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Dolls or no dolls?


Tigpuppy

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People (especially my kids who want to play) always ask me who will live in my dollhouses and I always say that mini imaginary me will live in them - mainly because I don't like how unrealistic looking the dolls I've seen are.  If a photo is taken of a room in my dollhouse I want it to be really hard to tell if it's life sized or not - at least that's my goal.  As far as I'm concerned, having a really fake looking doll in the scene ruins it.

However, I recently found a bedroom set for sale that I wanted for its accessories and furnishings (other than the bed, which needs repairs and really isn't my style).  The set also happened to come with a doll.  I didn't pay much attention to it, but one of my daughters was fascinated with her because she said she looked to much like me.  We were very amused to discover how anatomically correct the doll actually is.

What is everyone's opinion on having dolls in your miniature scenes?  Do you leave them out or is the scene not complete without mini inhabitants with backstory and all?

 

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:Looking at the one pictured. Actually as dolls  go that one is not bad LOL,, seriously I think most of them look either like hookers or Neanderthals but I am known to be a tad picky.  Your little lady is nicely posed, the porcelain doll herself has a nice look, her fingers needed work but overall she could look quite decent, she is far better than most of the regular priced dolls one sees for sale. I think she will be quite pretty once she gets dressed!! I would look closely at her features and she will tell you her age, then you can dress her appropriately and your daughter will be very happy.

Whether to use dolls or not comes down to a personal choice. I used to teach doll making although I haven't done it for a long time but I still do have a kiln and am going to make a few shortly. If they look like hookers I will chuck 'em.  I know I will be happy without dolls if my doll making skills have gone. 

I agree with you completely though that a room can be spoiled by an unrealistic doll but I guess someone else would see the beauty in the  difference so my answer truly is  do whichever you prefer..it is your house.

 So to answer your question... if the dolls look right to me I would use them and if they don't I wouldn't.

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I've never been much for dolls... but I'm coming around to them. :)

I always gravitate to the mini photos without them though.. however I feel like I want representations of my imaginary inhabitants.. so they are really more for me and to spark my imagination for the house I am building rather than for the pictures. 

I like the doll you have picked up though.. I usually hate the wild hair they have so this one having the hair pretty much under control is a big plus for me. :D 

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I look at my dollhouses as 3-D versions of a novel. Enjoying them involves a degree of imagination and a suspension of reality. I like the dolls to be relatively life-like but rely on the eye of the beholder to bring them to life. The skeletons in my Haunted Hangout are an extreme example. Each one has a personality, despite the impossibility of them being "real". Like any good science fiction book, it works. 

Edited to add the Bullfrog family who live on the houseboat. The Boat itself is very realistic. The presence of four frogs doesn't really detract from the realism. Where else would a retired merchant marine captain live with his family?

Edited by KathieB
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What Kathie said.  I had originally thought I would make dolls like Elsie and Elmer Borden:

Image result for elsie & elmer, the borden cows

but then I acquired some 1:12 Barbies that wanted to live there.  My houses tell me whether they want residents or not, and I'm pretty much stuck with whoever emerges from the clay.

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I used to not care for dolls, but then one day I got it into my head to make one and now I'm hooked. And @Jeannine if your dolls look like hookers you can send them to me and I'll add them to my witchy coven :) I'm looking so forward to seeing your dolls. 

For me, it's the creativity of working with this character, creating a costume, etc. It's just one more aspect of dollhousing that I have discovered that I really enjoy. Like an extension of decorating the house, I'm not sure (from now on) the houses I build would feel complete without them. The zombie looking dolls that just stare straight ahead with no personality, I can't say I really understand the appeal of those, but each to their own. 

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After I bought some really nice Heidi Ott dolls, they just didn't feel or look right to me in my Simplicity dollhouse.  On the other hand, I put some little stuffed animal figures in my Christmas-themed house and loved them.  Go figure.

Edited by jdodyd
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7 minutes ago, jdodyd said:

After I bought some really nice Heidi Ott dolls, they just didn't feel or look right to me in my Simplicity dollhouse.  On the other hand, I put some little stuffed animal figures in my Christmas-themed house and loved them.  Go figure.

