New Duds for a New Shelf

Good day all! This is Sasha finally writing again. It seems like we keep getting new family members faster than I can keep up with giving them turns on the blog. Already, someone is in the cue waiting for their turn again, but it's my turn first. Our family has grown so much, we utterly outgrew our shelf. When Kiltie got here, we all had to suck in our breath and squeeze in to all fit together. Karinne climbed up on some blocks, so she could still see past everyone's heads, or was that so MamaT could still see her? MamaT's husband started making comments that he had underestimated our potential for growth when he built the first shelf. So all of his own accord, with no prompting or requests from MamaT, he took it upon himself to build us a new shelf for her birthday. Is that way cool or what? It was just in time too, because when Madie arrived, well, there just wasn't any room for her at all. She had to stand all by herself on the dresser, and I don't know if it's because she's a thrill-seeker or because her stringing's a tad loose, but she would stand on the dresser for days at a time, and then suddenly take a notion to dive headlong to the floor from time to time. Maybe she was just lonely and trying to get attention, because she hasn't done this from our new shelf. So here we are all posed on the new shelf with lots of room to spread out and stretch. Yippee!

You might also notice that most of us are sporting new clothes. To begin with MamaT thought she'd like to stay traditional and keep us in our original outfits. She had even gotten me a new kilt and sweater to replace the one I lost before my old skirt resurfaced. With us all out on display again, she started having second thoughts and decided it might be better to store our original outfits away, where they won't get dusty or faded, and get us outfits that are better for us to play in. So all the girls have new dresses now. Most of these were purchased from Nadiya of Scarlet Rose Designs (with exception of the jumper by Diane Scarbrough you've seen before). They were very affordable, which was a plus, since we had so many to buy, and that way the shipping was discounted too. Nadiya even threw in a bonus dress for Christmas you'll see in a few months which we thought was very sweet of her. It has been harder to find new outfits for they boys, although we finally have one on order that Gregor and Patrick will have to fight over. I suspect Gregor will get it, because I think it would clash with Patrick's hair. We got a beautiful white dress by Gretchen for Margot, so now it is easier to tell the twins apart, but of course Sandra wants a new dress too, and we're on the lookout for something just right for her too. Here are some closer views of the gang in our new duds.

For today's link, I realized I've never posted Nancy Miller's Let's Play Dolls site yet. Nancy Miller lives in Modesto, Calif. (where MamaT's Daddy grew up, and where she often visited her aunt/uncle and cousins as a child). I think Jackie Hyatt, whose blog we posted last time, is or was another Modesto-ite. MamaT tells us it is very hot there, especially in comparison to Salinas, where she and I lived as a children. Anyhow, Nancy often has Sashas and their clothes and some accessories for sale. She also sells other dolls. At the bottom of Nancy's page, you'll see a link that says “abused kids project”. Check it out. Nancy is involved in a program to provide nice dolls & clothes or bears for abused children and will gladly welcome your donations if you want to get involved and help this good cause.

http://letsplaydolls.com/cart/index.php?target=categories&category_id=173

The Unveiling of Magdelena Alexandra

Hello there! Well, here I am, the surprise doll mentioned a couple entries back. MamaT has been nagging at Sasha to give me a turn on the blog. She's as excited as a kid to see me introduced to you all. But first, I have to back up a bit and tell you how I came into MamaT's home. You could call me a birthday present. A day or two before MamaT's birthday, her husband announced to her, “Do you know there's a doll you're watching on Ebay that closes in 10 minutes and no one has bid on it yet?” Really?!!! was her response. So she went down, waited for the last minute to put her bid in, and amazingly no else bid. Granted I wasn't a perfect doll, but it's enough to give a doll an inferiority complex to only get one bid at a low price. You see I am 1960s Gotz doll, and MamaT picked me up for a mere $200!!! She's seen dolls with split sides go for more than that. The same day I sold, a red headed 60's Gotz girl went for more than $900, and MamaT insists that I have a much prettier face than that doll did. I was in Switzerland, Sasha M's homeland, but I arrived in Montana only 10 days later! And so I was named Magdelena Alexandra in honor of Sasha, whose given name was Mary Magdelena Alexandra von Sinner. Sasha was a nickname, short for Alexandra I think. Magdelena Alexandra IS a bit of a mouthful, so I have my own nickname and usually get called Madie for short, or Alex for my tomboy image when my wig is off.

I started my life either as a unisex doll that later got a bad haircut, or more likely as a Gregor doll, we think since my hair is a bit shorter around my ears. But it's a bit uneven, so may have been cut. Now, it can truthfully be said that I am not entirely missing any hair plugs. However, I do have some plugs that are rather thin or short, especially the front row along my hairline. I also had a few marks from a life of being played with, most notably, one on my nose that couldn't be hid with clothes. I'm also missing a bit of paint on my upper lip. But MamaT says she could tell I had beautiful eyes and didn't hesitate to snap me up.

