My Last Two Dolls

These dolls arrived a little while ago, but I haven't really felt like photographing any dolls until today. I did however, make them both new sets of clothes.

Both dolls are lovely and are the same fine quality as all my other PR dolls. The new articulation certainly adds a little more "life" to them in photos, but the articulation is not as versatile as I was expecting. PR have given added movement to their elbows and knees, but the shoulders, wrists and ankles are still the same as always, with no flexible jointing.

I do love this face sculpt though, Cleo is quite the little cutie with pale pink lips and tiny scattered freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her new outfit comprises bib front overalls and top that does up at the back.

Manica is just as pretty and with those curly locks she is a delightful addition to the fold. Her outfit comprises a dress, pinafore and scarf. I used a little foxy print for both dolls, but used a different contrasting fabric; a pink and white daisy print for Cleo and an aqua blue and white check for Manica

Unfortunately, I found the shoes she came with suited one of my boys better than they did her, so the ones she is currently wearing are borrowed from another doll. I will need to either purchase new ones for her or make them myself . . . this is still undecided.

Well that's it for today, I will be catching up with you all over the weekend, so until then . . . 

Little Eva

The Berjuan doll has lovely eyes, but the face paint is quite ordinary and really needs to be redone to give her more character. Her hair is lovely and soft to touch (no Gel), but extremely long. So unless one intends to braid it, it could be problematic. I shall restyle it by giving her a haircut and perhaps add a wave or curl.

Eva has a long neck and her articulated body is a combination of vinyl with what appears to me to be plastic joints. The joints aren't perfect, but most hold a position reasonably well . . . except for the ankles, these were sloppy, which makes standing her quite difficult, though I did finally manage to do it.

She can easily move her hands up and they will hold their position very well.

She can sit in a variety of positions, but her legs won't sit straight out in front. I do like how her arms and hands will allow her to hold things and can imagine her clutching a pet or doll.

Ava is able to kneel and lean backwards, she can even smell her own feet! (They don't stink, they have the smell of vanilla.) Or maybe she about to chew her toes! 🤣

Unfortunately, I could not get her to stand on one foot, I just don't have the patience. Would I purchase another of these dolls? Most probably not, but I will keep her and see if I can do something with her ankles.

Long Time No Post

I am still here though! Sales on eBay have been keeping me busy, which I never expected . . . especially seeing as I had things in my stash that I didn't know I had. Does that sound a little intriguing?

Let me tell you about it . . . as you already know I am having a clean out of stuff which I really don't need (and probably never did). It was while sorting, that I came across a little suitcase I painted for my mum a long time ago (2002), which I inherited when she passed.

I'd never opened it before and had no idea what was inside, so it came as a real surprise when I found it was full of Kellogg's Cereal Toys!! Yep, those tiny plastic things that kids found in their breakfast cereal back in the 60's and 70's. My first thought was to ditch them, but my instincts told me to check eBay before doing so.

So glad I did, these have become quite collectable and I had a heap of them. This photo shows what's left after the first listing . . . one chap bought so many, I was able to pay for Manica and Cleo, the two articulated Paola Reina dolls which I had my eyes on from Spain!

The first three dolls which I ordered from Dolls and Dolls at the end of last month, arrived today and I just love the two boys. (In case anyone here in Oz is considering placing an order with them, shipments travel from Spain to the Netherlands by road, before shipping to Oz by air. Tracking is via PostNL and Australia Post. I thought exactly three weeks from order to delivery, amidst this pandemic, was a pretty good delivery time.)

The the third one, a Berjuan Luxury Doll is also articulated. Her name is Eva, she is 35cm tall and comes without clothes. Being slightly different, I'll probably need to adjust my patterns to dress her, but I think she will be fun to sew for. I will tell you more about her later.

All these photos were taken with my Canon 600D with the Ring Light attached. I haven't had a lot of experience with it yet and haven't used the flash, just the light, but I love the light as it shows very little shadow. So if I never use the flash, it's been worth it (certainly was a blessing for taking close ups of the cereal toys).

Well I guess it's time now to catch up with what's been happening with you!