The Strong Museum's Zoom event, Black Toys and Toymakers: The Story of Shindana was held on Friday, February 26, 2021. The recorded presentation can be viewed below. After the video, view The Strong Museum's Google Arts and Culture Online Exhibit at the link that follows the video.
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
As soon as I saw Sarah Niemela's completed photos of the custom 8-inch clay doll that I commissioned her to make for me, I began singing Stevie Wonder's song, "Isn't She Lovely?"
"Isn't She Lovely" is the 11th song on Stevie's Songs in the Key of Life album released in 1976. It was written after the birth of his first child, a daughter named Aisha. I know exactly how he felt to see something beautiful that "you" created (or that you commissioned someone else to make). That is why I named this doll Aisha.
It was a joy to work with Sarah. She had recently completed and shared photos of another doll that inspired me to request mine, which was made to my specifications.
I wanted my doll's complexion a little more brown than the other doll's. I liked the two Afro puffs the other doll had and wanted to keep those. Instead of a blouse and skirt, I wanted my doll dressed in an African-print dress.
Expressing my desire for a dress to Sarah is when I discovered that the other doll's entire costume was made from clay! I was very impressed.
Lovely pleated dress trimmed at the bodice and hem in African print
Sarah asked me to provide examples of the style of dress I wanted. I searched the Internet and found a cute little girl's dress and shared the above photo with Sarah. She replicated it quite well.
My final request was for the doll to hold a doll and Sarah came through with that request, too.
Enough of my excitement about the makings of my Aisha. Below are several pictures I took of the doll after she arrived.
Aisha, her doll, her dress, and shoes are made from clay.
She has such a precious face.
She has a rope headband with clay flower petals attached.
So-so beautiful!
Dolly's hair is accented with multiple tiny beads.
A white strip of clay is attached to the back of the doll's dress that bears Sarah's signature and the 2021 copyright.
Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? Isn't she precious? Less than a few weeks old (Sarah works very fast!) The doll was completed within a few days. I would have received Aisha sooner, but Sarah and I both agreed for her to delay shipping until the arctic weather I was experiencing in Texas subsided. That plan worked out well. The doll was mailed on a Friday and I received it the following Tuesday.
Am I happy? No. I am thrilled!
Aisha fits in well with similar dolls her size that range between 7-1/2 to 8 inches tall as illustrated in the next two pictures.
She stands out among other similar-sized dolls that are displayed underneath a globe, the base of which is wooden, swivels, and has several spaces to display dolls on doll stands.
Here is another view of Aisha and her friends.
I love her! If you desire, listen to Stevie Wonder sing the song he wrote for "my doll" before she was even a thought. :-)
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
The premise of the site is to curate and install 1000 antique, vintage, modern, and OOAK Black dolls. Currently, there are over 100 installations with over 30 in the draft mode for publishing soon.
Today's installation is about a group of delightful Johnna Art Dolls by Barbara Buysee. View the post here and enjoy!
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
For Black History Month in 2020, Fresh Dolls Tamra enjoyed wearing this lovely dress by Laylee M. Doll Clothes.
For almost two years, I have purchased fashion doll clothes from the Laylee M. Doll Cothes Etsy shop and have always been pleased with the affordable clothes she designs for 11-1/2 to 12-inch fashion dolls. The free shipping is always appreciated. I was very happy for the owner of the shop when I read the following February 12, 2021, article from Virgin Islands Daily News.
"It was a request from her granddaughter that prompted Carmen Nibbs to try her hand at making doll clothes.
"Five years later, her Laylee M Doll Clothes company is making waves on Etsy and Instagram with former first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris’ inauguration outfits."
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
In 2020, The Strong inducted Baby Nancy into its National Toy Hall of Fame. Crafted with Black children in mind, Baby Nancy is the first Black doll that found mass popularity at home and abroad. Learn about Shindana Toys—the Black-owned company behind the groundbreaking doll—at a special, virtual discussion with a panel of experts on its history and significance. Hosted by The Strong’s Christopher Bensch, the 40-minute discussion will delve into the story of Shindana Toys’ creation and evolution, their role in the community, their products, and examples of Black entrepreneurship. It will be followed by a question-and-answer session.
The above announcement is from The Strong Museum's website where you can visit to learn more about the event and to register here.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
Sandra Epps, CEO of Sandy's Land Entertainment and host of the annual Detroit Doll Show will open a Black doll museum in shipping containers. Read about her plans and what inspired her to move in this direction here.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
Below is a link to the podcast/interviews conducted by the hosts of In the Doll World, Georgette Taylor (co-creator of the Big Beautiful Doll Line) and Tammy Fisher, owner of Curiositeej Dolls. Listen at your leisure and follow to participate in doll giveaways throughout the month of February 2021.
Additionally, In the Doll World also has a YouTube Channel where video interviews of people who play a variety of roles "in the doll world" can be viewed. Check out their channel and subscribe here.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
A still capture from Rod and Danielle's Wedding animated by the late Vanessa Morrison of Fashion Dolls at Van's Doll Treasures is featured in the YouTube video below.
