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Profile for Sher in Texas
I come by my love of dolls naturally, my paternal grandmother, Francie, loved them too. She was a very creative person, there did not seem to be anything she could not make or fix! When I was younger, my favorite time was spent shopping at tag sales (garage sales) with my grandmother looking for dolls that needed to be fixed and made better. This grandmother bought me my first Barbie doll, a platinum swirl for my 3rd birthday. I am the tallest one the picture below - the other cutie is my sister, Heather.
I remember getting a new Barbie doll for every birthday from my Grandmother Francie. That's a lot of Barbie dolls! How I wished I had all the ones I owned as a kid. I did have a few that survived my childhood; 2 Platinum Bubble Cut Barbie dolls, 3 Francie dolls, a bendable leg Midge doll and several of my Mod Barbie dolls ie. Malibu Barbie, Ken, Skipper and Francie and couple of Twist and Turn Barbie dolls. As an adult, I started to collect Ponytail Barbie dolls and many of the Barbie doll friends. After that, I went on to collect and make porcelain dolls. Then in the 1990's, I went back to collecting Barbie dolls. Currently, I collect all types Fashion dolls!!I began to lose interest in Barbie dolls for many reasons. I became disappointed in the lack of novelty and quality in Mattel's new Barbie dolls. I was discouraged with many of Mattel's attitudes and sales tactics. Most upsetting was the attitude that Barbie doll was an investment, not a toy. It got to the point if I was not willing to display it, or take it out of the box , then I did not buy the doll in question. I rarely buy Barbie dolls anymore but this last year, I could not resist the new "Fashion Model Line", the new Silkstone dolls. I have one blonde Fashion Model dressed in the "Garden Party" fashion.I still collect the mod cousin of Barbie doll, Francie. I just cannot resist a pretty Francie. I identified with Francie growing up and she retains a special place in my heart.I am not sure why I started collecting dolls originally. I was young when my Grandmother Francie died and I still miss her terribly. Dolling was something she and I did together.
I have collected several types of dolls over my lifetime. I collected porcelain dolls ie. German Bisque, and reproduction French Porcelain, both ones I bought and ones I made. I have my Mother's collection of foreign dolls, mostly from 40's and 50's. There are composition dolls ie. Mary Hoyer type dolls, a couple Madame Alexander ( Cissy, Wendy, and Elise) and my sister's Beloved Sweet Sue. I am preserving the family dolls, hopefully for the next generation. My vinyl 1950's fashion dolls collection include the vinyl American Character Sweet Sue 22" tall plus couple Ms. Revelon's(several different sizes) and Dollikins. These are the older fashion dolls in my collection. I have some of the larger modern vinyl dolls such as llse Whippler, Jennifer by Lee Middleton, Fiba. I had have the smaller six inch fashion dolls ie. Starr,Princess Tenko, Dawn and Family Corner's dolls. I also have lots of Fashion dolls other than Barbie, lots of look-a-likes and celebrity dolls. My passion over the last couple of years and what I am actively collecting have been those dolls not available in the States ie. Sindy and Jenny! Also I collect most of the 15" fashion dolls Gene, Brenda Starr, Alex by Madame Alexander, Daisy and Willow from Knickerbocker and Tonner's Tyler. I have one Kitty Collier by Tonner, one Eve by Susan Waaken and have several of the Elles by Jakks Pacific.The Internet,The Doll club and JennySeveral years ago, my collecting was deeply affected by 2 things that occurred simutaneously... I found a Barbie doll club in my area and I got access to the Internet ie.I got my own computer. The local doll club was a great place to see other types of dolls because even though it was a "Barbie Doll Club", many other types of dolls were brought for "Show N Tell". So what I collected began to expand rapidly. The Internet exposed me to collectors from other countries and I actively participated in one of the first Barbie doll Mailing lists owned by Jennifer Warf , called the "JWarf Barbie Mailinglist". It was on this list that I had the opportunity to add to my collection Barbie dolls exclusive to Japan. On one of the "For sale's" list, I found listed a doll called a Jenny doll. She was described as being similar to a Takara Japanese Barbie doll. I spent 15.00 to get my first Jenny off that person's "For sale's" list. I figured I could take a risk on a doll I had never seen for 15.00 and if I did not like her, it would not be a big loss. When that doll arrived, I was struck by how innocent and sweet Jenny's face was. I liked dressing her and redressing her. It revived my interest in handling and playing with my dolls. This was at the height of the "Don't take it out of the box, you will ruin the value of the doll!!" I loved that Jenny was made to be Played with!
