It’s kind of weird thinking about Doll Art Works being out of business after all this time. Modern doll makers have been using their molds for years! Of course they’re still available on the secondary market, you know, places like Craig’s List, or the local Classifieds, or even eBay. Well, I guess eBay has more Seeley’s reproduction molds than anything else, but I would think that the moderns will be showing up more and more now.
Don’t you wonder where all the small mold companies went? There seemed to be a bunch of people sculpting dolls about twenty years ago, back when doll making was all the rage and everybody and their neighbor was doing it. Some of those sculpts had such personality! I like “pretty” dolls too, but some that could be classified as character dolls had so much to offer! And I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks so. I mean really, how many real kids look just perfect? Most of them have funny little crooked smiles, a tooth missing here and there, or a few too many freckles on the end of their noses.
I can only assume that some of these artists reached the stage in their lives where arthritis or other health issues finally made them give it up, or the cost of getting a new sculpt to the stage where commercial molds were produced became overwhelming when doll making slowed down and mold purchases dropped off as a result. I guess back in those days, many of the sculptors were selling their sculpts to bigger companies for a few hundred dollars, and the company got the product to market and made most of the money. Anyway, whatever the reasons, most of the “little guys” are gone from the scene, and now with Doll Artworks calling it a day, you’ve gotta be wondering where the fresh, new doll faces are going to be coming from.
So maybe it’s time for those of us who’ve kind of entertained the idea of giving sculpting a shot ourselves to go ahead and try it. At one time I thought I had a couple of heads about ready to make commercial molds from, but about then we had to move, and they didn’t survive. Then I got too busy with trying to get the place we moved into fixed up, adapting to having a mess of grandkids with us, and working full time to try again, so my little homemade stand and my few, modest sculpting tools took up residence in the back of a closet.
About the time we were getting this blog rolling and were working hard trying to find other doll makers and put together the Doll Class Directory to help newbies find a place to get involved, we heard that Tony Tanner, owner of The Porcelain Place, was interested in getting some fresh sculpts on the market, and was suggesting a more appealing deal for new sculptors. His idea is to form a partnership in which he take the completed sculpt and get the molds made, advertised, and on the market. The big difference is that after the original production costs have been recouped, the sculptor will receive royalties for every mold sold! That’s better than a onetime payment! And it makes it possible for those of us who can’t come up with the money to get our sculpts from the work table to the market a chance to get out dolls out there!
Soooo … I went to Georgie’s Ceramic Supply and got a block of clay, and I’m having a go at it again! I’ve got this head on a stand on my worktable, and I’m trying to find out who she is. I had a vague idea of what I wanted her to look like, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. It’s like there’s a little person in there who is determined to be herself no matter what I do. Every time I come back to it, it seems to take on a bit more personality. It’s not anywhere near done yet, and right now I’m away for a week staying with a granddaughter while her dad is out of town, so I can’t even work on her for awhile. I don’t know if I’ll ever get her to the point that I think she’d be suitable to offer as a doll, but I’m having a lot of fun trying! And who knows, you just might get to see her someday!