Once I arrived is when the real patience was needed. I first got an overall cleaning and then began the Oxy treatment. (See Patrick's entry on stain removal.) But the thing is, those dark purple stains that Patrick had practically disappeared overnight, while the dull dark spots that I had were far more persistent. MamaT was cautious about putting heat on me, so the oxy treatment seemed to go on for weeks. We don't remember exactly how long now. Eventually, it reached a point where the dark spots were mostly still there, but they were very faint and not very noticeable, and that's when she stopped the oxy treatment. If you push it too far you'll get bleaching and light blotches on our skin.

So while I was getting the skin treatment, MamaT set about looking to find me a wardrobe. First, she ordered a wig. She searched on the SashaL site for recommendations on what size to get and chose a Monique Gold mohair wig, Faith style, size 8-9 in carrot red, emphasis on the carrot, as you can see in the pictures. It is a beautiful wig, although it doesn't seem to take a curl at all when she tried to set in rags. But I don't mind the straight look. As for the sizing, size 8-9 MIGHT work on an entirely bald English doll, but never in a million years on a doll that had any hair. Fortunately, I'm a bit more petite than the English dolls. She really didn't want to be responsible for cutting my hair off, so she put it up, and actually got this wig to fit (almost). A larger size really would be better in this situation. She was almost tempted to clip the wig in back but glad she didn't have to do that. A bit of my hairline still shows if you lift up my bangs. Sasha says I shouldn't tell you that as you would not know from the pictures otherwise. I'd be a little frightened to pull this wig off and see what kind of hat hair or wig hair I have going on underneath now.

As for clothes, MamaT wanted to find a repro style outfit that looks like something an original 60's Gotz Sasha might have worn. She found something she liked on the Dayzee's website, but alas, Randall Craig was sold out of dresses. He is, however, still selling shoes, and they sell in sets of 3. Well, we had exactly 3 unshod dolls in the house, so that worked out perfectly. We thought 3 pair of shoes for $33 with shipping was a fantastic deal.

MamaT watched Ebay for awhile hoping to find just the right dress. There was one, not exactly repro, but very nice, she watched and then couldn't be there at the close of the auction, so she missed it. In all her searches, she kept going back to Jackie Hyatt's blog, Sasha's closet, and looking at this nice brown cord dress there. I think she was kind of hoping for something turquoise or the black and white check, but the brown cord dress was very common on the Gotz dolls, so she decided to order it and was absolutely delighted with the result. Myself, I love the dress, and I'm really glad MamaT got me this one. It wasn't til after she bought the dress that she realized it was one of the dresses made by Randall Craig that she had wanted in the first place, so I am fully decked in Dayzee's fashion after all. I kind of like my new look. What do you think?

So by the time MamaT paid for shipping, wig, shoes and dress, my total cost was close to $300, which we still think was an astounding deal. MamaT says she had always thought it would be several years before she could save up enough for a 60's Gotz Sasha, so I was a dream come true for her. Literally. She once dreamed she had a doll like me, only that one was blonde. But as we say around here, redheads have more fun. We are kind of dominating the shelf here, but that's a story for the next entry.

I am going to be indulgent and give you 2 links today:
1)Randall Craig's Dayzee's web page. The dresses are sold out, but the shoes are still available.
http://www.randallcraigrtw.com/sasha.html
2)Jackie Hyatt's blog, Sasha's Closet
http://sashascloset.blogspot.com/

Sasha Memorabilia Book 3: Paperdolls and ads

That is to say this is the 3rd entry on the memorabilia book, not the 3rd memorabilia book. I have only 2 photos to share with this entry. Don't forget to click on the photos if you want to see them more closely. The first shows MamaT's Sasha paperdolls. They really are more clear than they appear in the photo.

Going clockwise from upper left: 1) A paperdoll depicting Sasha Morgenthaler as a child by Ann Barden for the 2003 paperdoll contest with Charlene d'Entremont's clothing entries; 2) Gregor & Sasha paperdolls designed by MamaT herself. She had great fantasies of making lots of clothes for them, but never got as far as finishing their underclothes, so there they are in the nude; 3) Paperdolls MamaT colored from the 2000 paperdoll contest that were printed in the Friends of Sasha newsletter. A copy of the original is just below the color dolls; 4) in the center is a Sasha & Gregor by Albert Elia from the May 1996 Doll Collector's Magazine; 5) the winning entries for the Ann Barden paperdoll (which Mama T has not blown up to full size and colored yet), found in Doll Castle News, Nov/Dec 2003 (with lots of other Sasha articles); 6) Baby Sasha paperdolls from Doll Castle News May/June 2004 (artist not named); 7) and finally a very nice set of Sasha paperdolls designed by Harriet Shoup in 1992. MamaT was able to purchase these from Cecile St. Gelais. Dorisanne Osborn has copies of the Doll Castle News issues and Friends of Sasha newsletters. No doubt there were wining paperdoll contest entries printed in the newsletter almost every year.

