BluFrogg Gardens – a Retrospective Look
Here at BluFrogg Gardens, we’ve been making and selling dolls since about 1980. These are all porcelain dolls, made by doing an initial sculpt. making a mold, and then casting that mold in porcelain slip. The pieces then have to be fired in a kiln, painted with special paints, and fired again. That was Ralph’s job. Then Mary would get the pieces, parts, and create the bodies and costumes.
Now that we are exploring molded cloth dolls, we thught some folks might like to see what we did earlier. Somewhere, we have a booklet with all the dolls and all the registration numbers, but a gestimate would be that we’ve made about a thousand dolls. These are just a few.
This is the Country Lady. We used this theme many times, with different fabrics and faces.
This is a later doll, Adrienne Louise. The dress is lace and handkerchief linen. We only made a few of these.
This is Ralph, working on our handbuilt Victorian.
A Belly Dancer! What fun to costume!
Aanother Dancer! The arms and legs are poseable.
Ralph, Mary, and our daughter, Laura. A while ago, I think! We are in Monterey, CA.
This is the "Gepetto" face....but softened to be an old lady. The fabric is antique kimono silk.
This is a one of a kind. The porcelain pieces were glazed and hand painted. The fabric is antique kimono silk, and the hair is wool, from my sheep.
This is a typical doll show table. The country lady theme is present, but it also has evolved into a gypsy, and a shepherdess.
This doll was never put into production. I wonder if I can do it in molded cloth.
This is stephanie, with freckles. She was very popular!
We've only had snow on the ground once. I'm protecting something under my jacket, maybe a camera.
This is the Adrienne Louise face, but with decoration, and kimono silk. A one of a kind.
This is Ralph giving a class/demonstration at a doll show.
And this is Ralph giving classes at our home. We called it DollCamp.