Mattel and Vera Wang team up for another bride Barbie
I just love Bride Barbie’s. I have not purchased every one ever made but I think I have most of the designer ones. I think one of my absolute favorite vinyl Barbie’s is the Carolina Herrera bride Barbie. Mattel and Vera Wang have collaborated on two previous bride Barbies
All photos are property of Mattel, Inc.
And now a third is set to come out this year. Here she is…
Actual delivery date TBD.
The pink ladies have tea
Thanks to a dear Barbie friend I was able to add City Smart Silkstone to my collection. I just love this lady and she will show up often in my photos. For those of you who have told me you never get to see City Smart redressed….this one’s for you. 
For those of you who want more info on the details…this next bit is for you.
Models: City Smart Silkstone and restyled Tout de Suite
Pink dresses: James Bogue of Bogue’s Vogues http://www.etsy.com/shop/boguesvogues
The Set
Display Cabinet and white/gold side table are 1:6 Bespaq from
http://stores.ebay.com/JIM-COATES-COLLECTION?_rdc=1
Pullip Petit Luxury chairs repaited in gold
Pink Tea set found at a doll show in Washington State.
Cake stand: Re-Ment Princess Tea Party #8 ( The princess’s favorite)
Treats on the stand: Re-Ment Special Cakes for me #7 ( Garden Party)
The background is foam core covered in gold moiré patterned wrapping paper. Flooring is black and white checked contact paper on foam core.
Dark Swan FR Squared gets married
I guess I just wasn’t quite finished with Dark Swan in this gown. My first idea when sewing her into this dress was to do a wedding shoot. Somehow, the wedding shoot turned into a high fashion photo first then looped back around for the wedding shoot. Ahhh…the creative process was never a straight line where I am concerned.
You are invited to a wedding…..
I am working on a new set of photos and wanted to share a little taste of that series….
There is just something about this time of year and the colors of spring and Easter that make me think of weddings. I think it must be all those soft pastels, tulips, lilacs and general euphoria that winter is coming to an end. Whatever the reason, I felt inspired to do a wedding shoot that turned into something special and I will be sharing it here tomorrow. Stay tuned……
Spring has arrived at The Fashion Doll Studio!
It was sunny in the suburbs of Seattle yesterday so that meant time in the studio. I received some absolutely stunning fashions from James Bogue of Bogue’s Vogues this past week and I am having fun photographing them. I will be doing a segment on my blog called “Bogue’s Vogues Vendredi!” and it will pop up on random Fridays. My first one will be this Friday and here is a taste of what you will see….
When Re-Ment becomes an obsession/addiction.
ad·dic·tion
[uh-dik-shuh
n]
–noun
the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.
ob·ses·sion
[uhb-sesh-uhn]
–noun
the domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.
I have often wondered if I am addicted to or obsessed with Re-Ment. There is just something about those little reproductions of daily items…dishes, food, perfume bottles…ahhhh the list could go on forever. I am not quite sure what it is but as a photographer, I love these little items because they can help fill out a scene and make a photo infinitely more interesting. There is also the fact that they are just plain fun to stage and play with. Like many collectors, I started off with just a few sets I had found at a local Japanese market. Then…because those first few sets were so fun…I had to have more.
And then more…..
And then more…..
I used to just store the sets in a big box but then it became so difficult to find what I wanted, I was not using them at all. I found these hardware organizers that work very well for these small sets. The added bonus was that they could be hung on the wall next to my little studio space. This way I can just grab what I need.
“Hello….my name is Rebecca….and I am addicted to Re-Ment.”
Renegade Dasha!
Integrity Toys has a new doll in their Fashion Royalty Squared line and she is drop dead gorgeous. She just screams old style Hollywood glamour to me. She has an issue size of 300 and will only be available to the lucky people who win the chance to purchase her in a W Club lottery. Yes, I purchased a lottery ticket and YES I hope to win the chance to purchase her. I love everything about this lovely lady but I particularly love the fashion and accessories. Lucky winners will be selected on or around Monday, March 28th. I will be sitting on pins and needles with many others that day. My luck at lotteries has been really bad as of late. My philosophy has been and continues to be that if a doll is meant to be in my collection, it will be. If it is not meant to be…well…then it just isn’t. Win or lose..she is a winner for being just so gorgeous!
All photos in this post are property of Integrity toys.
The Wall Panel: The Painting Phase 2
The final touch added to the panel was the gilding. This was kind of hard for me because I wasn’t quite sure how much or how little to do. In the absence of knowledge I decided to do research and went through many of my travel picture that showed ornate gilded wall panels. Armed with that knowledge I went to town on the wall panel with a fantastic gold gilding pen from Krylon. And here is the finished product…..
Here are some of the products I used on the project
Here are some of the photos I used this wall panel in….
The Wall Panel: The Painting Phase 1
This phase believe it or not…took the longest in this whole process. When spray painting in 1:6 scale, there is one cardinal rule…..PATIENCE. Multiple thin coats gives the best results. I had a large computer box that I had saved to do spray painting projects in. I put a smaller box inside then laid the wall panel flat on that smaller box inside the bigger box. I have spray painted many, many small pieces of doll furniture but never a large wall panel. I was a little worried about my finger strength because I know even coverage relies on consistent and even spraying. I found something in my hardware store that made it soooo very easy to spray paint.
