Sasha exhibition for a local literary festival

Every year the town where we live holds a 2 week literary festival in late January/early February, with a variety of events, mainly talks about books, literary topics or illustrated visits to places around the world plus some musical events with a literary flavour. 

I have participated before, sometimes giving talks (about our street organ and the church organ), mostly attending talks by others, and also playing in our church band in an interactive concert for children (Shake, Rattle and Sing). 

As the Sasha Festival was held locally last year, we created our two Dress a Sasha displays with their much more solid backdrops than we had been able to do for USA Sasha festivals, and we couldn't quite bare to dismantle them after all the work we put into them, so Laura, Miranda, Nicholas James and Timothy have stayed on display in our house ever since in their costumes. This was partly because I had the germ of an idea for the local literary festival. Petrana's theme of English Garden had prompted me to illustrate a favourite story book and my daughter to recreate a pre-Raphaelite painting about an English legend. We also had our 2012 English Sasha Festival Dress a Sasha entries to use, especially as one of them depicts a local nursery rhyme.

At one point I contemplated a talk to explain our displays and the versatility of Sasha Morgenthaler's doll creation for telling stories but a talk was likely to only be attended by adults. What I really wanted was to put on a mini exhibition which would encourage engagement with the themes and stories illustrated by our Sasha dolls and perhaps encourage people to try their hand at creating stories with dolls, props and toys. So I devised what I called a story time and literary treasure trail to complement the exhibition.

I negotiated to use a museum display cabinet already in the local library, it usually displays certificates and trophies won by our local Gardening group who beautify the town. The group very kindly removed all their items from the cabinet for what we thought would be 2 weeks. I think they were happy to do it when I explained two of the displays featured gardens, also they're a lovely group of people.

The day before the festival began, I took a couple of hours off work to set up the exhibition display. First the library manager and I had to adjust the level of the suspended glass shelves in the cabinet, which meant removing both glass shelves (thick heavy toughened glass but we didn't want to drop them!) then adjusting the support rods then placing one shelf back and safely storing the other shelf. This is because I needed height for the displays. I had spent the previous weekend gathering everything needed for the 2012 displays and substituting a couple of items which we no longer owned (a soft toy cow and toy dog for Hey diddle diddle), plus doing some boot swapping because I had reused the 2012 long black boots in 2024 and they were definitely needed with the 2012 outfit.

Setting up the 4 displays was a lot of fun and very satisfying. It was also gratifying to have the positive reactions of the library staff when they came to see how it was going. Then the library manager helped me put up the trail clues around the library walls, her enthusiasm and excitement was infectious. I had an answer sheet for people to use and place into a box for a prize draw once the trail is taken down.

The library manager has promoted the trail and exhibition locally, with the result that one of the local junior schools decided to bring a class of children to use the exhibition to support a creative project they are working on, apparently they brought another class the following week, after the literary festival was over. It turned out parents asked the library to keep the trail and exhibition up for a few weeks longer so they could use it for a half term activity. We checked with the literary festival organisers plus the gardening group and town council who all agreed it could stay up for longer. I had a lovely email from one of the gardening group who did the trail with her 12 year old grandson, they both enjoyed it. The lights in the display cabinet were repaired shortly after we set up the display by one of the gardening group, then PAT tested to ensure they were safe to use.

As two of the displays feature nursery rhymes, the library manager and I brain-stormed ideas of how to use those with the youngest children who visit the library for story time. I happened to mention that we have some old nursery rhymes arranged for our street organ and showed her pictures of the organ. The result was the fun we had at the weekly story time session during the literary festival - we brought the street organ into the library for the children, their parents and grandparents to enjoy singing along to the nursery rhymes we had, plus singing others we don't yet have on the street organ. My husband now has a list of another 9 nursery rhymes to arrange and add to the 6 we already play! This session was also part of the literary festival (though the library does story time every week, the two in the literary festival had special literary themes).

So for your enjoyment, in this post are photos of the Sasha dolls on display, plus some photos of the trail sheets around the inside of the library.

We're already discussing a display and trail for next year, possibly featuring our 2017 and 2022 Sasha festival Dress a Sasha entries.

Hey diddle diddle - updated from the 2012 Dress a Sasha assembled by my then 8 year old daughter

Fair Rosamund - 2024 Dress a Sasha by my daughter 

Fair Rosamund and Hey diddle diddle on the upper shelf

Ride a Cock Horse - my updated 2012 Dress a Sasha display

Ride a Cock Horse

Reuben as the ostler

A Secret Garden - my 2024 Dress a Sasha

Mary, Dickon and Colin in the Secret Garden

The Secret Garden and Ride a Cock Horse in the display cabinet

Library books of nursery rhymes, dolls houses and The Secret Garden

The literary trail sheets were on walls and windows around the library.

