My 500th doll

On Tuesday I finished my 500th doll. These days I only take photos once a week so I had to wait a bit to have time to dig out the pieces of the photo tent, the lights and set everything up. And as usual the photos are better than my photos ever were in the past but don't showcase the doll as she is in real life. I swear, she is MUCH nicer in person.

 

I wanted to do something really spectacular for my 500th doll. After all, it's a pretty big milestone. So I searched around and found the reference photo for this doll's top. I didn't make it exactly the same but I based it on a real show top. And to make her fancier still I gave her a bendy neck.

The cross on the back is all done in glittery Swarovski crystals. You wouldn't know it by the photos though. Anything that look sort of like a silver nail head is actually a crystal.

 

So as not to distract too much from the elaborate pattern on the back of her top I made the front simpler. It's still pretty fancy though. I really wanted this lady to be worthy of being the 500th doll. And now I don't really want to sell her :)

The Method Behind My Madness a.k.a Why My Dolls Are Priced the Way They Are.

As far as doll pricing goes I make dolls priced in the middle range. Sometimes I wonder if I am setting myself up for failure. If I am pricing my dolls in the middle range do people think that the dolls are of a lesser quality than the higher priced dolls out there? I'm pretty sure that there are people that think that way. I also have a feeling that because I run sales (less often than I used to, but I do have them) people may also be thinking that the dolls are worth even less than what I normally charge. I thought it would be interesting to share why I price the way I do. There really is a method to my madness.

   First let me share some about the creation of the dolls. I have had people make comments that lead me to believe some people think making a doll is easy. Well it's not the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life but it's not the easiest. On average a doll takes between 6 and 12 hours to make and sometimes more. That's 6 and 12 actual hours, not playing online or doing other things hours. It also doesn't include all the time it takes to email back and forth, do any additional research, plan the doll, shop for supplies or anything else. That 6 to 12 hours is really just construction time.



 

The above doll was pretty fun to make. While she is not the most complex doll ever she was not one of the simplest. All of the silver swirls on her coat were hand painted without any patterns. Just the painting took a couple of hours. She was very interesting to make and the asymmetrical pattern was easier than mirror imaging (which I have a lot of trouble with still) but it still takes time, patience and a very tiny brush.



This doll was made in a very similar style to the black and silver doll. She has ultra suede chaps with no decorative edging, custom made ultra suede boots, a fancy top with asymmetrical swirls and Swarovski crystals. A bendy neck (I think, hard to tell in photos) and a new face. Plus her hat was custom painted to match her chaps. Western dolls like this take longer than the average hunt seat doll.

    But lets talk a bit about hunt seat dolls. The lady below has rebuilt soft-sculpted legs that are shorter than the factory dolls. Her legs fit better in most English saddles which makes the overall picture of doll and tack look better. But when I shorten the legs of a hunt seat doll I also shorten the doll at the waist. That means time with the dremmel and restringing the doll so they stay together. Again, not the hardest thing I have ever done but not the easiest. And it all takes time. The doll underneath the clothes takes longer and longer to make. I think the results are worth it as you will have a doll that looks more human, is more user friendly and just an overall better doll. I think the finished product is worth the prep work. And just to share, the prep work on a rebuilt hunt seat doll such as this also takes several hours. That's just rebuilding the body, not hairing the head, painting the face or redressing.

 

 

The dolls that I have been getting recently actually need a lot of work just to function as a show doll. Many of them have floppy legs, loose arms and crooked waists. Not to mention strange wide hips that make the finished doll look lumpy in strange places. I spend a lot of time with the dremmel, armature wire, medical tape, bandages and other assorted things (including dental floss) to improve the doll just enough to make a basic doll. It all takes time. And money, none of the rebuilding materials are free.



 

Remaking patterns takes time as well. I don't have to do it all the time but sometimes you really need to just rework a pattern to make it work. And to make things that look like they do in the real world. If I had a Shrink ray like Dr.Gru (Despicable Me) I would totally use it. But then I would have to pay more for materials so maybe that wouldn't be a good idea... anyway, shrinking a pattern down to 1:9 scale doesn't just happen. Sometimes you have to create things from other patterns or just out of trial and error. There is actually a lot of trial and error in pattern making. As an example I have used at least 3 different boot patterns since I started making leather (and ultra suede) boots. I have redone my shirt patterns at least as many times. Pants patterns, chaps patterns and anything else I have made probably isn't the same as it used to be. Improving takes time as well.

