Saturday 19 July 2014

New Helen Kish Dolls!

  So the new Helen Kish dolls for 2014 have been announced with pictures on her website. I'm not overly interested in Riley and Toots, they're too small for me. I prefer dolls I can do something for but sewing for dolls that small, I find I have to omit too many details which frustrates me.
 I am interested in the new Olivia and the super limited Shea.


 I love the Olivia face. I love the fact that depending on the angle she can look petulant, or pensive, or simply bewildered. So many dolls have one of three expressions - blank, smiling, or half smiling; I like that Olivia is different.
 Olivia Tristesse has a sweet pink and white dress that manages to be pretty and feminine without being frilly and some great striped socks! I love striped socks. I'm not sure how useful her boots would be though, in the pictures they look like pink gumboots.
 I like Olivia Tristesse's red hair. That's one of the things I like about Helen Kish dolls, how many have red hair. In my family almost everyone has reddish blonde hair on my father's side and reddish brown hair on my mother's side, and as a child it always annoyed me that dolls never had reddish hair.

 Shea Gamine is the other doll I like. I really like the Shea face sculpt. Of all the Chrysalis dolls, Shea's sculpt is in my opinion the most "dolly" sculpt. It has more beauty than character. And even though I like Olivia because of her character, just to be contrary I like the Shea sculpt for it's beauty. And I like this Shea in particular.
 Of the previous incarnations of Shea, two have been overtly girly and two have been fantasy characters. This Shea is a different take. Looking at the pictures, she looks like a bit of a tomboy, or a mischief maker. I can't help but imagine her as a child that's grown up in a circus or is the child of street performers. I love dolls that do that, make you imagine a story for them.
 This Shea is super-limited to 40 and only available to the Kish Collector Society members. But every one is going to have their eyes hand-painted and when you order her you get to choose the eye colour. That is kind of exciting to me. I love the way more and more doll companies are offering customisation options these days.

The downside of these great new dolls is I will probably never get to see either of them in person, my partner and I have started saving, which is seriously cutting into my doll funds. And I still need to get a Piper and a Bethany, because I don't have them yet. Piper is my priority, she is my absolute favourite, but I can't decide whether to buy the 2013 Big Sis Piper (not a huge fan of the white blonde hair) or to wait and see if another Piper is released. I can't help but worry that if I order the current Piper, they will release one I like better; but if I count on that happening the current Piper will sell out and I won't like the next one or there won't be another one.
First world problems of a doll collector.

5 comments:

  1. No chance of picking up a Piper on the secondary market at some point, where you live?

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    1. Probably eventually and of course there's always ebay, but I have the patience of a five-year-old. . . on a good day.

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  2. I stumbled onto your blog and have just bought myself an Olivia... well, she's on layaway and I have a blonde Shea, I plan to make them sisters and want to make matching dresses. I like them for the very same reasons you're attracted to the two dolls; adorable faces. You haven't added to your blog this year, hope you haven't stopped... I really liked reading about how you transformed Peyton -- very nice. I plan to re-wig some of my Kish dolls and your pictures were very specific and fantastic! Thank you.

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    1. Hi, thanks for your kind comment. I hadn't realised how long it had been since I'd updated. I took a break and then got crazy busy, but I AM definitely coming back to it soon.
      Olivia and Shea would make lovely sisters.
      If you do re-wig some of your dolls I'd suggest not actually gluing the wigs on. If the wig fits well it won't move around, it will make styling more difficult, but it means if you find a different wig later that you want to try, you can do it without too much effort.

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