2009 was INCREDIBLE!
I had been working my business full time now for over a year.
I never worked so hard or such long hours in my life!!
I had been working my business full time now for over a year.
I never worked so hard or such long hours in my life!!
I made 31 dolls that year.
I sent 1 doll each to these three countries:
The United Kingdom, Germany and France.
I did a couple of shows that year in the United States so most of the dolls were sold at those live shows. Again, a couple of my collectors bought many of them :)
I attended my 3rd IDEX show in Orlando, in January. Grins!
I was not showing at these shows, I was going to gain knowledge and network with the artists and collectors. I learned SO much going to these shows!
I was becoming the traveler by now.
Not only was I going to Orlando once a year as well as attending local shows in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, I also went to San Antonio Texas this year for the Tiny Treasures Show.
It was a great, smaller show. And I LOVED San Antonio!
I entered a reborn into the Tiny Treasures contest.
It was Alix (Emily head with Alex limbs) who was created using a new technique that I founded~that of prepping this Ashton Drake vinyl with Genesis Matte Varnish, baking, cooling then painting with air dry paints.
This had not been done before and I must say it was a huge success!
Alix looked great!
Alix won first place in three categories:
Best Reborn Rooting
Most Realistic Reborn
And the People's Choice for Most Beautiful Reborn Baby
I could have fainted!
The lovely Marita Winters was head over heals over this baby!
Samantha Gregory was pretty smitten with her too!
To have artists like Marita and Samantha cheering me on, and Laura Tuzio Ross congratulating me as I approached to receive my awards, was the most amazing feeling!
I had to be pinched to believe it!
After returning home, I made the very hard decision to place Alix up for adoption on eBay.
She was adopted and became my highest selling reborn to date, selling at $1275
She is still with her original "mommy" who still loves her very much.
Tiny Treasures was well advertised and advocated by the San Antonio community.
So much so that San Antonio Living even did a short TV promotion!
They asked that my set of twins, Jeffrey and Jennifer, two sweet Doll Dreams sculpts by Didy Jacobsen, (Tessa and Jacky) be present for the filming.
Oh my gosh...what an honor!
I was not there for the filming so I ran up to my hotel room to capture what I can with my camera!
Yes, I took pictures of the TV with my camera! LOL
What a THRILL to see Jeffery as one of the intro's to the show!
They had picked Jennifer up in my absence and didn't place her back in the basket how I had her but it was still exciting to see them on TV!
I taught my first live mini classes right on the show room floor at Tiny Treasures.
More about that next week though as this post is about the dolls :)
Marita loved my work so much that she asked me to do a prototype of her Sweet Stuff kit~
What an HONOR!
With so many wonderful things going on, it was hard to keep my head and feet on the ground!
Tiina of Piccolissimo Baby in France adopted Sweet Stuff to use to showcase her incredible knits and hand made baby outfits.
I entered the Colliii Awards in 2009 and won a nomination with my reborn toddler, Arianna.
I found myself in the Colliii News!
Read the article ~HERE~
MY favorite baby of 2009, next to Alix?
I'd have to say it was Taylor Raine created from the "Taylor" kit by Tamie Yarie.
With the sponsorship of Doll Dreams INC, I found myself living a dream of showing ON the IDEX floor!
I say ON the IDEX floor because typically, in the past IDEX shows, reborn artists were always given a place in the Retail Room of the show, which was only opened on Saturday and Sunday of the show, not on Friday, opening day.
The reborn industry worked very hard to gain access to the main showroom floor.
I had nothing to do with gaining this access but was ecstatic to be ON the showroom floor!
First, I taught a 2 day LDC painting class the day before the show opened as well as on Friday, opening day of the show.
Oh how I hated missing that opening day on the showroom floor but, I had two amazing ladies who started out as customers who became dear, dear friends assist me and run my booth for me.
There is a LOT of work involved in preparing for a show of this magnitude, and a lot of expense!
Aside from all that...I needed pinched that this dream of showing on the IDEX floor had become real.
Oh my goodness it was so wonderful on the showroom floor!
Meeting with the artists who so many had become such personal friends as well as loving on the collectors!
