Vita Plastica

Hi Guys! Pics to come but I couldn't wait to tell you about the doll stuff I got for Christmas. I got one of those World Peacekeeper dudes from Big Lots. I hate the gloved hands, but the faces are pretty cool. Any idea what kind of hands fit those guys? I have four that need some actual hands. I also got a Dragon Body to go with my Dragon head. I can't reveal him yet. He's a character soon to be in a photostory. Last but not least I got Comic Life! Man, nothing like this software to make you really want to organize your doll photos. Also in 1/6 related news, I got the hubs Sideshow's Darth Maul which is awesome. Really this Christmas was about the kid, who got loads of awesome stuff, but I was so happy to get some new goodies. This was just what I needed to jump start my doll inspiration. I did some playing with Comic Life, so see below. I'm looking forward to doing little Intro/Bios for all my main characters as I learn the templates and backgrounds, etc. I was nev...

Forget pregnancy cravings, I have doll cravings! I've been obsessed with the idea of creating a goth style house for Sooki but she's 16 and making her an emancipated minor is just going to reek havoc with my storyline. And I decided that my dolls are frozen in time and not allowed to age. Sorry Sooki, you're 16 forever. But this goth palace idea keeps haunting me. hahaha no pun intended. There is so much cute goth/Victorian stuff out there. So many ideas for wall coverings and delightfully spooky 1:6 scale goodies to hunt for. So after much internal debate, I've decided to get Simi from Ashton Drake: Okay is she worth $150? No, not really but I'm a little in love with her. And really, Sooki's adorable and could go the Harijuku Goth Lolita route, but Simi's dead sexy (oh my god, really the puns are not intentional!) and could be my dominatrix goth chick. All my crazy patten leather get ups will have a home! I can use Stinker's Stuff walk in closet tutori...

Exciting! I have new followers. And all I had to do was be a total downer and run away from the blogosphere. You know, sometimes there's a doll that you really don't like and then suddenly, you're in love. My husband, a lover of all things that he thinks will mature in value (baseball cards, records, obscure "action figures") had a couple of dolls that he felt the need to give to me. He knew they would have a better life in my hands. One of which was Hasbro's Miss Fear. I really didn't like her. Her weapons were awesome and I really appreciated the cigarette holder but her clothes didn't fit well, her hair was insane and she didn't look anything like the hot cartoon on the box. Her makeup was terrible, her "Asian" eyes were just ridiculous. So she ended up being a bit character in things. She played a bodyguard or a bouncer. She was so beefy that I never let her be a "lady". I guess Ms. Fear's life turned around when my husb...

Hmm, I dunno what's wrong with me but I'm bored of dolls. Maybe it's because I know that all spare money will be going towards Christmas. Maybe it's because I lost the little thingy that attaches my camera to my tripod. Maybe it's due to Thanksgiving preparation and sick babies, which provided no time for my little friends. Maybe it's because my photostories are waiting for Comic Life and for a Dragon Body for my new boy head. Well at least my heart still skips a beat when I see my dolls in their homes, doing the same thing they did last week. And maybe I'll post some crap pictures just so I can take down the set and start the Xmas set. Maybe I'll get my mojo back at the end of the year with my new dolls/equipment/software. Maybe I just need a nice trip to Big Lots where I will say I'm going to get tree lights, but will come out with arms full of cheap doll stuff... Hey do any of you collect 16 inch dolls? I have a cast iron pot belly stove that I...

Ever have one of those days? Where you are totally unmotivated to do ANYTHING. Even, gulp, doll things? That was my Sunday. I suppose all the hormones and such just made me feel down. All I wanted to do was watch TV. But we quit our TV addiction, so I mostly just whined. Then the Hubs went out and got us a digital converter and antenna! We actually watched the Simpsons for the first time in ages. And realized, much to my horror 1. Iris loves Barney and 2. Barney was singing a version of Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough. Okay TV, I'm going to start slow with you... Anyway, I'll have some pics for you soonish. I practically have all of next week off so there is no excuse! (Except that whole carrying around another person thing) Oh but on Saturday I finished my nightclub set and realized even more the awesome posability of action figure girls. Everyone else was tumbling over with the least agitation, but Dusty held strong in her dancing pose. smooches, dani

Have you ever reached a point in your collecting where you're like "Okay, I have a problem"? I should have known this would happen during the Year of Luxury. When your main goal is to BUY, you're headed for trouble. I'm glad I decided to temper it with some craft work. Craft goals of the remainder of 2011? Collect/make/paint doodads for my mid century apartment. Speaking of mid century apartment, I said to the Hubs, "So what should Miho's other room be? A kitchen? A bathroom?" He vetoed both. "You already have a kitchen and a bathroom in the other houses. I think you need a new bedroom." Hmmm. So I found some homemade stuff on ebay. But then I found this bed on etsy! I saved it to my favorites, knowing it was meant to be if it was still there on pay day. The price was awesome too. Now I had set some money aside to pay for my laptop which is in the shop. So really there was money just sitting around. It's not like I was going to pay fo...