 

So far I have talked about a lot of reasons why the dolls cost as much as they do but not why they don't cost more. Well that reasoning is simple. I don't want to make it so only a few people can afford to own and enjoy hobby dolls. I think dolls add a wonderful amount of realism to a model horse set-up and I want to make it easier for more people to have them. And to help the hobby in that way I am willing to make less on my dolls. Because after cost of materials, time taken to research and make the dolls, time taken to improve the way I make dolls and taxes (yes, I pay taxes, LOTS of taxes) I really don't make very much per hour. But I do get to stay home and raise my own kids and I get to make dolls that are priced in the middle range that are high quality, realistic and easy to use. I try to make it possible for people to afford my dolls. Sometimes I take trades I don't necessarily want (not often, but it has happened) I take time payment if needed and I do run sales. If that leads people to believe that my dolls aren't worth the cost...then they are welcome to not buy from me. I enjoy making dolls that people can afford without making them compromise on quality. When I say I am always working to improve the ease of use, realism and so on, I really do mean it. I enjoy making dolls and I enjoy the excited emails from customers telling me of the recent wins they had using my dolls. Whether it is a small local show, NAN or just people playing on their kitchen table, if I can make people happy with my work, it makes me happy too.

Photo showing

Wow what an ordeal that was. I wanted to post to the blog and share a bit about photo showing for anyone that hasn't tried it yet but first I had to learn how to post photos (not easy, blogger seems to have changed some things).

   So first for anyone that doesn't know what photo showing is it is similar to but completely different from live showing. In a way it's easier than photo showing because you have as much time as you need to set up the photo just right. But on the same note the judges have lots of time to stare at your photos and pick them apart for faults. With that being said here are some examples of photos I am currently showing. This is my Leggs resin sculpted by Liesl Dalpe and painted by Joan Yount. This was actually a pretty good halter photos and has qualified for the MEPSA champ show (more on MEPSA later). Her name is Caramel Latte and she has been shown as a quarter horse but I may change that in the future.

 

Next we have Little Man Mango sculpted by Morgen Kilbourn and painted by Meghann Hoscheid Lorei. His name is Pacific Redeemer which is the name of my sons favorite horse from therapeutic riding.

 

 

I am not that into halter showing even in photo showing. So I have been working on making a large collection of performance photos both in CM/AR and OF. A lot of things have to come together to allow me to take photos though so I usually do a bunch and then none for awhile. I like to take all my photos outside because, until recently, I couldn't take a decent indoor photo of a horse or doll.So I took all the pictures in my back yard. That made things interesting because I could set up my table with my coffee footing (really, it's coffee), put up the arena walls and as long as I made sure there were no strange weeds in the background I was usually OK. Sometimes I would mess up and get the neighbor's truck cab in the photo (it's in the woods) but for the most part it all worked out. I had to try to take photos on a sunny day but I had to be in the shade of a tree or it would be too bright and the photos would be washed out. It also needed to be still. So when all the stars align and nothing falls over I can end up with photos like this. The horse is Cloud Dancing and I can't for the life of me remember who sculpted or painted him. But he's one of my favorite horses. Sadly he has developed cracks all over his body so he has been abruptly pulled from his live showing carear. And he was doing really well. He can still do nice things in photos shows though. 

 

Photo showing can get pretty creative. I think this is an "other English" scene I set up and for the description I said the rider was getting instructions before going into the ring. And I got to use Cloud Dancing again.

One of my favorite events in either live or photo shows is showmanship. It is so easy to screw up but not very complex to set up. Plus it's one of the few things I have any real life experience with since I was once given a showmanship lesson with a properly trained horse. It was to help me with some judging that I had coming up but it has helped me a lot in the show rings. I think showmanship is one of my favorite events. And Caramel Latte does pretty well in it.

I don't much collect OF horses anymore but I do have a few that I show in performance. This one's name is Just Because and she got that name because I couldn't think of anything else at the time. But she is proving to be a fairly versatile performance horse and has done well in live and photo showing. 

 

Have you noticed yet that my background keeps on changing? If you knew my yard it would let you know (somewhat) the season in which I took the photo. The ones I like the best are in early Spring before the giant weeds have started growing back. There is a little hill that goes up and out to the back field and it has a great little path (the trail photo of Cloud Dancing has a good shot of it). Ocassionally people have commented that my backgrounds are out of scale. But I think sometimes they just look more tropical. After all, those are Massachusetts palms (I don't know what they are really called but they get very big, are weeds and are shaped like palms sort of).

