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Post by bluemoonstars on Apr 23, 2015 5:57:11 GMT -8
I think it is good that we can have an open and honest discussion about problems we perceive in a doll. While it may be a bit uncomfortable for the artist at first, at least they will have an idea of what the market demands. Whereas some of us see and handle different types of dolls, the artist is perhaps limited to what they produce, for the most part. Ultimately it will make everyone who so aspires to be a better doll artist and collectors like me will have access to better made dolls.. I think we can all learn from each other and I find this to be a great positive dialogue.
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Post by allurose on Apr 23, 2015 7:57:31 GMT -8
Bluemoonstars, sutton: I completely agree with you both. I think the most important thing is that people know what to expect. My older FH doll that I got on eBay is in much poorer shape, but I was not disappointed or shocked because I knew from the owner photos what to expect. While my expectations for this doll were somewhat higher after seeing Nessa's fine art mermaid. So I am happy to make reviews of all my dolls for this forum. Then people can make good decisions and get the doll they want. Bibarina, sutton, I am liking the idea of a circus look. It also goes with the usual FH aesthetic, which I like. I would love to get her this outfit: www.arcadiadolls.us/product/outfit-ac013/ but I don't know if it can't be made for her. I will try. And I will get or make her a big hula hoop to carry with her on the tightrope!
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Post by bluemoonstars on Apr 23, 2015 8:28:33 GMT -8
Here are a few, but not all, of my pet peeves with porcelain dolls.
1. The joints must fit and work well, as allurose has already stated. 2. The porcelain must be polished to a silky finish before paint application is attempted. There is no point in applying china paint to a grainy porcelain surface. It just does not look or feel nice when you handle the doll. 3. China paint must be applied in many, thin layers and fired with each layer for optimum beauty. It cannot be utilized like oil paint. You must buildup the layers slowly. If too much color is applied at once, it just looks sloppy. 4. Do not use imperfect pieces with cracks or chips or other defects in the porcelain. Please discard and/or redo the piece.
If you care about your work and want it to be valued as art, please do not cut corners but spend time perfecting your art. Claude Monet literally burned hundreds of his own paintings, each easily worth many millions today, because he thought they were not good enough to leave as his legacy. He cared a great deal about his legacy and not just about the numbers in his bank balance.
There are many other things that I look for in a great porcelain doll but these are some of the most salient factors.
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Post by allurose on Apr 23, 2015 13:31:09 GMT -8
Here are a few, but not all, of my pet peeves with porcelain dolls. 1. The joints must fit and work well, as allurose has already stated. 2. The porcelain must be polished to a silky finish before paint application is attempted. There is no point in applying china paint to a grainy porcelain surface. It just does not look or feel nice when you handle the doll. 3. China paint must be applied in many, thin layers and fired with each layer for optimum beauty. It cannot be utilized like oil paint. You must buildup the layers slowly. If too much color is applied at once, it just looks sloppy. 4. Do not use imperfect pieces with cracks or chips or other defects in the porcelain. Please discard and/or redo the piece. If you care about your work and want it to be valued as art, please do not cut corners but spend time perfecting your art. Claude Monet literally burned hundreds of his own paintings, each easily worth many millions today, because he thought they were not good enough to leave as his legacy. He cared a great deal about his legacy and not just about the numbers in his bank balance. There are many other things that I look for in a great porcelain doll but these are some of the most salient factors. Great list! 1 and 4 are a problem with this doll. Fortunately #2 is not. Her porcelain is not grainy, although the seams could use some smoothing. I find your #3 interesting. How can you tell? What does the all-in-one-layer paint look like? As someone with her bank balance on her mind a lot, I can completely understand wanting to make money! But I don't feel like cutting corners with porcelain dolls is the answer. FH could easily sell just as many of these dolls in resin, and there would be no need to cut corners at all. They could save even more time and sell blank unassembled kits like Unoa does, if mass production is the goal. I still wish Enchanted Doll would do this! But of course profit is not Marina's primary concern anymore, lucky girl! <3 Also, it is one if the basic rules of handcrafting to sell fewer items at a higher price. Example: You charge $100 for an item. You spend 10 hours making each one. 10 people buy the item. Total money: $1000. Total time spent: 100 hours Or you charge $200 for an item. You still spend 10 hours making each one. 5 people buy your item. In this example we assume a full 50% were deterred by the higher price. Total money: $1000. Total time spent: 50 hours So yes, higher prices mean less customers. But you actually make twice as much money per hour of work. And you can use the extra time to make more product or perfect your item, which brings more customers. This is a made up example, but I can say from experience making doll jewelry that it is absolutely true. Between my 2nd and 3rd year of my doll jewelry business I raised my prices 30-40%. I switched to prices that reflected the handmade nature of the jewelry, instead of trying to match the hobby crafter prices on etsy and ebay. I made exactly the same number of sales and 30-40% more profit, enough that I made minimum wage after accounting for supply cost. I find the business of crafts and doll making fascinating. Perhaps I should start a thread about it in the discussion...
