Woodstock of Doll Makers

Or should I better say "Wollstock"?

 

Last weekend I had been to Holland to an international meeting of Waldorf style doll makers. This was the second meeting organised by Berend and Kamrin de Kronie in a very picturesque little dutch town, called Elspeet.

 

Basically nearly hundred doll makers from 25 different countries including Mexico, US, Turkey, South Africa and several European countries, meeting and teaching each other in improving each other's doll making skills.

 

I knew already couple of the participants in our group through their blogs or facebook pages, like Nathalie from Rosaminze Puppen and Sabine the maker of Bienchen und Bluemchen. Also several other participants were my "friends" through facebook and we had already been chatting some years, like Agniezska from Lalinda,  Fabiola from Fig & Me, Ildiko from Waldof Doll Shop, and of course my doll maker friend from Berlin Maike Coelle, who was the only one whom I met personally before the seminar. In addition I was lucky to have hours longs chats with Sonja the maker of Puppenmacherei from Switzerland, Hannah from UK maker of Stoffoli and Nathasja from SmillaHandmade. I was speechless with the sight of several beautiful dolls, but I must confess Natashja's tiny dolls were the ones I was touched at most.

 

I attended the classes of Meglena from the North Coast Dolls and worked two days on a doll with other doll maker colleagues from several countries.

Meglena was a great tutor, very patient and generous in sharing her knowledge with us.
It was lots of sweating and fun, excitement and passion, lots of pins and wool... Each time Meglena showed us how she does a certain thing, there were ahhs and oohs coming from each side of the table followed by, "really? You do it like that? I do it completely different, like this..."
I was feeling after the workshop like Neo in the film Matrix, after he was plugged in and uploaded information and said "I can Kung Fu!"

It was a doll lover paradise full of gorgeous dolls and talented doll makers full of love.
After we were tired enough that we could not continue, we got out to the garden, sitting with other doll maker friends and chatting til late in the evening. So many lovely people passionate about dolls.

 

Everyone had a doll or more with her. This was a great opportunity to see the dolls from doll makers, which would not be possible without this seminar.

 

Seeing these little people made with so much talent and love...

 

I did not think about taking pictures. I use here some pictures made by Meglena during the workshop and Oya, from Turkey. She and her cousin own a shop there and produce their own doll fabric, which they brought with them. They wanted to use the opportunity to show their fabric to us doll makers and hear our opinions about it, before putting it to the market.

I promised to sew a doll to test as well. When I am finished I will write a review with a link. For the time being, I am finishing my last custom orders before we move to our new apartment and still enjoying the memories of the three beautiful days spent in a little doll maker's paradise.

 

By the way there are two blog articles in German by Maike and Nathalie with several pictures and very detailed descriptions of the seminar. If you are interested to read more you can check their blog entries here and here.