Play Sets: Bounce House Sample

  Okay. I admit it. the play set for this month is a bit of a cheat, but also really cool. To preface a little bit, when Ivy was little she was really into Kelly dolls. Her favourite dolls to play with were 'Blue', a former Tommy, and her sister 'Rose', who was a Kelly, so most of the doll stuff bought for Ivy had to fit them. One Christmas I was searching for Kelly sized stuff on Ebay when I came across today's 'playset'. I don't remember what I searched to find it, and I've never seen another one. It was perfectly Kelly sized though, so I bought it for Ivy.

Modeled for size here by Gareth World.

  It's a perfect little bounce house.

 I always thought it might have been a salesman's sample. In looking on Ebay I see that there's a miniature Spiderman bounce house in the  'Sold' listings, that calls it a 'miniature store display'. I don't see bounce houses being sold in stores, so...? It's labeled 'Action Air'  ,which is a company that makes full size bounce houses.

  The bounce house is made almost just like a real one. The major difference is that instead of inflating, it's filled with foam. There's a zipper on the bottom.

There's a warning on the front. It's obviously meant to show that there's a label on the real one, but this tiny one isn't very legible.

The opening to the bounce section has a Velcro closure.

The sides are mesh, just like a real bounce house.  I'll tell you a story of what happened to child Fuzzy in a bouncy castle once, but not until the end of this post.

 There's a narrow section in the middle for kids to climb from the bounce section to the slide section.

The tunnel emerges at the top of the slide.

And there's the slide. 

I'm not sure what originally attached to the Velcro strip on the slide. Any ideas?

There are padded posts at the bottom of the slide.

  Okay. now for that story about what happened to little Fuzzy in the bouncy house at a kids event thing. Fuzzy, along with a bunch of other kids we didn't know, was bouncing in a bouncy castle, way back when the kids were small. Fuzz must have been about 10 or younger. All the kids were bouncing and having a good time. All of a sudden, the inflating device conked out, and someone screamed for all the kids to get out of the castle. The kids shot for the exit. Fuzz was knocked down by the herd of panicked kids. Unable to get up with all the kids trying to run out, (because the floor was squashy, and getting more so by the second as the air fizzed out of the castle.),  Fuzz rolled around, trying to get up. I was panicking too, because my kid had suddenly disappeared. I couldn't get in to Fuzz until all the other kids were out of the way. Once they were,  I dived inside, only to find Fuzz nearly vanished in the quickly deflating bouncy castle's floor. You see, Fuzz had not been able to get up, and had rolled into the crack between the floor and the wall. If I hadn't been such a paranoid mom that I stood and watched Fuzz bounce to make sure he didn't get abducted, things could have ended tragically. Once that castle deflated, the weight of it might have made it impossible for Fuzz to get out at all. Fuzz could have suffocated. I managed to pull Fuzz out of the crack and we got out. I'm not sure which of us were most scared by the whole thing.

  So that's this month's playset. See you tomorrow for the Doll Book of the Month selection, and soon we'll see my recent Goodwill finds.

A New Virtual Doll Convention and New Tonner Dolls

  Ken and I have had a date to photograph a wedding for months now. We were paid ages ago,for the wedding that was originally supposed to be in May or June. The wedding date got moved due to the virus,and it finally happened Saturday. I had part of the thousands of pictures we took edited, nd my computerfinally died it's final death. It's been a while coming, so it was no big surprise,just really bad timing. I've been trying to get it back on for three days, but I think I can safely say it's a goner. So, now I have to find some way to get ALL my photos off the old computer, and figure out some way to get mine fixed or replaced. The money for the wedding photos was supposed to be for our trip to Englnad, which admittedly isn't going to happen for a while now,but it will still be needed when it does. So I don't know what I'm going to do. At the moment I'm using Ken's computer,and I feel like I'm working at Dennis Nedrey's desk in "Jurassic Park". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_UPLVX9O8k
  I have been trying to get my computer back on for days because I had some things to share with you. First of all, there's another virtual doll convention, next month. 'Summer Fling' begins July 30th and ends August 2nd.  The cost is $15. You can find out all about it and register HERE.
  Sideshow,maker of great figures of famous people in iconic roles, also had a virtual convention recently. You can still see some of the videos from it,which you can find out about HERE. You can get $15 off by signing up for their newsletter. Remember Robert Tonner's short lived Phyn and Aero dolls? Sideshow is now working with Robert Tonner's Phyn and Aero dolls, and has two new dolls available now.

