My new prop that I have been harping about for weeks arrived on Friday from the ebay seller li.Felice of Puredream Dolls . She sells alot of 1:6 scale furniture and that is where my 1:6 scale staircase came from. (if you are interested, it looks like she only has one left listed.) This thing was packed extremely well and came all the way from Shanghai China to Virginia intact. That is saying alot for the country bumpkins who deliver to where I live. PureDream Dolls sells furniture quite reasonable in 1:6 scale in a highquality wood, with a variety of patterns, and the shipping is reasonable as well considering it has to come from China. The scale works well too. Jatman Stories used this staircase in one of their recent photostories, Team Roommate which was quite the hit and where I got the idea to use the stair case for my own mansion diorama. Ever since I saw it I have wanted this piece and saved for it.
So Set B of the Gothic Mansion Dark Hollows now can begin, but it wouldn't be any fun without some Fashion Royalty girls and some camera time!
First, a few teasers...
It is quite a large piece and is exquisite. Though it is pricey I would put it up against the Byer's choice staircase any day as it could be installed inside a dollhouse.
I love these two photos of Eugenia apprehensively, slowly going up the stairs. She soooo looks like Grace Kelly out of Rear Window. The staircase, with the walnut finish, the heavy Victorian furniture, the heavy brocades, columns, creates a feeling of heavy luxury and gothic foreboding. Hitchcock, here we come...
One with Agnes at the foot of the steps. I really love the perspective from this viewpoint.
I have more photos but will post more later. I hope you enjoy the pics!~Lisa
Yesterday I attended the Christmas Doll & Teddy bear show and found some really great deals while managing to stay within my budget. They had some great items but some dealers weren't there that ordinarily are there. I was greatly enabled by my dolly buddy, Karon.
First up is this beauty. I found her for $15 NRFB. The outfit goes for more than that on ebay with shipping! The same dealer had this next doll for $10!! NRFB...
The lady had two of these so Karon picked one up too. She already had this doll that she had stripped because the kimono has velcro and she had put it on her Kyori. It also comes with the tabi. It is Happy New Year Barbie and the box has wonderful graphics on it. This dealer had silkstones that were flying off the shelf and into one woman's bag. I had to wait behind one woman I know who probably spent over $400 in this booth alone. Wish I had that money! lol.
An adorable little Madame Alexander doll in her original box with her stand . Lassie of Norway. She was $15 and I purchased her from a dealer selling someone's collection. I could have picked up more of these little darlings. My mother used to buy me these for special occasions from our favorite 5 & 10 cent store on Forest Hill avenue near the doctor's office, I still have them tucked away. They are 8 inches of adorable sweetness. I have some scenes planned for this little cutie, so stay tuned for that later.
I picked up these two items for a $1 each at our Va. Fashion doll club's booth, they usually get several of the members together who wish to share the table fees to sell. I am already planning some scenes for Christmas this year and I usually go to shows looking for red and green outfits for Christmas outdoor scenes or decorating the tree, and so on. I have an ambitious scene I am planning and I need to get moving on it soon. It's already November! Andnone of the dolls except Holiday Poppy is dressed for Christmas, lol.
Update on the Gothic Mansion...
My prop arrived on Friday! I will post more on it when it is fully unpacked and I can get some photos of it. I meant to work with it today but have been too lazy and was too tired out from yesterday, so will have more on that later this week, as it arrived sooner than expected! But lots more to come!
Lisa
I finished editing the photos of Agnes at the mansion, and I'm really pleased with them. I have never really given alot of re-dress time to this lovely diva, and I'm glad I took the time to go through some of my dresses. The gown she is wearing is Concerto in M Agnes Von Weiss who was one of the very first Agnes at a W Club convention, who I was lucky enough by chance to win on a w club lottery on the forums. That doll is my favorite doll and her mansion is the mansion, Maison de la Royale, which resides in the doll room. I think in all right now I have about five Agnes dolls. They are quite literally taking over. She is one of my favorite characters,next to Elise Jolie and Victoire and of course, Poppy.
