Artists, Fashion Designers and Jewelers Create Custom Dolls For Charity: Frimousses Designers for Darfur.

For the tenth year, UNICEF France's Frimousses Creators bring together the greatest designers, artists and jewelers who put their talent toward helping UNICEF and children worldwide by creating one of a kind dolls that are auctioned with the proceeds going toward vaccinating children in Darfur.

Aminals - Organic Toys Made From Children's Drawings

One of my favorite sites, Inhabitots, introduced me to these fabulous, organic toys made from the actual drawings of little kids, called Aminals in their weekly newsletter.



Each Aminals organic doll is inspired by the brilliant, unfettered imagination that only comes through in children's drawings.

These organic kids toys embody the exaggerated proportions, squiggly lines, and bright colors that come with creative expression at its most honest and fun. From these children's drawings, the designers at Dreaming Lion LLC have created a series of huggable-soft characters, each of whom has its own special story and is ready for new adventures with your children.

Aminals' motto is "from their world, for their world," meaning that the toys have been created from kids' creative lives for the future world that they will inherit.

dady and momey:

sistur and brothr:

duggy and eflant:

ceeta and dinasor:

smal bayr, wayul and liun:



Aminals are made with materials from organic farms, making Aminals safer for your children. Certified organic ingredients, like organic cotton and the low impact and natural vegetable dyes that must be used with it, are free of synthetic poisons that are absorbed into the bloodstream through skin contact, meaning your kid can hug his or her Aminal all he or she wants.

all images and information courtesy of Dreaming Lion LLC and Aminals.

Buy them here.

Aminals is certified by GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) an internationally recognized body that certifies that all fibers and processes involved in the manufacture of Aminals meet strict standards for organic, sustainable and humane textile production. Every processing step that brings Aminals to you, from farming through spinning, weaving, washing and dyeing meet or exceed these criteria.

DFC Turns Old Art Form Into Modern Chaquira Doll Heads

above left: Lady Peyote, 7.5" tall above right: Lil' Allsort,7.5" tall, $8o5.00 each

A traditional Mexican art, Huichol is the craft of coating wood carved masks, animals, birds, serpents, and forms with wax, onto which tiny crystal beads (chaquira) and colored strings (estambre) are laid or woven with great precision.

DFC, the mexico city based design duo of Tony Moxham and Mauricio Paniagua, has created and is selling individual sculptures using this technique on doll's heads. The result are wonderfully creepy pieces of modern art they call Chaquira sculptures.

Each Chaquira is painstakingly crafted by using the huichol technique on beeswax coated plastic doll heads (some still with hair). measuring an average of 6" tall, they'd be amazing as a collection. You can commission a custom one as well.

Pris, $690.00:

Prince Mushi I, 7.5" tall, $747.50:

Prince Mushi II, 7.5" tall, $747.50:

Kikin, 6" tall, $690.00:

Starchild Chaquira sculpture, $747.50:

Starlet Chaquira Sculpture, 6" tall, $747.50

Good Luck Baby Chaquira Sculpture, 13" long, $2,990.00:

To purchase one of the above Chaquira sculptures or to order a custom one, contact them here.

To see examples of traditional huichol artworks, go here.


DFC makes many fabulous pieces, see more here.

Sorry Barbie, But Compared To Mooqla Dolls, You're Just PWT*

If you don't know Mooqla dolls, you're about to be introduced to a series of exotically featured handmade silicone encased plastic dolls clad in the hippest of fashions. They make even Couture Barbie look like some serious *poor white trash.