Some personal stuff.

Several of my regular readers have contacted me saying that they miss my almost daily posts to my blog. I want to share the following information with them.

In early 2016 I was handed a serious illness. The surgery, recovery and ensuing treatment took almost the entire year. Thanks to the good health care I received, I am fine now.  As some of you certainly know, one's feeling about mortality changes dramatically after an illness that could be fatal. You just never know.

During that time my collecting and attitudes changed and on top of that, we got a new puppy. My main focus was not on my blog and that attitude has continued.

I post often on my Facebook blog with announcements and random artist's photographs and I link to this blog when I make a major post here.

I realize that some of you don't read Facebook. Smart move. That's a whole other addiction.

When it comes to my own photography and my own activities at events, I continue posting here.
For example:

Kingdom Doll Liberty wearing a creation made by YumYum Couture.

Kingdom Doll Arnamentia models the cocktail length version of Eye Candy by YumYum Couture

I appreciate all of your support in the past and now. To those of you who nominated me for best blog this year, I thank you. I declined the nomination as winning in 2015 caused more trouble than I care to deal with. I'm not going away. I still answer many questions personally when I receive them.

HUGS to all of you!

A Compilation of Photos & Descriptions from Neutron Prom, a London Sybarite Event

This past weekend, those collectors lucky enough to be able to attend the  2015 Sybarite Convention "Neutron Prom" in London, England were treated to wonderful dolls, fashions and a Chalk White event. 

Izzy beautifully described her experience on Prego.

The venue was spectacular - a secret room in one of the old big Victorian railway hotels rediscovered behind bricks and plaster when the hotel was redesigned as a luxury boutique venue about four years ago.

Marble steps and columns, black and white tiled floor, chairs from carved wood and leather - looking like thrones, white candles flickering everywhere......and above it all this incredible painted and gilded and sculptured ceiling with the signs of the zodiac and other mystical symbols.

Yeah.....despite the gorgeous blue and gold painting and the beautiful room.....all eyes were on the four pedestal cabinets precisely lined up in the centre of the room.

To discordant yet beautiful music we made our way from the Zodiac perfume launch to our seats in this magical room.

The music changed.....and with Charles and Des looking gorgeous in their formal evening dress at the end of the room....a voice began to speak.

As the voice described how we were all gathered together for a single purpose a breathless hush descended....and finally the voice queried what was behind the curtain.

Suddenly lights illuminated the cabinets and we could see colour/shape/pose/outlines...... there were the girls we had come to London to see! Even through the black drapes we knew we were in for an exhibit of truly amazing beauty.

In silent unison Charles and Des walked along the room removing each black drape and revealing the full glory of the collection.

For a few seconds we sat in stunned silence unsure of what to do next or where to look next...AND THEN WE RAN TO THE CABINETS!!!!!

Twelve beautiful girls....one named for each sign of the Zodiac although we didn't get to know that until much later.

A mixture of DC and Venus faces.....I'm not sure of the actual split but possibly somewhere around equal numbers of each.

Vibrant shiny glossy hair colours....some teased out into beautiful styles and others hanging in fabulous ringlets. I may be wrong but I think the hair colours were in four groups to represent the air/fire/earth/water signs in blues, blondes, auburn and brunettes (not in that order). All the colours were beautifully saturated with the blondes having delicious golden strawberry tones and I think all were slightly different shades.

Lips were a mixture of soft corals, vermilion, deep red, plum......gorgeous shades!

Colour was everywhere but looking totally fresh....almost like freshly dried paint on some of the gowns which appeared to be sewn literally from "old masters"! The girls themselves were rising out of a bed of undulating plain artists canvasses I think...at least that was my impression.

Most were dressed in full length gowns but with totally original shapes and trims....I do remember at least one girl in a cocktail length strapless gown too.

Gold snakeskin slippers with sparkling jewelled soles...some with fur pompoms or buckles or trims.

And.....acupressure maps on their palms!