My point, exactly. :D 

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If you are really into realism then I don't think there is a doll realistic enough to suit anyone. Even the best character dolls I've seen aren't real enough looking if you want people to wonder if that photo of a room is 1:12 or 1:1. But, it *is* a dollhouse, and plenty of museum dollhouses have dolls from the period (victorian porcelain, or the Stettmeier house has 1920s styled period people) in the houses. 

I do not find most of the affordable porcelain dolls very attractive - but there are some interesting vintage artist dolls out there. 

I think kids will love just about any doll in the house - your doll is lovely, but beware a child can break it and there is no replacing that exact doll. I broke a little porcelain boy dollhouse doll when I was little (his face cracked to pieces)...he was so cute and it was impossible to replace him. I think I glued most of it back together and he spent the rest of his time in the dollhouse tucked into a bed.

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18 minutes ago, Elsbeth said:

I think kids will love just about any doll in the house

Amen! And they'll put a pony in the bathroom and a cow in the kitchen and won't give a hoot as to the scale of any of the inhabitants. The imagination of children overcomes all of the restrictions of realism without batting an eye. :D 

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Karin, when  I get around to dragging out my molds, kiln ,slip etc and start working on my dolls and don't hold your breath, I will pour ,clean and fire a couple for you, then you can get your friend who paints with acrylics to paint them for you. I won't do it in the summer months though as the heat from the kiln would be murder unless in the winter.

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Jeannine I'm fascinated with doll making and would love to have taken a class from you back in the day. I love the look of the porcelain dolls and I worry that the artisan porcelain made 1:12 doll will become a lost art. I've really thought about getting a kiln and trying it out myself but I wouldn't know where to start shopping for one. 

As for the acrylics..the lady I mentioned who swears by painting the porcelain dolls with acrylics is not a friend of mine but one of the very popular doll artists and teachers. She sells her dolls for hundreds. From what you've said I don't think you would care for the look she achieves lol, and I understand totally what you mean about the prostitute look. I personally wear a lot of eye makeup and have been in the beauty business as a trade, so that heavy makeup look does appeal to me more than it might someone else. I do agree that some go over the top with it.  Also I'm an oil painter and feel pretty confident that I can paint my own, I've purchased several doll blanks for me to paint myself. Obviously the paint won't be porcelain fired which would be ideal. You have to be in the mood though and I've been too busy with other things to get started. 

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Karin, as I told you in an earlier post I am not sure if I will still be able to china paint like I used to, your hands have to very steady to paint tiny features and mine are not what they used  to be but..I have no problem pouring the molds and cleaning the greenware or firing.

I have no problem with heavy make up on dolls, sometimes that is appropriate  but when I look at some of the cheaper ones and the eyebrows go in different direction and eyes are just like dots it annoys me, and I hate what I call frozen fingers, they are stuck together like when we clap,

If you do decide to buy a kiln I can help you with choices  .Briefly and simply just to give you a starting point, if you only want it for little dolls you only need a small kiln and you can get one that will run off a regular socket so no extra electrical work The important thing to know if you go looking is that is must fire to what is called cone 6 and that is very different to cone 06. Porcelain fires to a much higher temp than regular low fir ceramic slip (liquid clay). You only need to fire the greenware ( the piece in raw clay that comes out of the mold) to porcelain firing cone 6 once , for china painting or firing gold or decals it   is much much lower.. Another difference between porcelain and regular ceramic low fire  clay is that porcelain is vitreous and the other will absorb water, and when you fire regular low fired clay the pieces can touch each other and the shelves too so you could fire a pot with it's lid in place  for example but with porcelain if they touch they fuse together and without a special kiln wash on the shelves they would fuse to that. Porcelain also sags so if you were firing something with an add on it may have to be propped. It also shrinks more than regular clay. Having said all that don't be put off ,it really isn't difficult and there are good books out there. I once remember firing some Highland cattle for my sister who was on holiday from the Uk and she wanted porcelain, usually I fired then low fired regular clay.. I forgot to prop them. When the kiln cooled and I opened it all 4 legs had bent outwards. . My sister was furious as she had spent hours working on them before they were fried, such is the joy of kiln firing.

 

There are some decent doll molds out there Look at Cynthia Howes dolls she has some lovely old folk who would make great witches. I think she is still on the go.