You can see them on the Sideshow site HERE,,and you can watch Sideshow's interview with Robert from the virtual con HERE.
  That's it for today. Hopefully I will solve my computer problems soon. One way or another I'll be back at the end of the month with the playset of the month.

Repairing a Cloth Faced Doll

  When I was redoing Ivy's room I came across this poor girl.

  I had actually owned this doll before I even met Ken. I found her at Big Lots, back when ours was called 'Odd Lots',(Because there was already a store in Ohio called 'Big Lots',so they couldn't use the name.),and had all sorts of weird stuff,sometimes only one of some things. It used to be interesting to shop at Odd Lots, because you never knew what you'd find. Their buyers were encouraged to take things that were interesting and a great deal, even if they could only buy a few,or even one of them. I know this because after the store where we worked when we met went out of business, Ken assistant managed an Odd Lots. Now Big Lots is just like any other store, carrying mostly the same stuff all the time, and the same stuff as everybody else. They're not cheaper than everybody else any more either. When I found this doll, she was the only one of her kind in the store. I bought her because I thought she was so pretty and she reminded me of the doll in the book "Magic Elizabeth".
 

 "Magic Elizabeth" was one of my favourite childhood books, and my kids all loved it when I read it to them. You may have read my review of the book HERE.  So I intended to give the doll to one of my future children, and Ivy got it. 
  I realize the doll, (Let's call her 'Elizabeth' from now on.), has a more 1920's dress ,but hey,it's a general reminding,not an exact duplicate.
  Anyway, she had seen better days when I found her. She had been shoved up against Ivy's window at some point,while laying on Ivy's bed. In the winter the windows sweat from the cold air outside meeting the warmer, (although not by much!), air inside our house. The doll got wet, and apparently she was there for a while. Ivy frequently shoved things against the window and they got wet that way. Her curtains suffered too. The doll had mildew stains all over her face, and somewhat milder staining on her chest. I don't remember if I had to put her dress back on her when I found her or not, but it's perfectly fine,so she may have been naked. Her hair has come unglued too, and a piece of it was found separately from her head. So I rescued the loose hunk of hair. (I guess that's a 'hank' of hair really.)
   I thought about using Stain Devils for mildew stains on her, but that would have meant using a huge amount of the stuff, and then washing Elizabeth, which would have been hard on her. That type of hair doesn't wash well. It unravels Also, her stains were so bad that I didn't think even Stain Devils could help her.

  I decided instead to give her a paint job. Amazingly, the ivory paint I already have was pretty much a perfect match for her.

I wish it had been a matte paint, instead of a gloss, but at least she didn't turn out shiny.

Her arms and legs were fine,so I only had to paint her face and torso. I was no way going to try to recreate that face,so I painted around the painted features. She looks a lot better now, but I had to go over her face pretty thickly with the paint to cover all the staining,so now her face is stiff and scratchy.
 

  Her body didn't require as much paint,since the staining wasn't as bad there, so it's not too bad. I wish her face hadn't come out so scratchy. She's not exactly cuddly now. She was also now awfully pale and a bit scary looking. That's not cuddly either. So, even though we weren't positive there had been blush on her cheeks before,,after consulting with  Ivy, I blushed Elizabeth's cheeks. It wasn't as easy as you would think. That's because I used watered down acrylic paint,and while the one cheek worked out fine, the other one wouldn't hold the paint. Instead, the watery paint being rubbed in by my finger began to wash away the ivory paint underneath! I had to stop and let what was there dry, and then do another coat...a few times.his is how she looks now.

 

 
 I still need to replace that hank of hair, but at the moment it has gotten mislaid. (I put it somewhere safe so it wouldn't get accidentally thrown away,or stuck full of cat hair.)

 

  Her bangs need to be glued to her forehead. You can see from the first picture that the forehead is darker, and the dark place is in a straight line. Obviously they were glued before.

  I have to find the other hank of hair first though. Then I can put the hair back like it should be.

See? That one piece of her bangs is trying to get away already.

