In my first blog entry I mentioned a set of tiny wooden dolls that my Grandma Betty gave me as a gift from her trip to Japan in the 70’s. I moved to Seattle in 1995 and somehow those little dolls made the cross country trip with me. I love perusing junk shops and antique stores and the Northwest has no shortage of great shoppy opportunities. Seattle has a large Japanese population which means lots of Japanese antiques! I began to notice these dolls in the stores; they reminded me of my Fisher-Price wooden dolls. I started to collect this foreign form of folk art in the late 90’s. Ebay came along and once I typed, “wooden Japan folk art doll” into the search the world of the kokeshi opened up to me.

Fast forward to 2015 and I’m about 500 dolls in and committed to a large collection that has greatly influenced my artwork over the years.

More posts to come about my other collections….PS: I’m on my way to opening up my own museum!