Cute Photo of Rudy

Posted by bayan

This is my favorite Valentino/horse photo, taken in Palm Springs.

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Good News!

Posted by bayan

Integrity Toys has come forth with a statement concerning the defective Regal Estate Agnes dolls. If you have a doll that has been affected by the mold issue you must immediately contact PatientCare at patientcare@integritytoys.com. Do not wait. There is a voluntary replacement policy that will expire in May. Alternately, if you have taken care of the mold on your own and can document it, you may be eligible for a $25 gift certificate.

The other good news is that I will be getting the new Vanessa. That will make a total of 22 Vanessas that have been created since the beginning of time. ;-)

Having one of each is an obsession with me.
This is Flame Blue Vanessa a W Club exclusive doll with an ultra limited edition of 300. She is part of the "re-edition" line of dolls that celebrates the best of prior dolls in new editions with similar styles.
Her name is taken from that of "Flame Rouge" Veronique whose gown also consists of a bustier with mermaid skirt plus large train.
I had Flame Rouge for a time and sold her because the dress was just too big. Jason used a similar formula for Lush Life's gown.

I love the new Vanessa's hairdo. It's the type that stays in place forever. No frizzies or uneven ends. Yay!

The doll was by lottery and I'm guessing that pretty much everyone entered. I didn't read a single negative statement about her.

Here's hoping she arrives mold-free and swiftly.


The images in this post are the property of Integrity Toys.

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Cowboy Rudy

Posted by bayan

Rudolph Valentino & His Horse, Yaqui taken in Palm Springs about 1925.
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Half Doll Sighting - Film, "A Sailor-Made Man" 1921, Harold Lloyd

Posted by bayan

The film "A Sailor-Made Man" 1921 shows a half doll telephone cover. There was another Harold Lloyd film I saw that had a half doll telephone cover in it, but the quality wasn't very good so I decided not to use it. And insodoing, I've forgotten what the name of that film was........
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Mess

Posted by bayan


Work is in progress, and new dolls are on the way... They are almost done, but today I have to take a break, organize my desk, and start another project that I have to finish by the end of the week.
Organizing my desk when it gets to this state is no easy feat, but putting aside the nearly completed dolls for a few days is truly heart breaking. I can't wait to see them finished!



And now another Sock doll workshop I am going to conduct next mounth:

*Just a reminder that if you would like to get updates about my workshops, you are welcome to join my mailing list.

תזכורת - לגבי רשימת התפוצה, אם אתם מעוניינים לקבל עדכונים שוטפים לגבי סדנאות, שלחו לי מייל.
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Temptation Vanessa — De-Bumped

Posted by bayan



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Review of Incandescent Monogram Doll

Posted by bayan

Incandescent is one of three Monogram dolls released in April by Integrity Toys. Her vinyl is very pale and and her palette is a neutral combination of deep apricot, mauve and brown. She is dressed in an elegant fashion of textured white fabric with pink trim. Under the jacket is a charming fitted dress with 'real' pockets. The dress fits beautifully except the skirt could be a bit less tight at the thighs.This particular facial screening gives the doll a mature look. The hair is short and not styled in any particular way. It's just gelled close to the head. I wasn't disappointed because I can put wigs over her hair.

The jacket has a collar that extends into large lapels. The top hook/eye shows when the jacket is closed. What's up with that? Sure it's an easy fix but why can't it be sewn on in the right place to begin with? The jacket is the right size; it doesn't pull; the hook is sewn in the wrong place. I couldn't even take a decent picture of her with the jacket closed because of the hook showing.The hat...umm...I don't know what to say so I will just describe it: black straw that is gathered at the top in a ball with a black bow attached. Underneath is a formed felt cap that sort of sits on the head.
It's strange but I like it - I think.
Her earrings are pewter color metal with 4 low dome white 'stones.'
The finer details are the tiny buttons on the 3/4 sleeves and the peplum on the jacket. Very nice.
The shoes are a great style. The heels are a bit too high and don't stand properly vertical but they can be filed down. If you look back at the first shot, you will see that the skirt causes the doll to look pigeon-toed because it is tight. Annoying little defects in construction like this are so frustrating. I hate that I paid $150. for a doll that has these problems.

Included with the doll are sunglasses and the ubiquitous, elbow-length, black potholder gloves.

Aren't the Monogram dolls supposed to be the best of Jason's designs?
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Picture of the Week Award ~ April 25, 2010 ~ Tatiana Wisotsky

Posted by bayan

Tatiana posted this gorgeous shot of Regal Estate Agnes (who appears to be freshly bathed.) ;-D  She's looking stunning in satiny white robe against the black and white of the Fashion Royalty bedding.

