As a professional restorer of damage to porcelain, pottery and antique dolls, I get in touch with shoes carried by ancient dolls. I have always been captivated to the devotion and attention to detail with which these shoes are made. Because these old shoes have often been lost in the course of time, my customers are not only looking for recovery of the damage to their doll, but often also for suitable shoes. However, doll shoes of similar quality are not easily available. In order to meet this question, at one point I decided to take a few shoes myself, and soon a new passion was born!
My mother, of whom I have learned the love for antiques and for crafts, helps me to make the shoes many times! Because I learned so many good things from her, and because I want to make the shoes recognizable as replica`s, I put her initials in the inside of the shoes: P.C.B. (Pieternella Cornelia Bochove)
In the meantime, many handmade shoes have been sold in my restoration studio, and demand continues to increase. To make them available to people who do not come to my studio, I have set up this Etsy webshop.
I like to provide the shoes of well-known charming style features of antique dollshoes, such as silk decorations on the toe cap, and a thick ornamental stitching along the edges of the shoes, which my mother and I fully embroider by hand, allowing to work with multiple colors for special effects. With the French model shoes it is also possible to stamp the outer sole with the picture of the known bee and the text "Paris Déposé".
Many customers prefer brown shoes because they suit any costume. Brown shoes are therefore a permanent part of the collection. However, by origin antique dolls were dressed according to the fashion of chic girls and women from that time. And they often wore shoes in the same color as their costume. Therefore I also make shoes in different other colors in addition to brown shoes. It can be so beautiful when a doll wears a suit with shoes in a matching color! I have already been able to convince many people. Hence the name of this webshop: Colorful Dollshoes
Can`t you find shoes matching your doll's suit in the webshop? Then I can make them special for you according to your wishes. If you are making a costume for your antique doll, I can even process materials of this costume in the shoes for a perfect match. Because I make the shoes completely by hand, there is much possible!
Are you looking for an authentic headpate for your antique French doll to close the opening in the dollhead? This can also be found in this webshop in different sizes. Like the dollshoes, each head pate is made by myself of authentic natural materials in my own studio. It is hollow from the inside as an example of the old headpates.