Today I get to share with you a recent email I got from Jillian about her work. I hope you will enjoy! Here in her own words is Jillian...
"On Why the dolls are Jewish: Zipporah was my first “real” doll. By that I mean, she
was the first doll I received that seemed like an actual little person to me and
not just a pretty plaything. Everything about her was special, and her
background full of things chosen because they were/ are personal interests of
mine. I’d heard her name on a Dateline episode several months before I ever
thought about getting another AG doll, let alone her, and had fallen in love
with it. Since it’s a Hebrew name, and I have a strong personal interest in
Judaism (though I am not Jewish myself), I decided she (and at that time I was
only thinking of creating a character for a story, not a doll that’d take over
my whole world, lol) would be Jewish. I’d hoped it’d help me learn more about
Judaism and Jewish culture, and it has. And the more I’ve learned, the stronger
my love for it has grown. So as the years went by and singleton Zipporah became
a twin, then a quad, then a quint, I kept that part of her initial background
and gave it to her siblings as well."
"How I began celebrating Hanukkah with them: My interest in Judaism is part
of a personal spiritual quest, and several years ago I decided that just reading
books about Judaism wasn’t enough. So I thought I’d begin actually trying to
live Jewishly, in an attempt to better learn and understand what I’d been
reading about. That same year, I signed up for my first holiday gift swap on a
messageboard for older American Girl fans. Participants were asked to fill out a
survey and that was then given to another participant, who would send you a
surprise doll related gift in time for the holidays. In my survey, I did mention
the quints being Jewish and that I was also wanting to celebrate Hanukkah
myself. I didn’t expect big gifts for all the quints, just maybe a t-shirt for
each or even one item they could all enjoy together (like enough handmade food
for all five to eat together or a game to play). So when a box packed full of
small, individually wrapped gifts arrived, my jaw dropped. Then I discovered
that not only was there a gift for each quint, but there was a gift for each
girl for every night of Hanukkah! The gifts were not only wrapped, but each
night’s set had been wrapped differently to distinguish one set from another. A
note had been included to let me know which set of gifts to give the girls each
night. It turned out that the gifts got bigger each night. All that thought and
effort floored me, and inspired me. I decided to celebrate “properly” and bought
a menorah and candles, and checked out a book of Hanukkah stories and games from
the library, along with a CD of Hanukkah songs. Each night I lit the candles as
I’d learned how from the reading I’d done; I played the CD and had the quints
and their friend Sophie (who was a traveling doll that was visiting at the time)
play a game, or I’d read them a story from the book. Each night had a different
activity, so I never got bored. And, of course, I fried up some latkes. It was
so much fun, that all year long I look forward to celebrating Hanukkah with
them."
"This year’s Hanukkah: I had big plans for our Hanukkah this year, but not
everything has turned out as I’d hoped. Still, I’m hoping it’ll be lots of fun
anyway. I hope to make some Hanukkah doll food with the quints this year, and
try out at least one new recipe for human food, lol. Maybe I can even round up
some games or activities, though it’s rather last minute. But, if nothing else,
I did manage to collect some fun gifts for them that I can’t wait to be able to
play with. There’s quite a range in their gifts, as far as prices go. I don’t
have tons of money to spend, and having to buy one present per girl for every
night of Hanukkah gets expensive fast. So I try to start very early, and do lots
of list making and planning. By early, I mean several months in advance. I think
I started creating lists of present ideas back in June, lol. That way I have
several months to spread the costs over, and also lots of time to find just the
right thing. I don’t want to buy something just to have a gift. I want it to be
something I can actually use regularly. An asset to my doll collection, in other
words. But that doesn’t mean it’s always an AG item, or something expensive. I
found little clacking ball toys at Party City for ten cents each. They came in
the different favorite colors of the quints, and will work well as Purim
groggers (which they also had, but I liked these better). Several other finds
came from the dollar section of Target. Their big gift this year was going to be
a antique style mini radio that I have been wanting to get for their room for
over a year. (Only now the big gift will be something even better, due to a
lucky find recently). I was lucky to find a gorgeous domed style one on eBay
this summer for under $20, including shipping. That’s another trick I like to do
– find one gift they can all share. I also buy them people sized things that
they’d like, such as a book or paper doll set. Ideally I’d recreate the item in
miniature, somehow, but I rarely get around to actually doing that. So this year
they’ll be getting some things that aren’t their size, but I’ll still enjoy them
and maybe in the future I really will get around to re-sizing the item. "
"Other Quint Info: Most of the quints changed their names earlier this year,
so if anyone’s heard of them previously but hasn’t been following them
regularly, they might be confused about who Tatiana, Sabina and Catalina are and
where Sora, Lorikeet and Lyre Chickadee went. My friend Laura gives her dolls
names that are actually commonly used in the culture her doll’s background has
her from, and I really liked that concept. So I came up with a list of names I
liked that were used in both Spain and Romania, where their parents are from,
and made a list of my favorites. Happily, two of my very favorite names (Sabina
and Catalina) were on the list of possibilities. My mom insisted I use the name
Tatiana for one of them, so I gave it to my mom’s favorite quint – Sora, the
most responsible one. Sabina was my favorite of the potential new names, so I
gave it to my second favorite quint (yes, I have favorites, lol, but I try not
to let them influence me too much in how I treat the girls). That left Lyre
Chickadee with two possible names, once again. The last time I’d renamed that
doll, I just combined the two names into one first name. But Adelina Catalina or
Catalina Adelina seemed too long, lol. So in the end, I decided on Catalina so
that I could use the nickname “Kitty”. It’s most likely not an authentic Spanish
or Romanian nickname for Catalina, but I love Catherine “Kitty” Bennet from
Pride & Prejudice (the A&E miniseries version) and decided this was my
chance to pay tribute to her. Adelina then became their Mama’s name, which had
previously been Sabina until I decided I’d rather a quint had that name so that
I could use it all the time. Violet’s name still suited her so well, that I
really didn’t want to change it but decided I would if it wasn’t going to fit in
with the background. Luckily, though, I found “Violeta” in name lists for both
countries, so that became her “new” name. Zipporah’s name doesn’t fit the theme
of the others’, of course, but it’s my absolute favorite and I couldn’t possibly
change it. Not to mention both Laura and my mom pretty much forbade me
from doing so, lol. It does reflect their Jewish background, though, so that
makes me feel better about keeping it."
"Their blog and website hasn’t been active much this year, due to lots of
things going on in my personal life, but I am still committed to both and have
been working on lots of ideas for content. I hope to do some updates soon and to
post about this year’s Hanukkah celebrations this month, but have even bigger
plans for early next year."
"As for the stories about them? I’ve been spending the year struggling with
my writing. Mostly I have been studying hard to improve, as I don’t want their
stories to be just “good”. I want them to be great. But I also have so many
ideas for them that it’s very difficult to stick with one. As much as they’d
love to be like Nancy Drew, they are also inspired by Shirley Temple and the
Olsen Twins to be child stars. They also have loved the idea of competing in
beauty pageants, or being gymnasts, or ballerinas, or even just your “average”
kids next door (like the Sweet Valley Twins). And part of me still yearns for
the “dolls come to life” storyline I wrote a few years ago."
You can read about them one their blog spot by clicking here or you can find them on their new Website
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| http://valdezquints.com/ |
As with all my posts I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com
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