No its so good to hear from you and I figured it out too!  I went to my suppliers

last week and I asked them what the situation was with Seeleys!  I love their bodies

but I prefer to do my own!  I do what they do I preserve them with the latest of

sealants and glues on the market today which are awesome!  We have a guy here

who makes fantastic bodies but he is in trouble too!  What the problem is all the people

that used to do the french and German dolls are mostly gone and the ones that are

doing it now are only doing it for themselves so there is no market for them here!

Because of the fall in the dollworld all the big companies are falling apart!  I am too doing

shows to keep alive, but lately I have had people visiting my web site and ordering dolls

cause of the slump of our dollar!  I am building a Barn to fulfil my dreams or more or less

to get rid of the dolls I have!  I have been in business nearly all my life with the dolls or

the crafts I have made.  It all started when I first got married and I needed refrigerator, dining suite,

bedroom suit and the basic necessity for a newly married couple!

In those days I sat down and made those Holly Hobby Dolls out of cloth and sold hundreds and hundreds!

My poor husband stuffed them and I did all the putting together and sewing!  I sold them where I worked

in them days I used to do casual office work so it was great moving around to different places I could sell them

and doing the local craft markets, wow it helped a lot and then I started to do the porcelain dolls!

It wasn't till years later when I went on Holidays up the coast I met a lady who had a Barn and it was done up

like Xmas all year round!  It wasn't the dolls or things but the set up!  I couldn't get it out of my mind!  She

sold it and ended up getting heaps of monies for the whole setup which was in the mils!  I remember her saying to

me I started out of nothing and nowhere just made the best of the best that nobody could copy!  You can do

that Natascha!   that rang through my head for years!  and now I shall begin the adventure!  Have to start in the

beginnings of time again!  I am so lucky that the ladies that sold out I had bought all the body moulds!  I

have been experimenting years with them!  I find that all you do is study the beginnings!  I have a lot of the

real dolls I bought years ago and take moulds of the bodies myself!  Today with technology things are little easy!

I have rung all the people that dealt with it and made bodies in the past but most of them have given up!  There is

no-one making them anymore and the shows they have now are only simple, they mostly sell sewn craft now,

and a little of teddy bears!  I used to travel everywhere doing mostly shows and going on holidays sussing out

places!  There are still the few around but they seem to ask me for advice and advice I have none!  I have been

doing a lot of tyding and cleaning up!  Finding things from the past!  Remembering those things from the past!

I have been so sad!  But I know I have to soldier on!..... Like you there is a glimmer of hope!

I have been getting things from Germany, and the Netherlands!  One things that is good we have a lady who still

makes the leather bodies and they are so precise!  I just bought pure silk cottons Chordanay which is pure silk and

was made by DMC I  am knitting a costume with very fine knitting needles and its very exquisite!  I have been

talking to the rubber people that can make up the composition. I can't think of that rubber!  But I bought the

Bleutte body mould by accident from a lady at a show next to me for $5 I snapped it up I think its wanky or Byron!

But its a perfect body and I bought one from Barry Brown from Dollworld who makes his own but he too wants to

sell out cause he is old now!  The trouble is he is asking too much for it! 

There are many factors why the Dollworld is falling apart!  I find that people today don't know much about the

Antique Reproductions and they have no idea what they are or mean!  But I have bought and done dolls from

ages ago that I will do the projects that Seeley once did!  I will finish them and put them into a theme into my

barn to see if I can arouse the industry to what it was!  Well try!  At my end!  Its so good to hear from you

you make me feel good again that I am not wasting my time!  Its not a money factor for me anymore, although

it would help, its more of  showing people a beautiful art, time and creativity.  If we lose it what a dreadful shame!

Modern technology is awesome and can help, to me here in Australia it would be such a shame to let the horrible

cheap imports take over for what I call my culture that I was knew my parents had be lost!......in my time!

No you are no winger I totally understand where you are coming from, I feel the same??  I am so honoured to have

met you and can't wait to show you my real secret of the past! with present and future in mind!

Yes things will definitely get better!  I think!  At least for now I will try to do some nice sewing on my machine and

make the dolls look pretty and convincing!  Like I said technology is awesome!  I have been doing a little of embroidering

lately some stumpwork and quilting!  Am making bags as well!

Have a nice day and look after yourself!.......... am thinking of you all I know its hard...........Natascha