Monday, July 30, 2018

Making Room for Cally Sue

Cally Sue by Terry Stone

Cally Sue, when on her stand is a 27-inch one-of-a-kind, hand-sculpted doll made in 1994 by Terry Stone of Once Upon a Time.


Cally Sue has a very expressive resin-sculpted face.  Appearing to represent a girl from the early 1900s, she seems to have the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Like her head, her shoulder plate, hands, and wrists are also made of resin.  She has a white leather body, poseable cloth arms, cloth legs, and feet.  Her dark brown hair, made of mohair, is styled in several plaits with beige ribbons tied at the ends.   Cally Sue's antique clothes and shoes consist of a blue and white plaid dress, an off-white apron cinched at the waist with lace, off-white silk pantaloons, black tights, and brown leather boots that button on the side.

Cally Sue's brown leather boots were probably originally worn by a child in the early 1900s.

The 10-inch nude, cloth doll she holds in her right hand is also handmade with painted facial features and hair of mohair styled in two ribbon-adorned side ponytails.

Close-up of Cally Sue's doll

The cloth of the toe of her dolly's right foot is worn from what could have been vigorous doll play (if Cally Sue were a real girl, that is).

Cally Sue arrived from Maryland in early July.  Prior to "living here," she had been part of the eclectic collection of Cheryl Bruce who recently held a doll sale in her home and plans another one this fall.  Cally Sue is one of the two dolls I purchased from Cheryl.

Cally Sue's hangtag provides information about the artist.

In addition to a hangtag, Cally Sue came with the artist's handwritten description.

As her handwritten description reads, Cally Sue is attached to a turn of the century handmade barn wood doll stand.  The stand has two wooden dowels to which Cally Sue is attached with a flexible piece of wire that loops around her waist in the front and onto the two dowels in the back.


Cally Sue's doll stand

Prior to shipping Cally Sue to me, Cheryl removed the doll from the stand and removed the dowels from the base.  After her arrival, I reglued the dowels to the base and added Elmer's wood filler around the bottom of each to secure these to the base.  The hardened wood filler at the base of each dowel was painted to match the dark red color of the base.

Cally Sue's body was reattached to the two dowels of the doll stand and an extra piece of black yarn was wrapped around her body and the dowels.  Some of her white leather body is visible in this photo.
In addition to the flexible wire underneath her clothes that attaches Cally Sue to the dowels, I wrapped an extra piece of yarn around Cally Sue's upper torso and tied this in the back around the upper portion of the dowels to give Cally Sue added support and to somewhat straighten her intentionally stooped-over posture.

This partial side view of Cally Sue and her doll illustrates her stooped posture.

The hardest thing for me to accomplish was not securing the dowels to the wooden base and reattaching Cally Sue to the stand.  It was finding a place to display Cally Sue!  She and the base of her stand required more space than I had readily available and I knew this would pose a problem before the purchase.  Like most collectors, however, I am often guilty of buying a doll first and worrying about where it will be displayed later.

Cally Sue found her place.

It took about a week for me to determine where I would display her and it took almost a full day to remove and relocate several dolls from the top of a bookshelf where Cally Sue was placed as the new focal point of that particular doll display area.

Cally Sue still appears to have the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she has adjusted well to her new environment and I am thrilled to have her here!

Epilogue:  While searching my Facebook doll group for the initial photos that were shared of dolls that would be included in Cheryl's doll sale, I found a post from Cheryl dated November 27, 2014, from her participation in a past Doll-a-Day event.  That post contained two photos, one of which and what Cheryl wrote are shared below:

Photo courtesy of Cally Sue's previous owner, Cheryl Bruce

My Doll of the Day is Cally Sue made by Terry Stone of Boonsboro, MD in 1994. Cally Sue is 27 in. Made of resin with a cloth body. Her stand is made from barn wood. She is dressed in antique clothing and boots and holds her own little cloth dolly as if she is admonishing it. I bought her at The York Doll Show about 3 years ago on a day when I had not planned to spend much money. Of course I tried to walk away and did, but my heart kept calling me back so, of course, she came home with me.

As a comment to Cheryl's original post, I wrote:
I love Cally Sue! Her face is so expressive, and those boots are perfect for her. I wish I could have seen her doll's face.

