My Hat, My Hat, My Hat

I've been busy in my doll shop these past few weeks. It's been awhile since I have been able to get to clothes and hats, which used to be the mainstay of my shop. I have decided this is no longer a hobby and it really is a business, so I am working harder to keep things fresh in my store than I have in the past, so that people will always have a variety of things to choose from.



I have been so busy customizing dolls for clients, that I realized my store hasn't been spiffed up with as many new things as I would like in there. So, I set to making some new hats.



If you know me very well, you know I work kind of randomly. Okay, there is some sort of method to my madness, but it isn't very orthodox. I generally start with a plan, and I almost always decide to do something differently from how I started out. I have a really difficult time sticking to a design or pattern or anything that smacks of streamlined production. I tend to mix things up and try to make each thing I make a bit unique from each other thing. If I set out to make 2 similar things, inevitably I end up with 2 different things entirely.



The good news about that is, if you buy from me, you won't likely be getting something that everyone else has in multiples. The downside is that I can't recall how I did something or, most of the time, what I even did at all. So, when people ask me to repeat something as a custom job for them, I often am baffled as to how to proceed. Keeping track of what I do is something that almost never happens. In fact, when I do write something down, give me a day and I will have lost the notes.



My husband, a very organized creature, who makes hand-wired amplifiers, knows exactly what he does and has documentation to prove it. I, on the other hand, am left guessing and have to go by eyeballing old photos, with really no numbers or measurements written anywhere. Lucky for me, I do have a pretty good eye, so generally I can come reasonably close, otherwise it would probably be complete chaos. :)



In the midst of making some hats for my store this week, I had a couple of custom hats to do that were to resemble some other hats I had done in the past. I came fairly close, thankfully, and luckily the hats came out quite lovely, so I was pleased. So, if you are wanting custom work from me, know that you are probably going to get something more or less one-of-a-kind, but hopefully it will come out just as good or better than what it was modeled after. Based on my personality, it just has to be that way. Strangely, I started out as a chemistry major in college. Thankfully, I usually had very good lab partners :)



Hope your summer is still going well. It's almost back to school time for this state. Summer seems to have gone so quickly! I am so not ready for the weather to change. I could go on like this, with the windows open indefinitely. California dreaming...

Fascinating Blythe

I think I have finally kicked some of my creative slump. Here are some fascinator hats I did up for Blythe. I think she looks fantastic. These hats will fit other dolls, but if you are a Blythe fan, there is no other doll that is quite as fun, funny or fashionable as the big headed, big eyed queen.



I think Blythe is pretty much my doll focus these days. I really can't resist, to be honest. Somehow I have acquired 7 Blythes. All but 1 is customized to some degree by me. My 1 stock doll (though she may not stay that way long) is a Guava given to me by my friend, Jeany, in Canada. What a cool gift! I was so stoked to receive it, I can't tell you. I am just finishing up a mohair root for Jeany this week. I figure it's the least I could do.



I have a couple of Blythe projects on the table that I am thinking about. My good friend, Amy Taylor, jeweler extraordinaire, is collaborating with me on what I hope might be a series of OOAK Blythe customs. I think we'll concentrate on 1 first and see how we do. There is no one who can do jools like Amy, so I think whatever we come up with is bound to be quite smashing. Between the 2 of us, we ought to be able to do everything ourselves outside of manufacturing the actual doll.



I hope you doll people are having a lovely fall. It is bordering on winter here in Vermont, and we have already had one day of snow! I can hardly feel ready for that, but it's the way it is here. Gives me an excuse to stay inside and play with dolls, I suppose. Hope you all are enjoying playing with dolls and finding fun ways to express yourselves. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of creative people out there. I am sure you are one of them. Enjoy!

Straw Hats

It's been a long time since I've worked on any straw hats. Well, maybe 20 years! I put 2 new straw hats in my Etsy store the other day, and I think I rather like them. They have a nice spring feeling and are fun. We have been deluged with snow this year here in Vermont, which is good since we like to ski, but it is always nice to dream of a little spring. You'll have to let me know what you think.

Blythe Blathering

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.