Paper Doll Studio Issues 112 - 114 (OPDAG)

I've not yet received the latest copy of Paper Doll Studio (issue #114), the quarterly magazine published by the Original Paper Doll Artists Guild, but I believe it is on its way to me in the post. This was my contribution.  The theme is 'Celebrate the Holidays'.  Of course I went back to my own childhood for inspiration ...... but it was only after I had completed the first page that it dawned on me I had represented my sister and myself!   So I called the 2 little girls Sharon and Melanie.

I loved making this set.  I'm not sure yet where it will feature in the magazine but Jenny seemed to like it when I sent it in.   And as usual I'm including both the completed pages here as well as the uncoloured sketch pages which are not printed in the magazine,

I have slipped behind with a couple of previous issues so I will feature them here as well.

Issue #113 was 'Chanel'.  It took me a while to decide which decade I wanted to concentrate on .... but in the end I settled on the 1950's.  I felt there was no way I could make a Chanel paper doll without including her classic tailored suit.  

 We were also invited to 'dress a doll' in this issue.  The doll is copyright to Jim Howard and features in his 'Couture of the 1930s' paper doll book published by Paper Studio Press in 2012,  I'm including it here from the magazine just to put the dress in context:

I opted to make something a little out of the ordinary here and depicted Coco Chanel's revolutionary short 1920's wedding dress, using a studio photograph of a bride (or model) that I've always loved.

Issue #112 was 'Favourite Mysteries'.  We had just moved house when the deadline for submission was looming so I ended up with a doll that was a little bit simpler and more pared down than my usual efforts.   I'm a great fan of Grace Kelly, so it was a lovely opportunity for me to showcase some of the wonderful costumes she wore as one of Hitchcock's blondes.  My doll shows her in 'To Catch a Thief'  Portraiture is not one of my strengths but I did enjoy making the clothes.   And I was surprised to find my offering featured a lot more prominently in the magazine than I was expecting.

In the original sketch the dress on the right was going to include her legs (so I could give her matching shoes) but I decided they looked dreadful and removed them.

And finally to finish the last page I'm including here goes back to issue #108 - the Favourite Films theme.  This was the only issue where I sent in multiple submissions. All three were published and I have included two already in previous posts ...... Galadriel from the Hobbit and The Hunger Games - Catching Fire   I've not posted this page before - mainly because I ended up making poor Yul Brynner look like a rather strange alien.  But I was happy with the ball gown so I'll pop it in here.  It's the 'Shall we Dance' scene from 'The King and I' another very vivid childhood memory of mine.

Sleeping Beauty - Little Golden Activity Book - #A33 /1959

I've not been a presence in Blogland very much for quite some time. But from the very start I had a wishlist of books and paper dolls I hoped I'd be able to acquire both for my own private collection and to share on this blog for others to enjoy.

This book topped that wishlist.  I was given a copy as a child by someone in my family (one of my father's sisters I think).  But the dolls and clothes had long since been removed.  All I could see of them were the jagged edges of pages and the odd scrap of detail that had tantalisingly been left behind,  Even without the dolls I still loved the book and I was very sad as an adult to realise it had been lost along the way.

Today copies in mint condition with the dolls and clothes intact are highly sought after and relatively rare.  They command high prices - usually I'd baulk at spending quite so much on a book but I thought this one was worth it.  I've spent years trying to find one and now I'm thrilled to discover it is every bit as magical as I hoped it would be.

I'm sorry I've felt the need to disfigure each of these pages with a watermark but I've learnt the hard way that there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there.  I've come across my own images brazenly plastered all over other websites and blogs and I was once alerted to the fact that someone was trying to make money out of selling some of my scans.  So while I've not placed these across the middle of each image to totally ruin them I have had to make it difficult for someone else to pass them off as their own.  

Besides the dolls the book contains the classic Disney version of Sleeping Beauty.  I'm only including the frontispiece and one other page here - this was my favourite illustration and I think the wonderful glowing effect is just as appealing today as I remember it was when I was young
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Music Music Music - OPDAG Issue #111

This is my contribution to the latest issue of 'Paper Doll Studio', the magazine issued quarterly by the Original Paper Doll Artists Guild.  The theme was 'Music Music Music'.   At first I was a bit stumped until I realised musicals would qualify.  'My Fair Lady' is one of my favourites so I chose to make my own version.

Some of the sketches while it was still a work in progress.

We were also invited to Dress-A-Doll for this edition.  The doll on this occasion was provided by renowned paper doll artist David Wolfe.  I chose to submit two costumes based on the work of Marilyn Sotto .  Both were printed although (I assumed due to space constraints) the wig of the second outfit was not included.

The doll we were given to dress (I hope OPDAG don't mind me including this scan here.)
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Fashions 'Round the World - OPDAG Issue #110

My submission for Paper Doll Studio Issue #110.  The theme was Fashions 'Round the World.

Bright Eyes Paper Dolls - Artcraft #4454

When I started this blog almost 4 years ago (how time flies!!!) my intention was to feature all the paper doll books and illustrators that had brought so much enjoyment to my childhood.  Lately I have not been a very good member of the blogging community! - but there are a couple of classic paper dolls I have still been meaning to include here for quite some time, especially as I have not seen them on-line anywhere else.     

I have mentioned before that I discovered a box of paper dolls my mother had carefully collected and packed away when I was sorting through her belongings after she died.  My paper dolls were very well played with so many are just fragments of sets with tatty looking dresses and no dolls,  

Amongst them was a cut version of this dress - something I recognised as a treasured and precious memory.  But try as I might I could not recollect which set it came from.  I knew I wanted to seek out a replacement for my 'new' collection but I had no idea whether I was looking for ballet, fairies or children!

It took me quite some time to track down but eventually I recognised a cover I remembered and was thrilled to discover it was the book I was looking for.  It was produced by Artcraft and unfortunately does not have a date but I would have been given my original copy some time in the 1960's.

       

Front Cover

My scanner is A4 size so I could not fit in the complete cover,  It has a handle (visible in the first scan) so can be carried around like a little portfolio.  The windows are the cut-out type so popular at the time with the actual doll peeking through from the page behind.

Of course I discovered when I paged through the book that I still possessed one of the dolls (Carol shown above) and some of the other dresses in my box of fragments but I had not realised they were part of the same set!

All of the outfits are shown below. I especially like those where there is a little skirt to go over a shorts set.

Back Cover

This book remains one of my favourite childhood memories and still gives me a little thrill of pleasure every time I look at it.



I bought it from Kassy Ferguson who was selling her late mother's impressive paper doll collection at the time.  She was kind enough to help me obtain my copy of Saalfield's Double Wedding as well, another book I had been trying to find for many months.