RXR

I am aware that I am a huge slacker when it comes to blogging. Usually I can't think of things to write about and I don't want to post about the craziness of my life, I don't think anyone really wants to hear it. Region X Regionals was last weekend and it didn't occur to me to write about it until yesterday. And then I could not get my computer to cooperate and load pictures. And blogs are not as much fun without photos in my opinion. So lets get to the fun!
Anyone that knows me knows I am a performance junkie. When I remember (or have time to) take pictures I take almost only performance pictures. I do love certain halter horses and may take pictures but I love the action of performance photos. And mostly I take photos of horses with dolls. I get a kick out of seeing my dolls out at shows but I admire any nicely done dolls and take lots of pictures if there is something I really admire. So onto some performance photos and doll fun!
First we have the start of the day. Last year the dolls "played" a lot and everyone had a good time playing with them. So this year I got this lovely swing set for the dolls to play on. At the start of the day they were mostly well behaved.

This next doll belongs to my friend Joan Fauteux. Joan has more of my dolls than anyone else and always comes up with more that she wants. This cross country lady is the newest in her collection. I can't remember the horse's name but I believe the tack was made by Jana Skybova. Joan made the awesome cross country jump herself.

This doll was made for me by my good friend and doll maker buddy, Joan Yount. This was one of the first hunt seat dolls that Joan made. The only thing I did to this doll was remake her boots when we were working out how to make the leather hunt boots. This was my OF dressage entry. I got reserve champion in the patterned performance stakes this year. I was pretty excited about that one. The horse is Lady Intrigue and the tack was made by Cari (Godwin) Chaney.

Joan Yount made this lovely Western pleasure doll as well. Joan sent me a photo and said she was for sale and it was love at first site, I had to buy her. The horse is Skippa Latte (I "borrowed" the name from Joan as well) which is a Breyer Party Girl. The tack was made by Kirsteen Haley and the lovely saddle pad was made by Elise Patisan. She makes beautiful saddle pads and they are super affordable. It made coordinating the set incredibly easy and her turn-around time is super quick.

I did actually make this cowboy. He is another one belonging to Joan Fauteux. I think she named him Jack but that is the only thing I know about the set-up. I don't know the tack maker, the horses name or anything. I do know I took the photo through the trees on someone elses entry because I thought it looked cool.
These 2 western ladies also belong to Joan Fauteux. I think she has at least 3 western dolls I made. The doll in black and pink was one of the first western dolls I made. The pink doll was one of the sales dolls at regionals last year. The funny part of Joan's doll collection is she has more of my dolls than I do. I should work on that :)

This was my natural western trail entry. This doll (I think her name is Mary) was cleaning up the trash on the trail. Her horse, Lady Liberty, is waiting patiently. The saddle was made by Pam Perkins and I can't remember where the bridle is from. We had some trouble with the doll falling over but several of us worked on it and she stayed up long enough to get first. I also made the diorama.

This nest western doll was a custom order from Lauren Upton. I don't know anything else about the photo really. Lauren has been doing an awesome job with her performance set-up.

This doll is Muffy. She is owned by Marisa Evans. The horse is Electric Mayhem who is a stone pony customized by Liesl Dalpe. The tack was make by Cari Chaney. Muffy is a very versatile doll and has a removable hunt coat.

The dolls seemed to have fun with the swing set but they did not do as much as they did last year. Maybe the lack of toys inspires more silliness. They did get a bit silly throughout the day...

...and so did this cow. He thought he was a jumper (he needs tack and a doll!)

This lovely lady belongs to Linda White however the entry was by Corrie McDermott. All I know about the rest of the set-up is that the horse is a CM ISH that Corrie won in the raffle at last year's regionals. I love the tack though, perhaps I should ask about it one of these days.

This is That 70's Godiva owned by Morgen Kilbourn. Morgen just started performance showing and has done extremely well. She asks questions of everyone and had gotten her stuff down. She won several large rosettes at regionals this year. The doll is one of mine and was a custom order. She has removable chaps as well as a removable collar and cuffs. This doll and the cowboy that went with him was the reason I decided to no longer to anything removable, lol. They made me crazy. They turned out nicely though.

