Collecting dolls is an exciting hobby. What brings us passion for dolls Hobby doll

I made my first doll - a big cat from jersey a long time ago. It was lonely in a new apartment without a cat, I always had these warm friendly animals. She completed it in one evening, sewed both pajamas and homemade slippers. At first, the cat had button eyes, then she replaced them with real ones, made of plastic, she baked and painted it herself.

Friends immediately nicknamed the cat Valeryanych, for the melancholic and sleepy expression on his face (or muzzle?).

Then I needed a gift for a very close friend and wonderful person for an anniversary. I did not want to give a traditional gift. A friend is an avid fisherman, and it occurred to me to create a fisherman doll. I began to surf the Internet to find the right technology, to find out how craftsmen do it, and came across dolls and the book Sculptural Textiles by Olga Andrianova, who creates portrait dolls. And I had an idea to make a doll with a portrait resemblance to the original. I didn’t really count on success, I didn’t have much experience, but it turned out! A fisherman with the face of my friend sits on a stump with a fishing rod, in jeans and rubber boots. For a long time I did not know what to make boots from, glued them from thick black rubber gloves (which electricians use). Delight knew no bounds! The grandchildren named the fisherman - grandfather's stuffed animal, the resemblance to the original was remarkable. Unfortunately, the photo has not survived, I then treated my hobby as a quickly passing hobby. I thought, well, I’ll give everything, but the process carried away for many years.

She moved from rag dolls to fimo, cernit, and living dolls made of baked plastics. Each of these materials has its own advantages and disadvantages. Cernit is a very durable material and when baked it becomes a little transparent, very beautiful, but difficult for beginners. Small details, such as fingers, on the hands and feet are difficult to sculpt from it. Fimo is more plastic, but does not “remember the shape” very well. My favorite of the baked plastics is the living doll material, used by many professional puppeteers. It is strong enough and makes it possible to sculpt small details. It comes in several shades, I love light.

Where does the doll start? Of course, by design. It is interesting for me not just to make a boy or a girl, but to show character, to create a certain scene around the doll, an environment, an atmosphere in which she will live. I am a passionate person - an interesting face, a piece of old lace or a beautiful rag can turn into an idea for a future doll for me. Sometimes a doll appears in the imagination immediately, in its entirety, sometimes for months I think about how to turn it, what arms and legs will be, facial expression, costume.

The costume for the doll is of great importance. First, everything must be proportionate. I make dolls of small size, about 35-40 cm, and it is important that all the details of the costume, buttons, ribbons, lace correspond to this size. Secondly, it corresponds to the idea and character of the doll.

My gypsy is in two colorful skirts, a bright silk jacket, a scarf on her head (she is no longer a girl, but a married gypsy who should wear a scarf) and a second scarf is tied around her hips. There are a lot of bracelets on the wrists and around the neck, a necklace made of gold-tone metal, and barefoot, as befits a gypsy. In the process of working on the doll, I got a lot of information about the costume and headgear from the Internet.

The frame of plastic dolls is usually made of wire of different sections and then the “body” is built up from synthetic winterizer. The frame must be strong and flexible so that you can give the body of your doll the necessary tilt, turn, bend the arms, as the design requires. I sculpt the head, arms and legs from plastic, then bake at t 110 g and paint. When painting I use acrylic or oil paints.

My first art education helps a lot in working on the doll. The ability to sew and knit is very useful, since I invent and make all the costumes for dolls myself.

In this article I give general information about working on a doll, in the next article I will try to give a detailed MC and reveal some secrets of working with baked and self-curing plastics. All the best and see you soon!

Handmade dolls

I do not make handmade dolls, but I invariably admire the skill of puppeteers and, if possible, I buy the ones I especially like.

I want to tell you about the dolls that I always admire. These are the dolls of the master Irina Sazanovich.

My acquaintance with a puppeteer from Belarus took place about 5 years ago, when few people knew her yet. It is now that her exhibitions are held all over the world, she is shown on television, she conducts master classes and not only creates absolutely amazing dolls, but also collections of children's clothes...

How did it all start?

By education, Irina is a psychologist, so she took the choice of toys for her daughter seriously. I went to the store, but I didn’t choose anything ... I decided to make a doll for my daughter myself. This is how a very beautiful and fabulous story of the birth of those dolls that fascinate me began. One beauty - Elfira - lives in my daughter's room and was given to her for her birthday. Before the doll was created, Irina and I discussed the appearance of the doll, worked with a photo of my daughter (not for a complete resemblance, but for a fleeting resemblance), then discussed the characters, I told my version of what the doll was intended for. At this time, we moved from a smaller apartment to a larger one, my daughter got her own room, she took part in the development of design, colors and all sorts of little things. But when the room was ready, the daughter did not want to be in it at all, and even more so, to sleep. The doll was conceived as a "keeper of dreams"...

The doll was delivered to the birthday girl in the original author's box, painted white, slightly aged and decorated with stylish and beautiful flowers and berries.

