zina-ly

Home of the Small Sand Doll

doll diaries

Adventures of

Zina-Ly

coming sooon

Zina experiences sand and the beach for the first time.

Although dolls are the oldest and perhaps most beloved toys of all eras few remain from prehistoric times.

It is believed that in the golden era

of Greek civilization, dolls

developed out of a figure that had previously been an idol or a

fertility symbol.

Ancient Greeks used the tern 'kore', literally little girl, and applied it to a doll. Dolls were made of rags, wood, wax, ivory, and terra cotta. Many dolls had moveable limbs that were jointed. At marriage the Greek girls dedicated their dolls to Artemis. It was believed that this dedication would assist with their fertility during marriage. If they died before marriage their dolls were buried

with them.

ancient Greek Doll

In ancient Greece and Rome clay dolls (and a few of ivory) were found in children's tombs.

ZINA-LY

Zina ia a happy and content greek sand doll whose origins trace back to the isolated villages of Boyaliki in the Kavakli area in east Romila, north Thraki.

Greece is a largely localised European country with many different dialects, customs, fairytales, dances and village superstitions. Much like the oyster, when the sun sets, Greeks like to spit and sneeze and carry bat bones and a clove of garlic in their pocket.

As a young girl, Zina would play in the large feta tin, throw salt over her shoulder and wear a blue eyed necklace to ward off the evil eye. When she fell out of the tin, he mum would rub onion on the wound and she would smell like a barbaque for days.

Zina hated the taste of donkey milk and quickly embraced the mocha expresso and wicked mudslide flavours found in the seven eleven stores of North America. She was shifted to Tennessee in America to learn the art of cultivating tabacco and celery and study the woven mystery of the black and red apron . While the simple and austere black and red aprons were a custom garment associated with the women from poor villages of the Florina Plateaus of Greece, modern alternative artisans in the hills surrounding the Chattanooga River in Tennessee were profound in the ancient art of felt apron design.

Zina attended college and gained a certificate five in the use of brightly coloured threads in silk fabric and sleeveless felt overcoats. She carried a string of pearls as part of her dowry and held all the fears her mum imparted in regard to the Romans, Greeks and Ottomans. Unfortunately her mum did not tell her of the Kentucky Rednecks, Elvis or the Bob dolls of Southern Tennessee. She met up with Ellen-Ly at Lorreta Lyns Ranch and taught her the Macedonian Zorba dance. The two became great friends.

Zina explains to Ellen-ly, that the sun is hotter when it rises over the water. They watched the lights appear as darkness faded the white waves on the beach to black. But they could still hear the moving water crashing on the sand.

Zina loved visiting Melbourne with Helga. She saw vertical buildings with shadows and buses that travelled on metal rails and went ding ding, she smelt coffee and chocolate and brightly coloured candy being twisted and chopped.