130 years since Sasha Morgenthaler was born

The Sasha doll groups on Facebook are celebrating 130 years since artist and doll maker Sasha Morgenthaler was born on 30 November 1893 in Switzerland, by sharing photos of our Sasha dolls with each other.

I have photographed a group of our Sasha dolls to celebrate the artistry of Sasha's dolls. There is a nod to her inspiration for the dolls in the form of Trendon Elliott wearing his evacuee outfit which I made for the recent Chat 'n Snap display, as Sasha was greatly moved by the World War II refugees who arrived in Switzerland and subsequently designed the various Sasha doll faces to be quite serious, they are not dolls with cheesy grins!

Her first Sasha dolls were the larger Studio dolls (20 inches tall), it was only later in the 1960s to early 1990s that her doll designs were recreated as 16 inch tall vinyl children and the 12 inch babies and 13 inch toddlers by Gotz and Trendon for commercial production. Our group is mostly Trendon (not the early Gotz as we don't have any of them) and our two later production Gotz toddlers, plus of course my only studio doll Trudi (1965).

Happy 130th Birthday Sasha Morgenthaler

Left to right: Toddler (Claudius) Edmund, (Caleb) Reuben, Studio girl Trudi on her chair, (White dress) Laura, (Marina) Florence, Toddler (Iona) Louisa, Trendon Elliott. Early Trendon babies left to right: Ebony, Davy with his pipe cleaner curled hair and waif Mabel (my first Sasha). They are wearing a variety of outfits by various people.

We won baby Ebony at the most recent Chat 'n Snap in the raffle. My elder daughter named her Ebony and said we should get her a little white kitten called Ivory, but I haven't found one yet.

Thank you to Sasha Morgenthaler for creating these beautiful dolls which have inspired so many of us to design and make beautiful clothes for them.

An unexpected arrival and a birthday or two

30 November is Sasha Morgenthaler's birthday so what better way to celebrate than to tell the story of an unexpected November arrival, using the red haired members of our Sasha family, especially as the author of another famous (fictional) red head was also born on 30 November - Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables).

Edmund, Amy and Laura gathered to wish Happy Birthday to Sasha

They were distracted by someone approaching

"Hello" said Laura, "what is your name?"

"I am Timothy" said the boy shyly as Edmund shook his hand and Amy reached up to him

"Welcome home Timothy" cried Laura as Amy and Edmund cuddled the new boy 

Amy would not let go of her new blue eyed red haired brother

"Happy Birthday Sasha" called Timothy, Amy, Edmund and Laura

Timothy was an unexpected and very lucky arrival.  He has actually been with us since early November but took his time telling us his name (he seemed to smile once we worked it out).  I was walking through a vintage and craft market in our local shopping centre one Saturday morning and chanced to walk towards a stall filled with an assortment of items.  I was attracted to it because dotted around the stall were several dolls but the one who caught my attention and held it firmly was a red haired Gregor in his full original outfit.  He was standing between two other dolls on a wooden upholstered small chair.  I lifted him up, looked at his label which said he was a Sasha doll and gave the price, inspected him and immediately asked if they could hold him for me while I went to the cash machine as they did not take card payments. Barely 5 minutes later I was back with the cash.  It was only then that I discovered the stall was Oxfam, carrying items from 3 local Oxfam shops and their warehouse.  He was sensibly priced and I could not have left him there as we've been looking out for a red haired boy for several months, ever since baby Amy arrived last Christmas.

It was lovely going to pick my younger daughter up from her music group a few minutes later with him sitting on the front seat of the car - seeing her reaction to this totally unexpected arrival was a treat.  My elder daughter, when meeting him on a quick visit home last weekend, was also very pleased that he had joined our doll family, especially because of his hair colour.

His arrival photo shows him just after I had washed his hair, which was dusty and slightly tousled but turned out to be as perfect as the day he left the factory.  He has his complete original blue cord outfit, the elastic in his white shoes is stretched with age but everything else about his outfit is perfect, just slightly dusty (I haven't washed it).  I gave him the long sleeved striped t-shirt I had bought from Ginny of A Passion for Sasha at the Chat 'n Snap a couple of weeks earlier and yesterday bought him the miniature teddy bear at a lunchtime craft market to match his hair and because he seems a shy boy in need of a comforting toy friend.

Timothy, red haired blue Cord boy when he arrived at his new home

All Sasha collectors dream about finding a doll in a charity/thrift shop and I am very lucky that I found a near minty Gregor in this way.

Thank you Sasha, John and Sara

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago, however have been unable to spare a moment to update the blog until now (family, day job and volunteer project have to come first).

(back row l-r) Miranda, Trendon Elliott, Laura, Reuben, Florence
(front row l-r) Baby Leo, Nicholas James, Baby Mabel
say 'thank you Sasha, John and Sara'

This is our tribute from all 8 of our Trendon Sasha dolls (our entire Sasha family, we have no Gotz Sashas) to the memory of Sasha Morgenthaler, John Doggart and Sara Doggart.  Sara died on 26th January in her 102nd year.  Without Sara and John, the Trendon versions of Sasha's wonderful dolls would never have come into being.  They have provided countless hours of fun for many children and adults with these beautiful dolls.

Some of the tributes to Sara on other blogs include:
Theresa http://twizelssashaemporium.blog.co.uk/2015/01/29/gone-but-never-forgotten-20024848/
Lorraine (with Henry) http://sewingforsasha.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/rip-sara-doggart.html
Anne http://sashacomoneo.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/adieu-sara-doggart.html
Kendal https://kendalssashabrood.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/a-sad-sasha-news-announcement/

The day before Sara died, Theresa had published the following article on her blog which is Brenda Walton's story about working with Sasha, John and Sara on the Trendon dolls http://twizelssashaemporium.blog.co.uk/2015/01/25/from-childhood-to-sasha-20010174/

Thank you Sasha, John and Sara for these wonderful dolls and the pleasure they give.  May you all rest in peace.