She is so very stunning, isn't she? I just cannot get oer how she is so chic in this dress. She kind of oozes the 30's and 20's sleekness. I so loved that period with the furs, and the silk clinging to the body.
Here's a little black and white and a little light play to give you an idea. Her luggage is in the background as she's just arrived home from the city for a weekend houseparty to the country. Let the cocktails begin, but after tea, of course...
A whole view of the mansion with the columns. Construction will begin as soon as the prop I have ordered arrives and Set B will be in full swing and my schedule settles down a bit from this week. Since Halloween is over with, I can rest now with the spooky dolls and begin to work on the mansions' Thanksgiving and Christmas decor in full splendor. Though it is a 'gothic' mansion , like all mansions it has a extravagant/luxury factor and I want to take advantage of that with my divas.
Part of the inspiration for this 'set' or diorama has been my Pinterest board,
Miniature Set Building and some wonderful pins of the movie, and its behind the scenes set builders- The Boxtrolls. Mainly of their homes, the lovely staircase, and the characters, the town, and so on. Other movies as well that required animation. Building dollhouses is much like miniature set building but 1:6 scale is really when it gets into set building as the figures are life like and articulated and there is more detail. And the Gothic Mansion- Dark Hollows- is the culmination for me, of a dream of building a set. Just to see if I could do it.
Today I will be getting lighting in my shop.I had purchased some lights to set up as my lighting sucked and it is difficult to take photos as once that upper floor was put in, the lower floor was very dark and there was no way to light it to get really good photos. These lights are extremely bright so I am going to have soften them so that will be another problem as it is a limited space. I may have to take one wall down to photograph this which will be difficult. One of the things that is great about this is the challenge of figuring out all the problems! It is fun, believe or now. I'm finally also getting to play with all my dolls.
Here are some photos of Agnes that I will leave you with....
Tomorrow will be a busy, and hectic day as there is a doll show so I hope to get some pictures, and some cool items for the mansion. If not, I will have a post up later in the week!~Lisa
I have been preoccupied with getting the columns for the interior of the mansion done. One of the problems I faced was not only my schedule but the PVC material I chose to make the columns out of. PVC pipe is coated with a laminate of some sort as I was informed by my hubby, who works with it and cut down the columns with his saw for me since his PVC pipe cutters were too small for this pipe thickness. So the columns had to be sprayed in very thin layers with the spray paint and allowed to dry in stages, which takes longer. It got done, just took me longer with my schedule and I haven't had time to get by the shop to work on anything else lately.
So here is a picture with the columns installed! And some of my more 'new' Fashion Royalty ladies enjoying the mansion, who haven't had much camera time.
These two photos show the downstairs and upstairs with the columns in place and a doll able to stand on the upstairs floor for staging.
Some of these ladies are fairly recent acquisitions such as Edge Vanessa and Mademoiselle Jolie, but Purity Dasha has just recently been de-boxed a few months ago when I was doing hat commissions and needed a really snooty model. I think she was from 2013 or 2014? W club. I never de-boxed her as I was so undecided on her but could not bring myself to sell her. I loved her face sculpt and skin tone and wanted to find the right evening gown for her before I began to put her in another outfit. Right now I am shopping for long, beautiful evening gowns for my girls, as I would like to have a really big evening event for them. More on that later. I think Dasha looks stunning next to this red velvet wallpaper, don't you?
I think this is another Vanessa. She too, is still in her original outfit except for the shoes, which are Starlight Poppy's. Out Sass Vanessa- that's it. I never could bring myself to undress her because she made such a fantastic shopper in that cute suit for LaBelle's. Some dolls I debox and they just become continuous shoppers in my town. This time I would like to find a gown for that beautiful hair.
Mademoiselle Jolie expects service and expects it quickly! The great and powerful Oz is the perfect butler in that suit. Some dolls, especially playline ones, make the perfect maid, cook or butler in my dioramas because of their looks or articulation. Oz has and was purchased with the full intention of being Agnes' butler or footman from Day 1 of his arrival in the dollhouse.