Start of the literary trail Sheets 1, 2 and 3

Sheets 4 and 5

Sheets 6 and 7

Sheets 8 and 9

Sheet 10

Sheets 11 and 12

Sheet 13

Sheets 14, 15 and 16 then instructions to go upstairs for the next sheets

Sheet 17

Sheet 18

Sheets 19 and 20

Sheets 21, 22, 23 and 24 on the wall beside the display cabinet

The display cabinet from the side

Today, as half term is over, my daughter and I removed the displays from the cabinet and adjusted the shelves back to their former positions in readiness for the gardening group certificates and trophies.

I took these photos just before we removed the doll displays earlier today after 5 weeks on display in the library.

Fair Rosamund and Hey diddle diddle with the lights on in the cabinet

The Secret Garden and Ride a Cock Horse just before we removed them from the cabinet

The display cabinet open and lit up just before we removed the displays

Me with the doll display just before we removed it today

Sasha Festival 2024 Day 1 - arrivals and gift exchange

The 2024 Sasha Doll Festival was held in Hotel La Tour, central Milton Keynes, UK from 20-23 June. it was organised by Petrana, with advice, help and assistance from Dawn L and many others. The overall theme was 'Embracing Sasha's Magic, Creativity and Friendship in England'.

The 2024 festival was local to us so we only had a 15 minute drive to the hotel, where my husband dropped us off with all our boxes, bags, dolls and display items. We arrived at the hotel on the Thursday afternoon to be greeted by several Sasha enthusiasts in the lobby, a wonderful meeting of old and new friends. Once we had checked into our room, we went to the refreshments area on the conference floor to chat with others, I handed over my donations to two of the 5 special doll raffles, helped JoAnn a little with setting up a Raffle doll display in the conference room and brought the festival journal down from Dawn's room on my trolley to Kim B who was setting up to run registration. Then it was time for registration, after which we entered the conference room for the gift exchange.

For the gift exchange activity, I had made a tweed skirt with a Shetland wool cardigan, wrapped it carefully and labelled it as instructed.

Melanie models the gift exchange outfit I made of a Shetland cardigan and tweed skirt

My daughter participated in the gift exchange, I watched and took photos. At previous Sasha festivals we have attended, the gift exchange has been done as a 'pass the parcel' activity in a big circle. This time, the gift exchange game was designed to encourage each person to talk about something Sasha related, our interest in Sasha, what we do with Sasha, which Sasha dolls we collect, etc. Janet had printed out cards with various topic options on them and the participants could choose which topic they would talk about when it was their turn. The first person was picked and chose a topic, talked for a few minutes, selected a gift from the bag and read out the name of the gift giver but did not open the gift. The gift giver became the next person to choose a topic to talk about and select a gift and so it went on. No one opened their gifts until the last person had spoken and received their gift, then everyone was instructed to open their gift. We found out lots of interesting things about each other and our dolls in this exchange of information and gifts, it was fun.

Janet explains the gift exchange activity

The gift my daughter received in the gift exchange game

Listening to Sasha stories during the gift exchange

Selecting a gift from the bag

Opening the gift

Wow - panda outfits for baby and toddler by Olga of Ukraine, donated by Kim O - thank you

Dressing our baby Nina in her Panda outfit

Baby Nina as a panda sitting with another baby dressed as a lion

Edmund wearing his panda hood and boots, Nina wears her panda onesie

The gift item we had donated to the game was received by Jane W.

After the gift exchange it was 'dinner on your own' so we popped into the centre to pick up a takeaway snack as we had our main meal at lunchtime when still at home. Then we returned to chat to others before going to our room.

Trudi, Trendon Elliott, Louisa, Melanie, Nina and Edmund in our hotel room

Sasha Festival 2024 DollMum's donations to the baby and Gregor raffles

I made two items to donate to two different raffles at the 2024 Sasha Festival.

A baby doll raffle was compiled Florence from the USA. She needed toys for the baby, so I made one of the push along duck toys I had originally designed for the craft workshop I ran at the 2017 Sasha Celebration Weekend. 

Push along duck for the 2024 baby doll raffle

Push along duck for the 2024 baby doll raffle

The Gregor raffle was compiled by Dawn in the UK and she said the boy had clothes but not many toys or accessories. I created a version of the ostrich marionette I had designed for the craft workshop at the 2016 Sasha Celebration weekend. I had one spare hand controller from that workshop but did not have any spare body parts, with no time to make another body, I searched through my stash of wooden beads and devised a variant of the 2016 design using a large red wooden bead plus a small red wooden bead. I still  had the packet of colourful feathers which some people had used at the workshop to decorate their ostrich marionettes, so used some lime green feathers for his head and tail.

The 2024 version of the bird marionette, made for the Gregor raffle doll

The marionette controller, all I had to do was add the strings as the controller was made in 2016

Florence collected the push along duck from me soon after we got to the hotel and I found Dawn in the room where all the special doll raffles, helper raffles, displays and Children's fund auction items were being set up on the Thursday afternoon, so was able to hand over the marionette to her. Later, when she was setting up the raffle display she was entertained by the ostrich marionette it is possible to make him 'walk along' by moving the controller.

