Banking on it

Gee, last week I missed the raggedy Wednesday post. By the time the day rolled around I felt as if I were missing something and sure enough....it was my posting.
Well anyway, here we are one week later.
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I picked up this cute bank and a large, I mean LARGE

yard sale set up at a local fairground twice a year. It was the first time we attended this event and since then we have gone back 2 more times. I found Ann for 8 dollars and was so excited! 

Also finding Andy at an inside flea market for 5 dollars  made my week.

Both are hard plastic money banks and both have their original plugs. Yee haw!

Happy Valentines Day! C&G Design                                                                                                                                                                                   

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design 

The Big Baby

Hi there! I'm back on track, goodness. It has been six months of recovery but I'm cancer free today. Once I 'm back in the swing of things I'll update my health and the experiences that occurred in the last 10 months.
Today...I want to show what we purchased last Sunday (fathers day!).



She is a very large bisque baby, and I just love her! We were informed of a new flea market inside a old Ames building and what a nice place! And what a big place! Hubs had been saving for weeks to take me there, what a guy!

I love her little/big face.......

She wears regular toddler clothing and check out the shoes.

Someone had handmade this little darling.....except, they used terrycloth material for the arms and legs and terry stretches, not good for this application .

Anyway, I hand washed her clothing (except the underwear) and re-dressed her.

Isn't she adorable? C&G design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

My Very First Antiqued Bisque Doll

I'm so excited!!!When Madame and I went thrifting I found this beautiful bisque doll sitting alone on a shelf. Better yet.....the day we went it was 1/2 price on everything but green tag. My lady was yellow.....$6.99, that made her a whooping $3.50. I really was amazed to find there is a mold number on her breast plate, I kept repeating 1896, COD 2 DEP, as if I could conjure up what the letters and numbers meant. Her silk feels scrumptious and does the feathers of her boa.
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I believe her hair is real human hair although it is really hard to tell, saran will have the same feel to it if it is kept exposed. She has to most marvelous pins in her hair and I can life the wig to see a head cap underneath. A lot of antique dolls were made with a entering hole on the top of their head so there was access to the sleep eyes, she has that hole.

The minute I saw the teeth, I kinda knew this doll is no ordinary porcelain doll. I really don't care to collect the breakable characters primarily because they all are......so pretty, it's hard to choose. I do have a few which I deem as unusual.

Searching on the Internet I found COD stands for 'Cuno Otto Dressel', Cuno and Otto are brothers, they had Dressel dolls which were manufactured from the 1700'2 to 1945 or there abouts. It was a business passed from one relative to another.

DEP is a marking Armand Marseille used, it was common place for the pricey doll head designers to sell molds to other companies and they did frequently. They were the top french bebe doll makers and today, the name is well sought after. Some people believe DEP is a registration mark from the french trade.

1896 stands for the series the doll falls under, portrait dolls.

She is stuffed with hard sawdust or rags, her legs are classic of the German dolls on the market.

I'm thinking she is not a reproduction as I found her mold numbers listed at several online auctions, most dolls had the sleep eyes but Simon manufactured some painted eyes. I wouldn't think the reproducer could use the mark or mold but who knows??

I still love her just the same. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Kewpie Cute

Smile! And have a good day. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

A New Doll

I picked up this little cutie the other day, I don't believe she is a Bradley doll but if I find later that to be the case, she is a very early one. She wears a silk dress and at one point she had something attached to her left wrist, probably a parasol. The right hand holds her gown skirting. She is a stockinette doll, that is a knit fabric over a molded face and then painted features. Can you believe I had to bargain for her at Goodwill? She wasn't priced and the suggested $5.99 for her..."what." We settled on the in-between price of $2.99. Thank goodness my kids weren't with me, they'd be mortified.

She did have a base, hummm.....maybe a Bradley anyway. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Ruth doll by Horseman

I found another beauty at Goodwill the other day, she is Ruth made by Horseman. At first I could not locate an identity until I read Ruth dolls have a T-14, T-16 or T-18 for a marking at the back of the head. Mine is marked "Horseman T-16". The number represents the size in inches. There are alot of Ruth dolls, some with long hair, some with a slightly different face mold as she still is being made today.

I was surprised to see the dirty legs of Ruth sticking out from underneath some other toys. I could tell she was old as she dates to the late 50's. After putting on my glasses (yuck) and reading the marks on the neck, I sort of, kinda, held Ruth close to me. Another shopper, older lady, declared to me that "they have such good dolls here, just look at the ones over there....one has a teddy at her feet." I didn't have the heart to tell her the porcelain dolls are.....just that. I did look down at Ruth though and discovered I was hugging her.

