On dolls and scales and magazines….

May 172008
 

Wednesday, January 19, 2005


One of the focuses of my business is dollhouse miniatures…. to answer the questions on scale you have several scales that are popular or gaining popularity.

1″ or 1/12 scale is the most common with tons of Yahoogroups for it and other online forums including Small Stuff Digest which is where I got my start… large international list for nothing but miniatures (not just 1″ scale tho)

1/2″ or 1/24 scale is smaller and has gained popularity in the last couple years as the 1″ scale people run out of space for minis This is a niche market that has a growing base… not saying 1″ scale is on it’s way out just that 1/2″ is growing in popularity due to the main body of crafters being retired or *my* elders (I’m not yet 30) and on space and money budgets that are shrinking.

1/4 scale is also popular but I’m not up on it much but I can say it is extremely tiny … if you’ve ever seen the original 80′s Poly Pockets those come close to the correct scale or a Z scale train is right. This is considered a dollhouse scale for inside a 1″ dollhouse!

On the larger end of the scale is 1/6 scale which is Barbie and the number of adult collectors wishing there were more things for her that weren’t Barbie Pink has a huge base. Then there’s the Tonner and larger 15-18″ fashion dolls that would dearly love more items including houses and such for their dolls.

As for places to learn about miniatures or dolls…..Ashdown Inc produces Doll Magazine (I’m a correspondent….Pattern columnist- unpaid except for exposure), and American Miniaturist (used to subscribe and adored it but budget had to give somewhere)

Jones Publishing and Scott Publications produce Doll Crafter, Miniature Collector, Dolls, Doll Costuming and a whole host of other magazines that deal with various subjects within the doll or miniature world. (Don’t ask me which publishing company publishes which I just know that those are the 3 big magazine producers)

I’ve been into dolls since 1988 when my mom started her doll business. I have been seriously into collector dolls and miniatures for about the last 2 years.

I should also add in something about reborn dolls, re-painted dolls and art dolls… there are lots of those out there too who redo, repaint or sculpt their own dolls that need and use props… you might just have a niche in one of these categories.

Sue Darby
~www.suestinycostumes.com

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New Years Goals… notice not resolutions?

May 172008
 

Thursday, December 23, 2004


I plan on updating and posting to this site far more often especially on days when things are going right… on days when things go wrong I’ll probably post that to my Lessons Learned in Business blog. In fact I plan on having several blogs about projects, different dolls and things learned about them like Ken… I have an old Ken (duplicate of one I had as a child, a newer Ken (again a duplicate of the Depp Ken I had as a teen) and then there’s the Jude Deveraux Ken I just recently bought…there’s a lot of differences in the bodies… wouldn’t think it since hey it’s Ken and he’s not the big seller Barbie is! But hey I’ve got to learn about dolls by playing… errr working with them if I’m going to draft and dress them.

Anyway my current goals at the moment are to teach the 101 Mini Drafting class in early January. Teach 102 after the move (from an apt to hopefully a house at the end of January) in late February. Then start development and testing of my 103, 104 and 105 classes for March, April & May thus giving me time to develop part if not all of the 200, 201 and 202 classes for summer. Now with my brother getting married in June, my sister Graduating High School in June and my parent’s 30th wedding anniversary also in June the likelihood of my actually teaching in June is next to nill at this point so I’m looking at having the 200 series start in July.

Also on the drafting table for me is the various patterns for my column in Doll Magazine. The first one is out and was a Fantasy dress & cloak pattern in 1” scale. The next….well it has a theme of “romance” and I already mentioned one of the dolls I did a pattern for earlier so I won’t spoil the surprise yet. I have more patterns for a baby and another lady along with a child that I’ll be doing which will take me all the way to the summer issue. So it’s one of the more important things to get accomplished.

Just that short list is a lot to get done by June so as I finish I’ll update. Keep an eye out!

Sue Darby
~www.suestinycostumes.com

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Dolls I *swear* I didn’t want….

May 172008
 

Tuesday, November 30, 2004


Well it’s been a while.. last post I tried the blogger ate and I didn’t have time to put it back up again so I had to go a while w/o posting here. It’s been a busy time in the last few months…. I now do a regular pattern for Doll Magazine. The first of which is already out and the second is in progress along with enough to go through to next summer.

Today is my daughter’s 5th birthday and I thought I’d write about some of it…. recently she’s been a pain… stole one of her unwrapped presents which happened to be a Nellie mini American Girl… 3 days before her birthday.. consequentially it’s now one of an ever growing list of Christmas items. Her granmother in Oregon sent her a package which I opened to find some nicely wrapped presents… again stashed them and found them opened but at least it was done today… it was a combo of her and her brother snitching them as I had them up and know it had to be a cooperative effort. Too late to re-wrap them so we found them and to my semi-dismay she had been sent a Bratz doll… now I’ve seen them in the stores and I’m not fond of the big head and long legged nearly bodyless doll.. I’m a doll should look like a doll or a real person with ‘correct’ proportions.. I don’t generally like stylized human figures… drove my illustration teachers batty with that but that’s another story.

Anyway, I *swore* at one time that*I* would never buy a Bratz doll …. well upon looking at the doll further and then giving in because of a dismayed looking doll nutty 5 yr old who thought I might return the doll in favor of a different doll… I have kind of fallen for the Bratz dolls… to the point where I took a shoebox and instantly created a bed so that Sera would go to bed tonight! I’ve also like a nut told her I’d get Mrs. Claus aka me to make a ‘fancy’ dress for Jade (said Bratz doll). This is on top of Doll Magazine patterns and other patterns and projects for other dolls not to mention the usual Christmas outfits I make for her and her brother!

I try to not spoil the kids generally and this time of year is when I do spoil them a bit so I guess I’ll just be extra busy sewing in the coming days…. like a nut I also volunteer at school and have offered to do more work in the classroom since the teacher has a cast on his foot!

I’ll manage to get most of what I’m planning done but some of the other things are going to have to wait LOL…. my kids are important to me and Mrs. Claus is going to be busy into the wee hours of the morning later this month I have a feeling.

Well time to turn off the computer and sewing machine and get some rest!

Sue Darby
~www.suestinycostumes.com

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