Read
If you missed Paulette Richards' Zoom presentation on Monday, February 1, 2021, the YouTube recording can be viewed at your leisure.
YouTube Description: "This study by Paulette Richards explores the work of three African American [artists] who maintained doll blogs and animated their dolls in short video narratives between 2010 and 2015: Fashion Dolls at Van's Doll Treasures, Hey It's Muff, and Roxanne's Dolls.
I attended the live presentation and found Paulette's comparison of doll animation and puppetry fascinating. I hope you will, too.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
After seeing another collector's impressive Daddy's Long Legs collection and realizing I did not own any children from the original 1990s line, I searched eBay and found Lizabeth. I wanted a girl with a happy disposition and Lizabeth fits that description to a T.
Doesn't she have the most infectious smile?
Made in 1994, Lizabeth is a 12-inch doll with a resin head, body, lower arms and hands, and
lower legs and feet. She has cloth upper arms and entire upper legs that dangle. Her painted facial features include brown eyes, a smiling mouth with separately molded
teeth with some that are missing and some that have just grown in! She wears a green
floral print romper with lace-trimmed cranberry fabric at the upper chest area,
white molded-on socks, and black molded-on shoes. Lizabeth's sculpted hair is styled in
two thick curly pigtails accented by cranberry ribbons. She'll be installed in DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum along with my other Daddy's Long Legs Dolls soon.
Lizabeth's hangtag contains the Daddy's Long Leg's logo, the year she was made, her name, and KVK, Inc.'s contact information.
Lizabeth arrived with her original box, hangtag, certificate of authenticity, a note that indicates she was packed by Holly, and Karen Germany's story card. Karen Germany is the original designer of Daddy's Long Legs dolls, who recently sold all her archived dolls. If you're like me and missed out on some of the 1990s dolls, browse new listings of Daddy's Long Legs dolls on eBay using this link.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
The William Grant Still Art Center's 40th Anniversary Black Doll Show is a virtual event that commenced in December 2020 and is ongoing with a Zoom gala scheduled for Saturday, February 6, 2021.
A flipbook of this year's doll exhibit can be viewed here. (Click on the image at the link to view 94 pages that document the exhibit.)
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
Vitiligo Barbie is one of several dolls that illustrate Barbie's inclusivity.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
A Ken clone sold without clothes and said to be named James arrived recently. Several years ago, I saw the same dollar-store-type Ken clone in a blog post by A Philly Collector of Playscale and Action Figures. Her doll has a darker complexion. I do not recall if her doll's name is James. The name Steve keeps popping up in my head, but that might be because I recently found another Ken clone named Steve.
James has a very broad nose. Based on this, I can safely assume this sculpt, marked MADE IN/CHINA on the back, was only used for Black dolls. He has a jointed waist.
Steve by Fibre-Craft and James
James is shown above with the Ken clone, Steve. Note the height difference.
Recall from a previous post that I ordered two Ken Fashionista #162 dolls. My plan had always been to redress one and to keep the other in the package. That task has been completed and Steve was given Ken #162's clothes.
After dressing James, my first Ken clone by Jakks Pacific joined in to take a height comparison photo.
As illustrated above, at only 11 inches tall, James is the runt of the three Ken clones I currently own.
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This is an appropriate redress for Ken #162
Ken #162 is redressed in a camouflage hoodie and pants made by LayleeMDollClothes. He temporarily continued wearing his yellow sneakers.
Profile headshots
Ken's brown painted eyes and his half-rooted and half-painted hair are illustrated in the above collage. The hair is rooted on the top and painted on the sides to create his low-top fade.
After redressing, he took photos with his fraternal twin, ZiZi (Zig and Zag Barbie Fashionista #57) as soon as her similar camo fashion arrived, which was purchased separately.
The Fraternal Twins Zack and ZiZi
Can you see the family resemblance?
Fashionista #162 (now named Zack) found white low-top Ken sneakers to wear. ZiZi wears red sneakers. They don't usually dress alike, but for the time being, they decided to wear similar fashions.
Since Zack was no longer wearing his yellow sneakers, he gave them to James.
ZiZi added earrings and a choker.
Claiming her independence, ZiZi wears jewelry and red sneakers to distinguish her outfit from her brother's.
