Comic Relief

This week the theme on the Studio Commissary Board has been Props.  I was admiring the beautiful room that Wayne in Florida posted.

I thought his next photo was another view of the same room until I looked a little harder at the details.

Halloween is rapidly approaching!

Visit the Studio Commissary.

This Week in My Dolly World

My ever patient and often tolerant husband put up with endless doll chatter today in the car to and from Marcia Friend's home for her annual barbeque.

Then he sat through several more hours of doll talk.
"Who is that? When did you get her? What is she wearing? Does it stain? She came with that? I want one. What convention? Will these shoes fit? How much was it? Why did they schedule the conventions for the same weekend? I have one of those. You sold it? 1500 Barbies?" And on and on.
 If I put myself in his place, I think I'd die of boredom or go mad. But the food was very good. The weather was gorgeous and some of us acted like crazed fools when they let us loose on the free table. So that had to be good for a laugh.  Rudy accompanied us and he loved the attention.

I don't collect Ellowyne, right? So I bought an Ellowyne. What else is new? Doll collecting is as rational as the weather.

Invisible Ink Ellowyne

This is Invisible Ink Ellowyne. The photograph is Tonner's. My doll's hair is nicer than the promo pictures which do not do her justice. What really sold me on the doll was the bargain price of $80. and these shoes:

Aren't they adorable?

Now I have to get Sybil.

 And I love Sybil's carrying case, too.  This is how it starts. Let one new doll line in and the dominoes start to fall. Resistance is futile. I've been hunting the Wilde site for the last hour deciding what I would buy if I were buying. There are so many cute outfits and several on sale. Hmmm.


There were lots of door prizes given out, many contributed by other collectors and by Tonner Doll. I was lucky enough to win the "Dancing on A Cloud" Tonner fashion. I will try dying it as I already have one

It has been quite a week. On one day Jason Wu's "Fashion's Night Out" Poppy arrived along with Traveler Innoquii

Traveler Innoquii

and the Monogram dressed doll, Extravagance, who is not without issues. The Monogram fashion, Escapade and wig set also arrived.

A doll that costs $150 (or $50 for that matter) should not have hair that looks like this out of the box.

Apparently, the factory worker who messed up hair before is still employed and still messing up doll hair for a living.
I have taken the 'style' down and washed the gunk out. Her hair is rooted thinly (which isn't a bad thing) so if I want to keep the hair down, more will have to be added.

I will do more thorough reviews with photographs of Extravagance, Escapade, Innoquii and Ellowyne, too. Soon.

Tune in again.

"Guilded Trappings" Gift Set

I realize that I haven't shown pictures of the beautiful gift set Sandra Stillwell created for us for the Golden Age of "Doll" Couture event in Nashville this past August. We received parts of the set at each of four meal events. The set was a limited edition of 50, all of which have sold out.
This week I took some time to play with the different pieces and take some photographs of the combinations and of the individual pieces so everyone can see how fantastic this set truly is.

 The Certificate of Authenticity reads as follows:

 Gene read the invitation again. The words were every bit as exciting as the first time she read them:

 Your presence is requested as Special Guest of Guy Amie Charbonneau for a private showing of his Spring couture collection, Gilded Trappings. -Avenue Montaigne, Paris.

Below the engraved letters, in a masculine hand read "I had only you in mind when I created this collection. -G"

Gene had traveled abroad many times before, but the occasion to be guest of honor at her favorite designer's salon was a rare opportunity. Ordinarily, she would travel with a vast and luxurious wardrobe suitable for any engagement. This time Gene would board ship with only one suitcase and the bare essentials, for she knew awaiting her in Paris would be an exquisite wardrobe, custom designed just for her.

 Every single piece shows attention to fine detail. The linings are perfection. The closures are zippers, hook & eye and/or snaps. The fabrics drape beautifully. There are three complete fashions and a multitude of options for mix and match. You can tell that a tremendous amount of thought and planning went in to this set. I just love the look of the last picture of Violet wearing the vest from the suit with the formal skirt, the long faux fur wrap and the hat from the suit.
The long shawl that she is wearing in the next to the last picture has rhinestones on both ends and on both sides! I've never seen that before. 

Below are a few other pictures I haven't shown.