Tatiana used a hand held Nikon D90 with it's built-in flash for this photo. Normally when she is shooting her dioramas, she likes to use "angled external flash instead of direct" lighting. She says, "that allows for better color and light distribution throughout the shot. By angling the flash head up and bouncing it off the ceiling, you get a soft diffused light and avoid lens shadows."

A note of caution about bouncing your flash. Make sure you are bouncing the flash off a color that will not affect your photo unless you wish to have a color cast. If you don't have an appropriate ceiling you can bounce your flash off large white poster or foamboard. Most cameras can be fitted with a diffuser for a hot shoe flash as well.

Congratulations, Tatiana, on your Picture of the Week Award!

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Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Posted by bayan

Click on the photo to view the 1924 New York Times article about Helene Sardeau and her portrait boudoir dolls. This article was written two years after the magazine article from Theatre Magazine (click on this link, too, to view the blog entry on that 1922 article).

Thanks to Rebecca Eash who sent me this New York Times article!
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Agnii Bathing

Posted by bayan

More comic relief has been provided by several board members in the form of photos. This one by Karon Montague shows Regal Estate Agnes X 2 being bathed in a mold killing solution along with her suit jacket.The provided caption was "What are you doing here?

Another photo created by Jenn in Florida shows her Regal Estate praying that another collector's Agnes will arrive ASAP.
Collectors are trying to accept the situation and overcome it with humor and I think it's working!
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Boudoir Doll Sighting - Morocco - Marlene Dietrich 1930

Posted by bayan

"Morocco" Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, 1930
Lenci Dolls




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Reviews: Temptation Vanessa and Fire Within Jordan

Posted by bayan

Temptation Vanessa is the most unattractive Vanessa I have ever ordered. I'm laughing at myself because my obsession with Vanessas made me do it. The sequin dress is style-less, the black shoes do not enhance the pink sequins and her hair...oy. She arrived yesterday - along with two other Fashion Royalty dolls.
I rarely photograph my dolls outside as I don't like to contend with wind, uneven surfaces, insects and the lack of control of lighting. But today I took her and Jordan out into the garden (along with the dog) and my point and shoot camera. The pictures are good enough for the review. That's all I'm going to say about the photography except that the first picture below is horrid.
Vanessa is actually very pretty once her outfit is removed and her hair is flattened and loosened. She is at this time sitting nekkid with curlers in her hair.
Here she is in the cottage first and then in the garden.


The dress from the rear:Her hair from the rear with the bump opened up:Luckily her hair is fully rooted. There are two small pony tails secured by easy to remove rubber bands. One, as you can see, is pinned and that's also easy to pull out. I did not remove the pin securing her bangs.
The shoes:Do you see the way the strap is threaded from side to side and then curves over the toes? It should not have come down that far because the strap doesn't lay flat and it's in the wrong place—very strange. I will examine them further to see if there is a possibility of altering them because I do like the platform base and the shoes do fit.

Fire Within Jordan. There are no quality control issues with her!
I'm not sure whether or not I actually like the outfit for a non-teenage doll. There are lots of details and they appear to be well sewn. I like her earrings and shoes. Her hair is straight and center parted. I haven't removed her jacket yet.
Here she is.


Jordan also comes with elbow length, faux leather potholders and a gathered tulle head thing. The hat pins are actually nicely scaled!
If you're thinking of purchasing Vanessa, she's sold out at all the dealers but I'm sure you can get her on eBay. Retail was $79.

Jordan is most likely available at most retailers at $139.

The other doll that arrived yesterday was Incandescent Monogram. She's up next.
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Comic Relief - Diet Coke Marionette Advertisement

Posted by bayan

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It's Alive aka Contains Limited Edition Mold

