The last few weeks have been very busy for me, I don't mean to neglect my blog...honest!
Anyway, I thought I'd share some of what I've been up to. There's a lot of talk in the BJD (ball jointed doll) world about recasts, I don't want to get into that subject on here because it's a very emotive subject and I'm going to bed soon and it plays on my mind, but my lovely friend Sue in the UK and I, were talking back last summer about how it is possible to get a cute BJD for a really reasonable price, without resorting to buying recasts.
Soooo we both bought a head each from a company called Alice's Collections in China, the head in question is a Little Peach 1/6 scale head from the company Doll Family and at the time we bought ours, it was $18 plus $5 postage. I see the price has now gone up slightly to $22 but still very reasonable for a bjd head. The head comes in five resin colours, normal pink, white, normal yellow, tanned and grey and we both chose the tanned version. The head comes blank without any body, eyes or wig. The heads shipped approx two months after we purchased them, so I received mine about November. We were then going to send Sue's head cap to a company called Resin Soul, also in China, as they have a resin matching service and will make a body to match the head cap from the head. We chose the 1/6 scale girl body. We decided to wait until after Christmas to order the bodies. The bodies would cost $80 each plus postage.
After Christmas, unfortunately, I had a bit of a financial crisis and was unable to go ahead with my ordering of a body, so Sue went ahead and ordered hers. Unbeknown to me, my lovely friend ordered a body for me too as a gift and she surprised me with this generous present in February!!! I'm so very blessed. 💖
Sue sent my body and her dolls head to me, so that I could do the faceup on her doll as well as my own doll.
This is Sue's blank doll.....
We wanted the two girls to be twins, so I worked on them at the same time in order to achieve some sort of uniformity.
I tried to make both girls as similar as possible but despite all my efforts at keeping them dust free, I managed to get some tiny pieces of lint under the sealant! I was not a happy bunny and decided to start Sue's doll again.... but for the life of me I cannot find the photos of the finished head second time round, so here, below, is the first one.....
Finally the two heads were finished and I was happy with them. And today my husband, who is currently in the UK, was able to hand Sue her finished head.
Here is Sue's lovely girl, who is now known as Ida.....she has a lot of attitude!!!
I made this outfit as a gift for Sue.....
And here is my girl, who is called Sarah....
Sarah also has to wear glasses but she left them off for the above photos!
And here is Sarah in a different outfit:
I will take some better close up photos of Sarah soon, I just need to replace her eyelashes as I'm not happy with the ones she currently has, as I used the wrong glue.
I'm very happy with how both girls turned out. I'm not a professional faceup artist, but I did my best to bring the girls to life and hopefully I have achieved that!
Thank you for visiting, I will be back soon with the other things that I've been up to recently.
Have a lovely week ahead!
Big hugs Sharon xx
The weather here had, until today, been beautiful and it inspired me to get a bit creative....I have so many ideas rolling round inside my head but when I sit down in my doll/sewing room, those ideas just seem to float out of the window...and are lost. But I've recently had a little spurt of creativity and thought I'd share it with you...
Firstly I decided that Anuschka, my Zwergnase Junior, needed a new wig, as her default one, shown in my last post, was really messy and matted underneath her hat so I looked through my wig box and found this one (below) and thought it made a good replacement for her.....it's a Monique Gold wig, I have no idea of the name, but know that once it was a long one, before I got carried away with the scissors!!!! I do like her with messy hair. 😊
So then she got a new dress. I made this using a pattern for Maru & Friends dolls, but the fit is quite good.
Then yesterday I made a wig for my little Irrealdoll Annic. I've struggled with finding a good wig for her because she's got such a tiny head that manufactured wigs, even in her size, seem to have too much hair so they overwhelm her face. I decided to make my own, so I made a head cap with tulle and several layers of white glue, which once hard, makes a close fitting cap. I then used fake fur from a cushion I bought at Lidl, trimming lines of the fur still attached to the fabric, making 'wefts' and then attaching them to the cap, again with white glue. And then once it'd dried, I cut it into the only style I can really do, a bob!!! I'm really quite pleased with how it came out and don't think it overwhelms her at all.
