Picture of the Week Award ~ July 26, 2009

This week's Picture of the Week Award goes to James Griffen also known as ParadiseBlue and more recently Dolls Gone Wild!

James created Anti Social Misaki's windswept look by brushing her hair and pulling her hoodie up. The fabulous composition brings the viewer's eye to the doll's face over and over. I found myself following the sweep of the hair and returning to the face via the zipper.

James told me that he always played with dolls. He was an only child raised by his dad who let him have Barbie dolls. His father did not consider them to be girl's toys. He said that his dad thought "they were just little figures interacting...a sort of life skills tool."

If you would like to see more of James' excellent pictures you can find many at this link:

http://www.thedollpage2.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=417

Congratulations, James!

Delilah Noir Re-Paint

One of the newest members of my tribe is a OOAK Delilah Noir from Ashton Drake. She's a new doll who is vinyl, 16" tall and has a combination of ball and strung joints with 14 points of articulation. With the ability to change her eyes and wigs, she's immensely useful. The factory product comes with two wigs and two outfits and the back story is that Delilah is innocent looking by day but changes at night. Could they have come up with a more tiresome story line?

Image property of Ashton Drake

In spite of that I was attracted to her when I saw the factory version but when I saw the repaint, I knew I had to have her. Mine was repainted by Michele Hardy and came to me nude with only a pair of black boots.

Some of Tyler's clothing items fit—but she needed her own wardrobe and wigs! I purchased a 6/7 Roxy wig and it looked very good on her.
Having found out that she could wear the 16" Goodreau American BJD clothes, I browsed over there and purchased two outfits. Paulette sent me a wig along with my purchases as a gift. I love it.
Here is Delilah wearing the Goodreau fashion, Cream Elegance, and the gifted wig. The necklace and bracelet are from a Teen Trends outfit.

W Club On-Line Event

I'm making up for not posting much this month. It's the incessant rain which comes down in torrents every other day accompanied by thunderous claps and flashing skies. I've been busy getting the ark ready.

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For more than two and one half hours on the evening of July 16, I sat at the computer along with scores of other W Club members logged on from all over the world to the W Club Forum in expectation of promised surprises.

The first Integrity designer to show up was Vaughn Sawyer. The questions started to fly. It was hard to keep up. Vaughn was able to answer only a few questions and most of the answers were teasingly kept vague. I think many collectors expected to be given sneaks but none were to be had. Jason made an appearance. David Buttry showed up. Percy Newsum dropped in.

Jason did say that we will be seeing an "unusual" star in the collection very soon! I'm ready for more multi-culturalism but it probably won't be Matisyahu.

Matisyahu, Hasidic Reggae Star

Also making an appearance was Agnes herself. Alain (I believe it was Alain) put on a terrific and funny performance as Agnes Von Weiss the Baroness. After about an hour, the tone of the event became very informal and silly.

Vaughn really gave it his best shot, keeping it straight...except when pressed about the possibility of new girls joining the NuFace line. He said, "Lukas is always recruiting new models, that pimp daddy that he is." Very funny stuff.

Pimp Doggy Costume

Is there another, wilder side of Vaughn trying to surface? He even stayed around after all the rest bailed. I've got to give the man credit for taking it all in stride from the obsessed collectors pressing him for information. I've met him several times and he has a nice, quiet (?) way about him so I wasn't surprised.

All of the images in this post were gathered from the internet.

Queen V Veronique: Japanese DollyBird Magazine Exclusive Giftset

When we were first shown promotional images of Queen V, I didn't think she was worth the price. At that time she would have cost approximately $400 as shipping was from Japan. The images of her were artsy - colorized and indistinct. Her edition size is 400.

Recently, I saw some real pictures of her with rerooted hair. She looked beautiful. I took the plunge and purchased the giftset. It was not an easy decision because the total was $350 with shipping included.
Opening her box was a delight.

She is gorgeous and different from any other Fashion Royalty doll in that her skin tone is translucent. Her facial screening is subdued and perfectly applied. The fabric of the gown feels like silk and I'm assuming that it is. The "jewels" on her bodice are sewn on, not glued. She's got a load of bling which a queen ought to have! Her crown is very lightweight metal and care needs to be taken with that.

The crowning glory are the shoes. There are two pairs and each is really a jewel in itself. The pair on the right is trimmed with metallic gold and has gold heels.
It didn't take me long to undo the ribbons and threads holding her prisoner in the box.

I think if I had seen photographs of her looking like this, I might not have been able to resist buying her right off the bat.

When it comes down to it, a good, clear photograph can be very artistic as well as a cloudy, suggestive one. A queen represents power and wealth and her portrait says so!

One thing about the doll could have been improved - her hair. It's an intricate and wonderful hair style for this doll but it's messy. There are numerous frizzies and broken pieces. I trimmed off quite a few but could not neaten up the curls more than this.

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The additional outfit is a silky bustier, panties, a lacy garter belt and lace top stockings.
I am very happy with this doll and her fashions. She's a keeper. She's more beautiful than True Royalty!

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Let's do a comparison. True Royalty Vanessa, the second Atelier Giftset, was released at the end of 2006 but shipped at the beginning of 2007. The edition size was 500. The price was $180. plus a calendar which was a required purchase in order to be entered into the lottery. Shipping was $53. from Singapore. That brought the total to approximately $253.
The doll came with a huge, intricate gown, lots of jewelry, a fantastic head piece, lingerie and another strange little fashion. But she came with only one pair of shoes! Her hair was very well done and I don't think her hair style was an easy one. She is still fetching above retail for NRFB condition.
I think in terms of value for the money, True Royalty is a little higher because of the additional outfit. Unfortunately, I never had much use for the jacket and bloomer shorts. But they were fabulously constructed as was everything in that set.

Yes, prices have risen and I'm sure it costs the manufacturers more to make their dolls as well. As long as the quality stays high, collectors are pleased. They may gripe about the prices but griping about bad hair and missing accessories is worse. This has been a bad hair year for Integrity. I really hope the factory workers get better training for the future dolls.

Picture of the Week Award ~ July 19, 2009

Michael Bentkowski aka Michael Hawaii is a terrific photographer and stylist. His work always captures my attention. On Saturday, Michael posted that he has made some wigs to sell. This one is called "Frisky" and features a wig made by Michael on a Deva doll. Everything about this photograph works because the composition is excellent. I love the wig, too!
Congratulations, Michael.

"Frisky" Michael Bentkowski

Jeweled Goldmine

Jewels and gold, it's a wonderful thing.

Goldmine is wearing The Jeweled Cat Madra's fashion and Monique Gold's Yuri wig in red. The image has been manipulated in Photoshop.