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Here is a photo of the cabinets posted by Superdoll on Facebook

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Janina Fiehl has been extremely helpful in explaining the events so I could pass the information on. All of this information and all the photos below were provided by her.
Registration took place on Thursday. Attendees received "Vanity" and had the opportunity to chat with other collectors at the Salon.
On Friday evening, guests received Pandora and Mischief and the new Superdoll perfume, Zodiac!
That evening, the Chalk White exhibit took place as well. 
On Saturday there was a formal dinner and the beautiful (resin) "Dawn Star" doll was given.

Vanity

Mischief

Pandora Gift Set

Pandora Gift Set

Pandora Gift Set

Dawn Star

Dawnstar is French resin and was literally made from old bodies they had left over from a OOAK collection.  It is a material they used for very few dolls. 

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Simon Farnsworth of Doll Observers.com posted a detailed write up and a few more photos at this link: http://dollobservers.com/blog/sanctum-a-superdoll-chalk-white-exhibit

It's just a number but...

Today the number of LIKES on my Facebook page hit 1000. I was pleased.

#tonnercon

The Tonner Convention began today. I'll be following along as each event is being photographed and videotaped thoroughly and posted on the Tonner Direct Facebook page.
You can join the fun virtually by checking this link often to see the pictures of the people and the dolls.

Click on the photo:

Robert serving drinks at "I want candy" con opener!

Photo above has been snatched from the TD FB page.

Note From Mel Odom

Those who were members of the extinct Gene Marshall W Club were sent an email from Mel Odom. I have reproduced it here:



This is Mel, getting back in touch with you gals and guys.  Integrity is being kind enough to post this for me.  Confession time!  I fully intended to continue blogging after Gene's retirement, but I have continually come up with reasons and/or excuses not to.  The technical challenge was the problem at the beginning.  It's trickier than you think (I found).  After dragging my heels, writing things and not posting them and all sorts of avoidance measures, I think, maybe, I have a solution.

I'm inviting you all to become my friends on Facebook.  I have been able to post all kinds of interesting things on my FB page recently like a lovely 1986 interview with Gene Tierney filmed on the French Riviera.   She's dressed in a lovely pink Chanel suit and speaking flawless French and it's great to see her looking happy and together at that point in her life.  Also, I posted a very clever and beautifully filmed Christmas greeting that my convention buddy Steve Hayes shot this past holiday season.  Plus, I have music I that love, personal videos and photos of my cat and me and Charlie and Marsha and my drawings and paintings.  You get the picture; I have a lot of stuff that I think you might enjoy.  And you can see it whenever you want to by just clicking on my page http://www.facebook.com/people/Mel-Odom/1377156561

 So, ask me to be your friend on FaceBook and just write "Gene Marshall" as your message and I'll friend you immediately.  And you can start sharing with me.  You can post responses as well.  Think of the  POWER!!   So join me; I'll be thrilled to have you as friends.

Happy NewYear kids!

And play nice.

mel

Facebook Bans Doll Nipples (Seriously!)

 Source: Asher Moses via http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/now-facebook-bans-doll-nipples-20100705-zwnr.html#poll


"Facebook's prude police are out in force yet again, this time threatening action against a Sydney jeweller for posting pictures of an exquisite nude porcelain doll posing with her works.
Victoria Buckley, who owns a high-end jewellery store in the Strand Arcade on George Street, has long used dolls as inspiration for her pieces and hasn't had one complaint about the A3 posters of the nudes in her shop window.

 But over the weekend she received six warnings from Facebook saying the pictures of the doll, which show little more than nipples, constituted "inappropriate content" and breached the site's terms of service.

The warnings said Facebook would remove the images and Buckley is worried she will be banned from the site if she posts them again.

It comes after the site incurred the wrath of mothers all over the world by banning photos of women breastfeeding their children, calling such shots "obscene content". Facebook has also come under fire for banning images of a British woman's mastectomy scars, published on the site to raise awareness of breast cancer.

