Why the dolls?

Late last night, a friend of mine asked  Why the Dolls?  First of all, let's get something straight - they're not just  dolls, they're Blythe. I am not some crazy woman with a shitload of dolls. locked in a tiny room, having tea parties on every second Sunday with inanimate children (or maybe I am and if so, does it really matter?). BlytheLove is a life style  and the more appropriate question would  be "Why not more Blythe?".

If you have not been bitten by the Blythe Bug, then you should probably shut this window and carry on with your life. However, if you are a Blythe Believer then this should resoundingly hit home.

The dolls bring me full circle. They inspire me to be creative. They take me to a world that is all my own. So often, we travel a million miles and wait out a thousand years to find and understand ourselves. They live in a universe all their own - a parallel dimension. A community of fellow BlytheLovers who share the same passions can also give your spirits a boost after long day in reality.

Virtual Hugs from A  Dozen Blythe (and more)

Veronica and Mr. Stitches

Veronica & Mr. Stitches (image and OOAK Art Doll by The Tatty Closet)

The latest addition to the Blythe Family is a hauntingly beautiful girl named Veronica and companion rabbit, Mr. Stitches. She's traveling across the ocean and should arrive home in a couple of weeks. This is the last doll that I'll be purchasing this year. Many people in the Blythe community are more like dolly brokers, buying and selling, but I'm simply a collector. Even the girls that are not my favourites will stay part of the family (aka THE COLLECTION). Simply gorgeous.

Kenner is ready to travel!

Kenner just got a groovy Pan Am bag and is ready to travel -  back to 1972. Anyone else miss the good old days? At only five years old, I had Blythe by my side and my entire lyfe ahead of me. I never flew Pan Am but my mother and I went to Disneyland via Hughes Air West - the big yellow banana in the sky. 

Comes nude, no original stock or box....

A popular way to sell a second hand Blythe doll is nude with no original stock or box. As a museum professional, this goes against everything that we value when obtaining a piece for the collection. For instance, a few of the questions we would ask:

1. Is it in mint (or museum quality) condition? If not, why and is it significant to the history of the object? 
2. Who is the original owner?
3. Is it complete?
4. etc....

You kind of get the gist. I appreciate that you gave your 6 Line Kenner doll a spiffy new bob but unless Dali or Mab Graves (and yes I clumped those two together) cut the hair, the doll is losing value as we speak. Oh, you say you changed out her torso and applied a whitener (often Mr. Clean Magic Eraser) to her face, my inner museum goddess cringes.

Make no mistake, I BlytheLove all my custom girls and have tried diligently to catalogue provenance, history and all associated ephemera but in the end if they take a great photo, it seems as if all of that doesn't matter.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/studiomelenka/

The Value of Blythe

After putting another girl on layaway I began to think about what's the value of Blythe?  The original Kenner Blythes are easy to figure out - they're extremely rare and hard to find MIB.  Really want one? Expect to pay anywhere between $600 to $2,500 USD depending on the condition and whether or not they still have all their original stock.

As a museum professional, I look at the doll value from two perspectives:

Their value as an art piece:

• Is the Customizer well known? Different customizers fetch different prices
• Amount of work done - reroot. sleep eyes, matte face, carving, body change etc...
• Dolly Couture

 The value of the doll as a collector:

•  All original body parts. Many customizers change out the body, add new eye chips, suspend the eye mechanism, etc....).
• All original stock. Many dolls are sold 'naked' or with a 'Seller's Choice Dress". This leads me to believe that people are selling the original stock separately in order to maximize return on their initial investment while stripping the market of intact collectables.
• Original owner and if not do you know the doll's provenance?

Some other facets that I've noticed that add value:

• The doll's Flickr set. The better the set, the higher the price. It seems that many of the Blythe-ists are actually photographers and not doll collectors. 

• Connectivity - how does one connect with the doll? Many of the dolls that go up on a popular Dolly Adoption page are there because their owners couldn't bond with them

My latest acquisition is a Takara Tomy Neo 12" Blythe Doll - I Love You It's True. She is listed new on Ebay for $229.99 USD plus shipping, This is MIB. The doll I purchased is not new in box but came from Gina Garan's collection and is hand signed by Gina. Although I believe the value of my doll to be higher, it will ultimately depend on how we get along.

Virtual Hugs from A  Dozen Blythe (and more)

Felicity

While on vacation in the summer of  1974 (I believe) my mother's brother threw me into the olympic sized swimming pool.

