THE HISTORY OF SAPPALOTTAS
Sappalottas' history starts with "Eva". Eva was my favourite doll.
I clearly remember my first moments with her. My mother's friend Dagmar gave Eva to me surprisingly.
I remember sitting on the backseat of the car. It was cold, I covered her with my clothes. I loved, bemothered and protected her from the first moment and I was so happy about her!
As a matter of fact Eva was often mocked by other children and even grownups, as she had just a little bit of hair under her cap, she was actually nearly bold.
But just as a mother loves her newborn child that is nearly bold I found Eva just perfect!
A doll is never just a doll for it's doll-mother. For the child it's a living, sentient being.
It's a gate to one's inner world, to one's wishes and conflicts and a companion through childhood.
In retrospect they often seem to have been family members through a period of lifetime.
Of all toys that attend us, dolls and cuddly toys will represent our inner feelings the most. It is a very individual thing which toy or doll we like the most.
In Evas case I loved her so much for her smile (I could still play she was sad or angry) and I loved her being SOFT and warm!
I didn't like the hard and cold doll-bodies. The soft and warm body of Eva felt like a real human being to me and that was mainly what I loved for years.
Therefor all Sappalottas are warm and soft!
The idea of handcrafting dolls and figures on my own of course came along with my own children.
They are my daily inspiration.
Although they are not interested in dolls at all, they are Roll-Players, creative heads und create all kinds of new ideas and nonsense, that inspires my own phantasy and creativity.
In the meantime we frequently needlefelt together, which, as you can imagine, is a real pleasure for me.
The wonderful art and craft of dollmaking I was tought by my beloved friend Alexandra Iser. I am very thankful for that.
You can admire her beautiful handbags at:
My needle-felted Waldorf-figures have quite the same background as the dolls:
By looking at them I want us to dive into a little secret world, to let our phantasy flow, to be told some fairy tales and to make us happy just to see them. At least that is my goal!
