These are cardboard toys I made.
Before I talk about the doll, I'll show you the cardboard toys I made.
At first it was easy. She said she wanted glasses, and I cut the cardboard for her.
At first I made cardboard glasses.
She liked the glasses and wore them all day. We were smiling because they looked heart-warming, although looked poor. Next she asked for a baby buggy.
She said she wanted a baby buggy to put on a baby doll she had.
This is her first begging. "She has grown up a bit." My parental feeling caught fire. Immediately I started to make it with cardboard.
I created the technique of cutting cardboard and attaching it with packing tape.
Despite the wheels didn't rotate, my daughter also liked it and playing with it well.
This time her desire of toys began to catch fire.
Next she asked for a cash register. I created the technique to put a colored paper.
Robot. I created a technique to make a joint with a toothpick. The quality is improving.
She has begun to find out.
She did not get anything from the robot. After nursing it to sleep, she left it somewhere. Probably because it was not so good as she expected.
And recently I had an shocking experience.
The direct mail we got had a paper craft cash register, and she began to play with it instead of the cardboard one.
"This is small, so you like the one I made, don't you?"
"No, I like this. do your job, dad."
I was shocked. The cardboard cash register was defeated easily by the neatly designed paper cash register.
Making Licca-chan doll
Now I'll make a serious effort.
I use cardboard and make something that gains an overwhelming popularity among children. Popular toy..... This may be a speculation of a father, but speaking of girls' toy, we think of Licca-chan doll. It is the most popular doll in Japan, defeating Barbie.
I'm suffering from a sense of contradiction at the time I buy the real one.
Copying Licca-chan doll with cardboard
I can't make Licca-chan doll with cardboard because I do not know the original one, so I bought one.
I started to make toys with cardboard because I didn't want to buy ready-made ones. But eventually I bought a ready-made one, which I felt with intense contradiction.
But I have no time to talk drivel. I will defeat the paper craft cash register. After my daughter goes to sleep, I copy the doll with cardboard.
I devote to copy it saying, "the legs are about this length".
Bamboo skewers are for jointing legs and body.
I poke a bamboo skewer through a leg and body, and bond them with hot glue. It will be a joint.
I slightly cut the area I want to bend, such as elbows and knees.
Formative art is intuition.
Cardboard work is basically clumsy.
There is no blueprint, so I cut and fold the cardboard at random, making forms. Of course it looks clumsy.
So what is important is "there is something appealing about this", "this clumsiness is the characteristic of handmade". These are words to comfort oneself. The key to succeed in the cardboard handicraft is how much you can comfort yourself.
I make the head by bending the upper and lower sides of a cylinder I made. I feel it's going to be a failure from this process at once.
Finished. I think I copied the original one, but why the face is so different?
Basically I was going to copy the original Licca-chan, but the face part was helpless. The original one had so thin eyebrows that I ignored.
However, I only referred to the approximate size of the eyes. Although it looks clumsy, the size of eyes is almost the same.
"Why am I so different from beautiful women although we are both human beings?" Ironically her longing for a beauty has become the same with that of a human being.
I made a cardboard Licca-chan doll. It's Cabo-chan.
I took completely five hours making such a thing. It has a bit poor face, but I had no choice. It is made of cardboard. It is not Licca-chan but Cabo-chan.
It is made to be the same size and same structure, so it can wear Licca-chan’s clothes. After putting clothes on the doll and putting it in a box, it looks somehow like Licca-chan.
Then I'll wait for the morning and let my daughter judge it.
"This is Cabo-chan," and she was transfixed for one minute with this face.
"Hello, I am Cabo."
"Here you are, this is Cabo-chan," I handed Cabo-chan to my daughter who woke up, and she stood transfixed, staring it for about 1 minute.
And she began to hold it tightly to her chest. Oh, she accepted it. "Is this Cabo-chan?" "She is wearing clothes." She smiled and started to speak. I was happy.
"Thank you, dad." (Actually she didn't say so, but I wrote.)
But when I see her carefully, she is playing with Cabo-chan like a baby.
