If you talk to me much via email, you know that I have been trying to find a way to get myself a Blythe doll as a hat model. Blythe is a trendy vinyl doll with a giant head (about 11 inches around at the head, when the doll is only 9 inches tall) that has been trendy for about 10 years, I think, though that sounds kind of oxymoronic to me. But oh well. I didn't really want one that looked like it came right out of the box, and was feeling kind of chicken to spend $150 or $200 (minimum) on a doll that I was just going to pull open the head, pop the eyes out and start sanding and painting. I found a temporary solution that in a way seemed easier at the time that I thought it up. I bought a clone doll off Ebay from a person in Thailand. Mixed feelings about that, but really wanted to try my hand at popping this girl's head right off. It took quite awhile to get through the mails to me here in Vermont, and man, when I opened the box, cheapy plastic as all get-out! I sure hope the real ones aren't like that for $150. I doubt it. But I am talking cheap, cheap, cheap plastic. But, I took it apart, sanded it up, drilled a bit out of the nostrils, carved up the lips, had John, my husband, drill the eye chips out of their sockets and set to painting. Lo and behold after a bit of TLC, she turned out quite well.
I got her a new black and white wig, cut her regular hair a bit Marilyn-esque, as I continue to be obsessed with Marilyn Monroe, got some fabulous custom blue eye chips from a lovely gal in Argentina named Ana Karina and put her back together. Okay, I didn't really, John put her back together, but he also took her apart, so when I went to try it, it was more like Greek to me. I didn't really want to hover over him while he was doing it, but once I had the eye chips in the mail box, I was wanting that thing together pretty immediately. So anyway, I now have my Blythe hat model. I like her. I named her Ariel. I made 3 hats for her today and put them up for sale in my Etsy store. Giant hats, for giant headed dolls. Quite amusing. And, to tell you the truth, I am now quite a real Blythe fan. I think if I sell enough hats, I'll probably get a genuine Takara Blythe and use that one to show off my hats, too. In the meantime, I have a fancy-schmancy resin Asian ball-joint-doll young Super Dollfie coming, hopefully in about a month, but I'll save that for another story and another time.