    I'm going to try sewing it to her head instead of just gluing it. Ivy might some day want to pass her along to the kid she says she's never going to have,and sewing will last longer and be less stiff than glue.

You Can Tell It's Martha Armstrong Hand. It's Swell!

  It is SO HOT! It's been in the 90's,and in our house, with no air conditioning, even hotter. It rained today, but it didn't help. On top of that, I can never close my computer, because if it goes off, I can't get it back on. I am going to be getting away from all this soon,to go where it's even hotter, to help Lori move. Yes, Lori is moving AGAIN. She just moved to Georgia a year ago last month. Unfortunately she is not moving back to Ohio. She's only moving about 45 minutes further North,to a place where the property taxes aren't so high. I'm going down soon to help her finish packing her house up. I'm kind of looking forward to driving 12 hours, just to sit in the air conditioned car! And of course, I get to see Lori. (I hope that didn't sound like I'm looking more forward to the air conditioning.)
  You know that old Mattel advertising slogan,"You can tell it's Mattel. It's swell!"? A more accurate version would have been,"You can tell it's Martha Armstrong Hand. It's got that face!". Martha's dolls have a particular look. Their faces are usually chubby cheeked, with big eyes. Once you've become accustomed to Martha's dolls, you can spot one easily.

Martha with some of her creations, including Baby First Step, Shoppin' Sheryl,Drowsy,Baby Beans,Baby Pattaburp, (on her lap), Tearful Cheerful,and Tatters on the right of her lap.

  Back in the 60's and 70's many of Mattel's dolls were sculpted by Martha Armstrong Hand. Some of her Mattel sculpts include  Baby Pattaburp, Baby First Step, most of the first Liddle Kiddles, the Sunshine Family, Rosebud Baby, Love n Touch Baby, New Living Skipper, Drowsy, Baby Beans, Barbie family dolls Skipper, Midge, Alan, Skooter, Ricky, Tutti, Toddd, and Barbie's friend Steffie, a sculpt still popular with Barbie collectors and still being used by Mattel. She also sculpted the heads for Tutti's friend Chris, and the Tutti sized Buffy doll. Both Chris and Buffy's heads had previously been used for Kiddles. Several of Martha's dolls have been featured here on the blog. Baby First Step had her day HERE.

Shoppin' Sheryl was seen HERE.

Different versions of Drowsy were posted HERE and HERE.

Other dolls made form the Drowsy head sculpt were seen HERE and HERE.

Cuddly Beans.

 

Sleeper Keeper.

    You can see a Rosebud Baby HERE.
 

Malibu P.J.,who has the Steffie head sculpt can be seen HERE.
 

 Love N Touch Baby was featured in THIS POST.

You saw one of my Living Skippers HERE.

  Martha was well known as a doll artist, but in her early career she worked for View Master, costuming, and, eventually, sculpting figures for the 3-D photos.

This is from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

Martha sculpted many of the figures for the View Master Disney reels. I used to love the 3-D settings View Master did, like this one from Bambi.

Martha, working on a View Master setting.

Martha touches up her Bambi.

Her Disney sculpts for View Master included Peter Pan, Bambi, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge and Chip and Dale.
  Martha also did some work assisting animators at Hanna Barbara on such well known characters as Tom and Jerry.
   Martha is known for her 'ahead of their time' ball jointed dolls, which were extremely posable. She authored the book, "Learning to be a Doll Artist", which showed how her ball jointed dolls were made.
  

   Photos of Martha's amazing jointed dolls were used for the book, "Living Dolls", written by Martha's husband, David. David is quite famous himself, having worked as an animator at Disney, and as supervising director on "Snow White" and "Bambi", amongst other Disney projects.

  

The book told the imaginary story of what happened when Martha's dolls came to life.

 The photos in the book featured a collection of  limited edition dolls made by Martha, called "America's Future". The dolls, with their diverse ethnicities, represented America.

  The book is available on Amazon.
  A NIADA (National Institute of Doll Artists) member called Martha, “the most technically correct doll artist of our time”. You can see Niada's page on Martha HERE. It contains information on Martha, and some photos of her wonderful dolls.
  If you're still curious about Martha Armstrong Hand and her dolls, a video called, "The Work of Martha Armstrong Hand" can be purchased HERE. It can also be viewed on YouTube HERE.