Then it doesn't have to be Cabo-chan, and there are other baby dolls in our house. With this state she will get tired of Cabo-chan. What should I do?
Speaking of Licca-chan, there are various sets. For example, "Sushi-go-round" and "Ice cream shop", used for "pretend play".
I'll make a set for Cabo-chan. If I deepen the world of Cabo-chan, she will be able to play with it for a long time.
So I decided to make a factory set.
And I attached many circles to a bamboo skewer.
A belt conveyor was made.
While I was wondering what to make, I folded cardboard and it looked like a belt.
It's like a belt conveyor. This may be a good idea. It has fun to move and easy to make. Let's make a factory with a handmade belt conveyor.
Like that, tragedy always starts from a little idea.
I made ten bentos of convenience store. It was such an elaborate work that I almost went crazy.
I decided to make a bento factory during night shift.
I decided to make a bento factory because it has a certain degree of elaborateness, and it is easy to make. Cabo-chan working at bento factory. Oh... why? I feel a sense of discomfort. So I repeat it.
"Cabo-chan working at bento factory"
What is this melancholic sound?
I'm sure convenience bentos are made at night.
Did Licca-chan sound so sad?
Night-shift bento factory... Tears welled up in my eyes.
Let's make it more realistic.
In order to make it more realistic, I bought more factory uniform-like clothes. That we can dress her up is Cabo-chan's good point.
I change her clothes. As it is a food factory, I also made a mask of tissue.
It is a waste if I don't use the dress she had been wearing, so I treated it as "a dress wanted by Cabo-chan".
I make a speech balloon, and display the dress as what Cabo-chan is thinking about.
"With only that dress..... I wonder if people would think I'm cute."
This speech balloon looks sad, doesn't it? It looks overwhelmingly sad. I would put this kind of words in this balloon.
"With only that dress hung at the clothing store..... I wonder if people think I am cute."
I read this kind of dialogue in the novel long ago, and I wallowed in the sorrows. The heroine is left by a boyfriend and becomes ill, and then killed in an accident. Oh, Cabo....
(Cf. wikipedia "Watashiga Suteta Onna (The woman I left)" by Shusaku Endo)
I made a story with Cabo-chan. It is true that the story becomes deep. But is this story really loved by a two-year-old girl?
This is only a consolation, but at least I want to put a pleasant introduction such as in the catalog of Licca-chan.
The catalog of Licca-chan has such a pop feeling.
Whatever will be, will be.
Next morning, my daughter woke up to find a bento factory.
Her joy looks so sad in reverse.
She was pleased with it.
"Cabo-chan wears a mask!" she shouts with joy. When she woke up, she found a bento factory.
Although Cabo-chan's bento factory sank to the swamp of sadness, my daughter didn't notice the sadness, and got amused with it as much as possible.
It looks like she doesn’t have an idea of factory in her mind, so she says "it's a bento shop!" repeatedly.
I am already crying, and my daughter doesn't know anything, looking happy. Nothing is sadder than this.
"I'll put a pine cone on the bento shop."
She has her own world. The story prepared by an adult is thrown away in the blink of an eye. And the new story has began with a shelf where a dog, a giant pine cone are placed.
A dog and a pine cone are on the shelf. Now a new story began.
Oh, my daughter and Cabo-chan
I can still make cardboard toys for my daughter who is only two years old. The problem is when she enters the elementary school and starts to play with other friends using toys.
"What is the doll you have, Ohkita-san?"
"Why can your doll wear Licca-chan's dress, Ohkita-san?"
"Isn't your doll pretending to be Licca-chan, Ohkita-san?"
"Isn't your doll made of cardboard, Ohkita-san?"
"Who made your doll, Ohkita-san?"
"What is your father's job, Ohkita san?"
"May I search your father's name on the Internet, Ohkita san?"
The daughter will leave her father in the future.
By the time she enters the junior high school, she starts to dislike her father, and hate the sadness of Cabo-chan. But once she gets over it, everyone will become an adult. She might be able to think the sadness of Cabo-chan is good.
