Thu, 14 May 2009

Prison inmates make dolls the Waldorf way

FLORENCE (NNA) – A new website has been launched to support the work of women inmates in a Florence prison who are making dolls based on Waldorf methods.

“Poetry of Dolls” is a project started in 2001 by the Associazione Pantagruel onlus in Florence which set up a training course in the women’s section of the Sollicciano prison to give inmates an opportunity for creativity as well as responding to their economic and therapeutic needs.

Today, “Poetry of Dolls” involves about 20 people at Sollicciano as well as four women who have set up an outside workshop under alternative detention measures supervised by social services.

According to the Association, the dolls are made completely with natural materials following precise rules. Making them is a form of therapy, the Association says, and then the dolls are destined for children to play with: “Thus these dolls serve many positive purposes,” the Association adds.  In the external workshop, training courses are offered to teach doll-making to all those who want to learn this form of craftsmanship, giving them the opportunity to undertake volunteer work on the project. There is an exhibition area next-door to the workshop.

Explaining the principles on which the dolls, gnomes, flower fairies and little animals are made, the Association says that each doll is hand-made by a single person using natural prime quality materials: pure lamb’s wool, woven wool, cotton, silk, pastel colours and wax. It therefore represents a unique product for the child that receives it.

Particular attention is paid to the choice of materials, the combination of colours, the harmony of its proportions and small details, so that it is always “beautiful to look at, soft to the touch, and rounded in its form to awaken feelings of tenderness, warmth and loving care.”

“The nose is not developed, and neither do they have a fully formed expression. There is just a hint of a smile and the body’s bearing is one of trust, allowing the child to give life to its doll and to the moods, expressions and attitudes required of the doll at any given moment,” the Associazione Pantagruel onlus explains.

END/nna/cva

www.lapoesiadellebambole.it

Item: 090514-01EN Date: 14 May 2009

Copyright 2009 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/