Rescued German dolls and doll parts

The area in Germany where the dolls are excavated.

A painting of the old doll factories before they were abandoned.
Most factories were abandoned because of WWI.

you can see doll heads, arms and legs as they are found in the ground!

There are several reasons that explain my recent love affair with old German doll parts:

- they are old - most are 100 years and older

- they were dug out of the ground-rescued and so they have a wonderful patina that cannot be made any other way then to sit in the ground for 100 years or so.

- each doll has it's own personality-really- if you look at the doll heads, each has a look- regal cute, silly, serious, just like people.

- they are wonderful to use in mixed media work.

- fun to collect

- relatively inexpensive - a non-damaged doll part of same age and quality cost 10x the price or more! non-damaged tiny dolls can sell in the hundreds of dollars!

- I love the story behind them - in the late 1800's and early 1900's there were many German doll factories. When making the dolls in molds, there were always rejects. These rejects were tossed into a large wood bin. When the bin got full, a worker would take them outside and bury them as a way to get rid of them. They would return the empty bin and keep filling it- over and over again, over many years. Fast forward to now- the old abandoned doll factories are being explored by the locals and they are finding the doll parts. There is a particular part of Germany that made the dolls in the factories. Someday I would like to visit that area.

My newest shipment of doll heads arrived yesterday from Germany.

I have posted several for sale in my etsy shop.

regal doll

cute doll