This next doll was done by Darla Curtis. I took several photos of her from many different angles. She is a wonderful doll full of amazing detail. One day I may make dolls of this caliber but today is not that day, lol.This last entry is another one of mine. It is my OF showmanship entry. I made the handler and the judge as well as the horse's halter and the little judges kit (that you can't see). This set-up got champion for the second year in a row. I was really excited about this one and hope to keep the title next year as well.
I took a ton of photos this year but couldn't load them all here. The show was a lot of fun and the weekend was nice. Regionals is always a very interesting show and unlike any other. In my opinion it is a great way to end the show season and gives everyone something to look forward to next year.

Back to Real Life

This past Saturday I got married. Ethan and I have been together for a bit over 10 years so we have a somewhat different relationship than a lot of newlyweds. It was a small wedding and I can't say that everything went smoothly because it didn't. But overall the day itself was wonderful, great weather a beautiful spot for the ceremony and close family and friends. Both sets of parents have been very supportive and since we have all known each other for years there was none of the awkward meeting of the parents. I'm thinking of writing a book with advice for brides-to-be. 10:00 in the morning is probably too early for a wedding unless you enjoy stress and rushing. Have someone the day-of that knows the plans for the ceremony/reception so you can enjoy for of the day. And there are lots of other little things I picked up as well.

You also find out who your real friends are. We lost a couple of friends for something so tiny we think they were looking for a way out. It's sad but good that it happened weeks ago and not the day of the wedding. But we also found out the friends we do have are very generous. My good friend, Liesl Dalpe, took all of the official wedding photos. A lot of the pictures in this post came from her, she sent a handful so I had something to look at while she put the other (several hundred) photos on CD for us. Another large group of photos was taken my my friend Crystal's boyfriend, Peter. He is not the easiest person to warm up to as he seems to be a very shy reserved person. But when you do get to know him you will find a very friendly and caring person. And also someone that loves to tease. He showed me a horrible photo that he got of me at the wedding (no, I am not posting it, lol) and said it was the only one he got all day.

On to pictures! We all know that we look at blogs for photos so I have several to share. This first one is of our 2 kids, Elecktra and Travis, starting down the isle. Travis looks very cute in his little tux and Elecktra is looking almost grown up at this point.

This next one is of Ethan and his brother Adam. Ethan loves it because from the neck up the look the way they might look on any Saturday morning. I just think it's a great photo. We are not entirely sure when it was taken but probably before the ceremony. I think this photo might end up on the wall as soon as I find some wall to put pictures on.

The next photo is also a picture of the extreme generosity of the people we know. Ethan's Dad borrowed this car from his friend, George. I have only met George and his wife once or twice but they were both very friendly. It was funny when John, Ethan's Dad, called me to ask if he should call George and see if he could borrow the Rolls I said, "what am I going to say? No?" When someone offers to loan you a vintage, superbly maintained Rolls Royce for your wedding you don't say no. Blog photos are just not as nice as the originals :(

This next one is Elecktra and I after the wedding. She is almost as tall as I am! She was very emotional during parts of the ceremony and may still have been at this point. We included the kids (though Travis didn't come up with us during the words) in part of the actual ceremony and then in the unity sand ceremony. I don't have any of those pictures yet but when I get some I might share some more.

Before the wedding I made lots of jokes that I fully expected Travis to try to roll down the big hill at Enfield Lookout Point. I mentioned that again to a couple of people at the reception and they told me he DID go down the hill! I didn't see it but I still laughed about it. In this picture he looks like he is getting ready to go down the hill. But he likes to be a little mountain goat on the boulders so he may just have been playing.

This is Cathy and Crystal and I. Cathy is my real sister. She's the one in the black dress. Crystal is one of my best friends and I consider her one of my sisters. I really like the original of this photo but wanted to share it. We all look pretty good I think.

Ethan and I were planning on going on a honeymoon next year. That way we could save up for something really nice and not have to worry too much. But Ethan's brother Adam and his wife Shannon, sent us on a trip. We went to Newport, R.I. for the weekend and it was amazing. Not only is Newport a wonderful community that is heavily art influenced, the people there are very nice, the Inn we stayed at was great and Ethan and I have never, not even once in our 10+ years together, been anywhere alone. That was a huge treat in itself. We spent lots of time just walking around the town, did souvenir shopping, we saw a movie in an old converted opera house, ate at 3 different sushi restaurants (and there are still more for us to try, lol) and had a great time. Sunday morning we were out walking before anything was open and passed an art gallery (one of many). There was a gorgeous painting of the sea at night under a full moon. It appealed to both of us (not something that happens all the time) so we decided we had to come back as soon as they opened and buy it so we wouldn't lose it. They held the painting at the gallery for us so we didn't have to leave it in the hotel room and we talked about it for the rest of the trip. I think that was our favorite purchase of the trip. This picture was taken on the steps of the Jail House Inn where we stayed. It's a really interesting place.