   Anyway, this last horse is Enchanted Eve. She is a Victrix resin sculpted by Carol Williams and painted by Angelica Nelson. 

I used to search out mail-in photo shows (I don't really like online shows) to send pics to but I started losing photos that way. So now I do all my photo showing with MEPSA they are a really great group that has been around for years and years and years. The year end championship show is a lot of fun and well worth the wait. I am really glad that MEPSA keeps on going as it gives me a place to keep on showing my horses even when there are no live shows to go to. Getting the results for the qualifiers is always fun and the champ show...is just exciting. I recommend if you have never done any showing with MEPSA to check out the group. 

Happy New Year! 2012 Doll Review

 

Happy New Year everyone!



I meant to post my year in review yesterday, or at the very least in 2012, but things got away from me. We have some fairly major construction projects going on around here and I have spent a lot of time moving things around and bringing pieces of my house outside. Pretty crazy. Anyway, a few weeks ago I started going through my order book and making a list of the types of dolls I made last year. Not surprisingly I have made more western pleasure ladies than any other type of doll. But they are popular and interesting (and sparkly!). So here is a list of the types of dolls I made this past year:

43 western pleasure ladies
12 Hunt seat ladies
7 casual western ladies
7 casual hunt seat ladies
5 saddleseat dolls (and 3 of those were in the past couple of months!)
2 showmanship dolls
11 unusual specialty dolls
3 English side saddle dolls
1 Western side saddle doll
14 cowboys
6 youth hunt seat dolls
1 western youth doll
3 cross country dolls
1 upper level dressage doll

For a grand total of 116 dolls if I didn't miss anyone. Wow! Really, I might have missed someone because once I start making count lists I usually mess it up.Though I do sort of feel like a slacker as I know I took more time off than I should have. But as we all know, life happens and sometimes things get in the way. I have a couple more posts I have been mulling over in my head. I just need time to take the photos for one of them and a push to do the other one. I am going to try to post a bit more often. I know I did much better the end of 2012 but the beginning of the year...was quiet. Let's see if we can have a little more noise this year.

"Free" stuff, aka Trading is FUN!

Am I the only one that feels like trading is getting free stuff? I am well aware that I am "paying" for everything I get but trading makes it almost seem like I am getting a gift. And who doesn't like presents? Most of the items in this post were paid for through doll trades. Either way, I have gotten some really cool stuff without having to shell out much for actual green money.

 

This first item is a trade from way back. I was at a show and happened to notice that Liz Roman had some cool tack for sale. I happened to have a CG Valentine that needed tack but was a bit small for regular sized traditional western tack. I borrowed a horse from my friend  Taylor (with the sincerest promise I would not hurt her OF halter horse, I just wanted to see if the saddle was the correct size). It was! So we agreed that I would make a doll in exchange for the saddle. Liz also made the bridle but I actually bought that. It's the one I often use with my beautiful western saddle made by Jennifer Buxton. The bridle Jenn made to go with the set is beautiful but I really like the look of this one on my Victrix. Anyway, I am including this particular trade even though it is from over a year ago. Just about a month ago (maybe a bit more) Liz decided what type of doll she wanted in trade. So this is finally complete and the saddle is finally officially mine.

 

Next up on the trading is fun list is this Lola resin. Her name is Showgirl (and the reason behind that should be obvious). So far she has not shown all that well in live shows but she does well in photo showing. She may also start doing better at live shows. I have a trade in the works for a bridle to fit her big mule head. Anyway, I haven't had a mule since I traded my Mulinette and since I could trade for her how could I refuse? So I got a pretty mule through a trade.

Next up I got this simply AWESOME jump from my friend Marci Driscoll. It is very much like the jump she made for herself but with brown instead of black accents on the standards. I know it's not a pretty picture but it's the one I have at the moment. Since this photo I have added greenery to the pots. Now I just need a chance to use the jump. It's not officially "mine" just yet as I haven't "paid". I am trading Marci a doll for this as well but she hasn't decided what she wants just yet. I know I want to play with my jump...

 Up next is this super gorgeous tack set I got from Jennifer Buxton. It is actually...the fourth set I have gotten from her. I have traded for all of them. I am starting to think that maybe I am a bum and taking advantage of Jennifer's need for dolls ("everybody needs dolls") but I love her tack SO much and I love trading. Again, I don't officially own this set yet as I still need to make the dolls for the trade. At least I know what they are :) I would have been happy with any style of English tack that Jennifer made me but I was really excited to see that this saddle is a slightly different style than the others that I have. It's not essential but it's fun.

