Letters Home- Colorado Fun

      Continuing the story of my doll, Little Elecktra, and her travels. She is currently in Colorado with Jennifer Buxton. All photos in this post are by Jennifer and used with permission. 

     Hi Mom!

         Sorry it has been a while since I have written. I have had so much to do here! Jennifer said she needed a lot of help getting ready for your show and she put me to work. It did not always go super well though. I know showmanship is one of your favorite classes so I was super ashamed when the horse rolled during the judge's inspection! That is so embarrassing!

        Not everything has been work though. Ruby and I had an incredible time playing musical chairs. It is so much harder with horses! This is definitely a good time though. I think it should be in a games class at a show some day. 

      We also did some yoga with the horses. It was really nice. 

      So remember how you said you rode an elephant once when you were a kid? Well, I rode a camel! How cool is that? It's a little scary to ride a camel without a saddle, but I managed it. It was fun, but I think I prefer to ride horses. 

        There was also an adorable orphaned foal that needed some love. Poor baby was sad and scared so I snuggled up with him in his stall. He finally went to sleep so I just stayed with him. I hope his bear will help him feel secure when I am gone. 

      I have so much more to tell you but I will leave it here for now. I am having so much fun but soon I will need to head out to visit someone new. I know there are so many more adventures out there!  

     Love, 

        Elecktra

Field of Dolls Online Judge's Choice

     The Field of Dolls Online Show (2020) wrapped up yesterday. So now I get to start blogging about the show. Perfect timing too, since I am a bit tired after working so much for so long, and this will allow me to have a bit of a break from thinking too deeply on what to write or feeling bad I have not gotten much work done so don't have a lot to say. To start things off I am going to talk about the judge's choice entries. 

 

      This first one was my choice. I loved so many photos in the show but I got a big kick out of this one, Hollywood Bling owned by Danielle Feldman. Her caption was: Getting ready for the Field of Dolls Black Friday Sale! Snacks, drinks and all devices at the ready! (Gotta see which device streams the fastest). I saw this entry for the first time just before my sale. And it made me laugh a lot. Not only is it a nod to my studio, and another studio event, but it has so many miniatures and it was well put together. The horse looks just as interested in what is going on online as the doll. I do have questions about the need for the handcuffs and rubber chicken...

     This next choice was from Liesl Dalpe. And it was not just one entry but the horse. Liesl chose Touch of Red owned by Jennifer Buxton due to extreme creativity in use of an OF model. I have to agree, these photos are incredibly creative!

     Marisa Spence asked me if she really could only choose just one. I said we could swing two of them. Her serious choice, which is her favorite entry, was LBR Rain Serenade owned by Juliane Garstka. She said it is beautiful and she would actually print this one to hang on her wall. Again, I have to agree. This photo is amazing and amazingly realistic. Juliane should consider doing a calendar with some of her lovely photos!

     Marisa's other choice was this one, Chocolate Never Lies owned by Anne Van der Meer. She commented that if it had been marked as a jumper entry instead of a cross country entry it might have been in the ribbons. This is definitely an unusual jump! It really is amazing!

     Thank you to everyone that entered the first Field of Dolls Online show. Yes, I said first. I am already planning another for the Spring and I have settled on April, but not a day just yet. I have a new class list just about ready, which I will post on the Field of Dolls Online page on Facebook, and perhaps here, as soon as I am sure I like it. I have already tweaked it several times so who knows how many more times I will change things. If at all. 

Hoodies

     I made 4 hoodie dolls for my Black Friday sale. It was not enough. They were incredibly popular and were snapped up immediately. When the sale was over I got orders for 6 more of them. I definitely think they are fun. I worked on hairing the heads before school, took a half day on Wednesday and got a HUGE amount of work done, and I managed to finish up 3 of the dolls I was working on.

      I was getting really frustrated with the hoodies for a bit because the sewing is challenging, to say the least. Sewing a curved narrow stitch, into a stretch fabric is very challenging. The machine(s) kept eating the fabric and I was getting super annoyed. So I finally decided it was not worth the stress and I used fabric glue to put them together. I know there are people who feel that glue is a dirty word when it comes to doll making, but I am a firm believer in using the best tool for the job. The hoods that are put together with glue are SO nice! The don't have a weird puckered stitch and they are incredibly strong. I also started gluing the hoods onto the shirts instead of hand stitching. It actually comes out neater than the hand stitching. 