I collected Takara's Jenny for a couple of year with the main focus on collecting all of Jenny's friends. I achieved that late in 2000, I collected 49 of the friends. That left me looking for a new direction in my doll collecting. I had started to collect hard to find items like the Vintage Liccas and the Takara BG U dolls. Also, I have started to customize Jenny and to make my own dolls using either parts from the Japanese store Noix de Rome or the Volks base body. I remain passionate over the Japanese doll artists. An example is the doll below by Japanese Doll artist Salt Valley.
I am collecting many different types of resin ball joint dolls. I learned of Volks SuperDollfie in 1999 through ads in HobbyJapan. I got my first Volks SD in 2000 - my precious daughter Nono. From there is has been all down hill.
Obstacles to my collecting The 2 biggest obstacles I constantly face are space and money, I never have enough of either!!! In the latest Barbie doll phase, I did what most new doll collectors do... you buy everything you can lay hands on with very little focus. I think at the height of that Barbie phase, the Barbie Dolls had more room than my husband and I did! Over the last couple of years, I have sold a large portion of my Barbie collection although looking around my doll room you might not believe that! My Doll Room I am incredibly lucky to have one whole room in my house that is filled from floor to ceiling with my dolls. My husband has made this happen - from design to production. on the west wall the doll house
The dollhouse was my talented husband's idea. It was originally a closet in the extra bedroom. He knew that I love to do scenes with my dolls and he really wanted me to have an area in the house to do them. The displays in the dollhouse have a theme per room and I rotate them about once a year. My husband designed the bottom shelf of the doll house to allow storage under it. The space allows eight Rubbermaid storage cases -stacked two high. I store the rest of my collection not being displayed in these containers. on the North wall Floor to ceiling display shelving unit
This shelving unit was put together by my husband. Originally I did not have the shelves covered. I have added a light weight plastic called mylar to cover individual shelves to keep the dust out. I attach the mylar with white velcro at the top of the piece. I have a total of 17 shelves. One general rule was that each shelf has it's own theme; this usally meant dolls of the same type on one shelf. The following types of dolls have their own shelves - Sailor Moon dolls, Gene, vintage Barbie dolls, Midge - Barbie dolls friend, Francie, Mod Barbie dolls. I had some dolls like Tammy and the English doll, Sindy that share a shelf because I don't have enough of each type of doll to make an entire shelf. I did some design aspects by trial and error. I discovered that when the bottom shelf held the smaller dolls - they were hard to see. If I placed the bigger dolls at the bottom, I could see them better. On the East wall I have a trundle bed filled with stuff animals and dolls along the bottom of the east wall of the doll room. I have 5 shadow boxes on this wall framing the sole window in the room. The first shadow boxes I made myself; they are not pieces of art but functional.
Later my husband started to make me several shadow boxes that are both functional and beautiful. see below
On the South wall I call this my Jenny wall. It contains five 8 feet long adjustable shelves on runners. These shelves were designed and made by my husband.
My Customizing I was collecting many of the new Barbie dolls as well as vintage and mod. I have never cared much for never removed from box vintage dolls or any pristine dolls. These unloved and unplayed with dolls just never appealed to me. To be honest, I was horrified at the prices that these vintage Barbie dolls brought! I discovered that Barbie dolls with flaws or small problems were relativity inexpensive. I deeply enjoyed getting these flawed dolls and fixing them. Missing facial paint was very common problem. I experimented with lots of painting techniques and paints. I found that I was getting good at the painting. That lead to experimenting with repainting and redoing modern Barbie dolls.
Lots of different types Dolls I think that the doll companies have gotten smart about making reproductions of the 50-60's dolls, for example the Anniversary Dawn. Many things appeal to me because of my fond childhood memories of that doll, time period or era. I find that Gene's appeal is based on my fond memories of both of my grandmothers. I love the style and clothes from the 1950's.My WebsiteI opened my doll site, Sher's Doll Doctor (no longer online) in August 1997. I had begun to buy vintage and Mod Barbie dolls that needed fixing or repairing as way to save money. There were many websites dedicated to Modern Barbie doll and I wanted to do something different. Thus the Doll Doctor was born, a site dedicated to fixing and repairing Barbie doll. Other parts and subsections have been added, so that my website feels like a large house with many rooms. I really do love many types of dolls and my webpage reflects that.The first challenge to creating my webpage was learning HTML. For the first year and half, I wrote my own HTML code and only in the last years, have learned how to use a Webpage builder. I enjoy sharing my collection and my custom dolls on the internet, but to do that you have to have the right tools. Thus, the second challenge is keeping up with technology. I have bought new photographic and new computer equipment about every 2 years. My Dolls ,My Friends and Family I am 40 ish and live in Texas. I am an Occupational Therapist and work in the Public Schools. I am married with no kids. Dan and I |
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