The second photo shows a sampling of Sasha ads MamaT has collected. There are about 9 pages of them in all, so this shows about half of them, since you can't photograph both sides of a page at the same time.

The link for today is by Anne Dean and her friend Frances. It has some very cute Sasha photo illustrated stories and some great paper dolls for Sasha.
http://www.geocities.com/mysashas/index.html

Strawberry Girl

Hi World, I am very pleased to meet you all. Sasha recently added a map to the blog which shows where some of our visitors are located and was amazed to see we have had visitors from all over the world! U.S., Canada, U.K., and even Switzerland were not so surprising, but how fun to see hits from Australia, Japan, Korea, and even Egypt and Oman. Wow! Thanks to all of you for stopping by!

As promised in the last entry, Sasha has graciously offered me an opportunity to introduce myself. Tadatada! I am Kiltie Grace, a limited edition Sasha doll produced in 1983. Do you know there are only 3,999 other dolls like me in the whole world? MamaT wanted to have one representative of the English limited edition dolls in her collection, and she is a bit partial to redheads, so she chose me. And 1983 is a special year for her since that's when she graduated from high school. She is thinking the strategy has back-fired a bit, because rather than satisfying the craving for a L.E. Doll in the house, she has now become covetous of Velvet (1981, 5000 dolls) Pintucks (1982, 4600 dolls), and Harlequin (1984, 2500 dolls). There were also Prince Gregor (1985, 3000 dolls) and Princess Sasha (1986, 350 dolls), but she doesn't have to have EVERY Sasha ever made. As it turns out, I am more of a strawberry blonde than a red-head though. Tell me, have you ever seen another Kiltie with as light of hair as I have? I'm not trying to be vain or anything, I'm just wondering.

A little about my history: MamaT is ever the bargain shopper, and I was advertised as having a smoky odor about me. Since MamaT was so satisfied with the results of her efforts to de-smokify Lona, she thought she would take the risk and picked me up at a reasonable price, though maybe not the deal of the century. Aside from the faint smoky odor, I arrived in near pristine condition. Tranportation through the mail system always makes a doll a bit fuzzy headed about her past, but to the best that we can tell, it is unlikely that I was ever displayed before. I came in my box (despite the fact that MamaT is not fond of storing boxes), and it appears that my barette was never placed in my hair before. It is also our suspicion that all of my smoke odor seeped in through my box, and I was never really exposed to nicotene in the air. We think this because when my hair was washed, every trace of smoke odor was removed from my hair. She was prepared to put me in the kitty litter/charcoal tub, but realized Lona had been all in pieces during her stay in the tub, and it wasn't large enough to hold a complete doll. Anyhow I was given a washing and put out to air one fine spring day, and that was enough to do the trick in my case. No one can detect a trace of smoke odor on me anymore.

Then it came time to give me a name. It took MamaT awhile to figure out my name. She was all bent on giving me an Irish, Scottish, or Celtic name, and even searched Celtic names on the web. I can't even remember all the names she considered, Martha and Katelynn were a couple. She even considered Tara, but she's not used to sharing her name with others much, so couldn't do it. I just looked at her patiently, knowing she'd figure it out. She came across Grace once and paused, but thought it wasn't Irish enough, so went on looking. But after all the searching, she had to come back to Grace, because it was the only name that fit me perfectly. And so I became Kiltie Grace. Being a Kiltie doll, I always get called Kiltie sometimes, but I had to have a name of my very own too.

And for today's web link, I'll send you to Eric McLeod's site. She lives in New Zealand, but must have some Scottish roots (so how could I resist?), and she must be a very fine knitter.
-- http://homepage.mac.com/pistelli/SashaNZ/Menu7.html
And lastly a few photos of me and some of my new siblings for you to enjoy...
--Kiltie Grace

SASHA FESTIVITIES

The annual Sasha Festival was held in Rochester, New York this past weekend. Gabi and Francine took photos and blogged the event. All we can say is wow, Wow, WOW! There was an incredible display of studio dolls that left us all breathless. I think MamaT went into a trance gazing at photo after photo with her jaw in her lap.

http://poshknits.wordpress.com/
http://sasha3times.blogspot.com/2009/06/sasha-festival-2009-post-1.html
http://sasha3times.blogspot.com/2009/06/sasha-festival-2009-post-2.html

The stay-at-homers like to have a little fun too as a small consolation for missing out on the festival, so they hold a raffle during the festival each year. MamaT offered up an afghan she made last winter. Karinne and Kiltie Grace (to be introduced next entry—I promise) had the honors of pulling the name out of the hat. We were excited the winner was a relatively new member of the SashaL list named Glynis who lives in the United Kingdom. She just got her first Sasha whose name is May. Lona really liked snuggling in the blanket, but she is happy May can enjoy it now. Besides it is summer now, and we won't be thinking about blankets for at least a few more months. Sooner than you think in Montana though.

















