Sad Little Sisters

My friend Fanny (Mademoiselle Blythe) was here visiting a couple weekends ago. We got to talking all things doll. Who knew there was so much to discuss dollie-wise?! If you had told me I could hold a coherent conversation lasting an entire evening, solely about dolls, 20 years ago, I would have thought you daft. However, these days, I can hold not only an evening's conversation, but an entire weekend's worth of chatter :) If you aren't into dolls, you probably wouldn't be reading my blog anyway. So, I know you get it. You do. Admit it.

Anyway, short story long, she brought me a book all about the "cute culture." Seems that in down economic times, cute is big news. Cute got us talking about Blythe, which got us talking about Susie Sad Eyes. Susie is another vintage doll, circa 1965 or thereabouts. I can imagine that at the time she arrived on the scene, not many would have wanted a thing to do with her. Big, sad, woeful eyes. Fanny wanted a couple of these sad dolls. She aimed to get some. She bid on Ebay while she was here, but someone outbid her. Seems there is a book out by Gina Garan, who was also the photographer who brought Blythe to the forefront in the first place. Fanny and I looked into the Susie thing over the weekend. Seems we both decided having a customized Susie was on the list of things to do.

When Fanny left, I went searching. I got Gina's book, to see what I was up against in terms of customizing. Looks like not that much customizing going on yet. So, that meant no real trends established yet. I am pretty expert these days at doing a re-root on anything that isn't moving. I got a couple Susie look-a-likes, mostly because they were cheaper at that moment, though now I don't see many anywhere. Back in the day, department stores had cheap plastic dolls. Sears had Susie. She was made in HK. Wards had another similar doll called a Dress Me Doll. Same basic expression, with a slightly narrower face and quite a horrible cheap plastic body. Susie's body isn't too much better, to be honest. I found some other vintage dolls I liked the bodies on better. Vinyl. If you can get vinyl clean, it has a nicer feel than cheap hard plastic. I swapped them out for my new sad girls. I gave them new faceups. Nothing drastic really, just a bit of paint here or there. I have 3 finished at the moment. I may have more before the weekend is out. I have to tell you, I am hooked. The sad eyes thing opens a whole new world of creepy dolls for the creepy doll lover like me. Creepy-Sweet is what I would call it. Waif, street urchin, forgotten child. Susie and her counterparts have it in spades.

So, amongst the Blythes here at creepy doll house, now live quite a few Susies. No one has ever accused me of being non-obsessive when I put my mind to it. I can play grabby hands in a frenzy with the best of them.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Hope you have a free day or 2 to play with dolls :)