Sunshine on their skin....tanned dolls

Yesterday I was watching some little Spanish children playing in the sunshine (yes, you can still do that here without be labelled as 'weird'!) and I marvelled at how beautifully tanned they are.  Now I do tan, quite quickly in fact, but my tan is always...well I suppose 'freckled' is a way of describing it.  Whereas the majority of Spanish children, regardless of their hair colour, tan to the most lovely brown colour....and this is despite their parents totally covering them in SPF50!!

This got me to thinking about my dolls.  I really do love tanned dolls too and when I thought about it, the majority of them fall into that category, whether they be my Sasha/Gregors, BJDs or other vinyl...if their is a choice, I am automatically drawn to the tans!  I have to say also, that tan dolls are so much easier to photograph in the higher clarity of light that exists here in southern Spain.

So I thought I'd share some photos of my tanned BJD dolls.  These aren't new photos, so I apologise in advance if you've already seen them!!

First to show her pretty tanned face is the appropriately named Summer.  She is a 27cm resin 'Caio Bella' BJD (ball jointed doll) from Bambicrony in South Korea.  She spent the first part of her life living in Portugal but came to live here in February 2012. Summer has a very sweet but shy personality as you can see from her photos! ;)

Next to take a bow is Lunita.  Lunita is a Lati Yellow Miel basic doll who, back in September 2011, was given a light hometan and new custom faceup by Vainilladolly here in Spain.  Lunita has actually been here the second longest of all my BJDs, having arrived direct from Latidoll in South Korea in August 2007.  She is fully jointed resin and just 14cm tall....she really is the 'baby' of the family and incredibly spoilt!!

Enjoying her chocolate!

 

Another little tiny tanned girl here is Nora, she is also a Lati Yellow of 14cm, a Pirate Lea, but she is a 'natural' tan, the Lati older more 'orange' tan.  I bought her secondhand and she came to me with her 'pirate' faceup, it was very dark and not to my taste at all so I eventually sent her to Raven to work her magic on her.  I love what Raven did to her, she's just so sweet and pouty now!

And my third little tanned girl of 14cm,  is Oreo, a Lati Yellow tanned Cookie.  She is the newer, lighter, more creamy tan and I really do like her colour.  She was the last BJD that I brought home and made the total of my Lati Yellows to 4....three tans and one normal skin.

Another little girl that has a lot of attitude is my light tanned human Tillie by Kaye Wiggs.  She has a default company faceup and is approx 29cm tall.  She's skinny and 'long', and to me she looks very Asian.   I think she is also a keeper here!  Her name is Torrie:

Reuben is my only tanned boy and he is a Dollzone BB Kay.  I did his faceup and it's not great but it's been 'him' for so long now that I've never sent him for a professional one, although it has crossed my mind a few times....I just worry that he'd not be 'Reuben' any more afterwards!!!  He is approx 28cm tall and I bought him from Dollzone here in Spain back in June 2008.  Another long standing member of the Dambuster dolls!!

 

And finally my two bigger girls who are MSD size, so approx 45cm tall.  Both girls are sculpted by the very talented Australian artist, Kaye Wiggs.  The first of these is Layla who is Light Tan.....her name is Louisa but is usually known as Loulou.  She has a custom faceup by Forever Virginia, a faceup artist in the US.  I really do love these two bigger girls, although I don't tend to do that much with them these days!  I like to look at them though!

And finally, Hope, she is Louisa's older sister and her tan is called 'Sun Kissed'.  She came to me with a default faceup but I removed it earlier this year and gave her a new one.  I was hoping to send her for a new professional faceup but have not had any contact with the faceup artist, so maybe that isn't going to happen right now!  

Doll for Sale!

I'm advertising this doll for sale for my friend Anita as she doesn't have a blog.

The doll in question is a brand new Zwergnase Junior Tina, my friend having received her just two weeks ago.

Tina is approx 19 inches tall, is made of vinyl and has the usual 5 points of articulation.  Her blond hair is rooted and her eyes are handpainted.  She has a very cute, almost apprehensive expression on her face.  She is designed  by the artist, Nicole Marschollek-Menzner.  The vinyl is very smooth and good quality and the finish of her outfit is excellent.  She comes wearing her default outfit excluding shoes....for some unknown reason, the store that she came from, Samantha's Dolls in the US, did not have them!  Tina will travel in her padded Zwergnase 'sleeping bag' and an outer box to keep her safe.

These quirky faced girls are really fun dolls to photograph and play with.....their moods seem to almost change with the light and the angle of the camera!  They really are quite packed with personality! :)

Anita would like $175 (approx £105 for her, (Paypal ONLY, paid as gift or personal payment) which is much less than retail, plus postage from the US.  She is prepared to ship worldwide and will mark the doll as a 'gift' with a lower value for those of us who are subject to the dreaded customs duty.  But please be aware that if the value is marked down, so the insured value is also reduced.....so full responsibility must be taken by the buyer in this respect. 