On that same November 2014 day, Cheryl replied with the following photo:

Cally Sue's doll is seen in a photo taken by Cheryl Bruce; notice the detail of Cally Sue's hand.

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  • So, where I saw Cally Sue as having the weight of the world of on her shoulders because of her facial expression, I realize now that it is the manner in which she holds her dolly that leaves room for interpretation.  Cally Sue arrived here holding Dolly limply lying flat in her right hand with the index finger of her other hand pointed, the other fingers curled under, and that hand held off to the side.  In Cheryl's original photo, Dolly is held upright and face up in Cally Sue's right hand with Cally Sue's pointed left index finger behind the doll's head (or it could be positioned pointing toward the smaller doll's face as though, as Cheryl described, she is admonishing her).  I have since changed the position of Cally Sue's arms and hands to reflect what she is actually supposed to be doing.


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Friday, July 27, 2018

New Barbies in the Order of Purchase/Receipt

Fashionistas 82 and 91, Styled by Marni Senofonte Barbie, and Ibtihaj Muhammad Barbie

Within the past month, the Barbies shown above and described with additional photographs below were purchased/received.

Found at Walmart discounted to $5, I have plans for Fashionista 82 as soon as time permits.  Her additional in-the-box photos are shared next.

She has a platinum blonde short flocked Afro, brown eyes, smiling mouth with the appearance of teeth and pink lip color.

82's chambray shirt with bell sleeves is worn with white faux leather shorts.

Her pink high-heel shoes are seen in this profile photo.

Fashionista 82 is seen as the last doll in the line-up of dolls on the back of the box.
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These two Fashionista 91 dolls were shipped from Amazon as shown here.
After searching locally on a few occasions as well as online at Amazon and other places, I was informed by another collector that Fashionista Barbie 91 Varsity Plaiditude was in stock at Amazon.   I purchased two with plans to give one to my niece for her birthday and to keep one for myself.  As it turns out, I will be keeping both for myself.  One will be kept in the box and the other will be released.  Upon first glance, I wasn't as thrilled with this doll's face as I had been with the online stock photos.  Hopefully, she will grow on me.

Varsity Plaiditude Barbie is Mattel's first albino Barbie.  Her huge platinum blonde Afro is parted on her right side.  She has what appears to be gray eyes and a sprinkling of freckles on her forehead, nose, and cheeks.  Her smiling lips are painted mauve pink.

91 wears a royal blue jersey with a white letter "B" on the front with red, white, and blue plaid straight skirt.

Her white high-heels are visible in the above profile photo.
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Styled by Marni Senofonte Barbie

A member of my doll group, Dawn Spears, shared that Cheryl's Dolls (now sold out) had limited quantities of the Styled by Marni Senofonte Barbie from the Barbie Signature Collection.  The production doll was designed by Carlyle Nuera.  The doll I thought was a preorder arrived this past Monday along with the next and final doll featured in this post.  The Senofonte Barbie's photos and description are shared next.


This lovely doll has variegated honey blonde natural textured hair on top of which is worn a black faux leather beret.
She has light brown eyes and burgundy lip color.  On her Curvy Collector body, she wears a two-piece denim fashion of long-sleeved cropped top which has a turtleneck collar and harem-style pants.
Her black fishnet stockings can be seen from the side openings in her pants.

Wide rings are worn over the middle and ring fingers of both hands as shown here and in the next photo.




Pink kitten-heel pumps are worn to complete her look.
The back of the box includes a full-length photo of this doll and the redhead released with her.  Whether or not the rest of the dolls sketched by Carlyle Nuera will be produced is uncertain.  My fingers are crossed in hopes that the one in the blue hoodie and thigh boots seen here will be released as well.
The bottom of the back of the box describes this collection and includes an image of  Marni Senofonte in the lower right corner.


The box side panels contain the doll's name and Marni Senofonte's signature, respectively.

Also included with this doll is a certificate of authenticity and doll stand.  At the time of this post, the Senofonte Barbie is available to order at Barbie.Mattel.com.


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Ibtihaj Muhammad Barbie is a portrait of US fencing champion, Ibtihaj Muhammad.

