3/4 (1/16th) scale dolls

[elfprincess]

I've been searching online for 3/4 scale dolls for months. I can't locate a stockist in the UK or anywhere else.

Lundby dolls are 1/18th scale, but terribly fake-looking, with dazzling white-toothed grins. I seek the kind of doll I can dress in 1930s clothes, with hair I can re-style into a bob. Why is is to hard to source dolls in this size? Lots of people collect houses in 3/4 scale (in the UK, at least) but matching dolls seem scarce to non-existent.

I wouldn't mind trying to make some, if I could craft reasonably human-looking faces!

[Selkie]

I have ordered from this UK company before and had good service and a collection of 1:16 items. They have 3 listings for 1:16 dolls. They are not collectable quality style but perhaps if you redressed them in your period clothes they would be serviceable for you. Maybe through them you might other sources.

1 Family

2 Mother and child

3 Grandparents

My guess is that you are going to need custom made dolls. Our GL member JoMed is from the UK and does commission work for dolls - usually 1:12 but perhaps she'd be willing to customize something for you.

In looking on Ebay and related sites, it seems that 1:16 scale is often car and military figures as are the 1:18 scale. Perhaps you could modify a basic figure from one of those to suit you. Just a thought.

[havanaholly]

In The New Dolls' House Do-It-Yourself Book by Martin and Venus Dodge there aren't as many patterns as in the original version, where everything was 1:16 scale, but the patterns are in both 1:16 and 1:12 scale and include pipestem and bead dolls, which you can use for the general size to make your own 1:16 dolls.

[elfprincess]

I have the Venus Dodge book. Not realising that the original version was all 1/16th scale I bought the more recent update which includes 1/12th scale, too! The dolls they feature, however, are far from lifelike.

Selkie, I use that seller a lot! Those dolls are the 'ugly' ones to which I referred earlier LOL. They are also very poorly made - tiny wee limbs that break-off easily and moulded hair. The women aren't as scary as the men - check-out the 'dad's grimace. Eek!Their stock of 1/16th furniture is very limited and mostly Victorian, which is the case all over the net.

I remembered today that, months back, I bought THIS book:

I'd almost forgotten about it because it was purchased during my 'mad' period, where I was buying houses, shops, furniture, dolls and books in a sort of daze LOL. I must get it out of the cupboard and see if I can adapt the doll patterns to suit my purposes.

I bought a lot of books, but alas many do not deliver what they promise. Jean Nesbitt, an authority on the subject and the author of countless related books, tends to repeat herself, and her ideas, over and over. I bought her 'The Modern Doll's House' because the cover features a beautiful white Moderne house. When it arrived I fairly leapt upon it! To my dismay the houses she describes are standard fare - from 1900 onwards. The Art Deco section is very small, and the few examples she does include, horribly expensive. No instructions to make anything dating from that period, far less a house!

Venus and Martin Dodge, likewise, have turned-out a vast number of books. They, too, repeat ('recycle') ideas and instructions from book to book, which is a real shame for collectors. Their ideas tend also to be, as many reviewers comment, 'a bit dated'. Not quite sure what they mean by that, since instructions for a Victorian wardrobe can't really 'date'.

The one noticeable period gap in the doll's house market, on all counts, is Art Deco. Why this style generates so little interest I can't guess. Even The Doll's House Emporium, which still sells the famous Malibu Beach House, sells neither Deco furniture nor dolls. You'd think they would, to complement that house. The striking Charles Rennie Mackintosh house, which they no longer stock, again suffers from a lack of easily-sourced complementary furniture. Accordingly, when Glasgow School/CRM items do appear on eBay they are expensive.

I estimate that at least 50% of the books I rushed into buying turned out to be disappointing. Not the fault of the authors; rather it was my fault for buying too many in too short a time. I checked reviews, of course, but opinion is subjective. No shortage of glorious books for the lover of Georgian or Victorian houses! A few Tudor ones come up from time to time; I saw one earlier. Must peek again to see if it might be of use to Holly.

[elfprincess]

In The New Dolls' House Do-It-Yourself Book by Martin and Venus Dodge there aren't as many patterns as in the original version, where everything was 1:16 scale, but the patterns are in both 1:16 and 1:12 scale and include pipestem and bead dolls, which you can use for the general size to make your own 1:16 dolls.