I think I could almost squeal when I saw she still had her original clothing on although missing her nurses cap which shouldn't be a problem.

I can remember bidding on a Ruth doll when I first was a member of EBay. She was composition and I wanted her bad. Well, it was grocery shopping day and I'd forgotten I left a bid two days before, she was sold to someone for a fraction of what I had for a bid. I remembered her while driving home and called my husband but I was too late. :(

Ruth is a very early doll for Horseman, the vinyl doll was in production as early as 1950, the first dolls had dimpled knees, both in the front and in the back like the model shown above. By the late fifties, her knees had become more rounded as in my doll and the one below. Into the sixty, her face had changed slightly, her value varies, perfect condition dolls are listed from $80 to $150 on EBay.

Sure is a whole lot more than $2.99. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Playpal dolls, my next project

Every doll collector will tell you...they would do anything for a Patti Playpal doll, she was the first of many others, all just as well but PP is the best.
I found my Sayco at GW about 3 years ago, I paid....if memory serves me right $9.99. Even in her poor condition she is worth it, she also has no particular name. Here is a excellent photograph of her from the Internet, I have another clear picture on one of my other photo disc but I'm not real sure how to lift it. Trust me though, the original dress for this doll is red, always red. My doll in in mint condition, no holes, dents or scrapes.....other than her hair and eye lashes she would be perfect. Well, I've decided now is the time to re-root her hair, a tough job I've never done. We shall see how it goes.

Playpal dolls are 36 inches tall and wear a child's size three clothing. They are not to be confused with walker dolls of 32'' in size. The walkers are made of a lighter weight plastic, playpals are heavy.

My doll has the mirrored hands made to be held by the child who cherished this doll, playpals are often referred to as companion dolls.

She really is beautiful, she will also stand alone, a plus when buying vintage or antique dolls. The Sayco was made in the late 60's.

I know the clothing my doll is wearing is not original but I believe the shoes to be, someone has mended the left shoe at the curve of the toes and obviously I need to repair the buckle part.

Look at the bottoms of the sole! I feel so lucky to have these with her.

Usually it's the other way around with the clothes and shoe. C&G Design.

Happy Earth Day!

Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.

Berenguer Babies

Hallelujah! I had almost really did not believe my eyes when I saw my newest doll in the thrift shop. She is a Berenguer Baby, or also commonly known as Reborn. How easy it is to understand about reborn dolls, they are the dolls re-manufactured again only with the newest techniques, classic face molds/realistic vinyl or bisque.

When I first was introduced to these little cuties I learned most doll people order kits, use different placement methods/material for hair. So off I went...to buy me a kit....

Yep, teeny, weeny, nine inch baby was $250.00, and that was the cheapest! I think I'll wait.

Here is my vinyl find at the second hand shop, her name is Sueno, 21 inch. She is from the classic collectible series (Not for children under 14 years of age). See her photo below, unfortunately my Sueno doesn't have her suit or cap.

But with the help of this picture, it won't take me long to make a near copy of the jumper with matching cap. Here she is without the flash of my camera turned on. Isn't she sweet? Berenguer made dolls for the past 50 years.

I also discovered the vinyl dolls are scented to smell like new babies and Sueno is...

powder not puke though, thank goodness! C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.

Finishing the Soft Sculpture Doll

I must say..it really did not take much to decide about my dolls hair. The pattern called for yarn so we went for the wool 2 ply yarn I have on a large cone. It's not that hard to texture yarn, or so I thought. My idea to curl hair is to tightly wrap the yarn around knitting needles, wet the yarn and then allowing it to dry. In theory, the "hair" will remain in a circular the size of the needle. In theory. The one problem with this technique is winding the yarn the opposite way it was coming off the cone. One twist faded out the other twist and when it came to pushing them off the knitting needle, the yarn popped with a straight spring. I can't tell you how many I threw away before I figured it out. Anyway here is a back view of the dolls head, the ash smudge is something picked up and not actually in the hair. I also added a bow in the back of the dress, the weight of the bow gave the garment more of a flare around her behind, giving her the effect she is bottom heavy, which she is...

Here she is bald with the flash on......

And again with hair.

Here she is with out the flash....

and here she again with hair and in the evening light as opposed to the morning light.

And here she is with a pre-flash, her skin can look so different at times. She also seems to have blush more times than others.

Oh, and her name......

What a nice day for Lu Lu.

The sun is so warm.....

I can see you this way.....

and that way.

I can see you under the shade,

and close-up.

But most of the time I like you to see me with my best friend. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,

C&G Design.