So what do you think?
Apart from that, I have heard that my pre-order dolls will soon be shipping, so that's exciting for me, I hope I'm happy with them both :)
And finally, here is a photo of some poppies that are growing in the dry river bed behind my home.....
I hope you're all having weather to your liking, wherever you may be.....
Have a lovely week!
Big hugs Sharon xx
The weather has been beautiful here and I'm hoping that spring really has sprung already. I went for a walk on the beach with my friend and her dog and decided to bring along a doll to photograph. My friend Julie isn't a doll collector but she does seem to take an interest in my dolls and often says she'll make some knitted items for them.....I'm still waiting Julie!!! 😉
So it was the turn of Neele, my one remaining Wichtel doll by Rosemarie Muller. She's a cute little thing and I thought, with her big wide soled sandals, she'd be a good doll to take to the beach as she'd hopefully not fall flat on her face in the sand!!!
Neele has her bucket but she doesn't have a spade, so I need to find an icecream place that serves their desserts with those spade shaped plastic spoons because I think it'd be the perfect size for her! And what a good excuse for an icecream!
My friend Julie then set up this pose with her dog, Louis....I definitely think Julie has an eye for doll photography, I may have to lend her a doll to take out with her when we walk the dogs again next time!!! 😉
And here's the end result, I think you'll agree a cute shot! It helps that Louis is a very well behaved boy, my dogs would probably have dragged my doll face down through the stones!!!
Apart from that, my selling has continued and several of my dolls have found new homes. A few are still waiting to be adopted, including two previously brunette bald Sashas, a bald Gregor and two brunette Gregors, one of which was rerooted by me. And also my first blond Sasha, Millie, who has beautiful hair and who's eyes were repainted by Shelly of Sasha Dolls UK. She is actually already on Ebay, if you're interested.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233156482872?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
If you look at all my listings you will see the other dolls I currently have listed. If you're interested in any of them, please contact me and I can sell them off Ebay if you'd prefer it.
Before I go, I thought I'd share a few other photos that I've taken recently of various dolls of mine. I'm doing a 'doll a day' with a couple of friends via email, I'm enjoying it because it's making me take photos of my dolls when sometimes I just can't be bothered!!!
Here is Anais (Irrealdoll Annic in Truffle skin) with her new bike which I found on Ebay, it's the perfect scale for her and so nicely detailed.
And here is one of my first Blythes, Hershey who is a Simply Chocolate Blythe that I customised some years ago....
And finally, a photo of Anuschka, one of my Zwergnase Juniors. She is from 2006 and her hair is made of mohair and has got really tangled and messy recently. But these photos don't show that, so I was really happy with how she looks. She has such a great grumpy face!! 😊
Well I hope you all have a great week and that the weather is good wherever you are!
Big hugs
Sharon xxx
It has been a very busy month and my blog, as well as my dolls and my sewing machine, have been seriously neglected. However, having finally made a good start on my selling, I feel a lot less 'overwhelmed' and there does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel...even if it's only a tiny glimmer, it's definitely there!!!
In the last week I've listed quite a few dolls on Ebay and as a result, I've sold a small Schildkrot Wichtel boy, my one and only Sasha baby, and my little Toddler Erik. I wasn't too concerned about the Wichtel boy or the Sasha baby as neither of them have had much attention here, but I was a little sad about Teddy, my Toddler, because he was a real cutie, but he will be going to live with a nice Sasha collector in the US so I'm sure he'll be well cared for and have a lot of fun in his new loving home.
Bye bye boys!!! Enjoy your new homes!
I will be continuing to add dolls and other items to Ebay, so if you're interested in seeing what I'm selling or who needs a new home, please click on the link below:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/dambuster01/m.html?item=233147670425&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562
I hope to be adding more items at the weekend, if not before!!!
