School Girl Lizette

Lizette was redressed this morning in Heart 4 Heart Rahel's school fashion. Lizette's original tights had to be removed.  Otherwise, the skirt would be too tight.  Rahel's feet are flat and much larger than Lizette's high-heel feet.

The brown ankle boots she wears are by Somers and Field made for Daisy and Willow dolls from 2001.  These snug fitting boots were formerly worn by Antoinette Spice (who is now shoeless but still wears the rest of the Poor Boy Somers and Field fashion).

Lizette has successfully mixed and matched her new (temporary) look.  She thanks Rahel and Antoinette for assisting her.

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Wishing You Love, Peace, and Soul

Don Cornelius, creator of the popular and only African American syndicated dance show, "Soul Train," was found dead today from an apparent suicide.

I enjoyed watching Soul Train every Saturday morning as a teen.  My interest was in seeing the colorful fashions the teens wore, the girls' hairstyles, which entertainers would be featured, and of course watching the teens dance down the Soul Train line at the end of the show.  Good 1970s memories.





If he comitted suicide, obviously Mr. Cornelius's soul was troubled. Life choices and failing health may have contributed to his decision to end his life. We may never know, but I do know that life is too precious to allow outer forces to trouble us to this extent.  I hope he has found the love, peace, and soul he wished for us. 

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Keeping this doll-related, in 1993, Mattel's Shani doll line featured Soul Train dolls, Shani, Jamal, Asha, and Nichelle as shown in the image below from chapter 3, page 55 of The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls.  The Shani doll line was the first of Mattel's dolls to include dolls that capture various shades of the African American skin color spectrum.

Shani Soul Train dolls by Mattel, 1993 (click the image to enlarge -- the dolls are stored, thus the option to photograph the page from my book)

There is a better image of the dolls on flickr.com.

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OOAK Leather Dolls by Lorna Paris

For the past eight years (since 2004) my online doll group has either commissioned a doll artist to make our annual club doll or we have purchased and customized an identical artist or manufactured doll. Past manufacturers and artists of our club dolls have been My Twinn, Laura Tuzio Ross, Lorna Miller-Sands, Madame Alexander, Ping Lau, Diana E. Vining, and Berdine Creedy.  Diana made magnetic paper dolls for us.  All other dolls were three dimensional of vinyl or resin.

In 2011, we commissioned Lorna Paris to make our club doll. This was the first year our dolls were not identical. Lorna used various shades of brown leather to fashion our exquisite, approximately 12-inch, one-of-a-kind dolls.  Their facial features are hand painted .  The hand-applied hair varies in texture from straight to kinky-curly in various colors.   Lorna made their clothing, most of which is also leather, and in many cases she handcrafted their shoes.  Just like members of real families, the dolls, which could be sisters, possess unique personalities.

Each doll is hand-signed, numbered, and named by Lorna.  I created several collages to share collectively for the first time outside our group, these 17 beautiful chocolate leather gems.









View a slideshow of larger images here.

Aren't they "dollightful"?

To learn more about the artist, Lorna Paris, visit her on Facebook and "like" her page to receive updates. 

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