 Then there is this lovely Knightly Cadence. I traded Barb Manley my Nocturno resin for him. I am thrilled at this trade as I have been wanting a KC for a long long time. This guy is a lovely color and is even more gorgeous in person. Now I have the difficult task of coming up with a name for him. He really wants to get some tack on...and maybe play with Marci's jump...(photo by Barb Manley)

 This last photo is for the poles. And this actually was a gift. I don't like painting poles. I am not good at it. I don't have the patience to wait for layers and layers of paint to dry, I can't do stripes without taping. When I tape I end up with paint lumps. It's not something I enjoy. However my friend Joan Fauteux really likes painting poles. And she is very very good at it. She did these mostly freehand! She does use light pencil lines but no taping. They are very smooth and pink!  They go very nicely with my pink flowers. I did give Joan some wood dowels but that was also more of a gift than a trade. And I got the WAY better end of things!

I was very burnt out from showing last year and started selling all sorts of things and really downsizing my props collection. This year I have really started adding things in again. I have a bunch of new potted flowers that I made, new ground poles, a new jump and I also bought some very nice dressage rails. There may be other things as well that I am just not thinking of. I am trying to get my motivation back for live showing but I have actually been having a great time judging. It's so relaxing showing up to a show with nothing (OK, I NEVER have nothing as I have to bring the kids and they have luggage and I need the cooler and so on...). I've been enjoying photo showing quite a bit recently and that is very relaxing compared to live showing. You can take as much time as you need to set up your shot. Though doing photo backs isn't always fun.

 

So in closing, I really like to trade. I am not always looking for anything in particular but it's possible I can be tempted. Especially if you are willing to take payment in dolls :)

Black Friday

I wanted to do a post about Black Friday. I have run a sale every year for the past several years and have heard many different explanations of where the name came from. Most of this post was taken directly from the daily buggle.com http://www.thedailybuggle.com/term-black-friday/ I thought this was a good, brief explanation of the name

Today, we’ll be taking a short lesson in history, looking way back at the origin of the term Black Friday.

The term Black Friday has nothing to do with Thanksgiving or discounts

One of the earliest recorded uses of the term Black Friday has nothing to do with the sales as we all know and love today. In fact, it was first used in 1869 in reference to the financial panic in the US due to a huge crash of the gold market.

Black Friday is black because it’s deadly and dangerous

In the late 19th and early 20th century, many Thanksgiving day parades were sponsored by department stores in an effort to sneakily advertise their Christmas sales as early as possible. Later on, it became common practice to only run Christmas advertisements after the Parade was over. From then on, the day after Thanksgiving marked the official start of the shopping season.

This drove huge amounts of traffic to the city centre, where shoppers would jam into stores and severely injure one another as well as the sales representatives. Policemen and public transport figures called this day Black Friday, referring to the danger and havoc brought on by the manic shopping spree.

Black Friday means huge profits

Olden day accounting practises would use different coloured inks in their accounting books to reflect the store’s sales — red ink indicated losses and black ink showed profit. On this very special day, most merchants would would record their sales in black ink to show positive amounts.

So there you go. It’s not just about shopping. There’s actually quite a bit of history behind the term that that we now use to refer to the deals available after Thanksgiving. I hope now you’ll understand why it’s called Black Friday.

I also am having my annual Black Friday sale. I usually take orders on dolls for a super low price but this year I have stock left from the TRXC sale (I will stop talking about them when they have new homes...) and I thought they would be great as a blowout sale. Here are the available dolls:

 

These dolls are prices at $75-$120. They are SUPER bargains. See the MH$P ad for more details.

Doll rush to TRXC

The Region X Championship (TRXC) was held a couple of weeks back on November 3rd and 4th in Albany, NY. As usual I made a whole bunch of dolls to bring to sell. And for people to play with. That is one of the things people like and have come to expect. The first year I brought dolls was 2008 (I believe) My name was still St.Onge so that is my guess.

 The dolls and the people playing with them got sillier throughout the day.

 And these are just a couple of the silly photos, I have more and I know my friend Corrie has even more silly pics.

This years I completely forgot to take any photos at the show. And no one came to play with the dolls. They just did some shopping. Maybe that's because I was judging and it's more fun to play when they think it will annoy me (it doesn't annoy me, *shh* don't tell).