DUDE. So I'm cleaning up and organizing my studio. I decided to make my first, real collapsable background. I don't have all the stuff I wanted on hand so I put together some foam core scraps and started planning things out. I have about 4 "brick" wall sheets of varying stages of age, disrepair and discoloration. These were printed out from Jim's Printable Minis . Might as well have a project as my furniture order still isn't here. My studio (I still feel so pretentious calling it that) overlooks the front yard. And who do I see pull up? The most loved and hated figure in doll world, the mail man. But he was walking up the driveway with a BOX!!! My furniture is here!!! I got it at Liz Retros on etsy. I'm giving her a shout out at the risk that all of you will be buying her stuff and nothing will be left for me. I once read an article in one of those doll mags and this lady was being really secretive about where she finds her stuff and that's just not ...

I have a zillion things on order right now, from doll stuff to kid stuff and nothing had arrived yet! Each day I return home looking at my front step in excited anticipation and each time it's just a stack of flat packages which can only mean one thing: comic books for the Hubs. *Sniff* The day before yesterday was much of the same. I didn't even look at the pile of mail. But then, the Hubs sang, "There's something from Hong Kong...." YAY! Birthday prezzies! He got me two punk rock girl outfits. So cute, down to the little safety pins! Here are my models: The stockings are too big for skinny Dynamite legs, but they'll be fine for some of my other girls. The best part is that if you remove the safety pins, they're like another outfit. The jacket might lose the safety pins. Too many pins and you look like a total poseur. And yesterday, this arrived: (Hey Smidge , didn't you just win the same one?) I'm not impressed. The shoes are worse quality than ...

Oprah has a favorite things episode, right? Well I'm going to do a Favorite Things Blog Post. I don't have the riches like Oprah, so ya'll won't be getting anything. Sorry! Well at least I like cheap stuff. This month, it's thin flimsy wooden stirrers from Starbucks or your favorite local coffee chain. The ones with square ends, not rounded. The rounded ones are actually of better quality but they involve more cutting. I have loads of those too, but I haven't used them yet. They have come in very handy for someone like me who probably won't be working with wood and saws until we own a house (and I have a workshop) or the kids get older. Also, I'm not so good with making straight cuts out of any material. Thanks to these stirrers I was able to make Josephine's paneling as well as the wainscoting. Also I'm going to use them to frame windows because my cuts were just sad looking. I even have the foam core with grid lines! Maybe in the future I...

No, I have not taken that plunge and I don't know if I will ever. Not sure if I will find it as satisfying to play with oversized miniatures. I do love their realism though. Some of them are just gorgeous. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is that I mistakenly bought a pot belly stove for my dolls but it's huge. I'm not a fan of returns. I know, I'm nuts. But a piece of clothing will sit, unworn in the closet until it's time to do our charity closet purging. So I have a pot belly cast iron stove that will probably be suitable for 16 inch dolls. Anyone interested? If so I'll take some pics with my dolls so you can get an idea of the scale. I'm not great with the idea of selling things either, so it's yours for free. Maybe I'll charge you for shipping because that sucker is heavy. Lemme know. smooches, dani

Good Morning all, Yesterday, we tried to watch as many child friendly Halloween movies as we could. Iris already loves Nightmare Before Christmas (but doesn't let us leave the room while it's on. A bit spooked?), so we watched that again. Then the Hubs, always nostalgic and childlike pulled out Rankin and Bass's Mad Monster Party. Do you guys remember this one? Here's the trailer. So for both of them, I now watched them with a different eye, the one sixth eye. Look at those props! When you look at Nightmare before Christmas, you can see how everything was handmade. Such amazing work. And Mad Monster Party was no less impressive. I mean, cellophane as water? So primitive, yet so brilliant! Really inspiring stuff. You may recall a couple of posts ago, when I talked about the new living room set I just bought. I spent a majority of the weekend preparing for its arrival. I kicked Hana and Nadia out of their apartments. Sorry ladies! We'll set you up with something soo...

