Doll Sketches August 31st 2013

Hi everyone.
So today we got a note about saving energy from the electrical company, so I am running against time to post this blog post, lol. Basically you can save some money by using the least of electrical appliances as possible. So today I am going to do nothing but sketch, maybe sew a little and hang out with my husband. We will limit the use to only his laptop, were we can watch the gardening videos he has been browsing through youtube, and I can also see them while I do something more like hands on craft. In the past couple of days I have been working on a pattern for a fabric doll. And I was also working on some sketches for maybe fashion doll dresses. I don´t know, sometimes I sketch it and later someone comes up with the idea and creates it. I really don´t mind. The world is connected somehow, so this means that sometimes two people in different parts of the world can have the same idea at the same time. And that is a way of intercommunicating marketing too.

Anyways, here I´m sharing two of my sketching designs, maybe I could work on them at some point, and also a rough sketch of the fabric doll I have in mind. Originally it was bigger, but I don´t want a very big doll, otherwise it won´t fit in my doll cabinet. So let´s see what happens.

Much Love
Missha (@agelessdolls)

Amazing find, Doll rescued August 30th 2013

Wow, nice doll to close with this month´s rescues.
So with what I could scavenge around the house, a quarter there, a nickle there, lots of dimes and pennies, and I gathered enough money to afford rescuing a doll. There were three set, but someone jumped on two as I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of them. More than the rescue itself, I was really curious about the type of doll. I know the other person really didn´t care about what the dolls look like, he was mostly in it for the money he could make out of it. Which is fine, this world revolves around money, and I won´t say I haven´t sold some dolls myself just to be able to have enough money to rescue some more and make my collection bigger. There are some dolls I really don´t care for in terms of adding into my collection, so I make them available for other collectors of such dolls, and that way I also know they are going to a home where they will be taken care of. Unfortunately sometimes some dolls might be mistaken for something else lowering their price to the point that they get bought for little girls to play with. I am alright with that too, but it is true that the values at this day in time, have changed. Kids are used to disposing, breaking, not caring for their toys anymore. At least I feel I am one of the last generations to see the value in toys and dolls, because as I have mentioned before, I still have most of my dolls and toys even if I am 33 years old. My mom believed in passing on loved dolls to her daughter, which she did, and I believe that I will do the same with my daughter once I have one, and so on. It really hurts when I see dolls that are broken, not because of an accident, as they may happen, but because the girl or boy didn´t care and broke it. There are many kids out there in the world that have not 1 toy to play with, and sometimes they even have to make their own out of sticks and rocks. I don´t mind either, creativity is the best playmate. The thing is I love collecting dolls, and looking at the work that artist put on their master-pieces which are these beautiful creatures made of porcelain, vinyl, plastic, fabric and other materials. There is magic into creating such beautiful things out of common material, and that´s what I like.

Anyways, back to my find of today. So yes, I got lucky to get my hands on one of the three. I opened the box to see what I had, and at first I wasn´t really amazed. I mean I loved the detail on the doll, and well, it was made out of vinyl which meant it was going to last a long time and it was harder for it to break. I wasn´t sure if I wanted to keep it, I also wasn´t sure if I wanted to re-sell it. I felt for the other guy, and chased him to see if he still wanted this one and at least be able to sell the whole set together. He walked so fast into securing the other two dolls. I think he thought I was going to try to take them from him. That was funny, I am not that desperate! Still, he was too fast for me, and then I thought: "Well, whenever I bump into this person at this place and I smile or say Good Morning, just because I am polite and in a way when you see the same people over and over, it is a good thing to be nice and polite. But he never says hi back, nor anything." Now thinking about that I thought; "Why do I have to do something nice like this? For him it is just business, for me it is more than that. It is appreciation, and maybe at some point finding a good home for the doll." So I changed my mind, I returned an adorable, gigantic stuffed Koala Bear that I was about to buy, and took all the change out of my pockets, and got the doll.
Mission accomplished. I had rescued a doll that though not the type of doll I buy for myself, I decided that he could be saved and welcomed into my collection. Yes, I said he.

Doll lovers from all ages, let me introduce you to one of Jeckle and Jansen´s vinyl doll from their first collection of 1992. His name is Mathew. The box says Christian, as I supposed the person that got them, got them confused. The collection that was for sale when I found Mathew, consisted of Mathew, Christian and another doll I really couldn´t get a glimpse of it´s name as it was written outside the box with a marker.
It was made in Spain by this two twin German sisters by the name of Petra Jeckle and Andrea Jansen.

