M - is for Mystery

My beautiful and illusive Bebe M. She was always a mystery, but maybe not anymore... In the past, dealers and collectors has referred to her as Bebe Mascotte (May Freres). I once saw a reference to her identifying her as made by Francois Marseille: "Sold Date: 09/23/2006 Channel: Auction House Source: Proxibid, Inc. Category: Toys, Dolls, Games & Puzzles 16 (41 cm.) Bisque socket head, dark blue glass inset eyes, long painted lashes and brows, closed mouth with outlined lips, pierced ears, brunette mohair wig over cork pate, French composition and wooden fully jointed body, nicely costumed in antique dress and bonnet, undergarments, antique shoes, stockings. Marks: M 5 (doll) Bebe Jumeau Diplome d Honneur (body). Excellent condition, body not original but appropriately sized and of the same period, original body finish. Attributed to Francois Marseille, circa 1888". A doll friend did some further research and found a reference to this maker in "The Encyclopedia of French Dollsw" and so graciously sent me a copy:

Here is my Bebe; one of the prettiest I have seen. She is early and is on her original straight wristed body. Her clothing and shoes are all antique and her straw hat is spectacular:

Rosalinde - my version of Solid silicone Little Miracle

A few WOP (work in progress) photos of my Little Miracle. A sweet silicone kit sculpted by Lilianne Breedwell. Poured by Jennifer Sussman. She is my second (silicone paint work) to date. Painted with Psycho Silicone Paint Base part A and B and Genesis. The tutorials written by Wendy (Dickison) and Donna Lee was invaluable help as well as a reborn paint tutorial by Nicole Russel. Although this is silicone and vastly different (both in method and result) to that of vinyl, part of a reborn paint tutorial can be used. I have given her the name Rosalinde; Lilianne's beautiful OOAK clay sculpt to the right, Jennifers silicone double to the left;

During the process of painting her;

Here she is all ready for showing. As you can see I took many photo's. She is a beautiful newborn sculpt;

She is still a WOP as she is in the process of getting rooted with beautiful light blond mohair from Delta Dawn.

Brown Eyed Girl

I will admit to loving the early Kestners more than any other German made bisques. This young lady has been in my collection for several years. She's a big (27") beautiful Pouty Closed mouth Kestner. She wears a lovely and early brown straw bonnet with beautiful long silk ribbon ties paired with a empire waist silk dress buttoned in the back. Her beautiful brooch is a family heirloom and is a Norwegian Sølje. She carries a bead embroidered antique purse. The little toddler holding her hand is a character child by Kammer & Reinharts (mold 126, 18"), one of my favorite child molds. She looks so sweet in her original silk dress. One of the first antique dolls I bought.

There comes a time when an update is due

For a long time now, I have been wanting to try my hand at silicone painting. It has been kind of a closed book and a mystery for us who were uninitiated. The opening finally came when a lovely artist; Wendy Dickison shared a tutorial with us collectors. I bought my first kit from Emily Jameson. A sweet little baby girl sculpt called Kate. I received the blank silicone parts. Upon painting him I realized that he was a she, and I named him Joey. I finished him a while ago and finally found the time to give him hair. Joey is micro rooted; one hair at the time with beautiful dark brown kid mohair from Angela Sprott Her hair is absolutely gorgeous; fine, strong and shiny; This is how the blank kit looks like;

This is little Joey after he has been panted and given hair;

http://babies-by-emily.webs.com/ http://angelasrebornnursery.webs.com/home.html