When I was considering what to write about collecting I was presented
with the question of what is "collecting". I pondered this for a bit and came up with a simple definition
that says it for me personally. A collector is a pack-rat with a purpose.
My parents are collectors of things. My dad is the pack rat. He never wants to
throw away anything that might have even the minutest part that could be re-used. We have a basement full
of old appliances and various mechanical bits and pieces. In the past few years since his retirement, he
has become more selective and has actually disposed of many thing that he doesn't really need. My mother
is the collector of more decorative things. She has an uncanny ability to use so much stuff in her
decorating and yet it never seems cluttered. Though her style is a bit more "frilly" than I prefer, I
still admire my mother's decorating ability. It is from these two people that I learned about recycling.
Sure, in the past decade, recycling has become quite fashionable but it's really nothing new. My parents
were raised during the Great Depression years and know true recycling. So much is being said on crafting
and decorating television shows about using anything and never throwing things away that could be useful
later. I learned this long ago. It was my mother who taught me the joy of collecting groups of things.
You know, like a collection of teddy bears, angels, Noah's arks things, or antique dish ware. She also
taught me that the joy of collecting is not in the monetary value but in the joy the object brings to
your life.
My primary focus
in collecting is dolls. Fashion dolls to be precise. I started 1987 with the first Bob Mackie designed
Barbie doll. From then on I was hooked. I am not just interested in the Barbie doll but also other
fashion dolls as well. I love the details of dolls from the 1950's and 1960's.This photo is a fun display I did for the New Year's holiday. You may see a few famous
faces here as well. Marilyn, James Dean, and Elvis were all spotted at this gala event. I really love
decorating for the holidays.
About 5 years ago I was able to buy a couple of collections of Dawn dolls and
so began my love of this wonderful mod era girl. Dawn was produced from 1969 through 1972 by the Topper
toy company. Unfortunately the company went under and the Dawn doll disappeared too soon. This diminutive
6 inch doll had an exciting 3 years. She truly is a reflection of her day.
This
is one of Dawn's groovy carying cases. There were several cases made, all with similar graphics. I love
this artwork.
This
is the somewhat rare Dawn and her music box, I would like to know what music it plays.
I don't have one of these.
This
is the cover from the booklet that accompanied all Dawn clothes. Click on the booklet to see some more Dawn stuff.
I also like to work with dolls as an artist. For example, I do some restoration work on vintage Barbie
dolls. This photo is of a few girls who have had there hair done. I try to restore the original style as much as
possible. I do this with my facial painting as well. I mix the paint individually for each doll. I have
no formulas. I have found so much variation in face paint. I try to mach the existing color as closely
as possible.
My local Barbie collectors club had a mini convention call "A Day with Barbie",
of course. I volunteered to design the special doll for the day and to do the hair for all 125 dolls. A
good idea at the time. However, I will never do that again without a team to help! I had terrible back
pain from wrapping so many ponytails, all that repetitive movement. This photo shows me with just a few
of the girls in mid "doo".
Here are the
finished girls. We also created a "super size" doll wearing a larger version of my dress. The large doll
was re-rooted, by another club member, with red hair to match. She was auctioned later with all proceeds
going to charity. The 125 dresses were made by someone else and did not exactly turn out the way I had
hoped. Overall,though, they are quite nice and the doll was well received by the attendants. I spent a
long while autographing the dolls, a new experience for me.
I created this doll for a
local Pride Week auction, to help raise money for the pride events. I simply called her "Pride Diva".
When I first met
Nichole Scott, she was the president of the Barbie club I had recently joined. I thought that it was a
bit odd that a 15 year old girl would preside over a club where the majority of the members were over 30.
Well, she was not in the least intimidated and showed amazing authority and confidence. I quickly learned
that she was the kind of girl that Mattel wanted Barbie to represent. Tall, very smart, athletic,
independent, ambitious, and of course, pretty. So it seemed like a perfect gift for Nichole's 16th
birthday to create a doll in her image. So here is the Nichole doll that I did, dressed in her golfing
outfit, Nichole's sport of choice.
This is a doll I created for my clubs monthly meeting. We each take a turn making an original doll and tehn we have a drawing to see who wins it. My turn was just before Halloween as you can see.
I couldn't collect dolls without also collecting dolls and toys based on my favorite comic
book character, Wonder Woman. Here a part of a growing collection of
dolls and toys based on the star spangled diva. It really annoys me that there have been no Wonder Woman
dolls or figures in 10 years. Batman, Superman, and the rest of the Justice League have all been made as
"action figures" but no Diana. Click on the Wonder Woman pic to see some other super dolls I would like to own.
This photo
falls into the category of "weirdest things I have ever seen". There has been much joking about the fact
that Ken has no genitals, but this poor guy has female arms, hips, and legs. Note the pointy toes just
waiting for a pair of heels. This doll is 6" tall and was sold as a pair of figure skaters.
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