Jean & Ken Nordquist Antiques & Collectibles

I've just posted this, the third doll trunk to make, on ebay. I'm working on an entire series of trunks and still have several others that I will be duplicating also. What's fun about this latest trunk is that it was originally filled with wooden blocks when it was sold by Bliss. But it was also intended to be used by children as a trunk for their doll's clothes and not just for the blocks. The size of all three of these first trunks is the same. The dimensions are 7-1/4"L x 4-1/8"H x 5-1/8"D. This make them suitable for dolls from 4" all the way up to 20"+. Of course, only the smaller dolls would fit inside the trunk. They look just great displayed with Bleuette sized dolls for their clothes. This is such an easy project to make. It does include the wooden trunk so all you really need to do is cut out the enclosed graphics that come with the trunk and glue them on to the box. You get to fit it exactly and antique it or not to your liking. It takes me about 1/2 hour to do this project. Guaranteed to please any doll! And stay tuned for more fun trunks. I hope to release some other sizes soon as I'm able to find them.

Make a wonderful accessory for all your French Fashion dolls with this new project from Jean Nordquist. It was designed to display with most sizes of dolls and may be shown with dolls other than fashions too, although the styles displayed are shown on adults. The eras cover are 1490 thru 1795. If you design costumes for dolls or people, for that matter, this project will also serve to inspire you. The scale is for dolls but the images still show all the styles very well. This is a no fuss project that simply involves cutting, folding, and minimal pasting. Complete instructions are included. Everything is supplied in the project to reproduce it except the portfolio ribbon that ties it all together. You also need scissors or paper cutter and your own glue. If you own a French fashion that you display with her clothes and accessories with a trunk, then this project will make an excellent and darling addition to that display.

Now you can make a darling antique style doll trunk with this project. I have faithfully copied my antique trunk which has the words "Baby's Trunk" on it. This project already includes the wooden uncovered trunk ready for you to cover with the 110 pound cardstock graphics included in my auction. What could be easier? Just cut out the graphics and using white glue adhere the graphics to the trunk. If desired you can finished the inside by spray painting with Design Master Floral Spray in the color of your choice OR you can line the interior with fabric OR just leave it natural which is how the original was finished. Perfect to accessorize with your Bambino baby doll.

Hey, dollmakers, here's your opportunity to make some wonderful, unique smaller boy dolls to add to your collection and at the same time get everything you need to make a super display to house them. These dolls were originally produced in Germany in the 19teen's and they have very interesting head gear that came become fun hat decorations. There is a pattern available for their clothing thru Collectible Doll Company. The website to purchase it is www.jeannordquistdolls.com. I am offering this entire set at a substantial savings. All five molds are brand new and have never been cast. I do believe Collectible Doll Company also will be offering the actual finished box should you not have the equipment to make one yourselves. Enjoy looking at my latest project!

Jean Nordquist has just released two fabulous new Christmas oriented holiday projects for crafters and dollmakers alike. Now you can duplicate miniature sized honeycomb ornaments for not only Christmas, but also Halloween, Easter and Valentine's Day. Each project contains well over 100 decorations with all supplies needed fully resourced and complete instructions. These two new projects are being offered as fixed auctions and are being shipped free and immediately upon purchase. Savings for international purchasers on shipping too! Thanks for looking at my new auctions!

You can make your own miniature vintage valentines that look just like those from the early 20th century to either decorate a Valentine tree or to display with dolls or use in scrapbooking. My paper project includes all the graphics you will need printed on a commercial state of the art color laser printer on 110 lb. card stock. Simply cut and paste and add your own creative touch with other items purchased at craft stores to make a delightful miniature Valentine display. So much fun to do and I ship freight free in the USA on this purchase. Thanks so much for looking.

