Christoph grinned. "Speaking of Barbies, Mama sent you these." He placed the box on the table in front of them. "Papa bought these in Bamberg from Frau Higgins, but they came unclothed. Mama wants to know. well we arespending a great deal on Emma's wedding and the dowry. "

Margarethe opened the box and stared, blushing a little at the unclothed forms. "You say your papa bought these in Bamberg? From Frau Higgins? Of the Higgins Sewing Machine Company?"

"That's what he said. Well not, from Frau Delia Higgins herself, but from her husband."

"Oh, Christoph, Christoph! Don't you know that Frau Delia of the dolls lives in Grantville,not Bamberg? And according to my information she is a widow and not married at all! Her daughter is the one who's married!"

Christoph shook his head in disbelief. "I cannot. I didn't. What if they're stolen? Mama would have a fit! Then these are not the right kind of dolls?"

"Of a sort." Taking the woman doll out of the box, Margarethe pulled one of the legs out showing him the plastic ball joint. "You see? From my research the trueBarbie dolls are made of better plastic and don't come apart as easily. Then there's the 'Made in China' label on the back of the neck. Barbies were made by a company called Mattel. I cannot imagine a manufacturer or artist not labeling their work. I always mark my dolls with an MK even if I'm not selling them. I would say that these are the cheaper kind of doll. Whoever sold your father these at least gave him the 'bang for his buck' as the up-timers say, even if they weren't who they said they were."

"But you could make clothes for them? And perhaps other accessories? And. well. as I said. umm. cheaply."

"I tell you what, Christoph, let's make a deal. If I could borrowthese to make patterns to create other dolls like these, then I will make clothes for these, a whole trousseau if Emma would like."

"Is that even possible? I mean. I know you said you wanted to make figures like a Barbie, but we don't know how to make plastic."

Margarethe laughed. "Plastic? Who needs plastic to make dolls? Artisans have been making dolls and other figurines for centuries!"

"Out of what? Clay?"

"Clay, certainly. Clay isn't as fragile as you would think but it's hard to keep painted. Artists use wax mostly, for big projects with a rich patron like a king's burial effigy or a saint for a cathedral. Wood is also good for making dolls, a lot of my poupee des modesare carved wood, jointed if I've got the patronage. Cloth is very good for dolls as well. I do a fair business in cotton or muslin dolls, especially muslin. You cannot imagine the amount of muslin and linen scraps I collect as a dressmaker to use in my dolls. Sometimes I wish I could focus on making dolls instead of sewing clothes for people. Dolls at least don't complain if you poke them with pins."

Christoph smiled. Margarethe's eyes had lit up and it seemed as if her whole face had taken on a glow as well. She was more attractive than he'd realized before, with her straight medium brown hair and blue-grey eyes. It must be hard on her, being all alone in her parents' shop, and he knew she'd been lucky that the area needed a seamstress so she hadn't had to move after her parents had died two years ago.

"Then there's a market for such things?"

"If I didn't have a market I wouldn't sell any. Not every noble can afford to have a toile, or mock-up of a dress sent from Paris like the books say Elizabeth of England did. A doll is easier to ship, easier to make samples for, and easier for the client to see how they would look in the dress. Come let me show you."

Taking him to the back of her shop, she showed him the dolls she had lined up in various stages of completion. She held the Princess Kristina doll out for him to inspect.

"You see? Wax head, arms, and legs, sawdust-stuffed body. Wax or tallow is easier to tint like skin. You can paint clay once it's dry or bake it in before you fire it, but either way you have to seal it."

"You're like a painter."

"Very much so, and like a masterpiece my art is hard to play with sometimes. But if I was able to create a small fashion doll that is easily jointed and has a similar shapeto a Barbie doll, then the possibilities are endless." She waved her hands in the air again.

Christoph frowned, turning the Princess Kristina doll in his hands. "I've watched Mama and Emma making candles and soaps, and I see your molds. Wax, as you say is more fragile than wood, and wood is cheaper. You could reproduce your molds and mass-produce your wax parts, but wood is hard to mass-produce with a lot of carving. I know, my sister's betrothed is a printer and a printer's son, and I helped with the new printing device. Bert and Master Brumme spent hours, sometimes days, carving type. Now, with the wringer printer, it takes as long as Bert, Gunther, and I can draw them. What you need, is something that can shape wood quickly. And for that we need a smith."

"We? Since when did this become a twosome?"

Christoph grinned wider. "Since my father used my sister's entire dowry to purchase abused knock-offs from a pair of frauds. Besides, you'll need someone to help with the marketing once you start producing, and then there are clothes patterns that need to be reproduced for sale. "

Margarethe laughed and took Princess Kristina from his hands. "Then I had better get started designing dolls and leave the rest to. what do they call it? Marketing and production?"

"More like marketing and distribution, if I have the up-time words right."

"Mass-produce wood parts? Perhaps if they were larger. like that. " Johan nodded to the Princess Kristina doll that Christoph and Margarethe had brought, carefully wrapped in fabric, next to the plastic dolls.

Margarethe shook her head. "I need wood pieces the size of the smaller dolls, not damaged, like this," she unfolded her picture. "The heads don't need to be so detailed, at least at first. But if we're going to make a Barbie-like doll that a lot of people can afford it needs to be out of a sturdy material like wood and we need to mass-produce it."

Johan tugged his smock and picked up the small woman with a wink. "Not much in the way of clothes, eh?"

"Yes, yes we know. I'm working on it," Margarethe said testily. "But you need to see how she looks."

Johan flexed a leg gently. "Don't bend, like yours Margarethe. The little lady you made for my girl has better joints."

"Those are ball joints, like buttons. I carve those too."

"Need to mass-produce those, too. Could make buttons cheap." Johan nodded. "You can't make feet like that with a lathe like I have, have to be carving. Carving for the details like the face and hands too."

"But you can mass-produce the pieces to be carved?"

"Not now. I've got too much other work to do, and you'd have to wait for after the harvest to get much from the farmers."

"So we are stalled until after the harvest and then during planting. Time, we are wasting. Money, we are losing."

Margarethe patted Agathe's hand. "People have to eat, Agathe. We may be able to survive without more than a kitchen garden but some people don't have a kitchen garden. My prototypes, as the up-timers call them, are finished, both the boy and girl. Now I can work on some patterns for clothes to sell."

Gerta Brumme shook her head. "Even if the farmers are available to work, they don't work for free. We need something to pay them for their work even if these dolls don't sell. What about your big dolls?"