A “tree change” is a move made by a person who’s had it with the hustle and bustle of city living, to make a permanent escape to the country. Sonia Singh, a scientist and resident of Tasmania not only went through somewhat of a tree-change herself, but is finding mass acclaim transforming discarded dolls as well.
“I can see the potential in these dolls that have been discarded”
Sonia trawls through the shelves of second-hand stores in search of damaged, aged and worn Bratz dolls.
Many are missing hands or feet, have destroyed hair or other superficial damage. What could be the value of these dolls, some of which she purchases for 50c a piece? Well shortly after she found herself with a few more free hours in the day, she began “Making under these fashion dolls”.
“What a tree change doll is all about though, is giving some old toys a new lease on life and yeah, a more down to earth, natural looking style”
Where most makeovers involve adding makeup, Sonia removes the doll’s painted makeup with nail polish remover.
After the “face” is removed, Sonia sets to work painstakingly painting faces back on to the dolls. This time however, they’re given much more naturalistic complexions, and their whole look is changed.
The detail is Incredible! Sonia uses such a fine brush to add the individual eyebrow hairs and add that extra sparkle to each doll’s eyes.
With such attention to detail, you’d expect these dolls to come to life any minute!
These boots are made for playing! Sonya hand-makes the boots for dolls who got a little too foot-loose.
No feet, no problem. With a clay epoxy Sonia carefully crafts new hands and feet so that no doll is left incomplete.
“I’m a little bit embarrassed to be playing with dolls as a 34 year -old”
Sonya laughs, although, she’s not alone. I’ve watched enough reality television to know that no full makeover is complete without a new wardrobe.
So where do their gorgeous new outfits come from?
“My mum makes the clothes, she is an expert knitter.”
Because each doll gets its own hand-painted face and custom knitted outfit, every doll is completely unique.
“Combined with her mum’s clothes, they were such a change. The dolls when, they’re incredibly made-up, they look like they’re doing it for everyone else, where Sonia’s dolls look like they’re doing it for themselves. That’s what a tree change is about”
-Says Sonia’s husband. It seems Hubby has supported her throughout with the whole operation as it has grown bigger than anyone expected it would. It’s a real family matter it seems. Of course who would test-drive her dolls if not for Sonia’s own young daughter?
Sonia has had to keep up with a global, explosive interest in her dolls as her creations went viral almost overnight.
Initially, Sonia only shared them to Facebook to about 200 friends. Now, however, her doll page has gained over 13,000 likes and counting.
The couple thought they’d be making “a bit of pocket money”, but clearly the interest the world has showed in them has far exceeded their expectations.
“It started snowballing when somebody put it on reddit.” Sonia explains.
“I’ve just been overwhelmed with “Can I order your dolls!?” and there was only twelve of them!”
Sonia’s husband explains that while Sonia hadn’t set out to make any particular statements about beauty standards or their relationship to children, much of the positive response that the internet has had in Sonia’s dolls is because they are a much healthier representation for young children.
It’s clear that these dolls resonate with something bigger than just play-things.
It’s remarkable that such a small, home-built operation can get such a global reaction.
“I’ve had a lot of comments from people saying, these are the kind of dolls I want my children to play with.. And also people just commenting and saying oh, they look so much happier now.”
Check out the video below to see the dramatic transformation these dolls have gone through!
“It’s good to know that it’s come to something. All that time I spent playing with dolls!”
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