Short Hiatus

There will be a short hiatus from new posts for about two weeks. I'll be back with new websites and events in the first week of February. In the mean time please revisit some of the older posted blogs for updates of people's doll art doings, and don't forget the Dolls and Miniatures section of Etsy!

Haitian Earthquake

Cross posted from my other blog:

I'm pretty horrified by the ongoing news from Haiti. When I don't know what else to do, or how to help, I make stuff. I will be making a Dream Doll, starting at once, to sell with the proceeds going to assist - perhaps the Red Cross would be a good place to donate. I'll decide that later. In the mean time, I want to challenge my crafting and doll making friends to do the same. Perhaps we can set up a day of auctions on Ebay for Haiti Earthquake relief.

Monstrous

Cody Goodin is having a blog giveaway to celebrate his blogging anniversary. The prize is this goblin monster critter. Go to his blog, and follow the intructions (follow, comment with contact info) to win.

Then pop across to the other happy reason for his celebration and visit The Dark Artists' Guild, which has declared the Year of the Monster.

Twin Pines For Sale

Received today from Nicholas Hill at Twin Pines of Maine, a company whose products I use for my dolls and which I have featured here in the past:

You can own Twin Pines Of Maine.

All of the products offered by Twin Pines were made specifically for
dolls simply because there were no safe, effective, commercial products
available to do the job at hand. The need for each product was described
by my wife, Barbara, so she could manage her extensive collection
safely. I make all of the products. My name is Nicholas Hill. I am a
chemist. I am not a doll collector.

Over the years the demand for each product has grown significantly and,
at present, tens of thousands of collectors in virtually every country
of the world enjoy the quality, safety and effectiveness of Twin Pines
Products. There is no competition from any company anywhere in the
world.

Sadly, a few years ago Barbara passed away. Since I am not a collector I
have decided to sell the Company. There is an announcement on the
www.TwinPines.com web site.

The sale will include all product formulations, production equipment,
raw material inventory, containers, customer list, domain name, complete
training and a very complete doll reference library.

Seller financing may be available for an appropriately qualified buyer.

The selling price is in the low six figures. Serious buyers only please
e-mail me at Nick@TwinPines.com .

Nicholas Hill

*I will add that I have used their cold water wash, the translucent green liquid, as an awesome spot cleaner and stain lifter on our regular clothes as well as for doll clothing. It does better on oily stains than pretty much anything else, and tiny drop goes a very long way. I have also reduced vintage Barbie ear greening with 911. Nothing gets that gone entirely, but I am happy with my results.

Gals and Dolls in the news

Here's a lovely article in her local paper about the doll club in which my doll friend Em participates. Don't their upcoming round robin projects sound cool?

Online classes

It has been some time since I posted about online classes, so I thought it might be a nice time to remind everyone of the new offerings at Joggles. As well as the luscious fiber and mixed media art technique classes, there are numerous doll and figure offerings - everything from beginning needle felting through fairy wings to cloth and polymer clay figures and art dolls. Currently classes are scheduled all the way through April, with many well known and admired doll makers facilitating.
Here's Colleen Babcock's "Bamboo Oracle". (Her blog is always worth checking out anyway.)

Ecstatic

...to have found this wonderful BJD collectors' and artists' resource, online magazine BJDCollectasy. Aside from a plethora of links to vendors, costumers and artists, there are some very beautiful photo galleries, lots of news about new products and releases, and links to YouTube tutes sponsored by the site.
Make a cup of your favorite hot beverage and allow yourself a while to immerse yourself. I'm very interested in some of the OOAK and limited edition costumers making incredible outfits for BJD's like Marbled Halls.

Jayn and I visit the LA Volks store

Only open on the weekend, the Volks USA showroom in Torrance, CA, has been on our list of places to visit for a couple of years. Finally last Sunday, my daughter just said "Let's go!" and so we did.

The ground floor is full of "Who's That Girl" dolls and fashions as well as the little fashion doll size EB Beauty dolls. The fashions are cool adorable, with fine details and accessories. We have an EB Beauty, yet to have her face up, so it was also cool to collect some free brochures about painting doll faces.

Up the stairs is the real magic - the Super Dollfies and other ball jointed dolls in the Volks collection. A vista of dressed dolls, all the parts for the full choice customizable system, fashions and accessories as well as the full range of supplies for face ups and doll care greeted us. They have sewing supplies, patterns and itty bitty doll sized notions. And the shoes!

The staff couldn't have been kinder, especially Jane, who spent a lot of time answering my Jayn's questions, listening to her stories, getting out parts to show her close up, and helping her hold some of the dolls, which she found remarkably heavy.

We are saving up to buy our first full size Dollfie doll and outfit, and when we're ready we are definitely going to the Volks showroom for our purchase. Then we will sit her in the beautiful victorian style chair set up as a photo op (as shown above), and take her picture.

Inspiration

I went on a browse and was led to Lisa Lectura Creations, the blog of a San Francisco area painter and mixed media artist. Her painting, mostly of female faces and characters are very pretty, very attractive with delicate linework and colors. Her blog is very beautiful to look at - a plethora of lovely images.
Doll connection - she takes prints on fabric of her own artwork and reforms the beautiful ladies into art doll stuffies of felt and quilted cloth embellished with hand embroidery, ribbons, beading and stuff. The pieces have a clarity and precision about them - finesse I think is the word.
Right now Lisa is having a "Blogiversary" give away - the art prizes aren't dolls, but nobody's perfect.

Happy New Year

Thank you to all the followers, visitors and doll artists, collectors and fans who have made making this blog so gratifying for me over 2009. I've been pretty busy recently, as you can tell by the dearth of posts, but with the New Year I intend to post more often.

You can help by letting me know of any exhibitions, events or contests related to dolls and doll collecting that you hear of, as long as they have some kind of online presence. I'd love to help you promote your dolls in my small way.



Meanwhile here is a doll artist starting the New Year right, with beautiful dolls on Etsy.

I mentioned this artist before in a round up post, and now I'm coming back for more. A Little Catty makes whimsical, odd, dolls and figures, of fiber bodies with painted and sculpted paper clay and mixed media details. They all have a lot of character and really fun and interesting stories. Frankly I think her dolls are bargain priced for their size, level of detail, and the workmanship involved. But that may change if they take off - so get yours while you can.