Posted by bayan


No, I'm not talking about Frankenstein's monster tonight but I do feel as if I've been reading a scary book.
I may be the last to know but there's mold in them there hills and on some of the Real Estate Agnes dolls.
The dolls may have been boxed with damp hair. No one is saying exactly but the pictures and descriptions of the location of the mold growth leads to that conclusion. Most of the mold is on the back of the jacket at the seams and under the arms. This Aggie has longish hair and if it were damp, that would be a likely place for mold to grow. And it's not just one person's doll. It's a bunch of them.
Here is a copy of the response someone posted on a doll board. I hope I don't get arrested by the doll police for posting this here. It does contain useful information which should be made available widely.
____________
“Thank you for your email and we are sorry to hear about the issue you are having with Agnes’ jacket.
Remember that all of our dolls spend several weeks on a boat before reaching their final destination and humidity levels vary each time depending on the weather. With this said, we do incorporate the little silica gel packs in all of our products to control the humidity levels, but sometimes it’s not enough. The mold issue can be solved pretty easily however. May I suggest that you please try to soak Agnes’ jacket in cold water, adding 1/4 cup of white vinegar and a small amount of dishwashing detergent, soak for 20-30 minutes, rinse thoroughly and let it air dry flat overnight? (Make sure not to wring the water out of the jacket and let it dry flat on a white towel so it doesn’t get deformed). If this doesn’t work, please contact us again and we’ll see to it that you are sent a replacement jacket, but we would like to ask for your collaboration in this matter as this issue, although a sad inconvenience, is fixable. Also, to make sure that no mold remains, please leave your doll’s box open to air it out for a few days to eliminate all traces of humidity.
As for the doll, please try the vinegar and water solution and see if this removes the spots.
Please let me know how it goes and thank you again for your collaboration, everyone at Integrity appreciates it.”
Regards,
________

You bet they appreciate it. The letter minimizes the problem. No one wants a $200. doll that has to be washed because mold is present. Oh, and thank you for the lesson on weather and humidity levels. "Sometimes it's not enough"? No shit, Sherlock.

Anyway, I kind of feel sorry for Integrity Toys. It's like someone has it in for them. One problem after another coming out of the factories, i.e. over-processed hair, ill-fitting shoes, stained bodies, cracked bodies, nuts and bolts....endless problems. Isn't anyone looking out for them over there in China regarding quality control? There's a missing link somewhere.

In a very short period of time Integrity Toys has amassed a large, fanatically devoted market of which I am a part. Did it happen too fast? Their main talent, Jason Wu, is probably way more occupied with his human fashion business, and rightly so. He deserves to soar to whatever heights he can. But I miss the consistently wonderful dolls.

Well kiddies, nothing lasts forever. Even resin dolls have their issues. I had a photography professor who used to say, "If you want archival, work in stone." Where is Michelangelo these days?

Credit to James for second half of title of this post.
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Boudoir Doll Sighting - The Film "Speedy" - Harold Lloyd - 1928

Posted by bayan

Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy in "Speedy" 1928 - boudoir doll given away as prize at Coney Island.








Unfortunately, this YouTube film clip has the wrong music and repeats scenes and has scenes out of context so it doesn't represent the movie correctly. The Coney Island part of this movie, the way it originally was, was great! You might want to rent the DVD - Netflix has it. Anyway, boudoir doll starts at 3:54.........
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Bridal shoes

Posted by bayan


Time flew by, and when I finally sat down to write a post this evening, I suddenly realized a whole month passed since my last post; I was so busy with my offline life that I didn't even notice.
Things are going quite well with the workshops and everything else I do, but I feel that being occupied with a few different things at once makes me extra slow with each one of them.
If you are familiar with my work, you probably already know that speed is not really my thing.
Some of the items I was busy with were shoes and slippers that I was asked to customize.
I am very proud of this pair of bridal shoes; I have already sewn bridal shoes before, but have never been asked to embroider a personal note: the names of the bride & groom, along with their wedding date.

I didn't consider it complicated, since I have embroidered and sewn many shoes before, so combining the two seemed to be very simple. As usual, it was much more complicated what I estimated it to be.
First, it took me almost one hour to choose the right font in the right size and the right spacing, which would fit the straps, wouldn't be too big or too small, would leave enough spacing for the threads, and so on. I printed one A4 page full of various options, and there was only one that worked well. Afterwards, I had to transform it very carefully, and make some adjustments to ensure that the fonts would look as nice embroidered as they did printed.
Till that stage, everything went quite well, as I embroidered the letters and had only very tiny, almost invisible stains to remove from one of the straps. Very carefully, I used a cotton swab dipped in alcohol. I have already used this method before and it worked very well. But not this time! In one second, the nearly invisible stains became very visible, and also irreparable.
Cursing myself, everything I have ever done and everything around me, together with few hours off sewing, seemed to help.
In the afternoon, I unpicked the whole strap, and re-sewed and re-embroidered it from scratch.
Finally, it was done.
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French Pierrot Head

Posted by bayan

This French Pierrot head may have had a body at one time. Heads were sold without bodies for ladies to create a doll so not sure if he once was a completed boudoir doll. Silk faced and dramatically painted, he could have been a fairly large doll because the head is a good size. I'd guess, complete, he could have been at least 34".


