 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Community
|
Hello Sing Prince - Web Surfing Dolls Remember the Teddy Bear's Picnic in Sydney, where big, burly bikers with heavily tattooed forearms, grouchy moustaches and pony tailed hair, raced through town on their Harleys with their favorite teddy bears strapped to the back seat of their bikes? They were on their way to a bear gathering where bears were supposed to socialise.
Well, guess what! Ooi Yin Yin feels that we should have our own gathering for our toys. But Unlike the gatherings of the bikers, ours will be much sophisticated - the toys will be exchanging their experiences though the net! This 24 year old Housing, Building and Planning graduate has designed and produced a range of dolls with a pedigree of their own. They are not your usual type of doll but rather, strange looking creatures. Made from cloth and felt, some resemble pillows with arms and legs. Often the face is too small for the head and one even resembles a cactus.
She came across a book showing weird looking dolls and the idea was born. "My first doll is this yellow polka dotted one and he is named Sing Prince". This is also her favorite as her mother told her that she had used material that was 20 years old, bought especially for Yin. When asked what she calls her dolls, she says that she just has tem under a family name. "They are called Family Keru as 'ru' in Chinese means deer". They also come in a series. Under the Sing Prince Series there is one in a sailor suit, made when she had a desire to go sailing in cooler temperatures. The cactus doll is a sub-series of the Sing Prince. There are also a few that actually look like rag dolls! "Some of the dolls have very big heads and this is because they are very imaginative and need more space for their brains", she reasons when asked why the pillow effect. And ,No, the rest of the pillow is not the body, it is still the head.
So why has she decided to start a blog/website for her dolls? Well Yin Yin grows attached to each doll she makes and is hoping to find them good homes. With the blog/site, she hopes to keep in touch with them and provide them with a forum at which they can exchange their experiences and share their adventures. Personally, it seems like such a nice way for friends, and to make friends, to stay in touch. You
will find Yin Yin and her dolls in the December Market, where she is
finding homes for her dolls next to her close friends, the Venetian
mask makers. Her
website is www.wretch.cc/blog/clockscient __________________________________ Written and photographed by Ambiga Devy © All Rights Reserved |
Stories
of Vendors
Yin
Yin started making the dolls by accident. "During our convocation,
my friends wanted to exchange meaningful gifts", she said. "Since
I was not working, my gifts had to be personal but not expensive."
Each
doll is given a name, a birth date and a birth certificate. They are
literally pedigreed as Yin Yin makes very few of them, each one of a
kind. "I allow the designs to come to me naturally and this very
much depends on my mood'" states this gentle, shy person. "It
takes between 2 hours to a day to make a doll". She is very adamant
that each doll is a life, all on its own.