A Friendly Twinzy Review For the New Year

Written by kfaris11

Thanks Supriya and looking forward to reading your new book to Viv at bedtime!

Green Toys: Twinzy Toys

 

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Green Toys: Twinzy Toys

Almost 100 years ago, Battle Creek twin sisters Blanche and Bernice Squier bet their father that they could pay for their college education at UC-Berkeley, and thus Twinzy Toys was born.  The sisters hand-stitched the dolls and they became such a success, they ended up returning to Battle Creek to produce Twinzy Toys in their father’s factory.  These female entrepreneurs had created a thriving business at a time when women didn’t even have the right to vote. The toys were a hit for decades until the sisters’ passing.

In the late 1990s, relatives of the twins found an old box with their toy molds and sketches and dropped them off to Heritage Battle Creek, where the toys remained a part of history until recently, when my friend Ken Faris, made a licensing agreement with HBC to produce Twinzy Toys, reviving the original designs but going green for the modern world.

The new Twinzy Toys are made with an organic cotton hemp blend, stuffed with raw, organic cotton and sewn with organic thread by Battle Creek students interested in careers in fashion design.
The dolls are black and white.  You can leave them as they are or you can decorate them and share your or your child’s creation at Twinzy Toys’ website.

The dolls can be purchased at Twinzy Toys’ Etsy site.  The current designs available are Buddy the Elf, pictured here, Hy Jack the Fox Terrier, Miss Mary, Cowboy and Rabbit.

Front view of Buddy the Elf
Back view of Buddy the Elf
Read more about Twinzy Toys and their plans for the future here.
Check back every Monday and Thursday for new posts, including more info on green toys and products, DIY toys, (including more Indian playfood like masala dosa, another kind of samosa, and idli sambar), and more chalkboard crafts featuring Lullaby Paints.
And if you like what you see here, check out my Amazon Author page for my picture books and YA novel, and my blog posts on The Huffington Post. 
Follow me on Twitter @soups25

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