 

Chat n Snap 2022

This year Dee changed the theme of the Chat 'n Snap in response to the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The idea was to find a picture of the late Queen, King Charles or any of the British Royal family and replicate it with a Sasha doll or two. We had done some sorting through our large collection of clothes for Sasha in the week before the event and I had no time to make something new. We chose to depict Princess Charlotte as a baby in a smocked dress with a ribbon in her hair, because that style of clothes is regularly used for dressing younger members of the British Royal family. My younger daughter carefully styled baby Daisy's hair after dressing her in a smocked dress made by the late, lovely Marilyn H.

Baby Daisy as Princess Charlotte

Princess Charlotte with the Scottish piper

The display this year was in front of the St Ippolyts wall hanging rather than on the stage. It was a small but lovely display of several dolls depicting associations with royalty.

The Scottish bagpiper piping for the King

Katherine, Princess of Wales

A close up of the Princess of Wales

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis

Modern royal children always wear very classic traditional clothes for official occasions, such as the baptism of Prince Louis

The late Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Platinum Jubilee this year

Jennie W made a replica of the late Queen wearing her Platinum Jubilee outfit

The late Queen Elizabeth II with her corgi, handbag and Paddington bear

A very regal outfit for the late Queen

Many other dolls had come to the Chat 'n Snap and were displayed on a couple of tables nearby. We had changed some of our dolls into fresh outfits, so Trendon Elliott got to wear one of the Sasha Festival souvenir outfits (the snow suit), Nicholas James put on jeans to go with the rainbow hoodie I had bought for him at the 2021 Chat 'n Snap, Miranda wore an outfit she won on the raffle at the Sasha Festival, Laura still wanted to wear her goth style outfit she had won in the raffle at the Dolly Jolly and Florence wore a dress I won in the 2021 Chat 'n Snap plus a jacket I bought at the festival. Toddler Louisa wore an outfit I bought from Lynne F at the Festival and Edmund wore his union jack waistcoat made some years ago by my younger daughter. 

At the Dolly Jolly in May we had won a baby Ginger on the raffle, along with her quilt, a second outfit and a teddy bear. Baby Amy wore the second outfit (made by Rosie Laird) and they shared two pairs of green / lime shoes, wearing one of each pair while playing with their monkey (knitted for me by a church friend last Christmas). While she was admiring our red haired baby twins at the Chat 'n Snap, Jennie W suggested a name for our newer baby: Robin.

Our babies Amy and Robin with their monkey, toddlers Louisa and Edmund, with Trendon Elliott, Nicholas James, Miranda, Laura and Florence behind them, surrounded by some Little Darlings, Teddy's BJD and Sasha dolls, with Hans the studio doll in the background

Alice's boys dressed in their shorts

Some of Alice's dolls on display

I think these Sasha dolls also belonged to Alice

Hans the studio doll, Curly and the rare Trendon toddlers

Gotz and Trendon girls in cardigans, with a pair of rerooted girls in the background

Three girls wearing name tags, plus a Sasha who I think belonged to one of the children attending the event

Three little ones with some unique hair styles and colours

An assortment of Sasha dolls

The two Jackie Rydstrom rerooted girls

I didn't take photos of the sales tables this year, except for this one photo of Trisha's beautiful sewing and embroidery, before the sales officially opened.

Tricia's lovely girls and needlework

We had limited ourselves to only buying for the boys this time as our recent sort out of all our Sasha clothes revealed plenty of dresses and outfits for our girls, with far less choice for our boys. We bought two pairs of trousers (cargo pants and corduroy trousers) from Ginny, 13 Sasha World magazines from Jocelyn, a Christmas sweatshirt and a Christmas hoodie from Dollydoodles, and some gorgeous fabric and tiny buttons from Jane.

Teddy had brought his restringing equipment and spent much of the time restringing dolls for people, I got a ring side seat for taking photos as Teddy and Alice were at the same table as us for the day.

A beautiful No Philtrum girl was restrung ahead of being shipped overseas to her new owner

The notorious Curly had his arms restrung (too much use of your gavel Curly)

One of the dolls whose arms needed restringing was Hans the studio doll.

Hans before his arms were removed for restringing

Threading through the new elastic cord

Teddy restringing Hans

Tying the knot in the stringing

Hans being redressed after his arms were restrung

Hans being redressed

Hans holding up his arm to show he can do so!

Close up of Hans, photo taken with my macro lens to show his beautiful Sasha hand-painted eyes

Another doll who attended the Chat 'n Snap was Amelie, the very rare Sasha baby who is a life size version of a new-born infant, she is made of some kind of wax compound so has a translucency to her appearance which does make her look very fragile and lifelike. I held her while my daughter Dmd took photos of her with my macro lens and camera on the tripod.

Baby Amelie being held by DollMum

Baby Amelie

Baby Amelie

Close up of Baby Amelie, taken with the macro lens by DollMum's daughter

We were fortunate enough to win 5 prizes in the raffle (which raised £400). Our prizes were two Dollydoodles outfits (sweatshirt, tracksuit bottoms & beanie, plus jeggings), some fabric (blue fat quarters), a green patterned pinafore dress, a tartan skirt and red cardigan.

Thank you Dee and family for another very enjoyable Chat 'n Snap.