I am never going to do another spray paint project without this handy dandy plastic spray gun. They are fairly cheap too..double yeah! I used Dover white Krylon paint formulated for painting plastic. It took me a good part of one day to paint this panel. You have to spray one coat then wait about 15 – 20 minutes and do the next coat. I lost track of how many coats I did but there were more than 10. It is also important to note that if you are spray painting, you need the air temperature to be above 50 degrees and below 85 degrees for best results. One other thing I learned..the hard way…make sure you have a couple of cans of spray paint and that these cans were purchased at the same time. Much like fabric, spray paint has a certain die lot and if you buy paint at different times, it can have slightly different hues.
Stay tuned tomorrow for The Wall Panel: The Painting Phase 2……..
The Wall Panel: Construction Phase
I have a collection of what I call “gold embellishments”. Most are scrapbooking elements. I also use gold escutcheons ( keyhole cover) and other gold embellishments. On this wall panel, I used Jolee’s Boutique scrapbooking elements called Leaf Flourish 2 and two larger wood elements that I found at Michael’s. The wall panels and wainscoting panels are made out of Resin and are made by Lawbre. I don’t believe they make the large panels I used anymore but the wainscoting is still readily available. The crown molding I used at the top is Lawbre also. I ended up using another molding at top of crown molding called egg and dart and I used that on the base board at the bottom to give the piece continuity. The columns are flat resin pieces found at a miniature mail order shop. I also used two basic wood miniature shutters on the bottom of the columns to continue them to the floor. The baseboard for this panel are just two pieces of miniature baseboard glued one on top of the other. I covered all the seams between the components with miniature 1/4 inch chair railing and used the same chair railing to connect the flourishes on both large panels. I glued everything in stages and made sure things dried in between. The picture above shows what it looked like after gluing all the pieces. All of these components were glued on to a 22inch x 28inch trifold foam presentation board. The finished panel measures 15 1/2 inches X 18 1/2 inches.
Stay tuned tomorrow for The Wall Panel: The painting phase…..
The Wall Panel background
I have always been fascinated by old world architecture. My family and I travel and invariably, our travels will include visiting an old museum or estate so I can see the architecture. I have a particular fondness for ornate wall paneling. Don’t know why…just the way I am. I had always wanted to do some kind of ornate wall panel for my 1:6 scale photos and thought about it for a looooooong time. Whenever I would see something that might be interesting or work for my “wall panel” project I would buy it and put it in my project box. At the beginning of this year, Matt Sutton finished a commission OOAK doll for me and when I received this exquisite lady, I could see her in a setting with an ornate cream and gold wall panel in the background. I knew it was time to finally put my thoughts to action.
Explored on Flickr Jan 19, 2011
A number of people have emailed me asking for details on how I built the wall panel so I thought I would share that here.
The Wall Panel: Design phase
I gathered all the elements I had collected over the last two years to see what would work together and what would not. I ended up using miniature scale wall panels and a wainscotting panel to start then filled in with crown molding and column detail. I knew from the start that I wanted the wall panel to fit on a 22 inch X 28 inch trifold presentation board. I have used these boards in the past for backgrounds in my photos and the size works really well in my 30 inch photo tent. In the photos, you can see that I used a piece of furniture to try and get the right feel and scale for the panel.
Once I decided on the larger components, I played around with the smaller detail elements.
Stay tuned tomorrow for Wall Panel: The construction phase…….
Doll photography does not have to be complicated
I get many questions about my doll photography. My husband and I share photography as a hobby and we enjoy learning about this fascinating subject together. I know many collectors would love to take more and better photos of their collection but become discouraged when they think they need to have the right camera or special lights, light tent, lenses….ect. While I use a number of these things in my little fashion doll studio, it is important to note that you don’t really NEED these to take a great photo. Well…you DO need a camera but it doesn’t have to be fancy. Some of my most popular and personal favorite shots were taken without my light tent in a soft diffused light that we seem to have an abundance of in the rainy Pacific Northwest of the US. Here is an example of what I mean.
This was taken when I was breaking down the set from the Randall Craig photo shoot and I needed to set Miss Showgirl up in the window sill to get her out of the way. It was a cloudy day ( no surprise.. there has been no sun here for over a week!…grumble, grumble..vitamin D deficiency rearing its ugly head) and there was lovely diffused afternoon sunlight coming in the window. I loved how it looked with the white millwork and her pink dress so I forgot about breaking the set down for moment and grabbed my camera on tripod. I have used this same window for another favorite photo….
I just love these soft and dreamy shots. So…next time you have a cloudy day, grab your favorite doll and camera and find a good windowsill. 
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Wanted to share some wearing of the green today.
Model: Restyled Dusk To Dawn Silkstone
Dress: Bogue’s Vogues
Purse: La Boutique
ILHYLM Poppy will be on her way here soon!