While we're on the topic of blankets, we'll post photos, not only of the raffle blanket, but also a matching blanket MamaT made for her granddaughter (who is sound asleep underneath), and another doll blanket Lona had to give up for MamaT's grandaughter's doll, Edith.

PEN PALS

Hi, Today I have the great priviledge of introducing you to some pen pals we (me and the other Sasha dolls here) have met through the Sasha L list. There are so many wonderful nice Sasha people all over the world. Our friends Thyrza (red hair) and Gina (brunette) are from the Netherlands. They are both 1960s Gotz girls, the first we've had the opportunity to post on this blog. Don't forget to click on the photo for a nice close-up look at these girls. Thyrza got her name because she has a bit of an oriental look, and Gina got her name because she came from the Italian part of Switzerland. See we didn't even know there was an Italian part of Switzerland, so we learn a lot from having pen pals. Gina's Mom says she was so gorgeous that a simple name suited her well, and we have to agree. MamaT's grandma grew up in the Netherlands before her family immigrated to Idaho in the U.S. Before that her family lived in the Rotterdam area for many, many generations. Thyrza and Gina live in The Hague. They once got a visit from Tilily, a world traveling Sasha. We will post Tilily's web page today, so you can see pictures from her visit to the Hague and many other places.

http://www.melodymock.com/AllegroMelody/tilily/index.html

Thyrza and Gina also sent us a picture of some of their other family members dressed up in cute Bavarian costumes below. They all belong to a very nice lady named Frances, who has some of the most beautiful Sasha dolls and is very talented with photographing them. Frances has worked with refugees and now makes handicrafts with immigrant children who don't speak Dutch. It sounds very much like something Sasha Morgenthaler would have enjoyed doing. There are often children from East Europe, Turkey and Africa. We hear it is a bit Babylonic at times, but good fun nonetheless. Frances gave us permission to post her photos on this blog. If any other Sasha's out there would like to be our pen pals and send us a photo, we'd be happy to introduce you on my blog too.

Big Book of Sasha Memorabilia 2: Cards

Happy Summer Everyone!
Today I'd like to introduce you to a sampling of cards in MamaT's big Sasha book. First is a set of postcards that was produced by Trendon in the 1970s. There are 20 postcards in all, half of which are shown at left. Note there's a kilt girl like me and a brunnette Gregor in pajama's just like our Gregor Vaughn. It is more common to see blonde Gregor's in pajamas, as only blondes were sold wearing pajamas as far as I know.




Our next set of cards is a set of handmade cards by Anne Votaw, along with 2 postcards of 1990's Gotz dolls, Ruth and Marianne.

Below are some of our favorite cards which depict several studio dolls and were sold at the Sasha Morgenthaler Museum in Zurich, Switzerland. MamaT has never been to Zurich, but she got these on EBay. They were sold in 2 separate lots, and she felt a bit piggish for winning both lots, but no one outbid her, so that's how it goes.

Last is a set of cards MamaT acquired in the past couple years. We think that most of the photos are taken by Shelly in UK. The cards are made and sold by The Label Lady, Michelle Brown. Here is a link to her site.

http://www.picturetrail.com/thelabellady

MONI, MONI

I'll tell you what, the nicer it gets outside, the harder it is to find time for blogging. We dolls don't get out in the winter much, so we love the spring and summer! I have two more dolls to introduce to you, but they are not “real” dolls like Sasha dolls, so they can't introduce themselves, so I will just have to do it for them. Besides they are much too small to learn to type even if they could be real.

These dolls are known as Moni dolls. They were produced by a Swiss company called Uranium in 1979. They are about 7 inches tall, just slightly bigger than the Topper “Dawn doll”. As an aside, a little known fact about MamaT is that she never owned a Barbie doll in her life, although there were a couple Barbie relatives in the house her sisters had, like Francie. Instead of Barbies, MamaT had Dawn dolls, and she and her sister and friends in the neighborhood played with these A LOT. But there is not much trace of the Dawn dolls left, except she found one blue gown at the same time she found my old skirt.

Anyhow, the Moni dolls belong to us Sashas. They are our dolls. Like Sasha's they have tan skin and a nuetral expression, but they are nowhere near the same quality, and are probably not assymetrical. I've never looked closely at that though. They were clearly a copy of the Sasha model, so the Sasha Morgenthaler family filed a complaint and the production of the dolls ceased. There were boy and girl dolls as both blondes and brunettes along with several extra outfits.

We have a brunette boy named Tony, and a blonde girl, named Mona. If I ever get a brunette girl, I think I will name her Joanie. And that just goes to show I'm just as bad as MamaT fantasizing about what doll I'll get next and what I might name her. Tony and Mona are in most of our family group photos, but since they are small, I've cropped a few photos in close up, so you can see them better.