Also included in our honeymoon trip was a sailboat tour of the harbor. That was very cool. Neither of us had ever been on a sailboat though boats of any kind are fun. We sat next to a really nice couple, Carl and Laurie, from Pennsylvania and chatted with them most of the trip. They got pictures of us, we got pictures of them, etc. If we hadn't been leaving right after the boat trip we probably would have gone to dinner with them. We talked with them about tattoos and art (they were going to go check out the gallery where we got our painting) and neither Ethan or I had any business cards on us so Carl and Laurie were trying to memorize the name of Ethan's tattoo shop. Hopefully they remembered and they look it up, it would be nice to see them again or at least share some photos from the trip.

All in all we had a great wedding and a great honeymoon. There are still so many things in Newport we haven't done we are thinking of going back next year for our anniversary. I hope we can, it was a great place to visit. I didn't want to come home.

So here is the part where we have to get back to real life. Ethan went back to work and I am working on getting the house to look like a house again. Soon I will have to get back into my doll making as well. I have so much less stress now that the wedding is past that I probably will be able to sit down and work. Just as soon as my house is neater. And now my studio name makes sense.

-Anne Field (St.Onge)

The art of rehairing dolls

Awhile back someone mentioned it would be cool to see a blog about the rehairing process. So that is what I am going to talk about today. The process is not particularly hard, it just takes time. And of coarse learning to do it quickly and neatly takes more time. Still, no matter how much you do it it will never be a super fast process. But let me explain the process, with lots of pictures!
First you take the head off the doll. People think a lot of strange things about me because of the horrible things I do to dolls. But a lot of people think I am strange because I make dolls at all. I can't win so I don't try. It may be possible to rehair a doll without taking the head off but I have never tried it that way and I imagine it would take longer. So we'll just talk about my way. After you get the head off next you have to cut all the original hair off very close to the head. The closer the better because you want as much of it gone before you get to the next step.
Because the next step is to pull the tiny leftover tufts of hair out of the doll head. This is by far the most annoying and tedious part of rehairing. And part of the problem I had with this one was not having the proper tweezers. You'd think a good pair of tweezers would be just the thing, but they were horrible and more trouble than not. I usually work from the inside of the head...

...but the awful tweezers made me have to do things the hard way. So I had to pull out the tiny tufts of hair from the outside, one at a time. This took a very long time, much longer than it should have and resulted in sore fingers. I'll survive though. It did prompt me to go out and buy the proper tweezers. I wish I knew what happened to the old ones. And for anyone curious the right tweezers for the job are the scissor style with the flat angled tips.

Once the hair is gone you have a tiny bald doll head to work with. Now time for new hair!
The best hair I have found is viscose hair. Mohair is OK but you will never get super smooth, super shiny hairstyles with mohair. The viscose hair can be bought on many dollhouse and doll making websites as well as eBay. You can get an ounce, a pound or small sample sizes. I usually get a ounce because that is still a LOT of doll hair and then I split the shanks with my doll buddy, Joan Yount. And she does the same so it all works out nicely. I wonder if she has any platinum blond....

...The other thing you need to rehair the dolls is a hairing tool or a rooting tool. I got mine from a woman who sells them on eBay for the reborn dolls. Joan found this amazing tool and it has really helped bring added realism to the dolls. The rooting tool comes in several sizes but the perfect size for 1:9 scale dolls is the micro tool. It is normally used for rooting eye lashes on larger dolls. The tricky part of rerooting hair is making sure it stays in. You already have preexisting holes so you need to make sure they have the same amount of hair in them so the hair doesn't fall right out. Not always an easy task.

This next photo is of the hair on the tool ready for rooting. It is not easy to see. You need to separate a tiny amount of the viscose hair, smooth it out and slide it into the center of the twin needles on the rooting tool.