Name of the Doll: Mathew Limited Edition 1992
Size: 17 - 19 inches
Material: Vinyl, with soft body, and a mohair wig.
Artist: Design and Modeled by Petra Jeckle
Company: Jeckle-Jansen Künstlerpuppen
Markings: Behind the head it says "1992 Andrea Jansen".
Approx Retail Original Value: $350 - $450 USD
Approx Retail Value as of Aug 30th 2013: $100-$450 USD
Status: Rescued. Keeping this doll in my collection.

I hope you enjoyed these photos and you can use them for reference in case one day you also bump into one of these cute little friends.
With much love.

Missha

A surprise for my husband.

Hi everyone,
I wanted to share with you guys a doll that I rescued over the weekend. I got it for my husband since he likes gnomes and elves. I thought it was adorable, and plus we have the believe that the more fantastic figurines you have at home, the more chances of the real creature of hanging out in your house there is. Might sound silly, but before I married, at my house in Mexico, I had fairies, gnomes, elves and more all over the house. Mostly in my room and living room. When I got married and moved, my mom started noticing things that I had already mentioned but she really didn´t payed attention to back then. Hearing little chattering while being alone at home. Figurines moving in different places, things falling out of the blue, keys and other jewelry dissapearing, etc. Someone told me that when you have all of these things around, the creatures feel like it is a safe place to be, because since you believe in them, they know that if you bump into them you won´t freak out. Well, let me tell you that when you bump into them, you still freak out, but it is a nice feeling anyways. So, while those stayed back at my mom´s house, I am trying to invite new ones in our home here in California. It is always a good thing, specially if you are into gardening. They will bless your garden, and help you have good crops. I respect those who don´t believe in these things, but once I said: "Until no see, no believe." And sometimes I wished I had never said that.
Anyways, here is the doll. He is a cute vinyl doll, that was apparently sold at Toys R Us, and was about $10.00 dollars. His name is "Rafairn" and he is part of the "Elfs, The great Elven Forest Collection."
A very nice addition to our fantasy figurines.

This is Rafairn

This is his story

 Aint him adorable?

This is the back of the box.

Have a beautiful day.
Much Love

Missha

Doll rescued August 26th 2013

Hi everyone
So this is the beautiful doll that I rescued last Monday. Her hair was quite a mess when I found her, and it might sound strange but doing doll´s hair is kinda therapeutic for me somehow. Anyways, here she is.
She is a Madame Alexander (girls) doll. She´s either 18 or 19 inch tall. I thought she was a great find, what do you think?

This was her hair before:

And then I transformed into this:

Now she can take a walk on the park looking very pretty!

Such a beautiful doll!

Much Love

Missha

To save, or not to save a Barbie doll. That was my dilemma.

During a doll hunting trip I had a couple of months ago, I found this... How can I say it? Terrifying situation with a doll. On one hand, she was a vintage 1961 Barbie Doll #5, yes, I had finally found a vintage doll older than any other I had. On the other hand she was in a very scary stage. I felt so bad for her, so very bad. I wanted to save her so bad, but the price was not very convincing for the stage the doll was in. I mean, she was bitten by a dog in different parts of her body. Fingers in one hand were cut separate and not very straight. Pocked holes in different parts of her face and body. (Almost like if someone had been doing voo-doo to someone) Her eyebrows were erase. I don´t know if someone tried to restore her at any point in stage. Parts of her body were cut off like with a razor knife. Her original hair was cut off, and she was wearing an old wig (you could tell by the color and texture of the wig), but which was also in very bad shape, and was only attached by some pins. Some pores of the hair plugs were ripped, she was very filthy, and some of the face paint was faded. OMG! It was a scary scene for a doll lover, specially a Barbie lover. "Should I take her, should I leave her?" My thoughts were: "If someone decides to get her without noticing the damage, she is going to end up in the trash, I could see it happening for sure."

So I decided to jump in and save her. I felt like just because she was an antique, and because she was BARBIE, she deserved to be saved. But geese, it was going to take a lot of patience to make her, less scary if you know what I mean.

So I took her home, looked at the damage, and after finding the closest wall to meet with my forehead for a while, I decided to take it as a challenge. Now don´t take me wrong. I know that there are a lot of people out there that restore dolls and are probably thinking: "No big deal!" Well, the problem is that I am not a doll restorer. However I do have some skills that I thought that if I put together, I might come out with something.

I do know how to sew, basic skills, but I think that for doll clothes it will be fine. I know how to add embellishment to clothes such as beads and sequins, so that helps in case I mess up the fabric somehow. Hey, it can happen! I was in industrial design for 2 semesters and believe me, you don´t want to make me use glues, and things that spill with other material. It can get nasty. Lol. 

As an illustrator, I thought I could be able to recreate the doll´s facial makeup. In the past I have never been much successful in painting. My skill is drawing with pencils, and then I jump to digital painting just because as I said. If it spills, it will be scary.