He said "It's the best way to learn. They'll come by it instinctually - survival of the fittest. It's perfectly natural. You'll see. She won't drown"

A Facebook post on safely teaching your child how to swim brought this memory to the forefront. I asked my cousin Felicity about it. I honestly couldn't even remember if she was there. And if she was, she was just a baby. #smiles

She replied "He did the exact same thing to me." And then added on some more.

It struck a nerve. No wonder we all have trust issues with our parents. I wasn't crazy. There were others! And we were related!

I've never had someone know exactly what I meant without having to explain it in morbid detail. Even though we grew up separated by land and family issues, we were connected on another level. I sat alone, in front of my computer and cried. After all these years, I found my home.


Virtual Hugs from A  Dozen Blythe (and more)

Prescription - Blythe

Pinky(actual name to be determined)

So, another long week at work coupled with the knowledge of another frigid weekend (-25 degrees celsius), tightening budget (my husband was recently laid off to part-time) led to a rousing bout of depression that I remedied by spending non existent Blythe dollars.

In addition to four super cute smocks from Amanda Popples, a Steampunk outfit by Cindy Sowers, I also put a custom doll by Kira Gold on layaway - a factory Blythe with long pale pink hair. My hope is that she'll be somewhat Marie Antoinesque. She may also become the Protagonist in my upcoming cozy mystery (feedback?).

Will this weekend be better? Who knows? My co-worker recently said "To die with debt is to have profited in life", well I am in the profit margin!

Virtual Hugs from A  Dozen Blythe (and more)

Bitty Blythes

We're playing with the Bitty Blythes tonight and pairing them up with antique postcards from Paris. This is the first one:

Hollywood Blythe 1

Hollywood Blythe 2

Virtual Hugs from A  Dozen Blythe (and more) 

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

As the child of a single mother, there weren't many shows that I was allowed to watch. I wasn't even permitted to listen to John Denver's Thank God, I'm a Country Boy -  it took the Lord's name in vain. But even though I didn't spend hours glued in in front of our black and white Zenith it's amazing what imprinted on me.

Gabby arrived this evening and cuddled up with Kenner Blythe as the trip from London (Ontario) had been long and arduous and she just wanted to hang out with the girls. It's a Blythe Sleep Over! I took this photo -  but when I pulled it up for editing, it suddenly reminded me of something else...  Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman - a TV sitcom that ran from 1976-1978.

Cathy Shumway: You know, isn't it ironic - that if one of us had to get it, it's a miracle it was you.

Mary Hartman: I know, I must have been born under an unlucky star. You know I have filled out entry blanks for every single drawing in the supermarket for the last twelve years, and the only thing I ever won was a coupon for a small little jar of tomato paste. But they were out of tomato paste, and by the time they got more in, my coupon had expired. And now I have venereal disease.

Virtual Hugs from A  Dozen Blythe (and more)

Veronica's Birthday

Happy Birthday!

Today is my friend and fellow Blythe lover Veronica's birthday. French Trench whose weakness is teeny cupcakes offered up this photo shoot suggestion. Truth be told, she didn't come up with it on her own - we're setting up for some Valentine's Day photos! Veronica is also the owner of STASH  where we held a Blythe-tastic party in 2013!

Veronica

Getting our Blythe on!

Blythe Hugs from A  Dozen Blythe (and more). 

A Baker's Dozen?

Uh oh! I thought that I was satisfied with my Dozen Blythe but I succumbed to yet another in less than a month. I'm thinking of her as a Valentine's Day gift. She doesn't look to be very special at first glance but rumour has it that her stock eye chips are fantastic! I love her dark brown, wavy, shoulder length hair and her very rosy cheeks. Plus she's an animal lover to boot. I suppose there are some who think I should've donated the money to an animal rescue group instead but I didn't. Perhaps I'll leave my collection to auction when I die and then all monies raised will be used to save little black pugs who desperately need saving.

"Save the Animals Blythe aka Valentine" (picture courtesy of previous owner)

Virtual Hugs from A  Dozen Blythe (and more)

American Hustle - Blythe Style

Ashton Drake Love 'n' Lace as American Hustle Tribute

We  went to see  American Hustle because my hubby and I have mutual crushes on  two of the actors - Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence. What I didn't realize was how nostalgic it would make me feel about my childhood. It made me think of how life must've been for my mother when I was growing up in the seventies.

(Perhaps with a little less edge and a little more Canadiana)

I remember listening to most of the songs from the soundtrack through my bedroom door as my mother played the LPs on the record player. Clothes similar to those in the big screen clung to wire hangers in our one bedroom apartment. We still watched everything in black and white and drove the most economical car around - a VW beetle. Bell bottoms and cork heeled platform shoes were all the rage and my mother had both.

Peace Out from A  Dozen Blythe