MamaT bought our Tony and Mona from one of the nicest Sasha collectors. Her name was Monica, and she just passed away a couple of months ago. Monica was a great lover of Sasha and Lenci dolls, a talented artist, and had the amazing job of being a braillist (so her Ebay ID was braillistdog). She is very much missed by the Sasha community. Monica always said the dolls were made by Titanium, which was very cute, but off by an atomic weight of 70 (Uranium being 92 and Titanium 22). And no that's not something I ever knew, but Wikipedia is handy for things you don't know like that.

For today's link I'll include the Sasha info guide that Monica wrote for Ebay.
http://reviews.ebay.com/Lets-talk-About-Sasha-Dolls_W0QQugidZ10000000001896972

The Big Book of Sasha Memorabilia: 1. Catalogs

Hi Folks, I've been thinking on introducing you to MamaT's Sasha memorabilia book for sometime, but it is so big and so overwhelming I haven't dared begin it. Finally, it occurred to me that I should take it more like eating an elephant, and just do one chunk of it at a time. At last, it seems doable to tackle it. The memorabilia book started in a one inch binder, but it soon outgrew that, so now it has expanded to a two inch binder, and quite frankly, it has maxed that one out, and she really should upgrade again. You see here we put Angela in the photo for scale. We scanned in a Sasha poster for the cover as the poster won't fit in the binder.

Hmmm. I can't explain to you why this photo loaded sideways. The thumbnail is not sideways. It was not even taken sideways and later flipped. This goes beyond my techno-skill. I am only a doll after all. Click the photo for a closer view.

Our first memorabilia topic is the catalogues. I'll spell it the English way since that is where they were printed. We have two sets, Trendon Catalogues from the 70s & 80s and Götz catalogues from the 90s and early 2000s. First, about the Trendon catalogues. The oldest catalogue we've seen is from about 1969 and has a Sasha lying comfortably in the grass. That is probably the catalogue that would have come with me, and it is one catalog we don't have. The next catalog has the black and white photo cover, leaflet #7 from 1973. Apologies for the flash glare in the photo. We thought we got one without glare, but it turned out too blurry, and we were too lazy to do the whole set up again. This catalogue features both blonde and brunette versions of Sasha in gingham, Gregor in Denim (having a bit of a tussle), babies in nightdresses and babies in overalls (dungarees) called the playsuit. The blonde babies were boys and the brunnette babies girls and were subtly sexed until 1978. There is also Cora in white knit, Caleb in his khaki pants and a black baby girl in white cotton suit with red trim. As in all of the catalogs, there are also a variety of outfits for sale.

Below that (also in the glare) is catalogue or leaflet #12 from 1975. It includes a nice photo inside of the boys playing soccer while the girls look on. The dolls are all pictured on the cover, but since you can't see it well, I'll tell you it has all the same dolls shown on the cover of the leaflet #14 from 1976 which is directly to the right of the 1973 catalog in my photo. Below the 1976 catalog is catalogue #17 from 1979. You can see a few newcomers on the cover of this issue. This is the photo MamaT has a poster of. All the catalogues beginning with the 1979 issue have a photo of Sasha Morgenthaler on the back. We also have a sheet with hair care instructions for Sasha that came with the dolls.

In January 1980 a one page leaflet was printed showing new dolls playing on a slide. This is when the black dolls were changed to a warmer skin tone. For that matter, the fairer skinned dolls were lightened at the same time. Another leaflet printed in September 1980, pictures Sasha Morgenthaler and tells her story on the back. The catalogue #18, printed in October 1980 features the honey blonde silk dress on the cover. Baby Sandy and the brunette Marina doll are also introduced in this issue. In January 1982 a leaflet identified as supplemenmt to catalogue #18 was printed featuring the new dolls, Gregor Redhead cord, Sasha blonde sweater (with short hair) and baby bear. Catalogue #23 was printed in November 1982 and introduces Sasha brunette dancing dress and baby Rosie with honey hair (on the cover). Baby nest replaces baby nightdress here too. Also printed in 1982 was a booklet entitled Where do Sashas come from? It has a photo of the factory on the cover, and explains the manufacturing porcess--very interesting.

Catalogue #25 from 1983 features school boy Gregor and school girl Sasha on the cover. The black baby, Little Flower is replaced by baby Cara, in a pink plaid dress. This catalogue also shows some of the limited edtion dolls, 1981 Velvet, 1982 Pintucks, 1983 Kiltie and 1984 Harlequin. The last issue we have is catalogue #27 from 1985 featuring Sasha blonde tunic, redhead baby Ginger, and Sasha honey blonde party on the cover. Inside, Cora in the flower dress is replaced by Cora in a blue cord dress and 1985 Prince Gregor is added to the limited edition dolls. The small leaflet #31 was also printed in 1985. It is Sasha in motion and features photos of Sasha dolls in a whole series of different poses. And now that is likely more detail on Trendon catalogues then you ever wanted to know. We notice we are missing a lot of issue numbers, but we haven't seen many other catalogues issues besides these available on the internet. A few of these are available on Carol Zody's site or you can just watch for them on Ebay.