Then you stick the hair on the tool into the holes in the doll head. You have to make sure both of the needles go into the hole or you are likely to break the needle. Keep going until you have the hair all over the head.
I don't hair the entire head because the more hair you have, the more out of scale it will get. You don't want your newly haired doll to look like an out-of-the box factory doll do you? I usually hair from the side of the forehead all the way around the head (lowering the hairline in back) and then I hair a strip across the back of the head. After that I take a small doll brush (I think the one I use came from a My Little Pony) and I brush the hair out. This removes any loose bits of hair as well as making it neater. After that the hair can be styled any way you want. For this doll I just twisted it into a bun. I could have made a smaller bun but I liked the look of this one. I trimmed the tip of the hair and glued the end down on top of the head. I have also done braids, braided buns and other styles as well.
The last step is to glue the hat on and (in this case) add a hatband. Things are a little more involved when putting on a helmet for an English doll because you need to make the safety harness as well. But I didn't have one of those to do today.The process of rehairing is not complex and you don't need expensive tools (my rooting tool was $10, replacement needles are $1 each and my tweezers were $4) and the results can be very nice. It also opens up the option of changing the look of a doll. It's amazing how different a doll can look just by having a different hair color and a new hairstyle. That can be a very big thing when most of the dolls in the show rings come from the same basic doll bodies.

I also had a request for a blog about the fitted boots. Western boots are not as interesting as English boots so I will have to wait for a day when I have English boots I need to make and time to take the pictures. But the boot blog is coming. If there are topics you would like discussed please let me know. I love letting people into my strange and occasionally twisted world of doll making.

Baystate Halter Live

I was accused today of never posting to my blog. I admit that it is at least partially true. I don't post often. I don't know what to say, I don't want to bore everyone and I like pictures but don't take them obsessively. But today I will do a quick post just because it seems like the right thing to do. And I do have some pictures just to make it more fun.

Today was the day of my annual live show. This is the third year I have hosted Baystate Halter Live and I still love it. I think it was a bit (just a bit) nuts to plan a show of this size that would fall only 7 weeks before my wedding but it turned out well. We did have a snafu with the rosettes. Somehow we were short a bunch of top 5 and top 10 rosettes. But we did have more than enough champ and reserve champ rosettes so a bunch of people got those instead. No one seemed to mind getting some extra long, fancy rosettes. Though next year I will check and check numbers to make sure we have what we need. I will probably always wonder what happened.

So anyway, here is a photo from the first year of Baystate.

I had a good sized hall booked but the canceled on me at the last minute. That was when I learned the value of a good solid contract. The hall we ended up with was pretty small, sort of cramped and not the best layout, but it was something I could get through a friend connection at the last minute. It did work though it was not ideal. People did say that being that close together did help them get to know people they had never really talked to before. I think people prefer a bit more space though.

So my first big goal for the second year of Baystate was to get a BIG hall with GREAT lighting. I also wanted it to be in Ludlow, MA because that is where I live and since I was hosting the show I wanted it to be in my town. I wanted to be close to the hall. That was my first big goal. So I started looking around and then Ethan said I should try the Elk's lodge. They have a big cruise night (bike and car show) every Tuesday night in the summer so he was there all the time and knows several people that have been lodge members forever. So since I could not find a big enough hall or someone to answer the phone at the big halls I knew I called the Elk's. When I saw the hall I was in love. I decided I NEEDED to have my show there. I can't find the original pictures I took ( I can do a pretty good floor plan with a few photos of a room with some size reference in them) but even without all the lights of I could tell it was really good and the hall was HUGE. And since that was my first big goal I loved the hall. I got a contract right away for my chosen show date because I had learned my lesson the last time.

Last year was the second year of the show and the first year in the new big hall. I think we had about 42 entrants and TONS of room. Here is a shot from Almost the end of the room. There is also lots of room on the sides for the entrants tables. It is such a big hall :)

And here is a photo from this year's show. A couple of judges hard at work and some people checking out horses. It is also nice to have a good camera to take nice pictures. Last year, even with the good lighting, my pictures were not super. But my camera was old and tired.