 

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Thanks for all of the info, soaking that in. Yes, Cynthia Howe is one of my favorite doll artists. I visit her site often and purchase other types of minis from her. She has lots of free tutorials on her site. I'm not sure but I think she is the designer of my Gertie doll. At least she has the same Gertie on her site for people to buy the molds. 

Which kiln do you recommend for home use, just big enough for dolls and small minis? 

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Since getting this 'bonus' doll I have looked around a bit on the internet and am surprised at how lovely some of the 1:12 dolls are.  Granted some are awful, but there are definitely some really talented people out there that do great work!  And such delicate work - I'm amazed!  I may have to change my opinion of not allowing dolls in my house.  The really nice ones come with a hefty price tag though.  Which is money I could be spending on furniture, accessories, or even another house - which is what I REALLY love!

17 hours ago, havanaholly said:

What Kathie said.  I had originally thought I would make dolls like Elsie and Elmer Borden:

Image result for elsie & elmer, the borden cows

but then I acquired some 1:12 Barbies that wanted to live there.  My houses tell me whether they want residents or not, and I'm pretty much stuck with whoever emerges from the clay.

Holly, where did you find 1:12 Barbies?  I have 10 year old twins girls that would LOVE some!

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Karin, I had a bit of a look. Mine is a  Cress BT711BKT,  I bought it about 6 years ago from  BIG ceramic store, I think that is what it is called. I liked it because I has 3 inch fire brick, many of them only have 2 1/2  and the tale goes that the thicker brick gave a better porcelain fire,, whether true or not I don't know. My first kiln was a Duncan  no longer made I doubt but in my store I had 4 huge ones and they were all Olympic I think. I had a favorite kiln which was a Stutt, it was the only smaller one I had and I loved it for china painting, however it was 220 volts still and about 4 times bigger than the one I have now.

 

Back to now.. Cress no longer seem to make the one I have but they have one which is identical which is pictured below Still a BT711 something.  Mine is called a manual kiln, you can get ones that are digitally controlled etc etc . With mine I set the timer but it also has what is called a kiln sitter on, basically this turns the kiln off. It has a small rod of clay placed in a weighted spot in the sitter, when it bends the weight drops and turns the kiln off. The cone as it is called is designed to bend at different temps so you can buy cones from  022 the coolest which you would use for firing pure gold paint right up to and beyond cone 10. Think of the graph as line like acid.alkaline  graph with 0 being neutral. anything with a 0 infront of it gets cooler as the number gets bigger and without the zero t gets hotter as the number gets bigger . Rather than me have to type what it does etc look it up.Orton makes the cones and Dawson makes the cone sitters. I would never buy a manual kiln that didn't have a sitter on it, Cress do still make them without , they are called their A kilns, mine is a B kiln but in this case B is better. Look up Cress Kilns and it will explain the differences. The hottest mine fires is to cone 6. I have never used a digital kiln so can't help you with that.  There are a few Cress kilns that fire hotter on a regular electricity supply but they are even smaller than mine.

 

Unless you want to have 220 put in your house to run a bigger kiln your choices are limited, when I looked I hope to find something different than from 6 years ago but they are pretty much the same.

Mine is top loading 6 sided with kiln sitter, fires to cone 6.. that is big enough for me  now.

 

I would look up the names I gave you except the Duncan one, Cress, Stutt, Paragon and Olympic. I have used all of those over the years.

 

You may prefer an automatic or an electronic one, I am so used to the sitter type I am comfy and there is less to go wrong with them.

 

 Georges in Portland I think still sells kilns and they sell porcelain slip too.

 

I have probably confused you but look up the names I gave you and it will become clearer.

kiln.jpg

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6 hours ago, Tigpuppy said:

...Holly, where did you find 1:12 Barbies?  I have 10 year old twins girls that would LOVE some!

Bethany, there is a doll shop in Pensacola on Navy Blvd that is primarily a doll hospital.  One day when I was in there (I had already given up on finding any dollhouse stuff) she mentioned them and LO!

farmhoue back (2).JPG

I redressed them.  The baby is more a toddler and did not fit the highchair I made, but is fine with the crib; his nursery  is in the attic because the Washington has such itty rooms,

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