So first thing was to clean the doll very well. That helped me go through the little detailed damages around her body. I thought I could fix it with cold porcelain, but that didn´t work. Plan B was to make a dress that would cover those dog bites, and other marks.

I cut back all the hair and carefully removed it from the inside of the head. I noticed all the damage to the pores. It did help me however to practice the re-rooting techniques that I have been learning online, though this was going to be my first full work, since the one first I started is still half way. (I got sore finger tips after that first one and decided to leave her for a rainy day. Hint, it rains about twice a year in Escondido, California) 

I took pictures to remember what was going on before I removed the original paint, and after a deep breath started with the re-rooting. That was fun. It took me about 3-4 days considering that I did it in bits and not straight like more than 8 hrs per day. It was more like, 3-4 hours per day. When I was done, I was excited about it, because she looked like a Byron Lars doll that I have been craving for, for some time now. She was obviously not going to look like her, but at least that made me happy and I was done with the re-rooting of the hair.

The next step was to paint her face. I wanted to make something different, or a bit different than the original paint, and I wanted her makeup to match her outfit. So I had to see what bits and pieces of fabric I had bought and placed a side for these types of projects, and found a nice set of colors that I thought I could match the makeup with.

So with a lot of patience and long deep breaths, focused motions, and a bit of cleverness, I was able to repaint her successfully! I was even able to disguise a small hole with a beauty mark so it looked better. I was very happy with the results. After all, I had only done this twice before, but never removing the whole thing. At the end you can be the judge, but I was happy with what I did.

So the doll was almost done. One third left, which was the outfit and embellishment of it. Though I don´t understand patterns AT ALL, I was able to use part of a pattern and then just a bit of cleverness here and there and voalá. I was done with my first fully OOAK doll. For the love of Barbie, I was able to rescue a doll who was very, very much in terrible shape, and make her a very decent collectible barbie. At least for me, because I know I can´t really sell her, since her body is still in bad shape underneath those clothes. But it is true that it makes a beautiful addition to my Barbie doll collection, and though I do have some vintage barbie dolls, this is the oldest one I have now.

The most fun I had working with this doll was with the jewelry, since I learned a bit about it when I was 21 years old and trying to pay college. I feel it looks great.

So what do you think? Would you dare buy an expensive doll who is in deplorable conditions and take the time to restore as much as can be saved?

I can surely tell you that this is a great hobby that I intend to practice more with to be able to share with my daughter if one day I get to have one. I´ve always loved dolls, and for a while I have been wanting to learn how to make my own from scratch either from paper clay, cold porcelain, paper-maché, or fabric. As I have mentioned before in a previous post. Dolls are truly a work of art, and they should be treated as such.

And shame on those who use dolls in an unintended way! It is just sad when that happens, but good for us, we can try to fix it.

I hope you enjoyed this story of my recent experience with this "trendy" hobby (Restoring dolls).

Much Love

Missha

Doll Rescued August 22nd 2013

A beautiful, extraordinary Ashton-Drake Porcelain Doll

When I saw this doll, without knowing who she was or brand, I just fell in love with her delicate face features, detailed and long beautiful dress, and hair-due. I usually don´t buy porcelain dolls, unless they really stand out, because I really don´t have the space for them. Maybe one day, when we get our own house, I can arrange my dolls and then give into my weakness, which are the porcelain dolls. I suppose that since my grandma was the one who would give us these type of dolls, it just makes me feel like she is close.

So as I appreciated her at home, I found out that she´s an "Ashton-Drake" Porcelain doll by the name of "Beth´s 1960s wedding dress" and is supposed to be part of a collection of 3 generations. Her mom and grandmother. What really makes this doll a collectible, is that the mold for her face was programmed to be destroyed in 1996, and apparently it happened in 1995. So all the dolls from this mold are from 1994 and t his set. It really makes it special. It is estimated that the retail value of this doll was from $185 - $280.00 usd. Depending on where you were buying her. I obviously didn´t pay that much, even if I wanted to, I just couldn´t afford it. But that is when my treasure hunting surprises come out.  She is missing an earring, and I had to fix her necklace before it fell, since it was only held together with a very thin thread. All I can say is that I am very proud of this find.
I hope you enjoy some of the photos I took.

Much love
Missha

Doll Rescued August 21st 2013

A beautiful 22 inch Vinyl Toddler doll from Duck House by the name of "Dawn"
I think she is 2004, not sure, but what I am sure is that she is a Limited Edition, and she is more than beautiful. I hope you enjoy her, as much as I do.

All photos copyrighted by Laura Vara (Missha) for https://agelessdoll.blogspot.com