"A pandore? I would have to change the scale on the head, which would mean I'd have to carve a new model. The same if we wanted to make any new heads I don't have. Molds have problems though, after so many uses the mold deforms and you have to make new ones."
"So what do we do?"
Agathe cleared her throat and raised her hand. "I think we start with Christophe's fashion books while we send someone to Grantville. After Emma's wedding."
****
"Emma's wedding was amazing, wasn't it, Mama?"
"Hmmph. The Wolfs and Brummes spent a lot of money on the wedding feast. All those individual cakes. "
"Emma said the up-timers call them cupcakes."
"Whatever. Then there were those place cards. Who does Gerta think her daughter's marrying, a nobleman? I can't imagine how they stayed up."
"They were birch. I saw the workers peeling and steaming them," said another woman. "What I wonder is how they got those dolls."
There was a collective sigh of envy.
"The Wolfs must have spent Emma's entire dowry on those. I heard Julius bought them damaged, but I couldn't tell. I bet Julius bought them stolen and had Gunther paint the eyes to hide them from the true owners."
"I thought it was a good touch that Margarethe made them costumes to match Emma and Bert's wedding clothes."
"What I find outrageous, Mama," said one of the young ladies. "Is that Christoph spent the entire feast dancing with no one but Margarethe and Mistress Wolf allowed it. How many other girls like me had to sit out or dance with another girl because of him! It was incredibly rude. And what if he marries her? She's just a seamstress, and an orphan. Margarethe should have sold her father's business and gone to live with relatives like any respectable girl would."
"Well I wonder what exactly young Christoph is doing at Margarethe's at all hours of the day," Master Lukas Gench said. "I believe he visits her very frequently, and without a chaperone. Just like several other of her 'clients.'"
Several of the listeners looked thoughtful.
Her mother patted her daughter's arm reassuringly. "You needn't worry about Christoph marrying that girl, Lottie my dear. Your father intends to make an offer for you soon enough, and with your dowry, the Wolfs won't be able to resist."
"You know what I heard? Emma and Albert left for Grantville the day after the wedding. It must be costing a fortune!"
"Those Wolfs and Brummes are getting above themselves," Master Gench said. "The Americans are giving young people too many unsuitable ideas. What are the Germanies coming to?"
"You want to do what?"
"Make limbs, bodies, like for people."
The up-time researcher blinked and nudged the boy next to her. After whispering in his ear, he shook his head.
"I. Uh. That's. I don't think you can do that. Maybe like Dolly. You know the sheep-clone? Except in scifi. "
Emma stared in confusion and shook her head. "Dolly? Is she related to Brillo?"
"No, no, never mind. Look, maybe we're working at cross purposes, not understanding each other. Why don't you start at the beginning?"
Emma nodded and sat down across from the up-timer. "My parents, they got me and my husband those plastic model dolls, like Barbie, very expensive. "
The girl snorted. "Tell me about it. The girls from the Consortium cleaned up, um, made a lot of money from even the cheap ones. I wish I'd been able to join, but my mom gave all my dolls to my cousin before the Ring."
"My friend, Margarethe, is a seamstress and she makes dolls to help her business. She wishes to make dolls like Barbie, only of wood, but it takes time. What we need is a fashion doll like Barbie that we can produce quickly."
The researcher nodded. "Well. I see. I tell you what, let's look in the craft section."
The craft section of the library was not very large.
"Susanna Oroyan's Designing the Doll has a lot of neat ideas. Your friend might be familiar with a lot of them if she does a lot of doll-making, but it might be worth it to copy the text."
Emma nodded enthusiastically as she flipped through the pages. "Margarethe does do a lot of doll-making in her spare time, especially since her father died. I wish there was some way to copy the pictures. "
"Here, Dawn Hertocher's Two Hundred Years of Dolls might provide you with some ideas about what was done up-time, and so might Douet's Identifying Dolls. But you know, if you wanted to do something really quick, you could do paper dolls or maybe coloring books. I hear the grade schools are crying for them."
"Paper dolls? Why would anyone buy paper dolls? Those are easy to make. Mothers make them with their children for games during the winter. Or you can buy them from a printshop."
"You can buy paper dolls?"
"Oh yes. My father-in-law says they were the second thing Master Gutenberg printed after he finished the Bible. They're expensive though. You have to color them after printing or buy water colors or something to color them with after you buy them."
"Like a coloring book?"
Bert, who had joined Emma, scratched his head. "What's a coloring book?"
The researcher led them to the kid's section and pulled out a thin book. "See? It's a basic outline drawing that kids color in. My teachers used it to teach us to draw inside the lines."
"But how do they color them?"
"Crayons. Oh, right. I forgot we don't have them yet down-time. Let me at least see what I can find out about how to make them."
"The fashion books are doing well," Christoph reported at a business meeting. "But not the coloring books."
"We need something to make them stand out," Julius grumbled. "The printers I sell them to place them on their shelves with the American's how-to guides and the Brillo pamphlets so they get lost. Who wants to buy something they could make at home just as easily?"
"I told you they should have the coloring sticks with them," said Emma.
Julius shook his head. "It would take time and another investment to make them work."
Bert grunted. "Researcher said tallow would work. A bit greasy but with the cheap paper we're using it would be fine."
Margarethe smiled and bounced slightly, noticing Christoph's jealous look at his brother-in-law. "I love this!" she said, just to make Christoph jealous.
Why did Bert have to choose this of all times to make a speech? grumbled Christoph silently.
"Ah, thank you my dear. That was just what I needed after a long trip."
Margarethe smiled. "It is good to see you, Master Gench. You were so kind after Papa died."
"Hardly a trial, Margarethe, child. Your papa was a good man and an upstanding member of the guild. My wife and I shall be proud to take over Calvin's business and welcome you into the family."
She stared. "Take over Papa's business? Welcome me into the family? I. I don't understand."
"Of course you do, child. Surely you've heard your neighbors' complaints? You are a young unmarried woman living alone. Even in this new world the Americans brought, it is unacceptable. Completely unacceptable!"
"I don't. "
Master Gench waved her to silence. "Here is what we shall do. My boy is almost past his apprenticeship. We will post the banns now and you can marry once Rolf has finished his apprenticeship. You will, of course, live with us until the wedding."
"No. I will not marry your son. My papa left his business to me and I will keep it and I will not hand it over to you or your son! Not ever."
"Margarethe, child, I just have your best interest at heart. If you were a seamstress to a noble family, few would question your unmarried state. But the guild cannot allow an unmarried orphan female of your age to continue to operate on her own in a town, and it will not. Either you will marry my son or you will end in a charity institution. Those are your only options."