Why Making dollhouse

Why Making Dollhouse

I always love dollhouse. Everything’s small, the bed, the chairs, the kitchen, all furniture are small.  I once had a dollhouse. Not a very good one but at that time I loved it very much, Blue box dollhouse (plastic dollhouse made in China).  I gave it to my cousin but she didn’t take good care of it.

But there is no shop in my country that sells dollhouse, let alone miniatures. There are quite a few craft shops that sell miniature furniture actually but they didn’t always have them in stock.  So I try making one.

You don’t have to have a dollhouse if you want to have a miniature rooms. You can always use whatever container that you can find. In my case I use a cardboard box. You can find cardboard box in a gift store. Or you can use anything that you can find in your house. Just like these pictures I found in the internet. And the furniture, you can buy cheap dollhouse furniture and repaint it to make them look like the real things. And if you can’t find any furniture that you want, you can always make them (like I do) from bits and pieces. If you want to use wood, you can use balsa wood. Just use your imagination. 

One thing that you have to remember that you have to make dollhouse and the furniture in the same scale.  It will look pretty weird if the dolls are bigger than the furniture.  So if you want to make a dollhouse, or if you just want to store your daughter’s Barbie furniture in a more presentable way, be inspired with these pictures.

History of Teddy Bear

Taken from Collector's Weekly

Teddy bears are among the most cuddled and beloved of childhood companions, but they are relatively new in the world of toys. The story of their U.S. origins is probably the most famous. When President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt failed to make a kill on a hunting trip in November of 1902, his companions caught a bear cub and tied it to a tree to give him an easy target. The President would not fire. Instead, he declared, "Spare the bear! I will not shoot a tethered animal."

Washington Post artist Clifford K. Berryman immortalized the scene when he drew it in a political cartoon for the paper called "Drawing the Line in Mississippi." That month, Brooklyn store owners Morris and Rose Michtom made a stuffed bear doll, called "Teddy's Bear," and placed it in their display window with the cartoon. The bear was a sensation, prompting the Michtoms to found the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.

Meanwhile, around the same time in Germany, Richard Steiff created a soft toy bear for his aunt, Margarete Steiff, who owned a big toy factory. Steiff's idea for the bear, called a Bar 55PB, came from his drawings of the animals at the Stuttgart Zoo. An American wholesaler, George Borgfeldt, discovered it at the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1903, and promptly ordered 3,000 of them. By World War I, Steiff had sold millions of these toys in the United States, Germany, and England.

Steiff bears made between 1903 and 1905 are the most-sought after. They feature hump backs, long snouts, long arms with curved paws, and big tapered feet—after 1905, the trademark Steiff button was sewn into their ears. The earliest Ideal teddy bears, which are also highly valued, look very different; they have triangular faces, chubby bodies, and long straight limbs.

The heyday of teddy bears was between 1906 and 1908, during Roosevelt's second term. Along with regular bears, manufacturers produced novelty models, like the 1907 Laughing Roosevelt Bear by the Columbia Teddy Bear Company, which featured the president's large teeth. The 1917 Patriotic Bear, made during World War I, was red, white, and blue and had electric light bulbs for eyes.

Before World War II, many new teddy-bear makers got their start. In Germany, Bing made mechanical bears while Schuco focused on miniature bears. Hermann bears from this period are also highly regarded. In Great Britain, Dean's started making bear toys in 1915, while Merrythought got into the business in 1930. J.K. Farnell made the original "Winnie the Pooh" bought for Christopher Robin in 1921.

Other early-century teddy-bear makers include Harwin & Co., Chad Valley, William J. Terry and Chiltern in England; Knickerbocker, Bruin, Aetna, and Gund in the United States and Joy Toys in Australia.


After the war, the U.S. market was overwhelmed with cheap plush toys from Asian factories. By the end of the '60s, the traditional teddy bear seemed to be on the verge of extinction. But when teddy bear collector Peter Bull published his 1969 book on his obsession, interest in old-fashioned bears surged. Christie's hosted the first auction devoted to antique and vintage teddy bears in 1985, the same year the Teddy Bear Artists Guild was founded in the United States.