Surprise!!

So I’m working on the next doll, along with a few other surprises that came along that I want to tell you about. The doll’s name came to move very easily, her name is Marguerite. And right now, I have the under layer the linen finished. Edged in beautiful daisy lace and have to make the outer gown with will be red and gold. I did complete a rose flower crown for her already, which is beautiful and now it’s just to make the dress coordinate with the accessory and create that beautiful wow factor. 

I also happen to come into a deal that I could not pass up. I happen to be thrift shopping as I normally do on weekends. With the five different thrift/antique shops in my town. There are plenty of porcelain dolls that come up for sale. In this case, normally that’s one or two here or there they sometimes have the box. Sometimes don’t and most of the time they’re dressed in their original outfit. Other than the doll that I used for Isabeau de Sainte Cecile. Most of the time I’m finding dolls that are not dressed online and then purchasing the doll that way. 

 This time around someone was selling very nice porcelain dolls in lots at one of the local shops. They were the same price whether they had dresses or not. It was $4 for 13 porcelain dolls, which is an absolute steal. They were dolls of various sizes, I was able to carefully bring them home, put them into narrower plastic totes with some padding. It was too much of a deal, not pass up, just because four dollars doesn’t even pay for one day almost of the time. 

 I did double check to make sure that the number of was right. There were 13 dolls in that particular box. The collection were in fantastic shape. I wasn’t seeing any missing fingers, or limbs. Which is typically a problem with porcelain dolls is condition. They are breakable, so therefore, especially hands thumbs any fingers that are not join together tend to crack, chip, or break. 

This particular vendor not only had this one box of dolls. They actually had two more for the same price, and those dolls were fully dressed. So my guess is this vendor must have run into either a collector or massive haul of dolls. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I’ve been buying dolls that are undressed in order to create, medieval/renaissance clothing for them. So in essence, I hit the mother load! Of all my many years creating dolls you just don’t run into this kind of deal let alone such quality. With this year, I’m out this vendor must’ve had they really price these to move. I will be checking again in case they run into another good box of undressed once they’re still room in the totes. 

There were two dolls that were at least 16 to 20 inches tall that more more adult like and those dolls 10 to sell for about 20 bucks sometimes more. And this particular style of adult looking dollars more so what I go for when I am purchasing dolls to re-dress. There were a few other than antique reproduction like, just based on the shape of the lips and the eyelashes. I would say there’s about six of those of various sizes. And then there were more modern porcelain dolls meant to look older, which also work for my purposes.

I had said that I wasn’t going to be purchasing more dolls and I was going to slow down on doll making.  Fate had a different plan in mind! Granted the best part about this is if I do create all these wonderful dolls, I can just change them out in my room and you know gently pack them away. They’ll still all be very well loved and enjoyed. My therapist says that if we have a little girl, she will have the best doll collection and I heartedly agree. 

Fun times and good deals,

Maureen