Oh no, did you hear Joe Tai died? :( http://rnddolls.blogspot.com/2010/11/rest-in-peace-joe-tai.html The doll world has suffered a great loss. See his dolls here: http://www.joetai.com/

Well my friends, Year of Luxury strikes again. Due to that magical extra paycheck in a month thing that happens once or twice a year, I had a little extra play money. I was a good girl and did some responsible things. Bought the Hubs some business cards, bought a swanky winter coat and bathrobe for the Youngin' and a just a wee Barbie Basics accessory pack for me. But you know how when you have no money you always know exactly what you would just DIE to have? But then you have some money and can't find anything worth buying? I thought maybe I'd go ahead and buy my first action figure girl. I know exactly the one I want but I just couldn't close the deal. I went to ebay to search for the elusive 1/6th scale PT Cruiser. (Lemme know if you guys run across one.) Anywho, so no luck there. I decided to hit up some of my Favorites on etsy. I really wanted that Birkin, but I just couldn't. $35 plus $10 or $15 shipping for a doll bag that doesn't open? I dunno, I just co...

Hi you guys. Tell me: How did you get into doll life? Leave a comment or blog about it. For me it was Indian Barbie. This was about 14 years ago: Being at the time obsessed with India and having never grown up with a Barbie that wasn't either black or blonde, I was amazed by her. I was just walking through Target minding my own business and there she was. I thought she was gorgeous. I named her Pria. I took a few pictures of her but without proper furniture it looked silly. And without fellow dolls, she was a useless knick knack. For the next several years, I would buy lots of dolls and furniture, then get sick of it and give them all away to my niece. I did this 2-3 times. Finally my niece grew up, packed it all up and gave it back to me. I did a couple of silly photostories, but mostly just posed them and didn't name anyone. I moved to NY and started doing a couple of silly photostories and making oh just the saddest looking sets ever: Then I found Fashion Royalty. I was sudd...

Okay so I'm telling you that for nothing because I just don't have a good method of presenting it to you. My rarely used website www.vitaplastica.weebly.com is just no good. Last time I put my captions in, they all mysteriously deleted. Plus you had to click on every picture to view the caption and they posted out of order anyway. Using Flickr is okay I guess, I've seen it done, but I confess that I don't really like Flickr. One of these days I'll get another website on my own. Just seems silly to spend the money on a website that isn't making me money. So I think I really have to buy Comic Life and get to work! I have so many old photostories, from back when I had never even heard of Fashion Royalty. Or realism. I'd love to get those up in some kind of archive. I'm still not happy with my photography, I totally broke one of my new lights. Photography is taking the fun out of photostories, but I know it's necessary. I also miss crafty doll work so ma...

So Wednesday night I arrived home to find Vintage Vinyl Gavin waiting for me! So I had to break her out and take some pics. Forgive the quality, I wasn't trying very hard. First impression: Cutey pie! Her eyes are a bit too big and cartoonish to me. Well I guess some real people have eyes bigger than their mouth... She seems a bit sturdier than previous Dynamite Girls. She seems heavier and her joints a bit stiffer. At first I thought her hands were not removable, but a good tug proved otherwise. But trouble in paradise. Her shoes don't stay on AT ALL. I mean at ALL! Like they weren't even made for her. Look at that toe cleavage. Not a fan. And the paint job (you can't see here, but they're platforms. The sole is painted black but the platform itself is the same color as the shoe). I have seen better shoes made for Barbie. Well, it's time to comb out her hair and get this girl dressed! I tried on a few outfits. Turns out she can't do the goth/punk thing. S...

I just have to say I HAD to get another Jonathan Adler Barbie (with the side table). What good is a side table when you only have one? Okay the real reason I bought it is because it's only $24 on the Barbie Collector site. Quote the husband: "What? I paid $50 for that crap!" That pink lamp and tray never found a use. Now that I'll have two, I think I'll paint them. Huzzah! The doll will go in the trash (aka: to be repainted) but now I'll have a duplicate dress to be worn by... I dunno back up singers? Okay, that's all! smooches, dani

I think you photostory people can attest to this. These dolls really do have personalities! Sure, we assign them a role and sometimes they attack it with relish. And when I set up relationships, I set the dolls next to each other for a few days and see what faces they make. I swear, they make faces!! They will really look disgusted or pleased. But sometimes, they just don't agree with anything you try to do. Take for example Dynamite Girl African American Heartbreaker TJ. I love Dynamite girls. They are wonderful posers and if you just tilt their head, the emotions on their face are really different. But this one has given me trouble since the beginning. I renamed her Alanna. A name I really don't like. Doesn't seem to suit her at all. It really came from a former personality I assigned to her. First she was a lawyer with a double life. One with her real estate mogul boyfriend: Another with her thugged out boyfriend from high school: Then she was a reporter: Then a dancer:...