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Penyebar Foto Bugil Dewi di di FB Diancam 6 Tahun

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Aparat Polresta Bogor terus memburu siapa orang yang pertama menyebarkan foto bugil mahasiswi Binus. Ancaman hukumannya 6 tahun penjara.

Dalam keterangannya kepada wartawan, Minggu (18/4), Kasat Reskrim Polresta Bogor AKP Irwansyah menegaskan bahwa penyelidikan polisi sudah mengarah pada siapa pemilik akun di facebook.

"Kami sedang mendalami kasus ini, termasuk siapa pemilik akun Facebook (FB) tersebut. Keterangan Albert sangat kami harapkan, namun karena tidak datang, maka hari senin kami lakukan upaya paksa," tandasnya.

Albert adalah saksi yang sudah dua kali dipanggil polisi. Albert dipanggil setelah ada pengakuan dari Christian, teman Joshua, pacar korban foto bugil.

Penyelidikan kepada Albert sendiri sudah mengarah kepada dugaan sebagai penyebar foto telanjang milik Devi Sartika.

"Karena dia tidak hadir, hari ini kita layangkan surat pemanggilan, jika mangkir lagi kita jemput paksa," ujar AKP Irwansyah.

Kehadiran Albert diperlukan untuk dikonfrontir dengan saksi sebelumnya, Joshua dan Chriatian.

Selain Albert, Devi Sartika selaku korban penyebaran foto telanjang miliknya dan Misly, rekan korban yang mengambil gambar bogil Devi, juga berhalang hadir pada pemeriksaan hari Sabtu (17/4).

Sementara itu, salah satu saksi bernama Cristian, pemilik laptop yang digunakan menyebar luaskan foto tersebut dilaporkan pihak keluarga sedang dirawat di rumah sakit.

Dengan melengkapi surat dari dokter Rumah Sakit Jiwa (RSJ) Soeharto Herdjan dan RSJ Atmajaya, yang dijadikan sebagai bukti.

Penyebaran foto telanjang di jejaring FB telah menyebabkan banyak korban, diantaranya Jesica Danies (23) mahasiswa asal Lampung yang fotonya juga disandingkan bersama foto telanjang milik Devi Sartika.

Dua korban telah melapor ke Mapolresta Bogor, menuntut pencemaran nama baik dan mempermalukan pihak keluarga.

Penyebaran gambar telanjang, merupakan kejahatan melanggar UU ITE Nomor 11 tahun 2008 pasal 27 ayat 1 dan 3 tentang seseorang dengan sengaja menyebarkan asusila atau penghinaan, maka akan diancam penjara 6 tahun atau denda Rp 1 miliar.

Source: Senior

ENGLISH VERSION:

Bogor Police officers continue to hunt down the people who first spread the Binus coed nude photos. Penalties are 6 years in prison.

In his statement to reporters, Sunday (18 / 4), visible Reskrim PPA Irwansyah Bogor Police confirmed that a police investigation led to whom the owner of the account on facebook.

"We're looking into this case, including who the owner of the account Facebook (FB) is. Description Albert so we hoped, but because it does not arrive, then on Monday we did the effort force," he said.

Albert is a witness who had twice called the police. Albert was called after no confession from Christian, a friend of Joshua, the victim's girlfriend nude photos.

Investigations to Albert himself had led to allegations of a nude photo spread of Devi Sartika.

"Because he was not present, today we are calling layangkan letter, if absent again, we pick up force," said PPA Irwansyah.

Albert's presence is needed to confronted with the witnesses before, Joshua and Chriatian.

In addition to Albert, Devi Sartika as the victim and her nude photo spread Misly, co-victims who take pictures bogil Devi, berhalang also present at the examination on Saturday (17 / 4).

Meanwhile, one of the witnesses named Cristian, laptop owners who use these photos reportedly spread the side of the family being treated in hospital.

By completing a letter from the doctor's Psychiatric Hospital (RSJ) and RSJ Atmajaya Herdjan Suharto, who were used as evidence.

The spread of nude photos on FB networks has caused many casualties, among them Danies Jesica (23) students from Lampung whose picture is also juxtaposed with nude photos of Devi Sartika.

Two victims have been reported to Mapolresta Bogor, demanding libel and shaming the family.

The spread of nudity, is a crime against ITE Act No. 11 of 2008 article 27 paragraph 1 and 3 about someone deliberately spreading obscene or defamatory, it will be threatened with jail 6 years or a fine of Rp 1 billion.
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