Black Doll Collecting: March 2019

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Pinkie and Her Doll by Goldie Wilson

The 2019 WLBDA Club Doll is shown on the right, inspired by the doll with a doll wearing blue on the left.

Since 2004, my online doll club has commissioned a doll artist to make our annual club doll. Usually, 15 to 20 of the now 86 members purchase the annual doll. In late 2017, we commissioned doll artist, Goldie Wilson, to make our doll for 2019.

The 17 completed 2019 WLBDA Club Dolls are shown before their journeys to new homes.

Fashioned after the doll shown above dressed in blue, ours is a 16-inch cloth doll with handpainted facial features. She has her own doll. Because Goldie referred to her as Pinkie after completion, she was aptly named Pinkie and Her Doll.

Made in a limited edition of 17 dolls, the larger dolls wear a pink and off-white bicycle-print dress with pink pinafore, a pink lace-trimmed bonnet, pink pantaloons; and painted-on, old-fashion-style boots. Black synthetic hair is styled with curly bangs and multiple looped side braids. Pinkie has separate fingers which are clasped together to hold her doll. Sixteen of the smaller dolls wear pink dresses and bicycle-print pantaloons and head bows.

The small doll of the prototype, the one I own, wears a dress made of the bicycle-print fabric, pink pantaloons, and a pink fabric hair bow. There was an insufficient amount of fabric to make all smaller dolls' dresses using the bicycle print. The smaller dolls all have looped yarn hair and painted faces.

Additional photos of my doll are shown next:

Pinkie and Her Doll are a lovely pair!

Their faces were, as indicated, hand-painted by the artist.

Pinkie's fingers are very detailed. They can be unclasped if desired.

Pinkie's stitched knees aid in sitting properly with her legs dangling. Her painted-on, old-fashion-style boots can be seen better in this photo.

The back of Pinkie's bonnet, dress, and pinafore are illustrated here.

Dolly can be removed from Pinkie's arms.

Dolly's dress style and shoes are illustrated here.

Goldie signed the back of Pinkie's left leg: WLBDA 2019 Doll by Goldie.

The back of Dolly's left leg is signed: GW 2019.

All members have expressed great pleasure with their dolls. Some comments from members include, I love her! She's gorgeous! Pinkie and her doll are adorable! A few members have photographed and shared pictures of their dolls. With their permission, their photos are shared below:

Bonnie Lewis is the owner of this Pinkie and Her Doll.

Jackie Harpp shared this photo of her precious girl.

Nini's Pinkie and Her Doll are flanked on the left and right, respectively by a 1990 doll by Kathy Samuelson and a doll named Venus made in 2001 by Linda Koch.

Vicky's little lady and her doll sit pretty in this photo.

We are all thrilled that Goldie was able to carve enough time out of her busy dollmaking schedule to make Pinkie and Her Doll for the 17 of us who purchased.

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Monday, March 25, 2019

From the Cotton Fields to the White House - A Doll's Story

March is National Women's History Month. For the entire month, contributions of women past and present are celebrated in the US.

From the Cotton Fields to the White House is a Women's History Month video tribute using dolls by Youtuber, ButterflyQueen Anita. It was first published in 2017 but remains relevant today.

Anita asked if I would like to share the video with readers of this blog. After re-viewing it (I first viewed it in March 2017), I was once again moved by the contents and delighted she offered to share it here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

dbg

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Portrait by Gale Fulton Ross

A photo of vintage-to-modern black dolls with their human

In September of 2018, I read Facebook friend, Gale Fulton Ross's post about her watercolor portrait series which will be part of her planned Friends and Family Exhibition. The exhibition will travel to museums, colleges, and universities.

Ms. Ross's goal is to paint 300 watercolor portraits of Facebook Friends and family based on Facebook profile photos or from other photos submitted by subjects. In one of her Facebook posts regarding this portrait series, she wrote:

...The plan is to have the watercolor portraits travel collectively to small museums as well as college and University galleries around the country for debate and discussion of the curatorial topic "PATRON AS ART AND AUDIENCE." There is a small Patron’s Portrait Fee for the original art work which when completed is a watercolor portrait about 13 “x l8” matted and shipped to you at no additional costs. The portrait is posted on my FB page and Instagram with your permission once you approve and accept the final image. I make a copy of your portrait for the exhibition. No portrait in the exhibit is for sale. We are looking for dates to open in Spring, 2018. Here is where I need your HELP! I NEED PATRON PARTICIPANTS SO IF YOU ARE INTERESTED AND WANT MORE INFO PLEASE INBOX ME IN FB MESSENGER. This offer is exclusive to my FB Friends only. I’m working hard to complete the project and realize I won’t be successful without your participation. The portraits are not expensive. The purpose is to make it possible for YOU, the working class, to become a patron and owner of an original watercolor at a price that barely cover’s supplies, matting and shipping, yet celebrates your life and significance in the culture of the 21st Century.