I also had a lot of dolls here that I'd bought on impulse over the last few years. There were several Barbies, a Fashionista Ken, a Santori Gorjuss doll, some Spanish dolls by Asi and Paola Reina, a couple of Disney Animator dolls, as well as, four Journey Girls that I bought from Toys R Us. Most of the dolls were either brand new in their boxes or had been removed and undressed and then put away. I didn't want to put them on Ebay as I felt the postage for them would be more than the individual value of each doll. So what to do? I made some enquiries and found out that a local group of ladies collect donated dolls for a great cause that really did appeal to me!!! So I gathered the dolls, there were around 25 or so in total and met with a very nice lady who told me all about their work. Some of the women sew, others knit or crochet clothes for the dolls and then they're donated to a charity, Ángeles Malagueños de la Noche, a non-profit organisation, based in Malaga. The dolls and their wardrobes will eventually go to children who's circumstances mean that they don't get much, if anything, from The Three Kings on the night of the 5th January. I was invited to attend the next meeting of dolly outfit makers so I may go and see if I can help by sewing some clothing. Wish me luck!
So now that I'm getting a little more organised on The Dolly Cull, as I've started to call it, and can actually get into my doll room properly, I decided to take one of my girls, Bailey, out with me today when we went to visit Lake Viñuela. Bailey is my rewigged Brunette Sasha from 1971, and is one of my favourites of my Sashas. So I thought I'd share some photos. She is wearing her lovely Ruthdolls dress with brown leather boots also by Ruth and brown socks by me. Sorry if the photos are a bit repetitive, I just think she looks cute from every angle!!!
Well I hope you enjoyed my little update and photos of sweet little Bailey. I will try to keep my blog updated more regularly now that I'm feeling a bit more positive about my dolls.
Thanks so much for visiting, I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week ahead!!
Big hugs Sharon xx
Today I finally got to doing a bit of sewing for my dolls, having spent the first month of the year doing all sorts of other things apart from dressing my dolls.
So I thought I'd make a knit dress, with hat and socks for Dylan, my Robin by Little Cosmos Dolls. I chose this blue knit fabric which is printed with little fox heads because I think blue looks lovely with her tan skin tone. The fabric is actually from a pair of pyjama trousers which I bought from our local Lidl late last year. The striped fabric is from a baby onesie and fortunately matches the printed fabric perfectly.
In other news, I've sold 4 dolls in the last few weeks but still have a way to go....and am still dragging my feet. My son is coming over for a visit from Wednesday but when he has left again, I promise that I'll pull my finger out and get dolls listed on Ebay, there can be no more umming and ahhing, it has to be done 😟
Although I've not sewn for her in ages, I thought I'd share a couple of photos of one of my favourite Sasha girls, brunette Stella from 1969-70. She has falling hair so I've never washed or brushed it, but there's plenty there so she's doing fine. Here she is in a dress by A Passion for Sasha, which I'm ashamed to say she's been wearing since the day she got it....which must be since the spring of 2016!!!!! Ooops!! (Socks by me, shoes by Noreen Walters).
Apart from that I've nothing much else to tell you for now, except to say thank you for continuing to visit and comment on my blog!
I hope you all have a great week and that the weather is not too bad where you are!
Big hugs, Sharon xxx
I mentioned in my previous blog post that I would write about my doll plans for 2019 and it's taken me until now to do just that. I can't recall what my plans were last year and I'm being too lazy to search for my post, but I'm sure I would have said that I intended taking more photos out and about with dolls, without worrying about what strangers might think of me. Did I do that? No, not really, but it was more that I just didn't make the time to take dolls with me when I went out, rather than being embarrassed to be seen with them.....well that's my excuse!!!
So my plans for this year. Well for a start I still have two dolls on pre-order from last year. One of them was ordered in September and the other early December, so hopefully the first of those will be shipping within the next couple of months. Both are artist dolls, although from two different artists and most artists will say that the dolls take approximately 4 or 5 months to ship....so that gives me a while to go yet. The first of these dolls that I've ordered is Eminor by Harucasting in South Korea. She is an MSD sized girl and I've ordered her in a medium tan with a custom faceup by Blisslacosta from Russia. (Photo by Blisslacosta/Harucasting):
And the second doll on order is called Ninon and she is from the French artist, Lillycat Dolls, she is also MSD and her skin colour is called Chocolate. (Photo by Lillycat Dolls).
