Let's get things started!

Welcome to my wonderful and crazy world of dolls! I figured since I did start the blog and I did post a link I should probably post something. Hmm, where do I start? I started making dolls a couple of years ago. I have been sewing since I was little and making "tack" (oh if only I had photos) since I started collecting horses (which was a long time ago). When I discovered eBay I also discovered the model horse hobby. Wow! What a world this is. So I started making Arabian costumes. And it was fun and I had a good time with it. I always wanted riders for my horses (what little girl doesn’t?) and Barbie was always too big, and the Breyer dolls have ugly clothes that always need "fixing" to look decent. So the natural thing to do was to make a new doll. And since the tack I was making was Arabian costumes I figured I would try out an Arabian rider. And here she is.
I don't think that was bad for a first attempt. Though you can see through her pants in the right (or wrong?) light. I have made lots of dolls since this one, though not hundreds. I think maybe I will hold some sort of drawing for when I make my 100th doll. I am not all that far off I don't think, but I would have to go back and check my records.
In the beginning of my doll making I was nervous to try new things. New things are so easy to screw up after all. But then I did some new kinds of dolls and made new patterns. Sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn't. I had one lady ask for 3 particular dolls. I told her I had never made that type and it was still new to me. I worked really hard on those dolls, sent her photos, got approval and sent them home.
She took over a week to get back to me after she receive them and then said so many horrible things about them that I almost stopped making dolls. I had charged her a pittance and she trashed my work. That is discouraging. But I tried some more dolls and I sold more dolls and People started to say nice things about my dolls. I started to think that maybe that one lady was just trying to get something for nothing, or take advantage of a newbie. That is one big reason I will do so much to help new people. I am always trying to improve on my dolls and I do a lot of my work with my friend Joan Yount (who is an awesome doll maker!) we share patterns back and forth and struggles with new designs and it makes things easier. And having someone to chat with (well, email with anyway) is nice. Not everyone is on the computer all day after all, lol.
So in the past couple of years my dolls have gone from that first Arabian doll with the see-through pants to dolls that have helped people win NAN championships. I was pretty proud of that. But I am just as excited to hear that someone had success at a small show. Even if you have a doll just to play with on your kitchen table (I do it!) I think you should enjoy your dolls, your horses and all your other "toys". After all, the hobby should be fun.
So this is one of my more recent dolls. She is much more refined than doll number one, though she really should be or I should quit :)

So things are moving along and I am having a good time with them. I recently started taking on more custom orders and I am having a lot of fun with that as well. I still enjoy making whatever comes to mind, but having the challenge of trying to create someones dream doll is nice as well. I have has some really interesting dolls ordered in the past couple of months :)
So that is my somewhat long-winded first installment of my blog. I probably won't just end up talking about dolls and doll work, because there is so much more that I can babble about. Thanks for reading!
-Anne