The traveling exhibition piqued my interest so I wrote to inquire how I could participate. After receiving additional details, I submitted the leading photo in this post to Ms. Ross. The preliminary watercolor portrait, which I thought was beautiful as it was, is shown below.

Preliminary watercolor portrait by Gale Fulton Ross

The final portrait, after matting and prior to shipping to me, is seen next. It offers greater detail of the dolls in the background and the colors in my face are fine-tuned.

Final portrait as seen in a photograph taken by Ms. Ross.

The matted portrait arrived swiftly. It needs framing, but I could not wait to write about this project and share how pleased I am with my first original watercolor portrait. (My husband has sketched me in the distant past in black and white, but this is my first full-color original portrait.)

I look forward to having this beautiful painting of myself and my favorite inanimate things framed and properly hung.

At the time of publication of this post, Ross has painted 200 of the 300 planned portraits. If you are interested in having her paint an original watercolor portrait of you, please send her a Facebook Friend request and discuss the possibility with her through Facebook Messenger. You will not be disappointed.

Other portraits Ms. Ross has painted for this exhibition can be viewed here. Read more about Gale Fulton Ross and her impressive body of work here. Visit and browse her website here. Follow her on Instagram here.

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Monday, March 18, 2019

Darnell by Nancy Brun

Darnell-Smoky Holler by Nancy Brun

Darnell is a 20-inch "carved wood" (resin) boy by Nancy Brun of Brunswood Dolls. Additional information about the artist can be found at the end-of-post link.

Darnell has a wooden head and shoulder plate with wooden lower arms and lower legs. The body, upper arms and upper legs are stuffed white cloth.

This handsome boy has painted black hair, painted brown eyes, and a smiling mouth that reveals two upper teeth.

Darnell wears a rust wool cap. His off-white knit shirt is worn underneath a blue/white/orange striped long-sleeved knit shirt. His tan overalls have patched knees.

Darnell has a fishing rod made of a thorny branch with a string and float ball. Attached to the string is a silver resin fish.

Darnell is proud of his one-fish catch from his fishing trip to "Smoky-Holler."

He is numbered and signed behind his right ear.

Made in 1992 in a limited edition of 250, Darnell is #77 and received a DOLLS Award of Excellence in 1992.

I was not aware of Brun's dolls in 1992. Having seen the dapper Maurice recently in a Theriaut's auction posting and others on eBay from time to time, I wanted to add at least one Brunswood doll to my collection. As blessings would have it, Darnell was offered on eBay at a price I could not possibly refuse. Other than not having his box and his certificate of authenticity, he came "home" with everything the artist gave him.

Information about the artist remains available on the Brunsart website.

dbg

Monday, March 11, 2019

Ndanaka a Doll With Vitiligo

Ndanaka is from the Rainbow Nation Sibahle Collection

Ndanaka is a 13-inch all-vinyl vanilla-scented doll that represents a person with vitiligo. "Vitiligo is a disease that causes the loss of skin color in blotches. The extent and rate of color loss from vitiligo are unpredictable. It can affect the skin on any part of your body. It may also affect hair and the inside of the mouth. Normally, the color of hair and skin is determined by melanin." [Mayo Clinic]

Photos were taken with clothing removed to illustrate the areas of Ndanaka's pigment loss

Only one ear is affected.

After seeing the Kickstarter campaign for Ndanaka, I knew she was a must-have for me. Ndanaka, which means "I am Beautiful " in Shona has brown stationary eyes with applied upper eyelashes and painted eyebrows.

Her 4C, densely rooted black hair is styled in a pulled up Afro puff which is accented with a hair band made from fabric that matches the colors of her peplum top (white, orange, brown, and turquoise animal print). An orange tulle skirt, white undies, and pink shoes complete her arrival outfit. Normally, Ndanaka is dressed in a buyer's choice of pink, yellow, or orange tutu dress that has a one-shoulder top. When my order was placed, the company was out of the doll's standard clothing. I was given an option of choosing the Rainbow Nation yellow, orange, or pink tutu dress. As shown, I chose orange.