It's good for 1/16th scale doll sizing, as you suggest, and also for basic clothing patterns. Shame they didn't include a page on crafting a more life-lke doll. This may reflect the fact that 1/16th houses are always targeted at the kiddie market.. The 1/16th furniture patterns are very useful, particularly the shop fittings. The 1/16th house plans are good too, but styles/periods are standard fare.

[havanaholly]

You can use the 1:16 proportions to do your sculpts. I used both Sue Heaser's and James Carrington's books to get started because I wanted to dress full-body sculpts and hers can be made poseable by cutting at the joints, as she shows; but I wanted to make them look more like people I see out & about, not "doll-like" And if you thinnk my little people are little horrors, check out the dolls in Linda Spratley's Mini Knits for the 1/12 Scale Dolls; House; they'll give you nightmares!

[elfprincess]

I don't think YOUR dolls are horrors at all, Holly!. My comments described LUNDBY dolls. I said that your dolls were great and congratulated you! I would never say anything bad about your or any other member's creations. .

Lundby dolls are 1/18th scale and skinny. Plastic hair, feeble, bendy, easily-snapped legs and arms - and rictus grins from 'hell' LOL. Dad Lundby is particularly unsettling to look at. HIs crazed expression and fixed grimace are plain weird! Those dolls are for kiddies, remember? LOL. Scary stuff.

I did think of shortening a doll's body but when you consider that most affordable porcelain dolls have arms down to their knees I fear to make such an attempt Ha Ha.

I've seen that 'knits' book around. I would like to buy the Sue Heaser but every darn book is for 1/12 scale and that one always costs a bit more on eBay and Amazon. I just bought a book about making or dressing Art Deco dolls. Can't remember what it's called!

[havanaholly]

If you have a calculator function on your computer you could change the 1:12 measurements for 1:16. I call my little people "little Horrors" when I compare them to the work of prfessional artisans. I often wish I could have gotten started in minis when I was MUCH younger...

[elfprincess]

I got the author of my doll making book wrong. It's Ellen Bedington, not Beryl Armstrong.

Still waiting for the art deco doll book, AND the Sue Heaser!

I ain't convertin' S**T, Sick fed up of trying. I wasted HOURS today in a fruitless attempt to convert 1/24th plans to 1/12th in PAINT. I even downloaded a far more sophisticated 3D type free application. Had I used my old fave, IRFANVIEW, the outcome would have been the same.

It's just not meant to be. I have abandoned my efforts so as to not HATE that 1937 house. I am coming across as an idiot when in fact I am anything but. Why this continues to defeat me I don't know, but my gut says, walk away.

[havanaholly]

I was getting all excited to think Beryl Armstrong has a doll-making book out! I have her How to Make your Dollshouse Special and used her sandpaper bricks on several of my houses.

[Selkie]

Why this continues to defeat me I don't know, but my gut says, walk away.

Sometimes you just have to do that. Take a break and work on something else. If and when the time is right, the ideas will come together. Breathe deeply and sip some tea (or stronger if that's your bent).

This hobby can be both stimulating and frustrating, all at the same time. I often try to gulp the whole deal at once and get totally overwhelmed and want to give up and throw in the towel. Then I remember the best advice is to just take it in small snippets - like that silly old joke of how do you eat an elephant - one bite at a time!

[havanaholly]

Or as my Tracy says, inch by inch it's a cinch, but by the yard it's hard.

[elfprincess]

I have that B Armstrong book too, Holly!

The Art Deco Dolls book is visually very rewarding but ,as an Amazon reviewer commented, it's not much good as a how-to book. It does not show how to make the beautiful dolls pictured within, but it has performed, for me, one useful service; it's made me decide FOR DEFINITE to pursue my vague dream of creating a silent-film-era, Bohemian mini-palace. I adore art nouveau, as I've already posted. The 1900 - 1920 period fascinates me. Silent screen goddesses such as Theda Bara, Pola Negri, Alla Nazimova and more innocent ones such as Mary Pickford and the Gish sisters provide wonderful inspiration, as does Rudy Valentino's smoulderingly sexy, tango-dancing gaucho. Sigh, sigh, sigh...!

I read the other day that pint-sized one time 'sexpot' Pia Zadora bought PICKFAIR for $7million some years back - and shortly afterwards razed it to the ground! She then had an Italian style house built on the site. Her stated reason? The presence of a 'laughing' female ghost she claims is the spectre of a woman who died in PICKFAIR - a mistress of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Can you believe that, instead of simply re-selling that gorgeous piece of history, she instead demolished it? I am staggered at such wanton destruction.

