Saturday, December 21, 2013

We might call her 'Solstice'...

Current Notes: But to me, her name will always be 'Freedom' ! 




What a day. Beloved Hubby and I are the proud owners of a new-to-us truck ! We’ll be paying for it for some time, but I think we made the right decision. Mostly because now, I have transportation whenever I want it ! It’s mildly ironic that now, I can doll hunt whenever I want – but there’s very few dolls I want, and even less money…


And an additional gift is Beloved’s new car fever has ended ! I didn’t even mind spending most of today at the dealership, since I’d spent longer afternoons driving from used car lot to tote-the-note ripoff joints – not to mention endless web sites at 2am -  since the illness began.


Since I can’t really describe today without boring you to death, here’s some other stuff. Paper doll clothes ! One size to fit Barbie and MH dolls. Have a look here. Some of these are really pretty, but I just can’t get past paper apparel. Dolls wearing it can’t sit, the least little wrinkle *really* shows, fold-fitting and taping to the doll sounds frustrating, and I could only use the black printouts on colored paper, which eliminates a lot of the neat shading I like. Plus, there’s the slight worry of ink or paper color transferring to the doll.


Like the paper clothes, 3D printing your own doll sounds awesome, until you really think about it. Quinn, presumably the first one, is currently on Kickstarter. I like the idea and the customizing potential, but it’s nowhere near as inexpensive as you’d think. Beloved’s into 3D printing, and is exploring the options – making the printer yourself is $$$, buying one is $$$$, and even the lowest level of joining the Quinn group is $65. That gets you the ‘pattern’, but the printer, the plastics, and the skills are all your expense. Yeah, it ranks that Barbie, Create A Monster, Switch A Witch, etc. aren’t more customizable, but they don’t cost about a grand, start to finish… and what happens if there’s an error, there goes $70. in plastic that can’t be reused. True, dolls today aren’t as original as Quinn – but they’re hecka more affordable at TRU than the Kickstarter group seems to think !



I’d love to do that – make my own dolls, my own plastic doll shoes, accessories, hair, etc. Most of my sewing stems from a drive, a darn near need to give my own version of a viewpoint to the mass merchandise pieces in my home. If all I could do was buy for my dolls, I’d have gotten bored of them decades ago. So I really like the potential here, I just don’t think we’re quite at the ‘make hundreds and the price per will go down’ level in most folks’ kitchens and garages. If it’s so easy anyone can do it with a small investment, who are we gonna sell ‘em to ? Everyone will be making their own ! And I really don’t need to be a mini-Mattel. (laugh) How long would it be before I didn’t like my own business practices ? 

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