This animal print jumper fits Ndanaka well.

I also ordered an extra jumper made for the Rainbow Nation dolls. Ndanaka models the jumper in the photo above.

Ndanaka's shoes are shown before and after they were painted white.

Because the pink shoes clash with the orange fashion, I painted Ndanaka's shoes white.

The white shoes are a better complement to her fashion.

Ndanaka's outfit and shoes are no longer clashing as illustrated above.

In this final photo, Ndanaka poses with her sister, Zuri, who represents a girl with albinism. Across the board in all aspects of life, representation matters. Dolls are no exception. Everyone needs to see themselves in the dolls they play with and/or collect. Ndanaka, Zuri and the other dolls under the Sibahle Collection brand address the need for dolls for everyone.

The Sibahle Collection of dolls can be seen under the Shop Dolls link of their website.

dbg

Friday, March 8, 2019

Mama's Tribute Dress

Note card received from fashion designer, Sara Bunn of The Bunn Funn Collection illustrates a little girl handwashing clothing. The back contains a handwritten note that reads, "... Brown paper packages tied up with string these are a few of my favorite things.~"

In 2016, after seeing photographs of Sara Bunn's exquisite fashions with collages or individual images of historic African American greats, I inquired about the possibility of having a child-size dress (size 2) made for one of my largest dolls. This image of artist Leroy Campbell posed with a little girl modeling a dress that replicates his painting, Stands Out!, prompted the inquiry. My idea was for the doll-size dress to be a tribute to my mother that would contain images of her dating back to the 1940s to the present. It would also contain several statements my mother has expressed throughout the years.

When the opportune time presented itself to Ms. Bunn, her work on the dress commenced. Using the provided photographs, phrases, and doll's measurements, she created the perfect photo collages for the sleeves and skirt of the dress with one image of my mother in the center of the bodice.

Several photographs of the dress to document the unboxing, individual pictures of the front, back, other areas of the dress, as well as the doll modeling it are included below.

Unboxing

Inside the corrugated cardboard shipping box was the brown-paper-wrapped dress tied with string and a note card from Sara.

A piece of Bunn Funn logo tape was used to seal the brown paper. I held my breath before breaking the seal...

... and exhaled upon viewing the bodice of the long-awaited dress.

Images of the Dress

Full-length frontal view of the dress

A closer look at the bodice illustrates the velvet Peter Pan collar, a 1940s photo of Mama to which Sara added a faux pearl necklace. Some of the phrases Mama used when we were growing up and even to this day are on the bodice. Trust God; Put God first; The Spirit told me...; Our day will come; With God everything is possible; Where there is life there is hope, are some of her routine statements.

A closer look at the skirt of the dress; these images extend to the back of the skirt.

This image and the next two are the expanded center pleat of the skirt of the dress.

Another photo of the center pleat of the skirt. The seated woman in the top image is my maternal grandmother.

The final image of the expanded center pleat of the skirt

Mama with me and my sister are on the left sleeve. Above this image is the phrase, "I don't have any favorites." This is what she would say when one of the two older boys would accuse her of favoring one of us younger three. She would follow this with the phrase that is on the other sleeve.

Mama and my brothers are on the right sleeve of the dress. Above their images reads, "All of you came out of me."

The bodice of the back is black and white paisley. The images from the front of the skirt extend to the back. There are two velvet waist ties, not visible in this image. The sleeves are trimmed with black velvet.

Booklet and Numbered Certificate of Authenticity

Sara created a photo booklet printed on cardstock that contains six black and white images of the dress taken from different angles.

The signed and dated certificate of authenticity provides the details of the dress to include the title "Mother's Doll Dress," the medium used, edition (1 of 1), ID number, dimensions, and specifications.

Smiling Debbie Models the Dress

Smiling Debbie by Woelfert-Puppen is the doll the dress was custom made to fit. She is shown above in a full-length color photograph.

This is the same picture as above in black and white.

Smiling Debbie poses for a close-up photo.

In this final photo, Smiling Debbie poses from the back. The velvet waist ties create a small bow.

I am very pleased with the dress which will serve as a beautiful, long-lasting, tangible tribute to my mother, who has only seen the photo booklet. She will see it in person soon. Greatly pleased with the concept and the dress itself, my mother thanked me profusely for honoring her in this manner.

(Today is my mother's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mama!)

If interested in having a collage photo dress made for yourself or for a doll you own, feel free to visit The BunnFun Collection website where Sara's contact information is located under the contact link.

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