JamieShow Shoes

Sandra also made a tiny version of this book for us.

The china tea set I won at the Crawford House tea.

Above is the specially designed chair manufactured by Bella! for the event. The metallic gold embroidery is GAC (Golden Age of Couture or Guy Amie Charbonneau.) It was part of the centerpieces and an optional purchase. In the background is part of a 'wall' I created using the sketches of George Sarofeen. We were gifted with several full sized sketches as well as a miniature portfolio filled with many sketches. On the table, the miniature pink book is the one I mentioned above and JamieShow shoes are shown at the foot of the chair. The bridal bouquet is perched on the back of the chair.

I am having so much fun with all the goodies. I love stuff.

Look for my article covering this event with several unpublished photographs in the Winter Edition of FDQ in January, 2011.

Tonner Notice - Website Update

Dear Friends of Tonner Doll,

TONNERDOLL.COM Website Update: We are still experiencing problems with our website, tonnerdoll.com.  As of this point, we suggest that you do not visit tonnerdoll.com either by direct entry or via an Internet search engine. 

We are working on resolving the issue and will update you as soon as we can.  In the meantime, Tonnerdirect.com is still up and running and is safe to visit.   

We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused and we hope to have the issue resolved very soon. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email us at info@tonnerdirect.com or call us toll free at 800-324-0486. 

Thank you,

 Your Friends at Tonner Doll

 MORE:

Please don't access anything until we send out a message with a validated status - we are moving the site to a new server and need to test it thoroughly. Until we send word out, please have patience and don't 'test' any such URLs you may find through search engines. TonnerDirect is unharmed by all of this as it's hosted on a different server.

Haute Doll "Boutique" Closes September 15, 2010

The last orders for remaining merchandise in the Haute Doll store will be taken in the next few hours. There's not much left but what remains is seriously reduced in price. 

The "La Dolce Bambola" gift set was originally sold for $510.00 non-members/ $500.00 members  It is marked down to $300 now. This is a 1/6 scale French resin BJD of 29 cm or 11.4." Lingerie plus two resin wigs and two outfits makes this a fairly attractive package is you like the style of the doll. I think she'd be prettier with a different face-up and a non-resin wig.
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I don't know anything about this doll other than what the listing says: "NRFB 1990 Barbie Style Special Limited Edition collector doll #5315. $7.99
Anyone out there know something about this item?
___

Miss Sydney World has been listed in the HD boutique for a very long time. She was originally listed for $160 non-members/$150 members and is now on sale for $79.99
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"Traveler Innoquii" is one of a series of four porcelain dolls from Superdoll.  This one was HD's exclusive and was so unpopular that they wound up including her for a very low price if one purchased another doll that was also hard to move.
I've been enabled by other collectors who were so excited at the sale price of $75., that their excitement was infectious and I ordered one. She's going to have to have that black eye removed to live here.

If any of my readers remembers her original price, please let me know. (Note: I've been advised that her original price was $300.)

There is one other doll available - literally. There's one Royal Red Jac Tonner doll. @$150.

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Those of us who had subscriptions to Haute Doll have been handed over to Doll Reader. I have been sent a link to the October 2010 issue. It's not exactly a magazine for which I would purchase a subscription. I have, of course, received an offer to pay for a subscription. I have no idea when my HD subscription was supposed to end.

When my pirate doll arrives I will discuss.

Vintage Reproduction Little Miss Revlon Dolls from Tonner

Anyone who knows anything about Robert Tonner knows he adores the vintage Miss Revlon doll from the 1950's.  It's not difficult to see why his reproductions of this favored series are so adorable and true to the original dolls.

They're so similar in fact, that they don't have the articulation we've come to love in more modern dolls. I wonder if and when these dolls become popular, will they evolve to a more articulated body.

I asked Tom Courtney why is the word "pink" in two of the doll's names. He replied, "it's a nod to the original pairings of names and cosmetics. In fact, one popular doll style was 'Kissing Pink'...and was even used if the outfit had no pink at all."
That's a cool factoid. So there was indeed a relationship between the cosmetics and the dolls if only in the name.

Photographs of the first three in the line have been released.

Frosted Pink

Perfectly Pink

Queen of Diamonds 

The MSRP is $124.99 and each is a limited edition of 500 dolls.