The Second Daydream

 Want To Daydream With Me Again?

 

    Hello there again, dear reader! You might recall that a few days ago, I created a post in which I talked about the creation of my newest Blythe doll and about the kinds of housing that I would find acceptable for my Blythe dolls. Well, I have returned with yet another tidbit regarding my upcoming doll and with more collectable, artist-made miniatures to show and discuss. Hopefully, this next sneak peek will be a bit more enjoyable and a little less heavy on the emotions. I say this, with the knowledge that this next eye chip set may be just a bit unsettling for some. Feel free to scroll past quickly, down to the miniatures discussion on this post, if this sneak peek is just a little too upsetting for you. Without further ado...

 

A bright pink, strawberry jam themed eye chip design.

 

 

    Alright, so we have now arrived at the sneak preview that is one of the most "if you know, you know" moments for those who know this character. In the spinoff novel that this character is from, there is a somewhat funny scene in which this character prepares coffee and serves it to Naomi Misora. She tries to drink the overly sugary concoction, spits it out and exclaims, "Eugh! Murderously sweet!", only to be faced with the fact that that is how this character genuinely thinks all coffee is prepared. As someone who enjoys the possibilities of an AU where Naomi is romantic with this character, I thought it would be amusing to use that scene as an inspiration for an eye chip design and with the words that Naomi chose, I also quickly realized they laid the groundwork for a bit of visual wordplay. The term "sweet" conjured up an image of this character's canon favorite snack, strawberry jam, while the word "murderously" reminded me that strawberry jam can often resemble blood. I then sat for a bit and considered the color profiles of strawberries and strawberry jam, which led me to realize that strawberry milk pink would be a very nice complimentary color. Then, the moment I filled in the strawberry milk pink color, I felt a pang of nostalgia and I realized why almost immediately. This particular shade of pink called up memories of neon pink toys and even a few pastel pink items from... Sanrio. Unfortunately, I am unable to find a comparison photo, but when I was a kid, a lot of Hello Kitty items that featured strawberries had simplified shapes, enlarged yellow seeds, bright green leaves, sometimes a heart-like shape and always a disconnected line somewhere that lent the design a hand-drawn appearance. I remembered those strawberries at that moment and since my custom Blythe dolls from BlytheDreams are usually inspired by my nostalgia and memories, I felt that using one here would be thematically perfect. But I did not want to let things get too comfortably cute in this design, since the quote did use the word, "murderously". Keeping the quote in mind, I added a spilling jar of strawberry jam, questionable looking strawberry jam made even more suspicious by the blood splatters and drips covering the tipped jar, and a dripping, distorted "MURDEROUSLY" in the pink iris. Of course, naturally, to complete the actual quote, I also had to write "SWEET" on the strawberry jam jar. 

 

Have you guessed who I'm having made as a Blythe doll yet? Well, whether or not you have, it's time for... 

 

Daydreaming About Miniatures

 

 

    Much like the last post, in which I discussed options for doll housing, this post is also going to cover a bit of doll item shopping. This time, however, the theme is 1:6 scale furniture. Specifically, dining chairs. Not small accessories like soda cans or towels yet. Those will be a separate, later post. Before we go on ahead though, there are a few rules I have regarding the types of things that I am looking for. 

 

1. I am trying to avoid items that look too plastic, too "Barbie". Nothing against Barbie! I love her! I just don't feel her items are the right visual match for my Blythe dolls. 

2. I am also trying to avoid items that look shaped for young children to play with. Thick, blocky, rounded shapes are a no unless there are no other options.

3. I prefer the items to be made from wood, porcelain or metal, with one exception. I know I said that I am trying to avoid Barbie style stuff and despite that, the exception to this rule is the Tyco Kitchen Littles Collection from the late 1990's. This is because they were a favorite toy series of mine as a little girl and I haven't quite been able to shake that feeling toward them. The second I saw someone list the plates with some knives and grape jelly jars earlier this month, the nostalgia love hit me hard and now I have my heart set on collecting the entire collection for my Blythes. The plus about the KL series is that even though it is all plastic, the makers did a decent job of making it not look quite like plastic. 