Buckley said Facebook was behaving like "philistines" and blamed the issue on "American puritanism".

"Really here we're talking about nipples on a doll - I've got A3 posters of her in my window in the Strand Arcade that have been up for months and we haven't had one negative comment. The doll herself is in the window," Buckley said.

"Somebody's got a Michelangelo fan group on there and they do have a picture of the Statue of David ... why is that OK and this isn't?"

And these aren't just regular barbie dolls, they're high-end porcelain figures designed by Marina Bychkova of Enchanted Doll in Canada, featured in art and culture magazines all over the world.

Those who want to buy one face a two- to three-year wait. The dolls can cost from $5000 to $45,000, which is the price one sold for on eBay in January.

"The shoe designer for Louis Vuitton collects her dolls and they're really hard to get hold of; they're really precious things, they're not just a barbie or something," Buckley said.

"They're the right scale for my jewellery, they interact with it visually, so I actually design collections around these dolls and their interactions with my jewellery."

For now, Buckley has censored the images of the dolls on her Facebook fan page but has posted the uncensored versions on a new group dedicated to the doll called "Save Ophelia - exquisite doll censored by Facebook".

Buckley wants to gauge Facebook's response to the images being posted on that group before deciding whether to put the uncensored version back on her own fan page.

Her emails to Facebook have so far fallen on deaf ears, although this may be because Sunday is a public holiday in the US. Buckley had also posted the photos to Flickr but these were removed for similar reasons.

"I've invested quite a lot of money in this campaign for my jewellery and I'm quite reliant on the Facebook page to get the message out," she said, adding thousands of people had said they love the dolls and imagery.

"You can invest thousands of dollars and months of your time building a new campaign and you put it on sites like Facebook and Flickr and it just takes one person [complaining] to bring the thing down.

"I've got another campaign coming up soon with another doll but I don't know what to do."
Ironically, while Facebook is overzealous in targeting relatively innocuous images on the site, it has been criticised by police for its unresponsiveness to real criminal issues. The Australian Federal Police has said the site's woeful relationship with law enforcement bodies was hampering police investigations and putting lives at risk.

Facebook has been approached for comment."

I've seen so much offensive content on Facebook that doesn't seem to be policed. It's mindless automatons who work behind the scenes that are doing stuff like this. If you object to this type of random and harmful censorship, I suggest you take some kind of action to let Facebook know. But how does one even contact Facebook? Is there anything but a chimpanzee on the other end of the line? 

Blame it on FarmVille

Forgive my temporary disappearance. Blame it on the insanely addictive Facebook game, Farmville. I began playing a month ago. The game sucks the time from every day. But now it's time to get back to the real world of dolls. Twas fun while it lasted.

I did take the time to photograph a few Tonner men. I have very few male dolls remaining in my collection but I did add the Ultra Basic Jeremy Vos. He is just so pretty. In this picture of him he's wearing Edward Cullen's prom suit.

This is the Amazon Exclusive Edward Cullen that went on sale for an incredible $39.99 with free shipping. I bought him just for the suit.

This was Daniel Craig as Asriel Northbound from the Golden Compass. He is wearing a stunning and beautifully constructed Tonner suit from the Matt line. This doll is just stunning.

A new character recently introduced by Tonner is Simon Chase, Sydney's brother. I admit to having overpaid for this doll. Even though my doll dealer discounts off retail, he was still too expensive but I wanted the tuxedo. Simon is a bit too young looking for my girls.

My only other two men are two Trent dolls one of whom is pictured below with Gene. He is "Skiing or She-ing" Trent. This doll came with a fabulously creative and complete wardrobe of two outfits to wear on a ski trip. He is wearing pieces from another of his fashions made for polo. Amazing, right?
Heavenly Gene is seen wearing a Tonner outfit from many years ago. I just opened it for the first time. I can't remember the name of the fashion for now. My mind's been farmed out.