And now I am almost burned out on writing and tempted to leave the Götz catalogues for another entry. This part should be shorter though. I will just briefly list who is in each catalogue. There are two catalogues from 2001 which are not Sasha specific, but feature many specialized Götz dolls. By the way, we don't have any Götz catalogues from the 1960s. The recent set is available from Dorisanne Osborn. The last item pictured is a wrist tag booklet that came with Angela. The other “modern” dolls had similar booklets. The limited edition dolls also had their own booklets.
1995: Angela, Maria, Gregor
1996: Laura, Maria, Lilly, Gregor, David, Angela; babies, Patrick, Celina, Andrea
1997: Lilly, David, Barbara, Maria, Muriel, Luisa, Laura; babies Celina, Christina, Patrick, Lukas, Claudia
1998: Luisa, Sarah, Anna, Alberto, Babette (like 1997's Barbara); babies Bianca, Max, Lukas, Claudia, Christa (like 1997's Christina)
1999: Annett, Marina, Trudi, Alice, Alberto; babies Linda, Toni, Jeanine, Bianca, Max
2000: Kyra, Marina, Daniela, Michel, Sofie, Stella, Wibke; babies Julia, Felix, Viktoria, Lena, Karin, Matti, Stine; toddlers Esther, Ollie
2001a: (fair brunette on cover) Ivette, Carmen, Anika; toddlers Iona, Erik; babies Lars, Simon, Meike. Also has dolls by Sylvia Natterer, Hildegard Günzel (Kinderland), Pampolina, Beatrix Potter, and other Götz dolls.
2001b: (Indian doll on cover) Yamka, Ira, Allan, Leon; toddlers Elke, Claudius; babies Lena, Irka, Alek, Like Also features dolls by Susi Eimer, Joke Grobben, Tara Heath, Ulrike Hutt, Didy Jacobsen, Elisabeth Lindner, Carin Lossnitzer, Sissel BjØrstad Skille, Sylvia Natterer, Götz faces, Principessa, and Welcome to the World collections.

I am so sorry for rattling on so long, but I can't leave you without a link for the day. Today's is by Jesse in New Zealand, Sasha Morgenthaler's grandson, about the adventures of his Gregor doll, Angelo.
http://www.picturetrail.com/angelos_world

11 is Enough, or is it?

Okay, Sasha, I know how you are. You are going to type every word I say whether I want you to or not, so I will try not to make any mistakes. Just don't start until I tell you I'm ready, okay. What do you think I should tell them besides introducing myself? Okay, I guess I'll think of something. Okay, I think I'm ready to start now. You can start typing now.

Dear Everybody, My name is Sandra Varlene. I am the last of MamaT's Sasha's to be introduced. That does not either mean I'm the least, Sasha. Now don't type that. I was answering you. Don't talk to me if you don't want me to talk to you. Now back to where we were. My name is Sandra, which is formal for Sandy, which is the kind of Sasha baby I am. How do I explain Varlene? MamaT's Mama, our Gran-Mama is named Arlene. Her sisters sometimes called her Verla as a nickname, so Varlene is a combination of Gran-Mama's name. Even though I am a foster kid here like Tasha and Shyvonne, we all have the same Gran-Mama, so we are like cousins. And I am like a twin to Margot Monique, cuz we are both Sandy dolls. But we are not identical. At least MamaT can always tell us apart. We tried switching places on our shelf and she still wasn't fooled. Problem is, I have sort of a cowlick in my hair that I can't get rid of. NOOOOO, that doesn't mean a cow licked my head when I was a little baby. Sasha, don't be so silly. I'm not going to get off track again. Also, it seems like my hair is slightly darker than Margot's even though we're both honey blonde. That would probably be hard to see the difference in a picture I'd guess. (Pause....)

So now that MamaT has baby dolls, Gregor boys, Sasha (& Cora) girls, brunette, redhead, black, and both platinum and honey blonde dolls, English and German made dolls, and dolls from every decade, '60s, '70s, '80s, and 90s, you would really think that she would have enough dolls by now, wouldn't you? In fact, our shelf is plum full—one more doll and DearDaddy would have to build us another shelf. But I see MamaT at the computer drooling over Gotz dolls like toddlers and Yamka from the modern production, and '60s Gotz dolls even more so, and then she sighs over limited edition dolls like Kiltie or Sari Sasha. Most of these dolls are in the price range where one doll would use up her whole Sasha budget for the year, so I think she can't decide who to adopt next. I mean she could pick up one, and then maybe see a deal on the one she really ALWAYS wanted ALL her life after her budget is spent. Glad it is MamaT who has to worry about all that and not me. We all like having more brothers and sisters. It's fun that way, but poor MamaT is just going to have more and more skids she'll have to sew for or buy clothes for, because almost all of us are in need of some sturdy play clothes. (Pause again...)