4. I am also trying so very hard to keep the items around a certain scale so that my Blythe dolls won't look too big or too small with their things in photos. My Blythes are around 11.5" (inches) tall because BlytheDreams fixes their Blythe heads to A-Zone Pure Neemo bodies, which sets them at around the 1:6 or 1/6 scale range in doll stuff. 

5. I also have some themes which I am trying to keep in mind for the kinds of things I want to collect for my dolls. Those themes include: Disney, Tim Burton, Horror, Halloween, 90's, 80's, 2000's, 50's, 60's, antique, vintage and Victorian. With the exception for some background or storytelling items, such as, say, a carton of orange juice or a bar of soap.

 6. I am also sort of working within a budget. For room boxes, I'd like to stay at around 100.00$ to 500.00$. For furniture, I'm willing to go up to 200.00$ and for smaller accessories, probably 150.00$.

 7. For these reviews, I use a scoring system to help simplify my takes on the items I find. This helps me, visually, to weigh the pros and cons of each item and make my decision. 

 

With that as a set of guidelines, here we go!

 

 

     

A beautifully carved, dark wood chair made by ScrollSawArtbyBC.

 

     Here, we have a beautifully carved wooden chair. It is difficult to understate the challenge of finding chairs that I actually like for my Blythe dolls in 1:6 scale. Especially dining chairs. They are usually plastic or, on closer inspection, 1:12 (six-inch tall dolls) or 1:4 (18 inch tall dolls) scale. If they are not plastic or out of scale, then they are usually garden chairs, wooden benches, woodblock style (think toddler toys) or more like a throne or office chair. Even this one has a slightly woodblock effect to it but that gets overshadowed by the ornate carving style easily. I especially like the two front legs which look like the hind limbs of an ungulate, such as a horse or a pig. They sort of make this chair feel a little Beauty and the Beast to me. Generally, Disney is something I try to avoid, if I can, for my dolls but as far as my 1:6 dolls, well... One of them is literally a Disney character. So I cannot take that back. Might as well lean into it from time to time at this point. I also really like that this chair comes in walnut wood with a natural oil finish, giving it a very striking dark-themed appearance. The price is also much better than I would have imagined for this kind of work, just 35.00$ total. I have seen comparable dining chairs going for 85.00$ and up. 

 

Appearance: ✅ 

Theming: ✅

Attention to Detail: ---- (This would be a check mark but the blockiness takes away, though not too much.)

Material: ✅

Price: ✅

Reviews: ✅    

 

 

A set of little wooden chairs, created and sold by lifydoll.

 

 

    While not as ornate, this set, for 68.58$, does work perfectly well for a slightly modern kitchen or dining room setting. Lifydoll, the artist of this set, also offers some versatility in that the set can be purchased as a single chair, two chairs or four chairs and they can come DIY Kit-Unassembled, Assembled (Not Painted) and Hand Painted Premium. The hand painted option gives the buyer the ability to choose the paint color that the artist will use on the chairs as well. Also, yes, just like the chair I reviewed above this one, these are confirmed to be 1:6 scale. I feel like this set would look right at home in an 80's, 90's or 2000's styled dining room or kitchen set, so even if it is not the most visually interesting for me, it does fit some of the themes that I have laid out. I also really appreciate the fact that these look entirely like realistic miniature chairs, without any blockiness in their design. In my mind, I can visualize Mallymkun or my soon-to-be-newest doll sitting in these, preferably in a dark slate gray or a black and not looking too out of place. However, I still feel like an even more befitting kind of chair could be waiting just around the corner, so let's keep up the search.