This one is a photo (a bad one, lol, I was not close enough) of the rosette table. This was not ALL of rosettes, some of them had already been given out when I took the pictures but it was still a pretty good stack. I do still sort of have a dream of having a performance show as well as the live show. The hall is certainly large enough for that but either I would have to have the performance show in the Spring and then my halter show in the summer or make the whole thing a 2 day show. I still need to think on that some more because the hall rental alone would be very pricey. But I think it would be fun. And I don't imagine it would be so much more work to plan a 2-day show instead of just a 1-day show but I know it would be more work. So I will think some more on that. I do eventually want to have Baystate Performance Challenge. I already have rosette colors picked out and everything. I just need to see if I can handle it, run some numbers to see if it is even going to work out and then get as many volunteers as I can. I would love to do it. Maybe if I offer judges free entry for the performance show if the judge a couple of small sections OR a small payment if they don't want to show. Hmm, that's a thought. I think I will go post to the regional board and get some opinions. Then to bed and tomorrow I must continue with wedding stuff.

It's all in the details

As I come to the end of the planning for my third year hosting Baystate Halter Live I realize now more than ever it really is tiny details that make any event great. Not only is my show only 3 weeks away but my wedding, after 10 years of us being together and more than a year of planning is a mere 10 weeks away. I realize now that hosting a show that would fall just 7 weeks before my wedding might have been lunacy. Well I've never said I wasn't crazy. I have also realized that I really love to plan events of all kinds. I might throw in a second show next year so I can host a performance show, or maybe I will make Baystate a weekend event. Maybe I will wait a couple of years to take on something of that size. Not that I am super good at waiting.

So these days I am all about details. And lists. I have several lists to keep me on track. Lists of addresses, lists of classes, lists of what still needs to be done for the wedding, what still needs to be paid for for the wedding and the show, lists of entrants and so many others. To me, having a list is a way of seeing what you have occomplished. When I finish something I cross it off the list. I have also rediscovered that doing anything well takes a large amount of time. But planning out details can sometimes make things easier or could end in disaster. I think some of the outcome depends on your attitude. If I expected my wedding to come off like a fairy tail I would almost certainly be disappointed. But I fully expect my son, Travis, to try to roll down the hill where the ceremony is to take place. He tries every time we go up there. Ethan says he is going to roll with him. I said they can have fun and I'll be the one not getting grass stains on my dress waiting at the top. If they really do it I might be surprised but I will probably laugh anyway.

I spent exactly 7 days, several hours a day designing, laying out, and conceptualizing my invitations. I roughly knew what I wanted them to look like but I am not a designer so I was not all that familiar with how to do what I wanted. But I have some really cool programs and I came up with something that I thought was really nice. Even my Dad likes it.

I also spent a good amount of time working on the booklet for the show. It didn't take me a week but it did take up a large portion of today. The top part of the picture is the cover. I had another, plainer cover designed originally but then I thought it would be more fun to make the fancy cover. It took barely any extra work.

The second part of the picture is a couple of pages of ads in the back of the book. The whole thing is still in the rough draft phase but it is my first printed draft. I am going over it to make sure things line up properly, nothing gets cut off in printing and things just look good overall. The process is so much simpler for the booklet than it was for my invitations because for the booklet I am just printing on paper that will be folded in half. The invitation pieces had to line up a certain way for cutting. And some of the pieces were double sided. I think the result is worth the effort though.

For the show booklet having something that is nice and looks professionaly laid out just makes me happy. I also hope that it makes the show entrants happy and all the imformation they need is in one place. There are so many other details involved in wedding planning as well as show planning but I wanted to share a couple of printed things that will add a nice touch to each of the events. As it gets closer to the show and to the wedding I might decide to share more about details. Maybe I will post my How to host a live show document. It was written on the same guidline as a wedding planning book so it might be interesting.

