Birthday Gift Dolls

The tradition of giving a doll for special occasions has very ancient origins.

Our dolls are prestigious gifts. Historically, the doll has been gifted to a bride on the occasion of her wedding, to a child for communion, for special occasions and birthdays. 

As collectible and personalized dolls, they are suitable for teenagers aged 14 and up and for adults. 

Portrait Custom made Dolls

What is a Portrait doll?

A portrait doll is a soft crocheted figure made to resemble someone you love.

We make our dolls to honor a special bond between people that love each other.

For example a mother and a daughter share a special bond. A mother's love is irreplaceable and cannot be compared to any other form of love. The relationship characterized by love, warmth, affection, and care is unique.  To honor this warm and unique bond, we make dolls to speak of the special love a mother has for her daughter. 

A unique handmade portrait doll that resembles your daughter, 

is a piece of art. A soft, warm and affectionate figure, to hold and embrace, is a symbol of a bond that is unique and irreplaceable.

Making a Personalized Doll is a wonderful experience.

You can choose your favorite colors, dress, shoes, hairstyle and skin color. The eyes are of course the most beautiful part of the doll as they give life and character to this handmade soft sculpture.

Your Doll will look at you with a kindness everyone deserves.

Personalized Portrait Dolls

You can choose the colour of the doll's eyes and hair, and clothing, so that the doll gets to represent you, your loved ones, or just someone you wish to remember and is dear to you.

You can choose dolls in different sizes and different dresses. With blue, green or brown eyes and colorful hair. 

Alpaca or mohair looks the prettiest on the doll. So this is our choice, to give the dolls goat hair. And it fits our tradition perfectly. Did you know that Istria has a goat in her coat of arms? 

 

Traditonal Costume Dolls

Our traditional costume dolls represent the inhabitants of Istria, a peninsula in the north Adriatic. 

 

The dolls are dressed in costumes typical of the Renaissance and were worn until World War II, or costumes that originated in the 19th century during the formation of nations in Europe. Some elements of the costumes are ancient, they have Slavic roots and date back to antiquity. Some are typically Mediterranean and date back to the Serenissima period of the Venetian Republic.

The photographs of our dolls in traditional costumes (courtesy of Nataša Fajon) are from the local exhibition

MALI KOPRČANI / PICI CAVRESANI / LITTLE CAPODISTRIANS

that took place in October 2022.

We make dolls since 2020

We started making dolls in june 2020.

Alenka designed her dolls in different costumes, to fit folk songs she grew up with and to bring her book characters to life. 

Istrian folk tradition in most delightful and fulfilling, since it embraces traditional witchcraft and fairy faith. 

 

Istria is Terra Magica.  

Interestingly, we discovered that when little girls come to choose their doll, they always pick the one that looks the most like them. That's why we started making Portrait Dolls.

 

Making Unique Crochet Dolls is a Dream come true

Our crochet dolls are made of Cotton yarn that is OEKO Tex Standard 100. We use many colours of yarn and love to give each doll some individual qualities. 

 

Hand embroidered doll's eyes

Our dolls have hand embroidered eyes. They are carefully made. We embroider the eyes with needle and cotton thread using at leas two colors for the iris of the eye. This gives the dolls a unique look. They sey taht the eyes are windows to our souls. We belive you can mirror yourself in the kindes of our doll's eyes.   

 

The bodiy of the doll

is crocheted as we go, from the soles up to the head. And the crochet goes in rounds, that turn out to be like spyrals. There's some magic meaning attributed to the spiral symbol throughout human history. And we love all things magical, indeed.

For the filler, we use non-allergic toy stuffing, that is also

OEKO Tex certified.

 

 

No wire, just soft filler. So the dolls have a tenderness that we aspired for.  

Each doll comes with a wooden stand,

that we make ourselves. So you can put the doll on a stand and have her in your favorite spot in your home. 

Our dolls are Unique Handmade Crochet dolls

that we make with love, care and diligence. We hope they bring you as much joy as they brought us by making them.