In the meantime, I come to the dolls that I mentioned in my last blog post, that I would be putting up for sale. To be honest the task is such a daunting one that I really don't know where to start. I have so many dolls to sell, photos to take, listings to type up, postage to work out, that I've been dragging my feet about making a start. I have sold three dolls on Facebook, which should have encouraged me to keep at it, but still I am not getting anywhere and it is driving me to distraction. I tried to make a separate page on here so that at the top of the page there would be a tab that you could click on to see what I'm selling, but for some reason I am unable to get that right, so that is my next task. Anyway, I thought I'd just add some photos here and if you're interested in anything, please give me a shout!!
And as I also said previously, I will be listing things on ebay too, so again, I will add links here too once I have them.
Here is a collage of most of the dolls I'm selling. I've not numbered them but if we say that number 1 is the photo on the top left and work across and down from left to right.....(if you click on the collage it should enlarge)....
I
also have a bunch of Barbies and a Ken that have never been removed from
their boxes, I have two of the first batch of the Made to Move Barbies,
the blond and the dark skinned girl, plus the Asian girl, she has been
removed from her box and posed. I don't have her box. I also have a
couple of the Fashionista girls (numbers 24 and 33) and a Ken Fashionista (number 3). All brand new in
their boxes, although one of them, the dark skinned red head has some
damage to the side of her box where the clear plastic front has come
away from the cardboard backing.
I am also considering selling my Gotz 50th Anniversary set of dolls, they're by the artist Sylvia Natterer and represent the Gotz family. The set is limited to 50 sets worldwide and they were released in the year 2000. One of the dolls has some caving to her chest but apart from that, the dolls and their clothing are in good condition.
And I have three other Sylvia Natterer dolls that are looking for new homes, one of those has never even been undressed.
If you're interested in any of the above dolls, or would like more information, please email me:
dambuster0662@gmail.com
I'm open to offers on their prices, please don't be shy about making an offer, I can only say no, and I promise that I'll say it in the nicest possible way!!! Unfortunately I'm not able to offer more than one month layaway at the moment.
Thanks for reading, I hope you're all having a great week!
Big hugs Sharon xx
An ever so slightly late Happy New Year to all my readers, thank you so much for staying with me this year, I hope you'll carry on visiting throughout 2019.
I will start to list quite a few of my dolls for sale this month, all being well, as I'm going to be having a BIG clear out!!! There will be Sashas, Gregors, Gotz, Natterers, Zwergnases as well as Little Darlings, to name but a few, who will be looking for new homes. I will list them here and probably on Ebay too, with the auction links also listed here. I'm going to be really ruthless as there will be big changes happening this year and I need the dosh!!!
Dollies aside, yesterday, New Years Day, myself and some friends, started the New Year with a swim in the chilly Mediterranean! The weather has continued to be beautiful and sunny through the festive period and so what better way to start the new month and year, than a group of Irish, British and Dutch friends to go for a swim!!
The photos are not great but hope you'll enjoy seeing us nutty people having fun! There weren't enough crazy wigs to go around so I sprayed my hair with blue dye....fortunately it washed out afterwards with shampoo!!! I'm the one with the full body surf suit....I'm not taking any chances with jelly fish....and that's my excuse!!! 😉
I don't know why I have my mouth open like that below, the water wasn't that cold!!!!
Swimming in the lead here, but it didn't last....my friends are so much stronger swimmers than me!!!
I will probably do a 'summing up' of my year in my next post as I enjoy looking back at what I've been up to and what dolls have come and gone, but as my family have been visiting from the UK, I've not really had time over the Christmas period.
I hope you all have a great 2019 and wish you good health and happiness! Thank you once again for your support during 2018.
Big hugs and lots of love
Sharon xxx