I've just listed my wonderful 12" fashion doll accessories project that is intended for both antiques and reproductions. I've taken all the images included in this project from my extensive antique paper collection and scaled them down for this size doll. You can make your doll collection a lot more interesting to others by including lots of interesting and appropriate props that are hard to find but easily duplicated using my project. Please ask me questions about this project so you may fully understand what is included. Thanks for looking at my auction. Jean

Hi there all,

This is my first attempt at blogging. For those of you who don't know me I am from the world of porcelain doll making. My husband Ken and I were in business together for 28 years manufacturing and selling gourmet doll supplies including over 450 plaster doll molds, my Jean Nordquist signature system china paints, Collectible Doll Fashion patterns and my Victorian Paper Designs for dolls. These include workbooks and projects using designs from my antique paper collection shrunk down to dollie size for dollmakers and collectors to accessorize with their dolls. We sold all of these goods under the business name "Collectible Doll Company" out of Sequim, WA and before that Seattle, Washington.

I use the word "were" in business because in March of this year (2007) we sold this aspect of our business to Beckie Decker of Cedar Hill, Texas. She is also the very same person who purchased the Bell porcelain and mold lines out of Clermont, Florida.

Beckie also assumed all our distributorships for most all of the other products we offered worldwide to our many customers including doll wigs and eyes from Global, doll jewelry from Cat's Paw, knit and crochet patterns from Doris Thurlow, bodies, and any and all other sorts of doll accessories.

One of the main reasons we sold the manufacturing part of our business was that we have been planning for years to join the rest of our family in Spokane, Washington. We have two children and five grandchildren who live in Spokane. We finally made the big move in May of this year after no less than four semi loads of our business left for Texas and Beckie. That left one semi load plus extra freight for us to move with us...and also left us needing a lot less space. We moved from 9000 square feet to 3000. Sure made house shopping a lot easier.

We both turned 65 this year. Seemed like it was time to start stepping back a bit from our arduous work schedule of 24/7. But we still consider ourselves too young to retire. :) So we retained the antique aspect of our business plus my workbook designing. And these are the items that we hope to sell through Auctiva on ebay. We are used to doing about 10 doll shows a year. In displaying our doll samples to show off our mold line, we would set up using lots of antique toys, games, and furnishings to "suggest" to our customer base what they could make using our products. Display quickly changed into selling antiques along with our manufactured product.

I am still designing with my antique paper creating projects for dollmakers to use with their dolls. And I still love to make reproduction dolls. That activity is what lead Ken and I into the manufacturing to begin with...you know how one thing can lead to another. I started in 1979 making and teaching porcelain dollmaking. My first street fair in 1980 brought me over 150 people who wanted dollmaking classes. It also brought me wholesale accounts with shops that wanted my finished dolls for sale. So from 1979 to 1986 I taught hundreds of people dollmaking out of my home and sold thousands and thousands of finished dolls. Always looking for another new face to reproduce as a finished doll and to sell as greenware to my students is how I found our mold line in 1985. A very small company that sold molds to me told me they were interested in selling their line and that became the beginnings of Collectible Doll Company molds. Molds led to dolls needing costumes hence Collectible Doll Fashion pattern line evolved. Then the dolls needed better face paint and so came the china paint line followed by videos (now discontinued) and finally the Victorian Paper Designs for doll accessories. All the while I was also travel teaching porcelain dollmaking all over the U.S. using my molds, paints, patterns, etc. This I still do but only in two studios in California now in Santa Rosa (Katha Engblom's Dolls from the Heart) and Jackie Chimpky's wonderful studio in Castro Valley.

But now a bit more about selling wonderful dolls, toys, and etc. through Auctiva and Ebay...I am just now starting to add to my auctions. I also knew, when we decided to sell Collectible Doll Company that I would want to still sell on ebay. I established myself as a power seller in just over 60 days from November 2005 thru February 2006 about two years ago just to see if I could do it. At that time I set up my ebay store but then allowed it to languish while I got back to the manufacturing, show, and seminar schedule. So now I am starting up again and just starting to list items. So please stay tuned as I add to my store and live auctions. Today I'm adding my first Auctiva item, a wonderful vintage toy grocery store. It's taking me a bit of time to learn Auctiva layout and so on, but it does seem quite easy at this point. I just love their colorful layout templetes and their active auction previews that show in all my listings now. Stay tuned for more updates and auctions. Bye for now from snowy Spokane. Jean