 

Appearance: ✅ 

Theming: ✅

Attention to Detail: ✅

Material: ✅

Price: ✅

Reviews: ✅ 

 

 

 

A 1:6 scale French Rococo Louis XV armchair made by AnimalHouseMinis.

   

     Goodness, this one is absolutely lovely! Real, hand-carved wooden, real cotton upholstery and piping... and at 6.5" x 4.5" x 4", it is most certainly scaled for 11" to 12" (inch) fashion dolls. Also, if you open the link, the artist provides the buyer with a lovely historical description of the furniture of the Rococo era. I do, however, have a few small nitpicks in regard to this one. The first is that the design and wood color both disagree and fit in with some of my themes. Mainly the Tim Burton theme. It is difficult to envision this piece in a Burtonesque setting, if that was the route I decided to go with, yet it would somehow fit in with a Burton Alice in Wonderland (Mad T Party) setting if the wood were a darker color. The artist does  not state whether or not it is possible to request a darker wood finish or not but a buyer could always message and ask anyway, right? However, I likely will not be doing that. Unfortunately, this piece goes beyond the 200.00$ maximum budget that I designated earlier for the furniture pieces. This piece in particular is listed for 250.00$ for a single chair. If the reader has ever seen a furnished doll room box listed online for 1,500.00$ or higher, this kind of thing is probably why. Four chairs to fill a small dining room table alone would be 1,000.00$. At this point, I think I am leaning the most toward the second set that I discussed here, as those would likely be able to match the vibes and themes of a wider range of the dolls that will be in my 1:6 scale collection. Let us take a look at one more dining chair though before I make any decisions.

 

Appearance: ✅ 

Theming: 🚫

Attention to Detail: ✅

Material: ✅

Price: 🚫

Reviews: ✅ (Though there is only one, so purchase with care.)

 

 

1/6 Distressed Wooden Table and Chairs by DrevcaUs.

 

 

     Here is a set I have had my eye on for quite a while now for my 1:6 scale dolls. I love that it comes in several color options, namely black, the fact that it looks a little weathered as well as antique, the artist offers it as a single chair, a single small table, a single large table, a small table with four chairs or a larger table with four chairs. The small table measures 7.08" x 4.5" x 4.72" (inches), the larger table measures 8.66" x 4.5" (inches) and the chairs measure 6.5" x 2.83" x 2.55" and a high seated chair from this listing measures 2.91" (inches, in diameter, I think). It could be a little more decorative but for the price, it's honestly in a good sweet spot of not being too ornate or too plain. I should mention that the artist changes the price depending on the order, though. For the small table alone, the price is 55.34$. For a small table with four chairs, the price goes up to 167.34$. For a single large table, the price is 60.34$. A single chair is 43.34$ and lastly, the price for the set that includes a larger table and four chairs, the price is 172.34$. Honestly, I'm a bit tied between the first chair, the second chair set and this full dining set, so I would love to hear your comments! 

 

Appearance: ✅ 

Theming: ✅

Attention to Detail: ✅

Material: ✅

Price: ✅

Reviews: ✅ 

 

    A huge thank you to you if you have stuck with me through this post. I really appreciate it when people take the time to daydream a little about dolly stuff with me. :) I find that it really helps me to clarify what I'm looking for as far as the doll housing and furniture when I write through these posts. It forces me to sit for a while and think very carefully. Being able to stage doll photos as correctly and with as much detail as I possibly can matters a lot to me, in ways that I am yet unable to express. Maybe though, I can make a post in the future about it. I have quite a few influences when it comes to doll staging, ranging from the whimsical (Walter E. Disney), to the gothic (Henry Selick/Tim Burton), to the weird and unexpected (Walter Potter). I would even credit Jan Svankmajer to a degree, for his "Alice in Wonderland" film influencing some of my choices. That, in and of itself, is its own essay of a post that I may create at a later point! For now though, stay tuned for another dolly furniture daydream and for another reveal for my upcoming custom doll! :)