Nesting Doll Salt and Pepper Shakers

Aren’t nesting dolls the most adorable little things? Have you seen some? It looks like one doll – a unique doll, painted with bright colors, and usually with a Japanese look. If you don’t know about nesting dolls you might think that little wooden doll is just one doll. But twist the doll in a hidden area and it opens. Inside, you guessed it, there’s another doll. Twist that one, it opens, and here comes another. This continues down to a tiny little doll about an inch high or so. Some people display the dolls as just one doll, with the others inside, and some people set them all on a shelf so that they diminish in size. If you happen to have more than one set of the nesting dolls, or you don’t mind turning the dolls into something else, you’ll enjoy a quick craft that transforms two of the dolls into salt and pepper shakers.

Although you can use nearly any set of nesting dolls to make the salt and pepper shakers the ideal ones are those which unscrew around the middle, or higher. Use the two largest nesting dolls and make a minor adjustment to them. Use a push pin or tack to make small dots on the heads of the two dolls. Just twist the pin back and forth until you create a round groove, and make three or four of these on the largest doll – the salt shaker, and a couple on the smaller doll – the pepper shaker.

Use a 1/16″ drill bit to drill tiny holes where the pin marks are. It’s a good idea to lightly clamp the doll with a vise while making the holes. Place cloth over the jaws of the clamp before securing the doll so you don’t scratch it. Don’t tighten the vise too tightly or you’ll crack the doll. The drill goes pretty easily through most any nesting dolls so you should not have to tighten the vise really tight.

Upon drilling the holes, use a damp cloth, and wipe the doll down, inside and out, to make sure there is no sawdust. Then, fill up the bottom half of each doll with salt or pepper, and screw the two pieces of the doll back together.

The nesting doll salt and pepper shakers are very unique and extremely adorable. They can hold other things, too, like cinnamon, garlic or onion salt, and other spices. You might want to make larger holes in some of the dolls, depending upon what you’ll be putting inside. Everyone who sees them will love them.


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