Doll-A-Day 2019 #332: Jolly Dolly

   Well, it's Thanksgiving,and time once again for Dexter Madison. Share the fantasy!
   Today's doll is two: these little guys.

They're Jolly Dolly dolls.

And they want you to know it!

They were made by Zapf.

They want you to know that too. It's printed on their bodies...

...and their clothes.

Zapf also made Baby Born dolls. There were lots of Jolly Dollys. This is from a Zapf booklet that was in Ivy's stuff. It probably came with a Baby Born doll.

There were also Jolly Dollys with rooted hair.

They weren't all stuffed either. there were all vinyl ones. This booklet says they all came with a frog. But the first Jolly came with a cat, and the second one came with nothing at all.

They had clothing sets available for them. Ivy also has one of the tiny Jolly Dollys pictured at the top of the right hand page. They are about 4 inches tall.

 Ivy got these when she was very small,so it would have had to be just either side of 2000. Her first was the little guy with his shirt missing.

I found his pants, his hat, and his cat,but not his shirt.

We always just called him Jolly. Her second Jolly Dolly was one that took batteries and giggles when his stomach was pressed. I found his whole outfit. He didn't come with a cat.

I found his hat later.

He's a little bigger than the first Jolly Dolly. I would say they are 10 and 12 inches tall. Or maybe 12 and 14. I was going to measure them, but when I went to get my yard stick I remembered I took it down stairs to measure some stuff for Ivy's room redo. So I had to eyeball it. I'm pretty good at that by now.

They are cute little guys. My favourite is the non giggling one.

  Today would have been Ken's mother's 97th birthday. We never got to meet each other's mothers. I think I would have liked Dora though.

  Those are today's dolls. See you tomorrow for another doll. Happy Thanksgiving!

Doll-A-Day 2019 #305: Little Girl, Big Eyes,Chimong Doll

  I have been promising that I would start featuring Ivy's doll in the month of November. Well,today's the first day of November,so here's the first of Ivy's dolls.

She's a doll I ordered for Ivy online when she was little.

She came on this card.

This is the back of the card. She's apparently a chimong doll by Hur Huan.

When you Google Chimong doll the word voodoo keeps coming up. I think she is just supposed to be good luck though. That's what the card seems to be saying. Translation is weird sometimes.
She's the same size as a Kelly doll, which Ivy was obsessed with at the time. That's why I bought her. I thought she'd add some variety to all the Kelly dolls,but she could be one of their friends. Also, and this is important: They could steal her clothes.

She's like the doll I later got at an Asian grocery store.

Her dress and shoes are removable.

  That's the doll for today. Ivy's room renovation continues. I finally got the closet clean and organized, although I'm not finished putting stuff back in it. Sorting her toys for final pack up has been a loooonngg process. She had some stuff organized, but she had three humongous boxes in her closet that were filled with everything under the sun, and all of it was tiny. They were a mixed bag, or should I say,box, so the space wasn't used very well. There was also a lot of crap in there. So I've managed to narrow the three huge boxes and a whole tower of plastic storage thingies down into less tubs. I still have one box to sort though. I'm getting a respiratory thing from all the dust though. But, in spite of all that, I will delve back into the mess tomorrow, because I still have furniture to paint and a secret project to get done. I have to have it all done by Friday, when I go to pick Ivy up for her birthday weekend at home. Tomorrow we'll also see another of Ivy's dolls.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #85: Ivy's Collection: Homemade Nesting Dolls

  Today's doll is this nesting doll from Ivy's collection.

There is one more that isn't in the picture!

  You may have seen the other set of nesting dolls that I painted as our family for Ivy. If not, you can see those HERE.
  The largest doll is 2 and 1/4 inches tall.

The smallest is so small we call it 'the crumb'.

I was so scared of losing it that I didn't even photograph it in the photo of all of the nests. I only did it with the one it's inside of, for comparison.

In the end I had Ivy hold it for me, because she swears it has a face, but it's so small I couldn't see where it is!

I made these for Ivy one Christmas.
 

This one is my favourite. I think she has sort of a 1930's look.

Ivy insists that nesting dolls are no good unless they have a lot of nests. So I bought a blank set with LOTS of nests!

This one is Ivy's favourite.

They were hard to paint. Where do you hold them while you paint? I ended up wedging the halves of the bigger ones on top of a shampoo bottle!

And of course, the smaller they got, the harder they were to hold.

I have no idea how I painted the tiniest ones.

I would like to think I could do a better job on these if I did it now, but...

  That's the doll for today. See you again tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #83: Ivy's Collection: Nesting Kokeshi Doll

  Today's dolls are three sets from Ivy's collection of nesting dolls.

These are Kokeshi dolls. Kokeshi dolls have been made in Japan for over 300 years. The name may have come from the Japanese words for 'wooden',(ki),small,(ko), and doll, (keshi). They were originally made as guardians for children. They later became popular tourists items. Today they are still considered good luck and are kept in Japanese homes as protection. The traditional dolls are very simple,solid wooden dolls,without arms or legs,painted black,red, and yellow,and coated with wax. The face is simply painted, with little detail.

These dolls aren't just kokeshi dolls though. They are also nesting dolls.

This is one of Ivy's favourites in her collection. I was trying to hide it from her when I brought it home, but she saw it. She got excited because she knew it was a nesting doll. I told her it wasn't a nesting doll. Instead I told her it was a toothpick holder! She believed it,so she was surprised when I gave it to her and told her it was indeed a nesting doll.

These also have another feature Kokeshi dolls don't usually have: bobble heads!

These only have three dolls,and only the first two have bobble heads.

It was hard to get them all to face forward at the same time because of the bobbly heads.

All of the nests in Ivy's favourite set have bobble heads except the very last one.

Kokeshi dolls with the wobbly heads are called Nanbu kokeshi.

These aren't traditional Kokeshi dolls. These would be called  'creative kokeshi' dolls,which would have been made after WWII.

  For those of you who were interested in the mini pocket knife Ivy got for me,she says she thinks it came from AliExpress,or possibly Wish.  
 

  Tomorrow we'll look at another doll.