ZiZi's jewelry of a sunburst pendant on a black embroidery thread necklace and matching silver earrings were made a few years ago by Atelierni Shasha.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
Former Limbe Dolls blogger, Paulette Richards, has been invited to present in the James Weldon Johnson Institute's Race and Difference series at Emory University on Monday, February 1, 2021. If you find doll animation fascinating, and if you followed the blogs Fashion Dolls at Van's Dolls Treasures, Roxanne's Dolls, and Hey It's Muff, make plans to attend this Zoom presentation. Details and how to register to join in by Zoom are copied below:
Creating Communitas: African
American Doll Bloggers Animate Black Dolls as Sites of Signification
Presented by Dr. Paulette Richards, puppet artist and
independent researcher
"Kevin's Confession Part 2" by Hey It's Muff
February 1, 2021, 12 – 1pm (EST)
James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and
Difference
Race and Difference Colloquium Series
Emory University
This study explores the work of three African American
artists who maintained doll blogs and animated their dolls in short video narratives
between 2010 and 2015. Although puppetry usually excludes dolls on the grounds
that dolls are ostensibly for static display or private play while puppets are
animated in performances before an audience, these videos are significant as
instances of African American object performance. By focusing on adult women of color who not
only collect, but also play with dolls, this analysis extends girlhood studies,
which, as a sub-discipline of gender studies has approached doll play from
historical, anthropological, and psychological perspectives (Bernstein 2011, Chin 1999,
Forman-Brunell 2012). By considering You Tube as a platform where
tens if not hundreds of thousands of girls and women produce, disseminate, and
view visual narratives using dolls to represent myriad fictional worlds, this
presentation also addresses a large body of work that film studies scholars
have essentially ignored. Finally
reviewing this body of work offers a model of how puppeteers can connect with
audiences at a time when the future of live theater is uncertain.
This information is also available at the Emory University website.
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Richards Bio
Paulette Richards is a puppet artist and independent
researcher. She holds a Ph.D. in French
Civilization from the University of Virginia and has taught at Georgetown
University, Tulane University, and Georgia Tech. She survived a ten month stint in Senegal as
a 2013/ 2014 Fulbright Scholar without contracting any tropical diseases, but
sometime during her service as an artist in residence at the Institut français
de Saint Louis, the puppet bug bit her hard.
After returning to Atlanta she became a docent in the Worlds of Puppetry
Museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts.
When fellow members of Decatur Makers introduced her to Arduino microprocessors
and stepper motors, she immediately thought of the animatronic dogs and Doozers
in the Henson gallery at the museum and began designing her own rudimentary
robots. Richards has taught animatronic
puppetry workshops at the Friends School of Atlanta, Decatur Makers, the Dekalb
County Public Library, the Center for Puppetry Arts, and the Puppeteers of America
2017 National Festival. She co-curated
the Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibit that
ran at the University of Connecticut’s Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry
from October 2O18 to April 2O19 with Dr. John Bell and also co-edited the
anthology of essays from the Living
Objects Symposium. She is currently
curating an exhibit of African American puppetry scheduled to open at the
Center for Puppetry Arts in November 2O21 and her book, Object Performance in the Black Atlantic is forthcoming from
Routledge in 2O22.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
Fashionista 156 uses the nonarticulated Tall Barbie body.
I didn't think I'd like the blue lips, but I do. This lovely doll that uses the 1980 Kira head sculpt arrived a few weeks ago, but I just recently released Fashionista 156 from quarantine. (Since the pandemic, after deliveries arrive, packages are sprayed with Lysol, Microban 24 Hour Sanitizing Spray, or some other form of antibacterial spay) and left in a "holding" area for up to three weeks, but no less than one week before I open the packages.
My plan was to redress her after she arrived; however, I had no idea what she would wear. Before redressing, she posed for several photos wearing her pink tunic-length letter "B" graphic jacket. The jacket is trimmed with light blue fabric and has white pleather sleeves.
Her almond-shaped eyes are painted brown and the lips, as illustrated, are royal blue. The texture of the black rooted Afro looks authentic.
She posed for another full-length view.
Jacket graphics on one side of the front include the word "Fearless" and the number "59" to denote the first year Barbie was on the market. Additionally, a rainbow, a lightning strike, and a mock pocket are on the same side.
The capital letter "B," "DREAM *IT* DO IT"; and another slanted pocket graphic are on the opposite front side of the jacket. Stitches are illustrated at the shoulder area on both sides.
The jacket has a front Velcro closure; the light blue buttons are graphics.
Another closeup of the Kira head sculpt
Her only other attire is a pair of yellow platform-soled high-heel shoes that have ankle straps and a round textured ornament on the toe area.
My first inkling was to redressed this doll in the above Boutique Fashion Avenue outfit. Because she uses the Tall Barbie body and because the fashion is rather outdated, I decided against doing that to her. She needed a more modern look, but I wanted to stick with something blue.
I remembered a pair of royal blue leggings and a yellow tunic that I purchased a few years ago from Atelierni Shasha's Etsy Shop. She models this ensemble next followed by head and height comparison photos.
I added a royal blue ribbon to the waist of the yellow tunic that is paired with royal blue leggings. I also pierced her ears with royal-blue-tipped quilting needles that serve as stud earrings.
I think she likes this look.
Here, she channels her inner Pam Greer (Foxy Brown) or Tamara Dobson (Cleopatra Jones) alter ego.
Fashionista 156 (I must rename her) is quite taller than Fashionista #144 who uses the Curvy Barbie body and has flat feet.
As I end this post, a name for #156 materialized. I have named her Kianga, which means sunshine in Swahili.
dbg
There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. To contact me, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.
