Nipsenåle

Nipsenåle is an antique toy, that was given to little girls in Denmark during the first half of the 1900s. It is a purely Danish phenomenon of playing with pins with a glass head.

Some pins were short and with a simple single coloured drop of glass, those were for playing. Others were more interesting and were for collecting and admirering. Those were longer pins and had glass figures at the end. Many were of birds and other animals, and different series like 'People of the World' or 'Animals from Africa'.

The needles were stuck into little pillows, often made form expensive fabric, and were arranged and rearranged over and over by the little girls.

Today these fascinating little treasures are still collected, and since I have always loved miniatures of almost any kind, I have decided to try my hand at making nipsenåle. These are my test needles.




It really does take some practice to work at this size, but I am very happy with these. Especially the tiny cute elephant who is about 1 cm tall, and the robot who unfortunately has cracks from getting too cold while getting the details done.
I have gotten hold of a bunch of long pins and I look forward to decorating each one with a little piece of nostalgic treasure.

P~