Tina comes from a smoke-free home!

Here are some photos of Tina, more information and photos are available direct from Anita, her email address is:  anitah1231@gmail.com

I can vouch for Anita as a seller, she has been a close friend of mine for almost 10 years and is honest and trustworthy.   She has 100% positive feedback on Ebay, Etsy and Den of Angels.  If you require any further information, then please email either Anita directly, on the above email address or myself at dambuster0662@gmail.com

Thanks for looking!!

A new outfit just for Tanya...

Today I finished an outfit for Tanya, my new girl from Maru & Friends.  I usually like to make a new outfit prior to a new dolls arrival but I was completely uncertain of Tanya's shape, so waited until she got here.

Surprise, surprise, she got a ra-ra set!  I say it like that, but seriously, only one other of my dolls has a ra-ra skirt set, so it's not like they're all dressed in them!!!  She chose a three tiered style skirt, with gingham and fine net underneath, and a short sleeved appliqued tee shirt.  I didn't make her a hairband as I ran out of time, nor socks, as the sandals wouldn't fit with socks.  Maybe next time!

Vinyl doll comparisons....

A couple of people showed some interest in comparisons between my vinyl dolls, so today I stripped off their outfits and took some photos.  The dolls who participated are Tanya from Maru & Friends, Zwergnase Junior Marlene, Anke by Sylvia Natterer from the Gotz Limited Edition Anniversary set (50 sets worldwide, released in the year 2000), 1968 Sasha Redhead and finally Little Darling #1 sculpt by Dianna Effner.

The first photo shows a height comparison: (left to right, Sasha, Anke, Marlene and Tanya, with little Ellie in front)

Next up we have the bigger of the dolls, I love the different skin tones.  Two of them are wigged (Anke and Tanya) and two of them are rooted (Sasha and Marlene):

 Side view of the four bigger girls:

Little Darling Ellie joins the big girls again for another sideways view (Ellie of course, is wigged):

Four of the five girls have handpainted eyes:

Here are closeups of their handpainted eyes:

First we have Ellie.  Her eyes are handpainted by Dianna Effner herself, I'm very lucky to have this girl!  Her eyes are just so beautiful that people are often fooled into thinking they're actually glass eyes!!!  Even her lashes are painted on.

Next we have Sasha by Sasha Morgenthaler, she is a redhead from 1968 and I believe her eyes, if not entirely handpainted at that time, would have had a lot of hand finishing:

Next we have Anke, she represents a member of the Gotz family and came as a set with her family of Ewe, Jakob and Ana.  Her eyes are handpainted by Sylvia Natterer.

Then of course we have Marlee, who is a Zwergnase Junior Marlene, her eyes are handpainted by Nicole Marschollek-Menzer....thanks very much Jenni!!! 

Finally, of the five girls I'm showing here, Tanya by Maru & Friends.  She has lovely inset acrylic eyes.  I'm not usually a great lover of acrylic eyes but have to say that these eyes are particularly nice with a lot of detail to the irises.

Kendal was surprised to learn that Tanya can wear shoes made for Sasha seeing as she is so much taller than Sasha.  So here is a comparison of the two girls' feet, Sasha on the left and Tanya right.  Tanya has a lot more detail to her feet than Sasha, who has a higher instep.

I thought that having smaller feet, Tanya would be difficult to stand on her own, but so far she has proved me wrong!!  Here she is modelling Boneka sandals in Sasha size:

And here Tanya and Nuria, my Redhead 1968 Sasha, are modelling lovely T Bar sandals by the late Jean Jensen.  Obviously Tanya on the left and Sasha on the right:

Now a few photos of the two Dianna Effner dolls.  Tanya, along with the other Maru & Friends girls, was designed by Dianna Effner, and Ellie is my 14 inch Little Darling #1 sculpt, designed and painted by Dianna.

Both girls have very similar body shape with one main exception.  The Little Darlings have their neck/head joint at the head and the bigger girl, Tanya, has hers at the bottom of her neck.  I prefer the look of the Little Darlings because the joint can't be seen, but both girls pose their heads really nicely and can hold the poses well.   They even have the same, quite steeply, sloping shoulders, and their leg joint at the hips is very similar.

A side view of both girls:

"Hello! Are you my new big sister?"  Both girls have such cute profiles too!

"Yes!  That would be me!" says Tanya!

I hope, despite their size differences, the two girls will become firm friends!!

I hope that this comparison of vinyl dolls will prove useful or helpful to someone!! :)