Do you know who made this doll for you? - I asked my daughter (actually, before ordering a gift, my daughter and I looked at Irina's dolls and admired them) ...

The daughter looked at the doll without blinking, and holding her breath, answered the question with a question

Enchantress?...

I told this story to Irina, and she really liked it, she recalls this story in her interviews.

A scroll with a message and a wish for pleasant dreams in verse was tied to the hand of the doll. A white satin dress and net, green wings made of real feathers behind her back, wavy peach-colored woolen hair with a branch of wild berries woven into it ... This is our Elfira.

Gradually, not only the doll settled in the room, but the hostess herself. Now the doll is a stylish design element of the room. There is no person who passes by our Elfira indifferently.

Irina Sazanovich's dolls are distinguished by their characters, some are thoughtful and timid, others are hooligans and rebellious, and in others there is such cunning that the mood invariably rises. Our Elfira is also flavored with cinnamon and vanilla. And despite the passage of time, the smell remains. "The smell of childhood" - that's what my Sophia calls it.

A lot of people see the adult craze for dolls as something very strange. Someone shied away from such acquaintances, twisting his finger at his temple. I will not describe other options for a negative reaction, but doll lovers have encountered similar phenomena.

I, too, did not always positively assess such a passion for adults, but once there were changes in my vision of this side of life. Sometimes I consider myself and my hobby as if from the outside. I talk about why I need dolls? Such reflections prompted me to write this article, but not only them. Like many others, I also encounter misunderstandings of acquaintances. Therefore, today we will talk about what brings passion for dolls.

Recently got into dolls. Great interest in them did not come immediately. All my adult life, until one moment, I thought that I had already played enough - in my childhood I had enough beautiful dolls. Probably, to a large extent, I thought so because I, no longer young and working, finances still did not allow me to “desire” such hobbies. In addition, there was a stereotype in action that indifference to dolls was already “out of age”. I did not understand lovers of dolls living, for example, on babys.

For the first time in adulthood, I seriously paid attention to dolls at the age of 33, when I was looking for high-quality toys for my daughter. I will not discuss the reason for this decision now - this is a topic for a separate conversation. These searches led me to forums and websites of doll lovers. My attitude to the passion for dolls by adults was ambiguous. I was baffled by posting photo stories with dolls and expressing so much love for these toys. The question arose: “Shall we waste time on this?” and other similar "rational" questions. But on these sites I found enough useful information about different dolls, which I was glad about.

I once read about American Girl dolls, which I really liked. Since that time, a dream arose to buy such a doll. Its price for me then was exorbitant. One could only dream, but it was available to watch photos on the Internet. From that moment on, I began to dive into the “puppet interest”.

Today I want to raise the topic of what people find for themselves in the hobby for dolls (not just collecting), about what it leads to.

So, what brings us the fascination with dolls?

For myself, I made several conclusions:

Firstly, puppets are art. First, this is the creativity of their creators, and we are the consumers of their creativity. Consumers in the best sense of the word, because the artist needs his creation to be in demand by the public. Even play dolls are very beautiful, because their authors are world-famous puppet artists, with whom some toy manufacturers cooperate.

Secondly, dolls become the object and cause of the creativity of those who buy them. Someone likes to create clothes, shoes, accessories and furniture for dolls. Every kind of needlework shows that there is so much we can do and come up with! Needlewomen create a huge variety of beautiful and different clothes for dolls.

Modern technology has allowed us to express ourselves in photography and writing. Many have their own blogs, websites or pages on thematic forums and portals where users show their creative abilities.

Doll lovers acquire skills that were previously alien, unfamiliar or inaccessible to them. I want to list what I have to or happen to learn in order to satisfy my puppet desires, which are not only about buying dolls and placing them on shelves.

So this is:

• Knitting.
• Sewing.
• Wallow.
• Beading.
• Modeling (from polymer clay, for example).
• Weaving from newspapers, etc.
• Creation of houses or roomboxes.
• Creation of footwear from various materials. I specifically focus on various materials. To some it may not seem like a very simple thing to do.
• Creation of doll furniture from various materials.
• Photographing. This skill comes to everyone in different ways, but the fact is that many people acquire it through their passion for dolls.
• Create backgrounds and home "mini-studios" for interesting compositions.
• Creating photo stories with dolls.
• Writing interesting articles on other topics related to dolls.

There are other types of human activity, most likely. Please add to my list in the comments. I will gladly add to the article what I have not remembered or guessed now.

Yes Yes! Passion for dolls pulls creative development in different areas.

Third, plunging into the world of dolls and related activities, we involuntarily learn to see the world around us differently, to be attentive to details, to beautiful elements. This always happens with those who begin to engage in any kind of creativity.

Fourth develops imagination.

Fifth, some doll lovers are beginning to understand fashion.

You have to get acquainted with the dictionary of clothes, study the historical costume, and this entails contact with the history and culture of individual countries and peoples.

At sixth, dolls are aesthetics, because admiring them, we contemplate beauty!