[havanaholly]

Are you familiar with the Stettheimer dollshouse & dolls? The dolls' heads were beads with the features built up of gesso and features painted on; the bodies were chenille stem armatures wrapped with creepe paper and the clothes were also crepe paper, and they caaptured the features of the Stettheimers; friends they were made to resemble.

I have that B Armstrong book too, Holly!

...instead of simply re-selling that gorgeous piece of history, she instead demolished it? I am staggered at such wanton destruction.

As for wanton destruction, look what the Taliban did to those magnificent, thousands of years old huge Buddha statues in eastern Afghanistan. Such stupidity breaks my heart.

[elfprincess]

I've spent the past hour altering two dolls. Poor pretty ladies - one a Victorian maid-of-all-work, the other a Victorian parlour maid (much higher in rank LOL). Both have had their limbs shortened and their waists re-positioned (ouch). The m.o.a.w. has curly hair, to which was glued a blue cotton mob-cap. Off came the cap, and most of the glue. I teased-out her curls; with a headband of some kind circling her fashionable frizz she should look great. The parlour maid has neat black hair plaited into a bun. May have to leave it that way or simply cut off the bun and re-style what's left.

They may not be 1/16th scale exactly but they're around 1 1/2" - 2" shorter than before. If these two work out I'll alter a couple of male dolls.

Once I've sewn a couple of period outfits for these gals I'll post pix! I suspect they'll still be too tall for Tri-ang type houses, whose doors in particular are very small.

[havanaholly]

I hope you took "before" pictures.

[elfprincess]

Erm... nooooo! But I can get a before pic of the curly-haired maid of all work LOL. Should be able to source a before pic of the parlour maid, too. Her outfit will shortly be altered to fit a 1920s tea room waitress or, as the ones so privileged as to work in Lyons Corner House in London were called, a 'Nippy'.

BTW Holly as I was working on both, Graham Greene the writer's BRIGHTON ROCK was on TV! An old 1950s British film version. I love it.

[elfprincess]

I've been up all night - as I often am - and for the past two hours I've been working on a hand-made doll. I created a basic skeleton which I understand is referred to as an 'armature' in miniatures jargon! On this basic frame I've moulded head, shoulders,torso, lower legs and lower arms in Super Sculpey.

The facial features need a lot of work, but can wait. The legs/shoes were easy compared to the arms! I originally gave my 'lady' a pert, generous bottom but had to greatly reduce this because, when I stood her upright to take a pic on my phone, her lower legs kept wobbling and bending beneath her.

Yes, they are still soft LOL.

I will now attempt to upload the pic to my gallery. What a hassle, though. shaping and fitting those body parts! No doubt when baked they will come out shrunken and twisted... although I'll do all I can to prevent this.

[havanaholly]

Pauline, dur to the toxic fumes baking polymer clay emits I use a dedicated toaster oven and I used it on our screened back porch. I have already claimed our back patio for this when I start making dolls again. I also use disposable aluminum foil pie pans to bake in, and small or delicate pieces like arms and hands get a foil tent put over them to prevent/ minimize scorching,

[elfprincess]

I have but one main oven, so I'll have to use it.

Oh, dear. How I've laboured on the arms, hands, legs and feet. One minute the clay is sitting in the right position, the next, it's flopped down or broken apart, or the hands are dangling by a thread!

[havanaholly]

I don't sculpt over an armature, I sculpt the clay and make holes to insert chenille stem wire lengths for jointing where I want it. You can also boil your clay, but whatever you use to cook it you do not want to use items you will forget and use for food.

[kat57]

And as soon as you can,find an inexpensive/secondhand toaster oven. It is not recommended that you use the clay in the oven where you will be fixing edibles. Also,to anyone with pet birds-polyclay is not safe for them to be exposed to while baking.

Edit:I just rechecked my facts on birds and polyclay-maybe I heard wrong long ago,and maybe it is safe,but I still would not expose them to it! There are fumes-that's why it's good to bake it in an outer area. I use the porch or I boil mine in throwaways.

[havanaholly]

The last I heard about birds and baking poly clay fumes is not to them together. The fumes are invisible, unscented for the most part, and toxic.

[Minsanity]

I cook mine on our porch. I got a toaster oven for it off free cycle.

[havanaholly]

I got my toaster oven at a dollar store for less than USD$10.