But I wish I had lost my shoes like Tasha and Shyvonne. I don't love to wear them. What good are they anyhow? MamaT should relate to that. I've seen her childhood pictures, and she is almost never wearing shoes. My Mama, her big sister, says MamaT's shoes were always lost, and then they would find cobwebs growing in them. MamaT says her only concern about running around shoeless was that she might wind up in Narnia unshod one day and could regret not having shoes on in that case, because you never know what the terrain in Narnia might be like. But it wasn't quite enough motivation to make her actually wear them.

(Long pause....we're waiting, Sandra V....) Well, I think that's all I have to tell them, I mean, you. I'm still talking to everybody, not just you, Sasha. For now, I am the baby of the family. We'll certainly let you know if anyone new comes along to join us. Hope you all have a super terrific day and that spring will be here SOON. (And Sasha says Amen to that!)

--by Sandra Varlene (as dictated to Sasha)

P.S. I have a website to share too. It is Cecile's. We just got some nice paperdolls from Cecile.
http://www.ortakales.com/cecile/
P.P.S. Cecile's site seems to have trouble loading, but maybe the server is just down today, so if it doesn't work today, come back and try again another day. It usually works good.

About Studio Dolls

Tasha's entry below makes me want to talk more about Sasha Studio dolls. I started an entry on this a long time ago and never finished, because there is so much that could be said it is overwhelming, so it's hard to know where to begin, what to say and what to leave out, because I don't want to write a whole book here.

So first, one paragraph about Sasha Morgenthaler. Sasha (a nickname) was born as Mary Magdelena Alexandra von Sinner in Bern, Switzerland on 30 November 1893. She studied painting and sculpture in her late teens/early 20's and married Ernst Morgenthaler, an artist, in 1916. She had 3 children, 2 sons and a daughter and made cloth dolls and animals for them when they were young. Sasha was trained as a mid-wife in 1934, and began doing commissioned art-work in her late 40's. She was 50 when she trained a team to assist her in production of her studio dolls. Sasha traveled all over the world and worked to aid refugees and children around the world. While her studio dolls were beautiful and popular, they were necessarily expensive because of the labor involved. She had a dream to have her dolls mass-produced so they might be affordable for all children to enjoy. This dream was realized in 1964/1965 when she signed manufacturing licenses with Gotz and Frido. She continued making dolls in her own studio and teaching doll making courses until she passed away 18 February 1975.

And now one paragraph on the studio dolls. Do you think I can do that? Sasha's earliest dolls had cloth bodies. Over time she experimented with different materials, such as gypsum (fiber reinforced plaster), wax, and early synthetic plastics. Sasha hand painted the faces on all of her dolls. The faces and even limbs are slightly assymetrical, and they do not have grins plastered on them. Because of this, the dolls can reflect a wide variety of different moods and emotions with a slight tilt of the head and can be sympathetic to any mood of the owner. As a child, Sasha once tried to scratch the grin off one of her dolls when she was feeling sad and her doll was not sympathizing with her. The dolls are proportioned like real children and are well balanced and free-standing. Sasha selected the fabric for each doll's clothing. Most dolls wore simple play clothes similar to what their owner's might wear, but some also wore lovely white dresses (which real little girls sometimes wore too). She made dolls representing all nationalities in the world and all socio-economic classes. Many represented street urchins. She also made commissioned dolls representing real individual children. The studio dolls were made in all different skin tones, though her signature brown-toned dolls were common. Most of the manufactured dolls were made in this brown tone which was intended to be a blending of the colors of all the children in the world.

Okay, one more paragraph. Sasha studio dolls are often identified with a letter and a roman numeral, e.g. Type C III. The letter represents the body type. A is a non-jointed cloth body. B is a jointed cloth body. C represents molded, jointed bodies of reinforced gypsum or synthetic molding. D refers to cloth babies, and E to synthetic or gypsum babies. F babies are similar to E, but the legs are straight and are sometimes called toddlers. The face types are harder to describe without pictures. I is a squarish face, and II is a rounder face, III is an oval face and probably one of the most commonly used, where IV is more of heart-shaped face. Most dolls were signed by Sasha on the sole of the foot. The signature would include Sasha's name, a molding code, the sequential number of the doll for a given year, the year (065= 1965), the body and face type and a code for the molding material. Sasha made roughly 150-200 dolls a year for over 30 years. She also instructed doll making workshops for many years, and her assistant, Trudi Loffler, continued teaching workshops until 1993. The dolls made in these workshops are known as course dolls.