Seventh, as a consequence of the previous paragraph, we get positive emotions from the puppet hobby.

Let someone fall into childhood a little from this hobby, admiring dolls, playing dress-up, arranging photo shoots and photo stories. Is it bad when adults have fun throwing snowballs at each other? No! It's so wonderful when people who have passed the age limit of youth are able to "be children" and have so much fun like a child!
Also, puppet hobby, allowing an adult to set free his inner child, helps to restore peace of mind with positive emotions and provide resources for solving the problems of adult life.

We relax, embodying our ideas in our hobbies.

We are visited by pleasant, joyful memories. Someone finds in this hobby a small, but effective, consolation during adversity.

Eighth, collecting. In this article, I do not want to dwell on the psychology of collecting. I can say that I am surprised by the surprise of people with doll collections. Pardon the tautology. After all, anything can be collectible: postcards, stamps (expensive), badges, figurines, and so on - the list can be continued for a long time. In our case, these are dolls. And there is nothing to be perplexed, seeing a collection of dolls, and consider this a strange phenomenon.

Often our friends have a question about the funds that are spent on the purchase of dolls. Even if this question is not voiced, but it sharpens their brains and souls. How can you spend that kind of money on a hobby? Yes, this is possible!

For example, embroidery is not a cheap hobby. A good cross stitch kit can cost as much as one doll, but a good design of a finished embroidered picture can be more expensive than this kit. Embroiderers know the value of their work and know that their embroidered paintings are worthy of good design, even if it is so expensive.

Everyone spends their money on what they see fit. Someone likes to drink beer every weekend, smoke expensive cigarettes, travel, theater, go fishing (by the way, good fishing rods are insanely expensive) and so on.

What I want to say with this article. I want to convey to those who are outside the puppet world information about the wealth of human activity and development that the passion for puppets entails.

I want to encourage those who are immersed in this very puppet world, but experience a negative attitude from relatives or friends. These people simply do not know what wealth is behind "dolls", just as they do not understand other types of hobbies, hobbies and / or needlework.

I love doing needlework. I always liked tilde dolls, but somehow the toad choked to buy them. And then in joint purchases I saw these wonderful "Fashion Hobby" sets at a rather attractive price, compared to ready-made dolls. Mine cost something like 800 rubles.

I received my set, waited a long time for inspiration to start creating.

If you take the time, you can do it in 2 days. This process lasted for three weeks for me ... All hands did not reach.

This is what the packaging looks like.

Inside step by step instructions with illustrations, patterns.

Everything is written in a very accessible way, so even a beginner in this business will be extremely clear!

Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of the process, but the instructions, as you can see, have all the necessary step-by-step illustrations.

This is what is left after the "assembly" of the chrysalis.

And here is the end result! Very cute doll Mila)))

Please note that you need to be very careful when cutting out parts according to patterns, because the material is laid back to back. As they say, measure seven times...

In addition, you will need threads, a needle, filler (synthetic winterizer), glue or a thermal gun, scissors, chalk or a pencil to transfer the pattern to fabric.

I also made the doll blush on the cheeks with the help of my blush))). And if you pour vanilla (well, or some other flavor) when stuffing the filler inside, then the chrysalis will also smell.

Happy creativity!

Psychologists often advise encouraging your inner child in order to achieve harmony in life. Lots of ways to do that. For example, find a hobby that smells like "childhood." For many, this hobby becomes collecting dolls. Moreover, both old, pre-revolutionary toys and relatively “young” Barbie dolls can become objects of collecting.

It's never too late to play with dolls

For some, the goal is to collect all the dolls of the same type or brand, others do not adhere to a specific theme and acquire all the items they like, from which a very rich and diverse collection can be formed.

common in many countries. The number of "puppeteers" in the homes of many enthusiastic people can run into not only tens, but even thousands. So, a resident of German Dusseldorf, Bettina Dorfmann, got into the Guinness Book of Records with her collection of Barbie dolls, numbering 15,000 toy "souls". Here are the first Barbies of 1959, and her modern "colleagues" with articulated bodies. Not without numerous variations of Ken - the groom of the cult doll, adult and young relatives of Barbie, as well as her friends.

There are many adult connoisseurs of this children's toy in Russia. They have created several thematic forums and a lot of groups on social networks, where like-minded people discuss various aspects of collecting, share their experience in restoring antique dolls, etc.

You can also find out how to purchase rare items here. A significant part of foreign-made dolls is purchased by Russian “puppeteers” abroad, but the Russian market for vintage dolls is gaining momentum.

Collecting dolls. Where to begin?

Fortunately, in order to join such a wonderful hobby, it is not at all necessary to spend a lot of money. Dolls left from their own childhood, or bought inexpensively at a flea market, can serve as the beginning of a new collection. According to many established collectors, a not very rare, cheap doll may turn out to be much dearer than the one that was ordered from overseas for wild money. Why this happens, no one really knows. Maybe in the features of the doll's face a person finds something that evokes pleasant memories, or maybe the master who made the toy put some of his warmth into it.