 

So how do you get a good stock of dolls together for a big sale and still keep the quality of each piece up? You start early and you work really long days. This first doll was a bendy neck hunt seat doll. She was made in mid-September.

 I wanted to include some dolls with sculpted heads so this guy was done pretty early on. He ended up being the only doll with a sculpted head but perhaps when I get better there will be others. I am starting to think there is a cowboy curse as they don't often sell well. Which is a bit surprising to me because a cowboy is just about the most versatile western doll there is.

 I actually made a list of all the dolls I wanted to make for the TRXC sale because it made it easier to see what I had done and how far I still had to go. Showmanship dolls are not overly complex since they don't need to ride and I worked on this lady...

 ...and this young girl at the same time. I often will make several similarly styled dolls in the same time period and then do something different. I do like the ribbon designs and may do more of that in the future. I will probably also work on mixing some ribbon designs with freehand swirls.

I wanted to have a good variety of dolls so I also made a shorted, bendy leg, bendy neck hunt seat lady. And I changed her coat color as well. These dolls are interesting because the shorter thigh makes it so they fit better in most English saddles.

In sticking with the variety theme I also worked on This casual hunt seat doll...

...and this casual western doll. This lady actually got partially redone since she was originally wearing a turtleneck and I really hated it. She wasn't going to be good for anything other than trail riding. And while that is fun, it's not all that fun. So I changed her shirt to a nice button down with a bit of glitter. Lots of people wear sparkly clothes on a daily basis so I figured that would work. She can also do games and could even be a judge.

 Youth dolls are often pretty popular so this little gal was created. I think she is going to stay in my doll crew. I "borrowed" her for NEPC and she and Just Because got along really well. So perhaps she will just stay with me. She has slightly longer thighs than often end up on my rebuilt youth dolls. She looks like a young but not super young girl to me. And my niece is easily this skinny (she's 13) so I think he size is believable.

I really enjoy doing freehand swirls. Not only are they pretty, trendy as well as classic but I am pretty good at them and I get a big kick out of that. The asymmetrical style of these tops makes it possible for me to do them freehand and still have them come out well. I heard about a trick for doing the symmetrical, mirrored designs and will try it out sooner or later.

 This pink and silver lady was not actually made specifically for the TRXC sale. While working through my list I was also working on a few orders and some random sales dolls. She didn't sell when I listed her so she came to TRXC.

I also made this upper level dressage rider. Not all that many people do upper level dressage as the tack and the patterns are much more complex than the lower levels. But for those that do, a doll is becoming a must (because everybody needs dolls). I think this lady has a very sweet face.

 Saddle seat is another style of riding that not a whole lot of people try. For the most part it's tack and a doll that can be used for only one class. I have seen some very creative people do much more with their saddle seat stuff but it is not super common. I wanted to make a doll that was fun and a bit different. The rules on color seem to be getting more lax with saddle seat. I did double check, there are tweed and plaids in real saddle seat coats these days.

I had fun with this western lady. She is in a mix of styles I have been working with this year. Not only does she have asymmetrical panels of printed fabric on her top she also has printed peacocks. I did several dolls with pictures on them in the early part of the year. Being able to print my own fabric makes for some very unique dolls.

 This lady was done in the same style as the pink and silver doll. This top actually matches the reference photo I used pretty well. I think she is super eye catching and though the pictures show her crystals as sort of orange they are in fact red and a pretty good match to her leaf patterned top.

 I wanted to make a western doll that was less blingy because I know that not everyone loves super blinged up dolls. This lady did not want to photograph well. I tried on two different days, with two different horses and she always looked somewhat yellow. I am not really sure how to fix that.

 After I made all these dolls I wanted to take a nice new group shot as I have been using the same one for years now. So I got everyone together and set up for a photo shoot. This is the first time I have horses in my group shot and I do like it, though I think next time I will turn them all the other way. The cowboy in navy blue on the far left was a TRXC doll as well. When I was getting ready to take his photos I noticed his hands were on the wrong side of his body! I had to do a rebuild on him (he is a super bendy cowboy) and I put his arms on the wrong side when he was rebuilt. Luckily I could pop the pins out of his hands and switch them around. But the result is that is the only photo I have of him.

 So there is the rundown of the TRXC dolls. Working 10-12 hours a day four days a week for 6 weeks made it happen. Several of the dolls are still available for sale and are listed on MH$P under Anne Field.