I was not one of the lucky ones to win her in the W Club lottery and was one of the ones who tried and failed to purchase one of the 50 or so sets available through Dolls Magazine. Yes….I survived that day which has become known as “Poppygate”. For those of you who don’t know the story, let it suffice to say that there was a huge demand and very little supply…never makes for a good ending. With great anticipation, the offering started…with great dissappointment and massive system failure due to overwhelming demand…the offering ended. Those who were quick enough to email Dolls Magazine were rewarded with the highly sought after sets. I am thrilled to see that Poppy Parker has such a fan base. That means that she will be around a while and David Butry, the Integrity designer responsible for her, will hopefully be afforded the opportunity to continue designing this adorable character. I have loved this girl since her first iteration and I continue to love the designs coming out.
All that being said, I had given up hope that I would be able to find this very sought after set for an affordable price. Through the help of another collector, I was able to find one today and am so excited to photograph her! She should be arriving in a couple of weeks.
All photos are property of Integrity Toys
Hilarious Billboard
I saw this on a Bing search today and just about fell out of my chair. I knew I had to post it. I think many of us as collectors have asked ourselves from time to time if we have taken our collection a bit too far. I know I have and in the end I just say “ Hey, this makes me happy” and go with it. I know some of my friends just “Don’t get it” about my doll collection but…as any true friend would…they accept it and support my choices. Doll collecting isn’t for everyone but it is definitely for me…and I like that.
More funny billboards can be found at this persons blog at http://www.saynotocrack.com/index.php/2007/01/15/top-10-billboard-advertisements/
–Rebecca
Mattel is finally going to do a Grace Kelly Barbie!!!
Grace Kelly has always been a favorite of mine. To me, her beauty was always the epitome of chic and style. The V&A in London had an exhibit about her last year and since we have friends there, I wanted desperately to travel to London so I could see the exhibit in person. Alas….the friends ended up moving back to the U.S. and that idea was dropped. This lovely friend however had one of the exhibit books from the V&A sent to me as a gift and I LOVE it. So, it can be no surprise that when I found out Mattel was doing a Grace Kelly Barbie I squealed with delight. The word was out a little while ago but no pictures were available so speculation ran rampant as to what she would be wearing. My hope was that she would be in one of the gowns she wore in To Catch A Thief. When the pictures were finally released, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. She is in the beautiful blue chiffon gown designed by Edith Head from To Catch A Thief. Gorgeous!
She should be available in July at Barbie dealers and is priced at $39.99 She was designed by Robert Best. This one is a definite must for me.
Photos are property of Mattel, Inc.
Pink Ponytail has a new RC exclusive
Pink Ponytail has new Randall Craig exclusive called But Beautiful – Icy Pink LE 50 and it is gorgeous. I have a thing for all things pink and this outfit is just my cup of tea. Here is Miss Showgirl Silkstone Barbie modeling But Beautiful – Icy Pink in the Fashion doll studio.
You can order But Beautiful-Icy Pink at http://www.pinkponytail.com/
FR Squared Dark Swan Elise Jolie wears Vera Wang in the fashion doll studio
When the first Fashion Royalty Elise Jolie came out at the FR convention a couple of years ago, I was not a fan. She was extremely severe looking and that is not the aesthetic I go for. When the designers at Integrity gave her a softer makeup palette and glorious red hair….I had to have her. She is becoming one of my favorite models. I kept thinking, wouldn’t she look fabulous in white or cream with all that red hair so, I decided to steal the Vera Wang bridal gown from one of the Barbie girls and loved the look. The dress was sewn on to its previous owner so I had to sew it on ,temporarily, to Miss Elise. I could have taken the time to put hooks and eyes on it but was impatient to photograph so that job will wait until later. The props used in these shots are simple wall shelves from Target.
Click on photos for larger view
And here are the photos that resulted
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FRSquared Dark Swan Elise Jolie in Vera Wang |
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–Rebecca
Ekaterina arrives in the Fashion Doll Studio
Robert Best has designed a new line of dolls for the BFMC inspired by Russia and Russian fashions. The first one into the doll studio is Ekaterina. She is exclusive to the Barbie Fan Club . I am always a sucker for any doll with red hair. When I saw the promo pictures, I knew this lady would be destined for my doll room and The Fashion Doll Studio. Upon arrival, I was not impressed. In her coffin of a box, she appeared very pale and the hair was not the riot of curls the promo picture would indicate. That being said, I decided to debox and am very glad I did. This is definitely a lady that needs to be DEBOXED to reach her full potential. I did have to finesse the hair a bit to get the fuller look…more curls not one big curl on either side of the head. The hat….not the best but I can deal. I foresee a hatless model in the future but for now it will stay on her beautiful head. I am a little afraid of the hat hair situation under there. The bracelet was a surprise because I was expecting the same bracelet as D2D and Preferably Pink but it is slightly different – yeah! The brooch on the hat is beautiful. The outfit is similar to JNSQ but not too close. The boots people…are…. TO DIE FOR.
I had some fun with my macro lens in the photo shoot so I was able to get some great up close shots. Hope you enjoy.
Inside the Fashion Doll Studio 