Good Questions: Waldorf Dolls

Marissa sent us an email: "I was wondering what can you tell me about Waldorf dolls? I was recently at my son’s new preschool school orientation and I heard some of the moms talking about Waldorf dolls. I just nodded and followed along, but had no idea what they were talking about? What are they? What’s so special about them?"

That's a good question, Marissa. A staple of Waldorf education, Waldorf Dolls were introduced at the end of W.W.I at the first Waldolf School in Germany.

Boys and girls at the school received a doll whose purpose was to develop the children’s sense of nurturing and compassion, as well as to encourage their creative play and imagination.

Waldorf Doll faces have simple expressions so as not to steer the child’s play in a certain direction but to let children take the lead. Waldorf Dolls are usually handmade and constructed with natural, organic materials. The simplicity of the dolls seems to go hand in hand with green design.

Since custom made Waldorf Dolls are quite pricey, we’re partial to Joy’s Waldorf Dolls for their how to patterns and DVDs. We also love Island Treasure Toys for their inexpensive baby Waldorf Dolls (only $20) and to Willow Tree Toys for their line of Fair Trade dolls.

Does your child have a Waldorf doll? Are you a fan, or not so much?

Photo by Echoes of a Dream.

Comments (5)

So I guess what makes them Waldorf is that they have no expressions? If you look at "Furnis Spielwelt Waldorf dolls" on that Treasure Toys web site, they look pretty much like Groovy Girls. Is it that if you buy them from a web site, and not Hasbro or Mattel or some other non-green evil capitalist entity or whatever, then they are Waldorf?

posted by MEP on July 9th 2007 at 7:16am
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Given that you're absolutely right about the resemblance to Groovy Girls, I think the Waldorfosity may be the bit about being sewn from linen that was woven on a hand-powered loom. Or it may just be that these are aimed at parents who've never set foot in Target or Big Lots.

I was going to give them huge points for offering non-Caucasian families, but then I noticed the African-American family is dressed for the era of slavery, the Native American family is dressed to do rain dances for the tourists (bets on whether their garb is appropriate for a tribe with teepees?), and the Asian family is apparently in pre-Meiji Japan. *sigh*

posted by wende in the twin cities on July 9th 2007 at 7:37am
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What are Groovy Dolls?

posted by Alex on July 9th 2007 at 7:47am
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These are Groovy Girls:
http://www.reallygreattoys.com/ItemList.aspx?type=cat&id=574

Either they rotate new members in and out, or there were knock-offs, as I've definitely seen something similar at Big Lots for way cheap.

One could have an entire socio-economic system in the nursery... the linen-woven Waldorf girls as the upper-middle class who go to Vassar, the Groovy Girls as the middle class who aspire to get beyond the state university, and the Big Lots knock-offs as the lower-middle class who live on the wrong side of the tracks. (Oops... maybe that's not the lesson anyone had in mind.)

posted by wende in the twin cities on July 9th 2007 at 7:54am
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I just got a Waldoft doll for my 20 month old daughter from the Peruvian Q'ewar project (http://qewar.com/), an organization creating economic empowerment for Andean women. The doll is really extraodinarily well-made, and my daughter really likes it (although I have to say she was not that into the native wool clothing the doll came with and I had to make it a little cotton dress for my daughter to really start playing with it. But I would recommend them - soft, poseable, and as anti-Bratz as at all possible.

We also have a groovy girl (Analise), and she is not nearly as popular with my daughter.

posted by fortytworoads on July 9th 2007 at 8:27am
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