        Something occurred to me while I was working on the batch of hoodie dolls. I will skip details if they are never going to show on a doll. I know that a lot of people love to know the little details are there, even if they don't show, and I agree, those little realistic details are super cool. But all the extra details also take extra time and materials. People don't want to pay more for their dolls and I don't want to have to charge more for details that are not seen. All the hoodie dolls lack belts. Or even belt loops. Skipping that detail also makes things sit nicer on the doll. I think it is worth skipping some things that don't show to keep costs down. 

      School has been challenging this week. One of the students was killed in a car accident. We don't have our usual way of dealing with the loss as a community. We have lost students before and usually the students will gather, sometimes many times, which is of course quite healthy to grieve together. But we can't do that now. We can't see a student struggling and take them for a walk to talk or just let them have a break. It's another new, weird, vaguely awful situation. Some of the teachers have mentioned the tragedy, reminded the kids that we have councilors ready to talk if they need it, and would post resources. Yesterday we spent all 90 minutes of one of our classes talking about grief, the stages of grief, more resources. That class really needed it. One of my co-teachers put together a really nice presentation. And then I told them some stories about me. I told them that I do understand some of what they might be feeling. I had a classmate when I was 16 who was killed in a drive-by shooting. I didn't know him well, but it was weird. I lost 3 friends my age when I was between 17 and 18. I explained that there really is no timeline for grief and you can't just "get past it". You have to go through it and feel all the feelings. And then even over 20 years later you might have a day when you are sad for a bit thinking about the people you lost, even if most of the time they don't even cross your mind anymore. The other teachers told some of their own stories as well. Then one of the students thanked us for sharing our stories and being vulnerable with them. I think it is easy for the kids to forget that we are human too. Even though a lot of the kids have run into me outside of school (I do live in town) I think it is still weird for them to think of us as having the same things happen to us that happens to them. 

     Anyway, like I told the kids, sometimes life is very random and we can't know what to expect. We need to look out for each other and not take our loved ones for granted. Call your family. Maybe send out a text to your people you haven't talked to in a while. 

     Tomorrow is my livestream of the results and door prize drawings for the Field of Dolls Online show. I am hoping it won't be super long, but it turns out I have A LOT of prizes that need awarding!
 

Fun Hair and Tiny Things

        At some point this year, not that I remember exactly when, I noticed that my usual doll hair supplier was now stocking fun colors of viscose. This made me super happy. Anyone who has seen me knows that I do love fun hair colors! My supplier of choice always has the nicest viscose hair. Some places you get sort of frizzy, short hair, that you end up wasting a whole bunch of while rooting the heads. But OOAK Artist Emporium has beautiful hair. But no pink. That is super sad. 

       I have a head I need to work on that needs to have partially pink hair. I figured I would have to paint it or something to get the right color. But then I decided to hunt around and see if I could find other suppliers that have fun colors of viscose. Feltrite on etsy , had exactly what I was looking for. And not just pink, but a nice purple, blue, "mermaid" blue, a sort of lime green color, a nice blond and navy. I have not used it yet but the colors are nice. And the shipping was super fast. I am excited to have new fun hair color options available!

     Since I have been working in batches I got a bunch more heads haired, just in basic brown. I found a way to do a hatless head where the hair still stays in scale, at least most of the time. Viscose is still a very delicate doll hair and will not hold up forever if hats go on and off, but it has a very realistic look for a long time, if taken care of properly.

     I also got my November Micro from Maggie Bennett in the mail the other day. I completely forgot to actually look at the card so I have no idea what this horse's name is. But I like it and I think this one will stay. I am pretty sure the fighting horses, from September and October, are not going to stay. I just have to get around to listing them. I have shipped so much stuff recently, and with the show results coming out tomorrow I will have even more to ship next week, so I am not in a hurry. Though if someone made a good offer on the pair I would pack them up and let them go. 

     Speaking of the Field of Dolls Online show. The live stream for the results and prize drawings will be tomorrow, Saturday December 5th at 3:00 EST on the show page on Facebook. I will announce champs and reserves and draw for several door prizes. Full printed results will be emailed to all entrants sometime after the live. 

 

Heads

     I'm back into doing things in batches. Sometimes it's just an efficient way to work. I have a bunch of new orders from my Black Friday sale, so I am starting to work on the heads. I have this cool teal one done. I also ordered some more fun colors that should be here on Friday I think. 

     I got this redhead done. I also got part of a brunette done. I have a whole bunch to go, but it's a nice start. I think I have several more brunettes and I don't remember what else. 

        I have also been picking away at these heads for a separate project. I don't love nylon hair, or full roots, but these came out pretty well. I am really pleased with their faces at least. 

