Spotted at The Studio Commissary - Ivy and Ernesto

The Studio Commissary is a wonderful doll board to which many Gene Marshall doll lovers belong. Every day there is a vintage Hollywood image posted on the header and every week there is a theme. This week's theme is "Out of the Closet...Bring out a doll long in storage or take the time to de-box a doll this week!"

I am a great fan of Ernesto Padro Campo's photography and his post today really blew me away.

"Glammed Up Ivy comes out the winner in Madra Lord's Scarlet Temptress"

I can stare at this image forever and follow the lighting as it traces the ripples of fabric of the roses and courses down her profile and back of her neck. The doll is lit perfectly. I like to guess at the settings on the camera and how effects were created. A blurred background is created when the lens aperture is open wider creating a shallow depth of field.

Wonderful!

See more of Ernesto's fantastic photography at his flickr photostream.


You can sign up to receive a daily list of postings at the Studio Commissary. It's not just for Gene fans. Lots of us collect other dolls as well.

Grace Kelly The Romance Doll and Update on Goddess of the Galaxy from Mattel

Grace Kelly The Romance Doll looks verrrry nice. She will be available from BC.Com on 10/01/11. This is a Silkstone doll and the first new sculpt for a female Silkstone.

I love the dress and the additional ensemble.

 

Here is the full description from the BC.Com website:

When American actress Grace Kelly arrived in Monaco to marry her prince, she was the embodiment of 50's elegance and class. The exquisite Grace Kelly The Romance doll, the first new character in Silkstone®, recreates her exact outfit in amazing detail. She wears a deep navy blue coat with matching skirt and white blouse paired with classic black pumps. Her golden blonde hair is pulled back and neatly tucked under a white, wide-brimmed hat, while sunglasses shade her lovely blue eyes. A simple strand of pearls encircles her glove-covered wrist, and she carries a delicate bouquet of white violets.
She also comes with the fabulous floral print dress Miss Kelly wore when she first met her future husband at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. From an "easy to sew" pattern the actress modeled for McCall magazine, the dress features long sleeves and a tight bodice that flares out into a full skirt, and is styled with a coordinating headpiece.

So I don't see a navy skirt and white blouse. I see a navy sheath. What's it going to be? Don't you love surprises? NOT.
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Goddess of the Galaxy
She's $100. and on back order until 6/30/11 but you can order now at BC.Com. And more good news is that you can get free standard shipping on orders of $50 or higher. Free shipping expires on 7/19/11 at 11:59PM Central Time.

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While we're on the topic of shipping, our Canadian friends to the north have no postal service for two days now. The workers are on strike! I feel for collectors north of the border. Canadian mail service wasn't that great to begin with and now it's non-existent.  I hope it gets resolved soon.

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Here's an annoying factoid: Palm Beach Coral Barbie Doll that originally retailed for $150. is now on sale for $75.

But the Palm Beach Breeze Barbie which originally retailed for $74.95 has been reduced only slightly to $65.  Somehow it does not compute.

Using Fill Flash and Mattel's Gustave Klimt Barbie Doll

I love the Klimt doll! She's very pretty, the clothing is removable, her hair is cute and her arms and wrists are articulated. Unfortunately from the waist down she has no articulation and instead they opted to give us the "pose." Also, I practically slit my wrists getting her out of her box and removing all the sharp shards of clear vinyl holding her down and stuck in her head. The best price outside of using a BC.Com coupon that I could find was at shoprockcandy.com for $34.95. Of course I had to pay New York state tax but by comparison, it was the lowest price for me after the shipping ($5.95) and tax ($3.58) was added.

This doll deserves some real studio time but I took some point & shoot pics of her outside yesterday. It was a bright, sunny day as you can see. I put her on a portion of my deck railing where there is bright shade. 

Compare these identical pictures.

Flash turned off

Flash turned on

They're identical in that I did not move the doll. All I did was turn the flash on. Using flash when your background is very bright is an important technique to pick out details. Most people use an evaluative exposure setting to determine how light or dark their photo will be. I'm not going to get into that technical discussion but no matter what your exposure setting, the use of fill flash will brighten your subject, bring out the details and make it stand out against a bright background. Do not be afraid of the flash!

SALE ALERT! Radio City Rockette Trunk and The Doll Market's Weekly Web Specials

I'm signed up to receive weekly lists of specials from The Doll Market. Most of the time their prices are not all that good or the merchandise is of no interest to me.  I do love my 10" Madame Alexander Cissettes so when I saw the Radio City Rockette Trunk set offered for $99.97 the juices started flowing. What I do when presented with that type of sale is I search the internet for comparable prices. Right off the bat, Amazon.Com came up with the same doll set for $99.95 and free shipping. Doll Market loses due to the shipping differrence but I know that some of you are boycotting Amazon so, there you go.
The list price is $279.95.

Madame  Alexander Radio City Rockette Trunk Set feat. Cissette

I love trunk sets because of all the outfits and the storage trunk is usually cute as well.
Description:

10 inch vinyl fully articulated "Radio City Rockette" Cissette doll has red hair, blue eyes; she comes wearing a blue satin leotard that has crystal embellishments and fur on trim of leotard and opera gloves. A matching white hat, white choker, pantyhose and silver shoes completes this Rockettes look. This Cissette has three different outfits that come in a keepsake trunk; the other two are: a green velveteen pleated dress that has puffed sleeves, silver and crystal accents, fur trimmed hemlines and a matching festive hat. The other outfit is a slick leotard that has a flesh colored and gold laced bust attached at the bottom to the bodice that has red vertical stripes and has red tights attached. The final touches for this outfit are the gold leather shoes and a straw hat with a large white feather attached. 

Get ready for Christmas early! It's a good price and with the free shipping, it's sweeter.

Links:
 Doll Market

Amazon. Com

Couture Doll Design Challenge III Winner, Huckleberry Jackson

Faced with plenty of stiff competition by contestants in the US, Canada, Poland, Philippines, Russia and the Ukraine, the only entrant from Germany, Huckleberry Jackson,  swept several of the challenges completely. He is one seriously talented designer!


The final overall scores are presented in this chart:

  It is apparent that Jackson's muse is the FR2 doll as most of his entries used these dolls as models. 

Congratulations to Huck on this achievement.  

Watch this excellent video by Huckleberry featuring music from Star Wars and his doll fashions:

 

Click on this banner to go to the CDDC website

Byers' Choice

 Here are the zillions of pictures I took at Byers' Choice. They had a huge collection of creche sculptures and creations from all over the world. That was one of the most interesting displays in the entire place. Their gardens have won horticulture awards. It was a very worthwhile visit.

 Pictures from Byers' Choice