We were happy to get to attend the June 26th Crossroads Dolls and Teddy Bear Show in Puyallup, Washington and, as usual, really enjoyed ourselves. Dorothy Drake, the gal who organizes the doll shows in our area, did another bang-up job of finding vendors with interesting things to offer. Initially we were concerned about the show being cut to one day only, and were afraid that this was an indication of decreased interest, but were relieved to learn that an insurmountable scheduling problem was the culprit, and it is possible that some of the regulars weren’t there because of this change, there were more vendors present than last year at this same time! We were happy to see so many new ones on the sales floor and hope they keep coming back!
Annette Schenck, owner of A & D Ceramics and Doll Supply was present, as usual, with a good sampling of the many products she always has on hand in her Seattle store, which is one of the few storefronts left in the Northwest where doll makers can go in and shop for their supplies in person. Annette is one of the few suppliers that we can count on to always be at the doll shows.
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Another person that we are all acquainted with was there in person this time as well. Even though she sold the main part of her business to Bell, Jean Nordquist is still offering her beautiful kits of paper products for making doll accessories, and we were so pleased to get to visit with her for a few minutes. Her doll accessories are gorgeous and certainly add so much to our doll displays!
Lois McCall, the lady from Olympia, Washington who has the yearly seminar on sculpting those marvelous, wrinkly Santas and character faces was there along with her friend and fellow doll teacher, Terri Pender of Terri’s Tiny Treasures. These ladies make the most beautiful dolls, and now Terri is branching out as a distributor for Bell, so if you use Bell’s porcelain or other supplies, talk to Terri at 360-352-0340 or contact her by email: terripender@hotmail.com.
Among the other regulars present were Patti Ulrich of Old B Dolls who specializes in French Fashion Dolls and related items, Jack Suhr with his custom made showcases, and Sandie Ulmer with her dolls, clothes and handmade doll shoes.
There has been some chat among doll makers on the internet who are thinking about trying lace draping, and it was fun to see some of Teresa Hailey’s lace draped dolls. She is the owner of Teresa’s Crafts. Nice job, Teresa!
Jessica Kroft of Kroft Nurseries and Amanda McCall of Amanda’s Beloved Babies had some excellent samples of their reborn babies on display. I swear they are so real looking that you just wait to see them breathe!
It’s always interesting to see some of the one-of-a-kind sculptures. I marvel at the talent and vision these folks have, like, for example these figures by Margarita Castillo-Bernard of Sculpture And Character Design, and these whimsical horses, dragons, etc. This is prize winning work and it’s a step in the right direction to include these artists in the doll shows.
Of course there were lots of other fascinating things to see. Antique and vintage dolls, doll houses, doll clothes and buggies are always fun to pick through and drool over! But it was especially interesting to find that I could easily pick out the dolls that were made in other countries just by their features. Have you noticed how different the faces are from those sculpted by American artists? I’d love to see sculpts from other countries set up side by side and see how they vary from each other. Heaven knows we need some new molds on the market, and I’d like to have some of these unique faces available to us.