Ibtihaj Muhammad Barbie, the first hijab-wearing Barbie is the doll that was shipped with the Senofonte Barbie.  I did not order this doll.  Attached to the bubble wrap of the doll's box was a note that read:  Surprise gift from Dawn Spears!  And what a surprise it was to have received this doll!  Part of the Barbie Signature Collection and Mattel's Sheroes series, Ibtihaj Muhammad is a USA fencing champion.  "She won a bronze medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games, becoming the first female Muslim-American athlete to earn a medal. And was the first Muslim-American woman to wear a hijab while competing." [Barbie.Mattel.com]  Additional photos are included of this doll that uses an articulated muscular body and portrait head sculpt that bears Ibtihaj Muhammad's likeness.

Along with her white fencing uniform, Ibtihaj Muhammad Barbie wears a white hijab.  Included are a sabre, mask, doll stand and certificate of authenticity.

This photo illustrates her muscular legs.

On the back of the box is an image of Ibtihaj Muhammad along with a quote from her, which is shown next.



Muhammad's brief introduction into the sport of fencing is included on the bottom of the back of the box.


The side panels contain the fencing champion's first and last names, respectively.
At the time of publication of this post, quantities remain available of the Ibtihaj Muhammad Barbie at Cheryl's Dolls.

Thank you again, Dawn, for the head's up on the Senofonte Barbie and for the unexpected generous gift!


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Update 8/1/18:
For those looking for the Ibtihaj Muhammad Barbie, the doll is officially in stock at Barbie.Mattel.com.

The Styled by Barbie is also in stock at Barbie.Mattel.com.

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Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Detroit Black Doll Show, the Largest of its Kind in the Midwest, Will Be Held on November 10th


The above photo and following quote are from an article published on Tuesday, July 24, 2018, by BlackNews.com, "This year’s show will ... provide a full day of fun and empowerment for the entire family!"  

Read the full article here.  The host tells us more about the upcoming show in the video below:



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Monday, July 23, 2018

Nayeli by Sue Sizemore

7-1/2-inch Poppy Ann is a needle-felted doll by Sue Sizemore as seen in photos courtesy of the artist.

After Sue Sizemore shared photos of an adorable redheaded needle-felted doll that has her own needle-felted teddy bear, I admired Poppy Ann in a comment to Sue's Facebook post and wrote, "I need a black one!" Who knew that Sue would actually make one?

My doll's evolution was captured in photos shared by the artist.
In her initial photos, my doll had short black hair, a smiling mouth, and teeth.  How Sue is able to miraculously capture as much intricate detail on such a tiny doll's face amazes me!  This needle-felted little girl evolved into a closed-mouth doll with long curly yarn hair.  Even before she began her evolution, I claimed the short-haired version as mine (in a Facebook message to Sue).  Sue continued to share process photos on Facebook and in private messages to me which allowed me to see my little girl actually come to life.  Before she was completed, I named her Nayeli, after a Native American girl in Nowhere is a Place by Bernice McFadden.


Nayeli, the doll, is 8 inches tall.  She has black curly hair, as previously described, black beaded eyes and is dressed in a pretty peach dress with a white ribbon waist sash that matches the white ribbon that adorns her hair.  She has an eyelet half slip and Sue added white needle-felted undies and black needled-felted boots to complete her look.  Like Poppy Ann, Nayeli also has her very own needle-felted bear.

After her arrival, I took several photos of Nayeli which are shared next:

Nayeli and her teddy bear

Close-up of Nayeli and profile of her teddy bear's face

Another full-view photo of Nayeli shows the length of her hair on both sides.

Close-up of Teddy

Nayeli's long curly yarn hair is shown above.
Nayeli's needle-felted black boots...

...are now covered with white socks and white shoes.

I took the liberty of adding white socks and shoes and piercing Nayeli's ears after she arrived.  White cut-to-length socks and white shoes now cover her legs and feet.  Her white stud earrings (which are actually just quilting needles) were stuck into her earlobes.  Her earrings can be seen in the last two photos.

As she continues to hug her constant companion, Nayeli wears her earrings in the above and next photo.



Nayeli means "I love you" in the language of the Zapotec Indians of Mexico, which is a very appropriate name for Sue Sizemore's first-ever dark-skinned needle-felted doll that I absolutely adore as much as I appreciate the artist's boundless talent!

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