If you want to know more, I recommend Sasha Dolls through the Years by Dorisanne Osborn and Sasha Puppen Sasha Dolls Bentali Verlag Bern mentioned in my entry on Sasha resources. That is where I got most of this information, and they both contain a lot more plus you'll get wonderful pictures besides. MamaT says she will probably never own a studio doll, but has thoroughly enjoyed their pictures in books, magazine articles, cards and on internet web sites. She says she is really grateful Sasha Morgenthaler designed these dolls that give so many people enjoyment, and we dolls, well we wouldn't exist otherwise, so we are REALLY grateful too.

Oh yes, and today's link. For a few more studio dolls, see Kelly's site:
http://www.oursashadolls.com/aboutsasha.html
And for a new site I haven't sent you to yet just for fun, see Lorraine's site:
http://www.geocities.com/loras_sashas/index.html
Here's a sampling of few dolls in the Sasha Puppen Sasha Dolls book. I think the girl in the lower right corner was the inspiration for Yamka.

The Eras of Sasha by Tasha

Well, hello Sasha World! My name is Tasha Rhiannon, and I am an early 80s (1980-1986) Red Pinafore doll, #111. Like Shyvonne, I'm another foster skid here at MamaT's house. My shoes and my blue-checked shirt are missing, but there have been promises at home to search through the doll stuff for them. It took a little longer for MamaT to name me. She thought I'd be getting a different name (not to be divulged now, as it may be used for someone later), but every time she looked at me, she thought “Tasha” instead. Maybe because I have fairer skin (for a Sasha) and dark hair, and I remind her of her sister, Natasha. She tried out a few different middle names too, and finally settled on Rhiannon which has no special significance. It is probably from the Fleetwood Mac song that has a lovely little instrumental piece in it.

Now that my basic introduction is done, I am wondering what I can tell you that hasn't already been told by the others. I wonder if you have been introduced to all the different eras of Sasha dolls there are. First, of course, and most special are the studio dolls made by Sasha Morgenthaler herself with the help of some assistants. Sasha says she is going to write an entry about them some time, so I'm not to go into any more detail for you. Sasha also taught doll-making classes, so there are a number of Sasha “course” dolls out there in the world. Maybe we'll talk more about those in another entry too. The first factory produced dolls were made in Germany by Gotz from 1964-1970. The first time MamaT saw these dolls she didn't like them so well, but over time, they have grown on her a lot. One thing so intriguing about these dolls is that there is such a wide variety of styles. There were several different facial molds and skin tones, hair and eye color and styles. Some interesting variations include the “no-nose” dolls with a flat bridge, and the “yellow-eyed” dolls are unique. Short-haired dolls were often dressed in unisex outfits, so the owner could choose the gender. Later dolls had no navel. Several different artists painted the eyes, and the asymmetry is pronounced, even in the eyebrows. All the Gotz dolls have Sasha Serie in a circle or concentric circles imprinted on the back and neck. Even now, MamaT's least favorite is probably the school boy and girl, and she likes the “Type III” face over the no-nose dolls. We don't have a '60s Gotz doll in the family. We'd have to be prepared to spend at least $500 which would pretty much take care of the Sasha budget for a year. MamaT's first choice would be a redhead, second choice would be brunette, but she'd still be delighted even to get a blonde. She even dreamed she had one once, a very nice dream. These truly are dream dolls.

From 1965-1986 Sasha dolls were manufactured in England by John and Sara Doggart. The company changed names a few times, beginning as Frido Ltd. In 1965, then to Trendon Ltd. In 1970, and finally became Sasha Dolls Ltd. In 1984, but all were made by the same factory, owners, and staff. The earliest dolls through 1967 or 1968 had no philtrum and had more hand painting done on their eyes, which makes them very special. Only one artist at the English factory did the majority of hand-finishing on the eyes for most of the years of production. Some Sasha collectors can tell you the year of production by looking at the face of the doll. Stringing color, clothing style and accessories, and skin tone, which was lighter beginning in 1980, and even height can all give clues to the age of a doll. Rather than give all the details here, if you are really interested in aging your doll, I would recommend Dorisanne Osborn's book, Sasha Dolls Through the Years, as a great resource for any Sasha collector or lover. There were platinum blondes, brunettes, redheads, honey blondes, and black dolls produced. There were boys, girls, and babies, which were subtly anatomically correct until 1978. Besides Cora, there was only one short-haired girl doll produced. From 1981-1986, limited special edition dolls were run, and all the 1986 dolls were limited, because production shut down early in the year. I think those may deserve their own entry later too.

The final era of Sasha doll production was 1995 to 2001 by Gotz again of Germany. Angela Karinne told you about this line of dolls back in her self-introduction. I think many of these points have been touched on before, so I hope my note hasn't been too redundant for you. But that is a little peek at the various lines of production dolls. For some great examples of 1960s Gotz dolls, I am going to refer you to Margaret Williams' page. Click on Gotz Sashas on the left hand side of the page, and then explore all the rest of her links for fun.
http://www.sashadoll-london.co.uk/
--signed Tasha Rhiannon