I will have more pictures up as I edit them and watermark them. Regretfully, I have had to begin to watermark my pics instead of just posting them as I have found some of my pictures have been used without my permission or without someone asking in the past, so I am attempting to take this measure.
I will have some more photos up tomorrow, this is it on the progress so far. Hopefully that much needed prop for the rest of the mansion's progress will arrive by next week and we can get on with the next wing's building or rather, Set B!
Today I got together with some dolly friends. One of them, sadly, is moving away and we all of us, wanted to have a day with lunch, some dolly time, before she moves away. Sandra collects different sized dolls and a wide variety like I do. She brought her 70 cm bjd who has not had his head & hands strung on yet. She also brought her w club 16 inch Hannah? I think she is called, in the evening gown. Marina came too,and brought seafood salad and pasta, and we all met at Karon's house.Karon made burritos, tea, coffee and I brought potato salad and cheese cake, we all brought dolls and candy of course. Because it would not be doll time without chocolate....
This doll is just so lovely. I am so tempted by the big girls of the W club...
Sandra's big guy! He's really awesome. Now that I have seen a 70 cm, I am not so intimidated by the size and just might have to give in. I have had my eye on one at Denver Doll, but not like hers. I really like the body on this one.
We gave Karon a going away present, a sort of 'Bon-Voyage' present of a Bespaq 1:3 scale chair from my stash in stock I have left. She was pleased! I knew it would fit her new doll.
Marina came a little late but with lots of goodies that we helped her debox like this dressmaker details. The Silkstone you see on the table actually wears wigs and she brought a TON of wigs that we also had fun putting on an extra Vivid Impact Agnes that Karon had shaved because she had intended to have her re-rooted but never got around to it. Instead, we had fun dressing this girl. The carrying case Marina got for free at the Barbie convention this year in Arlington. There she is at the table with all her swag around her.
She also purchased a CI Ollie and wanted us to dress him...unfortunately, Sandra had brought some evening gowns and gave Ollie some alternative choices....
Fortunately, after the two mad evening gown ladies got through with Ollie, LOL! They decided that pink just wasn't his color, so we decided on another ensemble for him....
Very nice...Marina said she got the outfit at Arlington convention too. I think this is from 2 years ago Integrity convention, it doesn't look like Gloss convention.
The next photos are of Karon's dolls. She was able to snag a NRFB Agnes convention set. She showed us her Lana basic dolls dressed in the Josephine baker tuxedo set and one Lana doll she had purchased one ebay in the silk gown with the mink stole and jewelry! It is real mink, I loved that doll. The dress she doesn't know who made it. So very lovely, she joked Integrity stole her idea! The last doll is Vivid Impact Agnes from a convention who looks like 'Endora' or Agnes Moorehead. Marina has a thing for the actress and so Karon pulled out her doll to show her, as well as her scalped Vivid Impact so we could put wigs on her. I love this doll.
I had brought my Out of this World Poppy and Reigning Grace Eugenia because not everyone had ordered her, so they could see her.
And some more of Karon's dolls-
These are some of Karon's de-boxed dolls. She actually has TWO True Royalty dolls, one is in the box, one to play with! She had to piece the 2nd one together from auctions, trades, etc. to get the outfits and each piece, including the doll.
So we had a great time, and hopefully we will be able to get together with Sandra one more time before she moves. The best thing about our get togethers is we help each other with body swapping, or info on doll sites, or how to dye a doll dress, or how to create clay food, and that type of thing. We kind of help each other, and that is what makes it fun.
Hope to get back to my gothic mansion soon, I have some work to do on the interior but it is slow going.
Lisa
It is quite a large piece and is exquisite. Though it is pricey I would put it up against the Byer's choice staircase any day as it could be installed inside a dollhouse. 
I love these two photos of Eugenia apprehensively, slowly going up the stairs. She soooo looks like Grace Kelly out of Rear Window. The staircase, with the walnut finish, the heavy Victorian furniture, the heavy brocades, columns, creates a feeling of heavy luxury and gothic foreboding. Hitchcock, here we come...
One with Agnes at the foot of the steps. I really love the perspective from this viewpoint. 
