A short time ago I shared the value of having an up-to-date Doll Book with you, and referred mostly to modern doll molds, but many of you have antique reproduction doll molds, and know that they offer even more of a challenge, both in locating pictures for your Doll Book, and in working out a user friendly storage arrangement so you can locate exactly what you want when you need it.
I acquired my first batch of reproduction molds when my mother-in-law reached the point where she could no longer make dolls. She didn’t want to just get rid of them, she wanted to place them with someone who would love them as she had. It’s taken me awhile to develop an interest in reproductions, but I’m getting enthusiastic about trying to make some. When we first got them, we had a big workshop with lots of shelf area, and we could put each body and all the heads that fit it in their own area on the shelves and it didn’t seem to be too big of an issue, although we weren’t sure what to do with all the little stuff like doll house size molds that I didn’t think I’d ever use, so we just put them all in a box on the top shelf. Problem solved. There was lots of room left over, so no big deal.
But all of a sudden I’ve had to stop putzing around and get it done. My molds are crammed on shelves in a skinny little room about the size of a good walk-in closet. The moderns fit on one wall okay, but the reproductions were a mess! There wasn’t enough room to try to put the heads with the body they fit and still be able to find anything, and since we have acquired even more since trying that arrangement again, we had molds upstairs in a guest room that still needed cataloged. Yikes! My college age grandson is coming to stay while finishing school, and we have scads of family members arriving this week to celebrate a family occasion, so we had to clear things out of guest rooms.
The solution for us seems to be to arrange the heads in groups by size on the upper shelves (some of the bodies weigh too much to be lifting up and down very often), and then the bodies first by manufacturer, then number, such as Byron, 104, Byron 105, etc. For the first time since I’ve gotten the reproduction molds, I feel like I can put my hand on what I’m looking for with a minimum of trouble. We did have to build deep shelves in the back of the good sized closet of the guest room upstairs and we put duplicate molds and the ones that don’t interest me too much up there. I’ll try to sell them cheaply, but eventually I’ll get rid of them.
I want to include the Antique Reproduction mold pictures in my Doll Book, and have added many of their pictures, but it’s more difficult to find pictures of some of the older ones that have been discontinued. Other doll makers have been helpful, but I have found pictures of many of them on sites such as Grandma’s Attic, or Roberta’s Doll House which sell Antique Dolls, or even the various auction houses. These pictures may not exactly match the mold picture that appeared in the catalog, but since the molds are made from real antique dolls, these pictures are valid.
Anyway, I’m happy to say that I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as I strive to get organized, and it will certainly be less of a chore to get rid of my molds later if I can show what I have to sell, or if my kids end up doing that job in my stead.
