About Me

     Hello!  Here I am, doing a doll blog!  My youngest child, who is a teenager, became interested in creating a china rabbit after reading a book called The Adventures of Edward Tulane.  Well, I don't have a kiln, or even know how to do slip casting, or how to create a mold, so I started researching.
      We bought a large composition ball jointed body and a big porcelain rabbit head with some up-cycled rabbit fur for the ears.  It didn't take long to see that wasn't going to work.  So we started searching thrift shops to find parts that might work.  And then the fateful day happened when Dom picked up a strange looking doll and said, "Please!"  It was only $8 so I said yes.  Then at the next thrift shop it was another "Please!" and another $8 so I said ok.  We brought these strange looking dolls home and discovered that one was a walking Toodles doll with follow me eyes, and the other was an Ideal Miss Revlon.  Both dolls were awesome!  And so it began...
     I graduated from art college with a degree in drawing.  It was a rather traumatic experience and I lost all desire to do art.  Then this doll thing happened.  Along the way I discovered the beauty of old French dolls, German dolls, hard plastic dolls from the 50s, china head dolls, and even Amercian Girl Dolls.  Well, now I have a small collection from my many thrift shop visits and I'd like to share a few pretty pictures, and talk about the history.  I'm also trying my hand at sewing!  Enjoy!

Bru Jne

My dream is to make a Bru Jne doll. I bought the last of the Byron 19" molds to create her. Now all I need is a kiln! I've put the request in with God (and my husband) and now I wait. In the meantime, I have been buying a few inexpensive Bru Jne reproductions, and I'm trying to fix them up. Here are some pics of a Bru Jne head I found on ebay.  I've named her Anne (after Raggedy).   I found an inexpensive 80s body with nice hands at a thrift shop. She has no holes in her shoulder plate so mu attachment process is "unique". I then bought some hair wefts at a beauty supply and made her a wig, and I replaced her German glass eyes with domed French paper weight ones. Her eyes are 13 mm, but the eyes only come in 12 mm and 14 mm. In the picture above she has the 14mm.

Here she is again with 12mm eyes, I don't know.  Which do you like better?

Her wig wefts are real human hair!  I didn't realize that until after I made the weft purchases from the beauty supply.  They were so inexpensive.  I misted her hair and set it in curlers. It took the curl more strongly than I thought they would.  I guess human hair curls more intensely than synthetic.

I tried to find a real bru jne with a similar look to my Anne. :-)

June 18, 2017

     This is a lovely reproduction Bru Jne head is from the 1990s that I purchased from Etsy.  Her name is Adelle. In the photo below I had her head on the body is an antique German composition body from Ruby Lane. I eventually gave this body to one of my antique German heads.                                

Here's another reproduction Bru Jne.  This one is from the 70s. Another frugal purchase from ebay. The lady who sold her to me was so nice! I named her Farrah because of her hair style! In this photo she has french glass paper weight eyes that I think are a little too big.

January 12, 2018

Here is my unusual collection of Bru Jne reproductions. The one one all the way on the right, the tallest one, is Adelle. Here she has a mohair wig and brown glass french paper weight eyes. She's borrowing a cotton dress that I made for Addy. Her body is a French composition body that I love. To the left of Adelle is a Bru Jne reproduction head and shoulder plate wearing an ashen blond mohair wig. She is on an 80s porcelain and cloth doll body. I've named her Luna. Then you already met Farrah. Then to the left is Anne, and the smallest here is a little Bru Repro that I picked up along the way that I've named Chloe. Chloe is wearing the first doll dress that I ever made.

And as of March 31, here is my group...

I bought another Adele. She was on ebay. This one came on a body that was 100% bisque! Her joints all have felt lining in them to prevent scraping! The red hair girl is new and I've named her Romy. She has a similar face mold and body to Farrah. Adelle #1 on the right is only wearing a slip in this photo.  At the time of this photo I had failed to sell Luna, the shoulder plate Bru Jne in the first group photo. I'm waiting for some new brown eyes to come from China for poor Luna. I gave her violet eyes to the red haired Romy. I'm going to give Luna a face up so stay tuned. And speaking of face ups...

where did Adelle#1's original blue eyes go? 

This is a Journey Girl 18" doll from Target that my kids didn't want. Her original eyes were these sleep eyes that were so popped open she looked like she had too much caffeine! I tried so hard to fix those eyes, but only ended up destroying them. So I replaced them with Adelle's glass ones. I redid her face paint. I'm having fun. lol

Automatons

Today we went to the Morris Museum here in NJ.  They have an amazing automaton collection!  Here is a lovely doll automaton.  She has a beautiful green velvet dress.

Another beauty:

China Head Doll

When I was researching Civil War era doll clothes to make for my daughter Addy's American Girl doll (also named Addy), I kept coming across these beautiful china head dolls.  I was so blown away by their beauty and history.  One day we came across a broken one on ebay that didn't have china feet.  It was affordable so we got her!  Here she is posing with Addy (the doll):

I was nervous having the china head doll stand.  She was too tall for any of my doll stands!  I had to stand her up with a taper candle stick up the back of her dress.  I quickly sat her down in a chair I had picked up weeks ago for $3 at the thrift shop. I set up Addy and quickly got my camera.  It wasn't until after I took the picture that I noticed their hands!

How to...synthetic doll hair.

Step 1:  Comb the hair gently with metal tooth comb or brush.  A metal toothed wig, dog, or cat comb or brush works great.  Do not use plastic!  Practice on a less expensive doll for your first try.

     Wash her hair with shampoo and conditioner, and set her wet hair with cut up smoothie straws and pins pushed right into her scalp.  You can also use bobby pins or hair clips to hold the curlers in place.  Regular size straws also work well for a tighter curl, and for really tight curls, use pipe cleaners.  For bigger curls or straight hair use people curlers.  Do not skip this step or the hair will be frizzy.  Do not blow dry!  Synthetic hair melts!  Let it air dry.  To speed the process you can place the doll in front of a fan.   With this doll we dipped her hair in hot water from the tea kettle for a minute (which is not as hot as a blow drier) and then dipped her hair in ice water for a minute.

Remove the curlers, (it may one to several days to dry) and loosen the curls your fingers.  For a more blended look, go over with a metal comb.  Make her a pretty outfit and take some pictures! :) To touch up hair use a tooth brush or eyelash brush with a little hairspray on it.  I would use a metal tooth brush, but I don't think they make them. lol!

This is the book I use to sew my doll clothes...