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Post by bluemoonstars on Apr 23, 2015 15:04:52 GMT -8
We are so fortunate to be living in this New Golden Age of Porcelain Dolls and Artist Dolls. It's almost like the 1880's in France with the Jumeaus, the Brus and the Steiners. There are so many new and exciting doll artists coming on the market, almost weekly it seems, and we are so lucky to have this forum which unites them and the collector. If you have a superior product collectors will go to the ends of the earth to seek out and purchase your dolls.
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Post by allurose on Apr 23, 2015 17:42:11 GMT -8
We are so fortunate to be living in this New Golden Age of Porcelain Dolls and Artist Dolls. It's almost like the 1880's in France with the Jumeaus, the Brus and the Steiners. There are so many new and exciting doll artists coming on the market, almost weekly it seems, and we are so lucky to have this forum which unites them and the collector. If you have a superior product collectors will go to the ends of the earth to seek out and purchase your dolls. I think so too!!! I am so excited about all of these talented artists, and that there are enough fans and owners to make this little forum so enjoyable. <3
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Post by allurose on Apr 23, 2015 17:56:20 GMT -8
Allurose, yes, a circus tutu! I like it! I think black is going to wash out your Abelle out though. She needs some crazy pastel colours. Yeah, a tightrope walker with killer eyes. She looks so sweet but behind those eyes..... Oh yes, and the Big Top circus owner has the hots for her. Kind of like in The Greatest Show On Earth except add a touch of surrealism, the weird, and crazy pastel colours. It is very generous of the artist to have given Abelle to you to make up for your other doll. Bluemoon, excellent pet peeve points! Expanding on no.2, no visible seam lines!! The porcelain can be polished to a silky finish but seamlines can still show-- work on them, ye porcelain artists!! 5. Sculpt some nice ears. The doll is fantastic, painted beautifully, sculpted beautifully, finished beautifully-- but you can't display her without a wig because she has the ugliest, stick out, and detail-less ears ever. Blobs with some some interior swirls really. Oh I love all your ideas! And I think it is quite funny how you can come up with a whole backstory for my doll like that, including her love life! I agree about the umbrella and the dress colors. I know that company has other fabrics so it is probably not a problem. I agree with your #5! I know ears represent a special effort since they are hard to create properly in a mold, but it is an important detail. I will add another. 6. Everything that comes with the doll should have the same quality level as the doll itself. So that means wig, eyes, stand, box, clothes, etc. But really posing and a detailed sculpt/blushing are the critical points.
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Post by bibarina on Apr 23, 2015 22:56:20 GMT -8
I totally agree with your points bluemoonstars and allurose! I have limited funds to purchase dolls, but would rather spend a bit more for a really perfect finish, than less on something not quite so well done as the cost is still quite high anyway. It's a shame that you don't get to feel a doll or even get to see some of the finer details before purchase. However, I still have to love the personality of the doll no matter how perfectly made, and it is great to see how artists improve and perfect their work over time.
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Post by kamia on Apr 25, 2015 0:15:33 GMT -8
Ooo cotton candy wig @_@ I need to seeeeee! Both ideas sound so good. Make a combination?? She should have a mini skirt with little pom poms hanging off the hem (little bits of candy floss!) Edit: sorry guys, didn't see the second page here >.< sorry!
