is long and cold, with twinkling stars and a pale moon of light. Few Lap Kids have dolls quite as good as Gospo.

These dolls from Hungary are colored like peacocks. The two boys, István and Ferry, wear red shoes. Their aprons are decorated with lace and brightly embroidered. Each boy’s jacket sparkles with gold braid and glittery buttons. They both wear feathers and red roses in their hats. Really, there’s enough fabric in their oversized sleeves to make dresses for little dolls. Their accordion-pleated trousers are as wide as skirts. Maria Theresa was named after a famous Hungarian queen. The wonderful thing about her method The dressing is that she wears eight petticoats. Young girls often wear a larger number. These dolls […]

Alexander and Helen from Greece. They came to this country to represent Greek dolls at the Century of Progress Exposition held in Chicago in 1933 and 1934. When the sun’s rays hit Helen’s shiny costume, the shimmering colors shine like sunlight on the sea. Costumes like this are worn by women who live near the Mediterranean. Alexander is dressed like members of the royal guard. In Scotland his pleated skirt was called a petticoat, but in Greece it is called a “fastanella”.

Freddy Schoenhot is of German descent, although he himself is American. Sad to say, even though Freddy is a handsome boy, he’s kind of a cape. Perhaps this was only expected, since his head was made from a solid block of wood.

All Japanese love flowers. Girls are taught how to arrange flowers at school, where every girl must know the art of flower arrangement before becoming a bride. The Japanese have rules for arranging flowers, just as we have rules for playing games. One of the rules is that the tallest flower in the bowl or vase symbolizes heaven, and the shorter, the earth, and the medium-sized sprinkler, the man. Little Japanese girls sometimes try to teach their dolls how to arrange flowers. Nellie, a flower arrangement doll, was given to an American girl, the daughter of an American missionary living […]