New Photo Studio and Doll Room

Soon I will be back to taking pictures with a real camera. It's been so long. My studio is getting the finishing touches this week. It feels like forever. 
Here is a partial view of the room.

The big window is called an egress window. In PA all houses with basements built after a certain year have to be built with a way to exit other than using the staircase to go up.  I have another smaller window on the adjacent wall. Lots of light. My last studio was constructed as a darkroom - literally - and that's what it was. There was no light at all other than artificial. This will be interesting to see how and if I incorporate the light into my work.
Yes, the black and white floor was intentional as it is exactly how I did the flooring in my darkroom years ago.

Yesterday I finished redressing the last Fashion Royalty doll. They were the most time consuming of all dolls to redress and display. I did lots of body swapping as I'm tending to like the slimmer bodies of the Monogram dolls for some of my FR.

Here are some random display pics from last night.

My current crop of Eugenias.

Another gorgeous Vanessa.

She's been on display in our bedroom this past week.

Silkies are the best for displaying early Fashion Royalty fashions.

Poor thing is still naked. I'm not loving her.

Only a few Gene dolls left to dress.

The only Agnes (left) I have kept out of all of them.

In this and the next two photos are some of my older FR dolls. Several have been re-rooted and all have been re-bodied. Dress on the right is a Huckleberry Jackson.

The Kyori on the right is one of the very few dolls I own that has never been redressed. She was the last Atelier doll.

I love my Mini Avantguard dolls.

Somehow Liz doesn't belong.

What a serious waste of money this doll was. I hate her hair. Her outfit is cheap. Only the sculpt is nice.

She has been transferred to one of Angelic Dreamz demi-Jamieshow bodies. If I could, I'd put all my Silkstone dolls on these articulated, BJD bodies. They are fabulous.

Currently I have two Dynamite Dolls. That's more than I usually have. The girl dolls' clothes are from Clear Lan. Boots on left are Azone. Green handbag is Purse of the Month from a while back.

I purchased the outfit from the Kesenia "Your Kind of Model" doll after seeing IRL pictures. The doll's vampire mouth still doesn't appeal to me, but the outfit is wonderful.

The base dress is a pastel pink strappy cocktail sheath and will stand alone as a lovely garment. It's beautifully designed and constructed. The over dress is sheer black with silver and black embroidery.
The shoes are too small for FR2 feet but they are also nicely designed.

My model is a re-rooted True Royalty Vanessa who is sporting an FR2 body. I had to 'tie' the straps on the pink dress to make the bodice smaller for this body.

It comes with silver colored jewelry (earrings, bracelet and ring) an embroidered handbag with a magnetic closure and a faux fur jacket. That's a lot of fashion and well worth it. 

 And for a little comic relief:

Modern Reproduction Ginny dolls.

Huckleberry Jackson's 2012 Line

Huck announced the debut of his new line which goes on sale today at 9PM CET Central European Time. I believe that is a 6 hour difference from eastern time. They would be 6 hours ahead. So  9PM CET = 3 PM EST.
Here is a group shot showing some of the offerings.

Explaining that he is so happy to own these dolls now, he designed an outfit specifically for each doll as opposed to creating a thematic presentation.

http://www.huckleberryjackson.com/shop/

Sandy

Every time I see pictures of the destruction of Far Rockaway and Rockaway Beach I feel stunned.  My grandparents had a summer house on Beach 29th at Seagirt and I spent the best part of my childhood there. That house was razed years ago but is in my heart forever. Going to the beach during the day and the boardwalk at night. It never got any better.

The boardwalk is gone. 

As an adult I taught in a public school on Beach 5st St and I could see the ocean 2 blocks away through my classroom window. I wonder if the mosaic mural my art students created survived in the lobby of the building.

Another hurricane I remember...I was less than 10 years old. My mother drove to Rockaway from Brooklyn where we lived to 'rescue' my grandparents because the bay and the ocean had met. I remember all the earth worms on the sidewalks. There's no reason or rhyme as to what is important to a young child. That was very long ago. The water was thigh high in front of the house. I don't remember where my mother parked the car.

The Rockaways are situated between the Atlantic Ocean on one side and Jamaica Bay on the other.  


Please donate something to the American Red Cross.  Anything. This is the United States and we need each other. It happened here.

Progress in the New Doll Room

Unpacking and organizing the dolls has been more difficult than packing them. I did not keep all the dolls dressed. Some were only partly dressed and some nude. Anyway, it was time to record more progress and I have done so with a bunch of quick snaps taken during the hurricane yesterday afternoon. We're halfway there.

Here are a few more shots I took this afternoon after unpacking the rest of my FR and many of my Silkstones.

 The large showcase for my Tonner 16" dolls is elsewhere in the house.