      The hair is a low heat type nylon so I either run them under hot tap water, or very gently heated in the microwave (the water, not the heads!). These heads have all been treated and now I am hoping to "train" the hair to lay flat. Once they are dry they will be finished and ready to head out. And I am excited, I can get another project knocked off my list. 

     Sometimes working in batches is very boring, but hairing a bunch of heads all in the same day was not too bad. I took breaks when it started to bug me too much and I got a decent amount done. I still have plenty to go, but I don't need to rush it. I think perhaps the next thing I do will be to start on a ton of hoodie dolls. 
 

Gail’s Gift

     I have fairly poor lighting in my house. I am used to it for the most part, but sometimes it can cause issues. Like during my last live sale for one. During the miniatures sale in August my phone battery nearly died (I use the phone for the lives). My extra battery/charger was also dead. So I had to get my plug which was not long enough to reach the outlet from where the camera was. I moved everything and the lighting was so bad I had to turn off the overhead light and work in very dim light (it was daytime anyway). This past Friday's live I think I must have had the camera in a slightly different spot than I usually do, the lighting was atrocious. I have been considering getting a ring light for months. They are supposed to be excellent for videos. I hemmed and hawed for too long and my sale day arrived. I had no ring light and it was bad. So again I considered buying one. 

     And then I didn't have to. 

     Monday I arrived home from school and there was a large Amazon box in the middle of my kitchen. Nothing I recently ordered from Amazon was due to arrive, so I was puzzled, but at that moment (really, it was right then) I got a message from Gail Berg asking if her gift had arrived. Hmm...

     Gail had sent me a ring light! How cool is that? I had to set it up and try it out, but I didn't want to do a live right away. But the lights are supposed to be great for selfies too. OK, that's a way to go. 

        I didn't have time for the experiment until it was already dark out. But it went really well! My selfie was not dim in any way. In fact I was incredibly well lit. Now for a small item experiment...

    Yup, we can see the doll head clearly! This was excellent news! Now people will be able to see what they are thinking about buying. I am very excited for this. The hardest thing about the ring light is having THAT much light in your face is sort of blinding. I can change the light levels, but I don't know that I can turn it down enough to be perfect for my eyes and still make it possible to see the products. But I can definitely experiment and figure it out. I am THRILLED that people will be able to see things now!

      Thank you Gail for such an incredibly generous gift! It was definitely an awesome bright spot in my week! (lol, see what I did there?)
 

More Live Sale Follow Up

     Sending everyone a detailed invoice from my live sales is definitely a good way to do things. That way everyone can check to make sure that the items they are pretty sure they claimed are on it and they can also see if something extra got in. That does happen, especially when I am dealing with 46 bags (like I was during this sale) and miniatures. It really is extra tricky to sell the miniatures during a live sale. I may have to consider not doing it, or maybe offering it as an add-on that people can claim when they send me their email addresses. I am not sure. Anyway, the detailed invoices help everyone, even though I don't put so much detail as color of things. But invoicing takes a long time. I pack the items for shipping while I am working on the invoices. Though I don't seal anything until the invoice is paid, in case I need to change something in the order. 

     Saturday I worked on invoicing and packing for 7 hours. Then I decided that it needed to be enough for now and I stopped. The bag on the left is all of the finished orders, postage attached, just waiting to go to the post office. The smaller bag on the right (which looks the same size because it is packed strangely) are the packages waiting for payment. When I took this photo I had a couple more that I needed to seal and put in the other bag. I also have one more bag in the closet that is open boxes waiting for dolls I need to make. Those will of course get packed and shipped as I finish the dolls for them. 

     I know a lot of people think I should take more time with packing and shipping of items. Surely most people don't really expect their Black Friday purchases (for example) to show up in the first week of December? And while I am sure most people are entirely reasonable and willing to wait at least a few weeks, if not longer, I don't actually do the quick shipping for my customers. At least not mainly. Yes, I do like to get things to people as soon as humanly possible, but as I have mentioned many times in the past, we have a serious lack of space here. The bags of packages to be shipped are blocking the front closet, if I need anything out of there they need to be moved so I can get in. It is also entirely likely they will be an obstacle to go around or trip on. I want my tiny amounts of walking space back, so I get them out quickly. 

     Even with months of work without pay (when you are making things and putting them away instead of selling, you are not getting paid) and the days of work that go into the sales themselves, I have found that the live sale format is still the one that works the best for me. People tell me they are fun to watch and after I get over my initial nerves they are fun for me too. I love being able to give prizes and I love looking for new ways to add something new and different to the sales. So even though they are a ton of work I think they are here to stay.