Falling behind and catching up

I haven't posted in a long time and I could give any number of reasons for that. Both my kids had birthdays in the last 30 days, I had major house cleaning, I had nothing doll related to post about, stress, etc, etc. Probably the biggest reason for not posting is having nothing interesting to write about and being too tired to see at the end of most days. Not that I have been overwhelmingly busy, but I do have problems when the seasons change. Some people get seasonal depression and I guess you could give that name to what happens to me, but I don't get depressed. I get tired and unmotivated. I wake up tired and then have to run around keeping up with the kids, the house, planning birthday parties, my wedding, etc. But I promise this is not going to be a long post complaining about my life. I like my life very much.
I seem to have fallen into the trap that many artists in the hobby fall into. Though I am technically not an artist but a crafts person. I am OK with that, I can take a picture (of a doll) out of my head and make it real in miniature. I am finally realizing that not everyone can do that (or sew in 1:9 scale) so I am pretty proud to be a decent crafts person. But anyway, I have fallen into the trap of overbooking my time, falling behind and then slowly losing my mind.
Because I think I am slowly losing my mind.
I thought I had parcelled out my time pretty well. I would not book more than 2 dolls in any one week. That should have given me plenty of time to get the dolls done. But when there are wedding and horse shows (plural) to plan and birthday parties....time is all of a sudden a hot commodity. And then of coarse there is the fact that there is prep work before attending a live show. So the week (or at least several days) before a show is devoted to making sure tack, props and horses are not in need of repair, everything is clean, packed safely, etc. Between all the things that I have had to do recently (and the lack of motivation and being abnormally tired) I am not surprised I was falling behind.
So now the catching up. I am not catching up just yet but I am working on it. The other day I prepped several youth doll bodies (see my blog on youth dolls for full details) today I haired a pile of heads, glued hems on coats, cut fabric and so on. I have not worked towards finishing one doll today but several. It may or may not be more efficient but I have found that mixing up the way I do things once in awhile keeps them from getting boring. Every doll is unique but after making more than 100 dolls some of them are very similar to each other.
I won't try to guess at when I will be all caught up but I will keep working on chunks of doll chores at a time. I think I will do some more fabric cutting tonight (now if I could just find where I put that other bag of fabric we would be getting somewhere) and then maybe tomorrow will be a big sewing day. And if that (happens and) goes smoothly I will probably glue more hems. Boot day, whenever that happens, will not be my favorite day by a long shot. I love the all leather boots and think they are far superior to plastic boots, but they are somewhat time consuming and very dull. But I hate plastic boots so leather it is.
Sorry there is no picture today, I couldn't think of what would fit in with this blog (besides a picture of mangled youth doll bodies and a pile of heads) and didn't have anything prepared. Hopefully soon I can think of something interesting to write about having to do with the interesting world of doll making. If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them :)

Fun with pirates

Recently I asked Ethan if he wanted me to make him a doll. He's not a collector of horses or dolls but I asked him anyway. He's actually a tattoo artist and above his work station at the shop he has a wide variety of....stuff. Mostly weird things that you would think a tattoo artist would have, skulls, dragons, things like that. But I am me so I asked him anyway. He has given me tattoos (5 total now) but I have not made him any dolls. Why would I? But he likes my dolls so I asked and he said he would like a skeleton pirate. I got a decent reference photo and everything. Several months back I bought two 8" skeletons because I was asked to make "Death" from the 4 horsemen of the apocolipse. That was an interesting project since I had to build flesh onto bone and I am not a sculptor. I got 2 skeletons just in case I royally screwed up and needed a new start.
Well "Death" came out quite well and I had an extra skeleton. I told Ethan he could keep it until I needed it. Or if I needed it. So a skeleton for the skeleton pirate was easy to come by.
I found a nearly perfect sized lantern in the dollhouse miniature section of AC Moore. I used sandpaper to "antique" it. If I want to get really creative at some point I will try to paint on some rust. I may not be up to that particular challenge though, I am also not a painter. I got a sword from....it might have been a Jack Sparrow action figure. My son has a bunch of action figures like most boys do but he doesn't play with the accessories. So there are swords and all kinds of little things hanging out in the bottom of the toybox just waiting for projects, lol.
After I got my last tattoo (Tigger on my left hip bone) a couple of weeks ago I said I would try to get the pirate done that week. Well other orders came first so the pirate got pushed back. Tonight I decided I needed to finish that pirate for Ethan. I got the lantern in that pirate's hand just as Ethan was pulling in. *phew* and it made him happy since some lady hit his car in the parking lot of the tattoo shop. How annoying. If he had a fancier car he might care more. As it is it's annoying.
So anyway, skeleton pirate is done and I don't feel like a bum about not getting him done now. I think he is going to go live at the tattoo shop with the other weird things on the shelf. I get a kick out of that. And here he is in all his pirate glory :) Some day I might even get a good picture, lol!