Kokeshi Dolls

  by  jek in the box 

HISTORY
Kokeshi dolls are Japanese dolls originally from Northern Japan. They are handmade from wood and have a wooden trunk and a few simple lines to give detail on the face and kimono (traditional Japanese dress).  The dress is usually black, red and sometimes yellow, covered with a layer of wax to make it shiny. Kokeshi dolls lack arms and legs and on the bottom of every kokeshi doll there is the signature of the artist who  made it.

HOW WE MADE THEM
We made our kokeshi dolls by recycling vitality yoghurt pots and sanding them down until they were smooth and easy to paint. We mixed glue and paint to help the paint stick. We put one coat of one or two colours and then put designs on them. Every single one was different and lovely. For the heads we used polystyrene balls, about the same size as a ping-pong ball, which we drew faces and hair on them. When they were dry we glued the head to the body and left it to dry. Once we had left them to dry, we varnished them to make them shiny and to stop the pen on the head from smudging. When we were finished we had an army of kokeshi dolls. We hope you try making them at home too!