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Post by allurose on Apr 25, 2015 5:41:53 GMT -8
Kamia, it's no problem! The only wig she has so far is the one she is wearing. I think it looks like cotton candy, what do you think?
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Post by allurose on Apr 25, 2015 12:33:55 GMT -8
Wow, apparently a lot of people have the hots for her...
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Post by lazhielle on Apr 26, 2015 7:49:08 GMT -8
Sometimes it takes 90% of the time to do the 10% detail. A lot of things are like that. Such as civil engineering.
However to fix the elastic against the thigh hole, it is pretty simple to diagnose and fix. Make the hole on the thigh go further back. Diamond burs could fix that the finish it off with stone burs with the Dremel or foredom.
When the holes are being cut out that could be resolved ahead of time.
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Post by allurose on Apr 26, 2015 8:56:19 GMT -8
Sometimes it takes 90% of the time to do the 10% detail. A lot of things are like that. Such as civil engineering. However to fix the elastic against the thigh hole, it is pretty simple to diagnose and fix. Make the hole on the thigh go further back. Diamond burs could fix that the finish it off with stone burs with the Dremel or foredom. When the holes are being cut out that could be resolved ahead of time. Yes, I used a dremel to adjust the joints in my older FH doll a bit. Not sure yet if I will do that with this girl...
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Post by bibarina on Apr 26, 2015 11:11:29 GMT -8
Never mind the dremel lol! I want to hear the rest of her story!! Can we have a weekly instalment please....!!
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Post by allurose on Apr 26, 2015 20:48:11 GMT -8
After all, everyone at the circus has a past.
Gabriella, the lion tamer, was a mother of five. One day she woke up to find them all gone, even little Juan who was just two weeks old.
Everything the children had ever used or owned had disappeared with them. There was no crib next to Gabrielle’s bed. There were no wooden blocks piled in the corner. All five-year-old Azalea’s secret stashes of candy were gone. Even the juice stains on the rug in the tiny kitchen had vanished.
When Gabriella ran though the streets, tearing at her hair and wailing for her children, none of the people in her town recognized her.
You’re just a drifter, they told her.
"I grew up here!" She cried. "My son was born in the church a fortnight ago! I bring milk to your porch every morning!"
You came in with the circus, they said.
When she dragged herself back to her home that evening, she found her house still empty, except for a newborn lion cub that was curled under the covers of her bed. She curled her body around it and stared at the empty air where Juan’s crib had been. She cried herself to sleep. The lion lapped at her tears.
She named the lion Alma, which is the name she had planned on giving her sixth child. Alma is a lioness, but the ringmaster and circus owner, Preema, makes Gabriella put a fake mane on her.
The circus is like dreams, Preema says, It must follow the pattern or it will become a nightmare. The people expect a male lion, so we shall give it them.
Preema knows a lot about what people expect. She binds her breasts and glues on a fake waxed mustache for every performance. Once she puts on her tall gilded hat, you would never guess. Ringmasters are male too.
"Nadie te entiende," Gabriella whispers to Alma. Gabriella refuses to speak English now.
"Mis hijos no hablaba Inglés y tampoco yo," she says.
Abelle collects the past of each person in the circus like Ivan collects delicate, painted eggshells. Abelle listens and watches, and records each story within the privacy of her mind. Gabrielle's was one of the hardest to learn. She doesn’t tell her story to anyone but the lion, who hears it every night. Abelle had to learn Spanish and balance in secret on the ropes in the top of Gabrielle’s tent to hear it.
Gabrielle used to sleep with her children. Now she sleeps with the lion.
Abelle thinks Gabrielle has a hard heart now. Maybe she could stomach hearing about Abelle’s past, but the truth is she stinks of lion. Abelle can't stand to be close to her.
Ivan smells like the eggs he eats every morning, always five, always hard boiled. Abelle doesn’t mind that smell. But he is young and his heart is soft. If Abelle confided in him, he would crumble. Perhaps that is his appeal.
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