In October, I found myself and my dolls in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the
2010 Doll and Teddy Bear Expo.
What a GREAT time that was!
I taught another LDC class that the class supplies did not show up in time for but...my students were amazing!
I sent 1 doll each to these three countries:
The United Kingdom, Germany and France.
I did a couple of shows that year in the United States so most of the dolls were sold at those live shows. Again, a couple of my collectors bought many of them :)
I attended my 3rd IDEX show in Orlando, in January. Grins!
I was not showing at these shows, I was going to gain knowledge and network with the artists and collectors. I learned SO much going to these shows!
I was becoming the traveler by now.
Not only was I going to Orlando once a year as well as attending local shows in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, I also went to San Antonio Texas this year for the Tiny Treasures Show.
It was a great, smaller show. And I LOVED San Antonio!
I entered a reborn into the Tiny Treasures contest.
It was Alix (Emily head with Alex limbs) who was created using a new technique that I founded~that of prepping this Ashton Drake vinyl with Genesis Matte Varnish, baking, cooling then painting with air dry paints.
This had not been done before and I must say it was a huge success!
Alix looked great!
Best Reborn Rooting
Most Realistic Reborn
And the People's Choice for Most Beautiful Reborn Baby
I could have fainted!
The lovely Marita Winters was head over heals over this baby!
Samantha Gregory was pretty smitten with her too!
To have artists like Marita and Samantha cheering me on, and Laura Tuzio Ross congratulating me as I approached to receive my awards, was the most amazing feeling!
I had to be pinched to believe it!
After returning home, I made the very hard decision to place Alix up for adoption on eBay.
She was adopted and became my highest selling reborn to date, selling at $1275
She is still with her original "mommy" who still loves her very much.
Tiny Treasures was well advertised and advocated by the San Antonio community.
So much so that San Antonio Living even did a short TV promotion!
They asked that my set of twins, Jeffrey and Jennifer, two sweet Doll Dreams sculpts by Didy Jacobsen, (Tessa and Jacky) be present for the filming.
Oh my gosh...what an honor!
I was not there for the filming so I ran up to my hotel room to capture what I can with my camera!
Yes, I took pictures of the TV with my camera! LOL
What a THRILL to see Jeffery as one of the intro's to the show!
They had picked Jennifer up in my absence and didn't place her back in the basket how I had her but it was still exciting to see them on TV!
I taught my first live mini classes right on the show room floor at Tiny Treasures.
More about that next week though as this post is about the dolls :)
Marita loved my work so much that she asked me to do a prototype of her Sweet Stuff kit~
What an HONOR!
With so many wonderful things going on, it was hard to keep my head and feet on the ground!
Tiina of Piccolissimo Baby in France adopted Sweet Stuff to use to showcase her incredible knits and hand made baby outfits.
I entered the Colliii Awards in 2009 and won a nomination with my reborn toddler, Arianna.
I found myself in the Colliii News!
Read the article ~HERE~
MY favorite baby of 2009, next to Alix?
I'd have to say it was Taylor Raine created from the "Taylor" kit by Tamie Yarie.
2010 brought many amazing wonders!
With the sponsorship of Doll Dreams INC, I found myself living a dream of showing ON the IDEX floor!
I say ON the IDEX floor because typically, in the past IDEX shows, reborn artists were always given a place in the Retail Room of the show, which was only opened on Saturday and Sunday of the show, not on Friday, opening day.
The reborn industry worked very hard to gain access to the main showroom floor.
I had nothing to do with gaining this access but was ecstatic to be ON the showroom floor!
First, I taught a 2 day LDC painting class the day before the show opened as well as on Friday, opening day of the show.
Oh how I hated missing that opening day on the showroom floor but, I had two amazing ladies who started out as customers who became dear, dear friends assist me and run my booth for me.
There is a LOT of work involved in preparing for a show of this magnitude, and a lot of expense!
Aside from all that...I needed pinched that this dream of showing on the IDEX floor had become real.
Meeting with the artists who so many had become such personal friends as well as loving on the collectors!
In October, I found myself and my dolls in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the
2010 Doll and Teddy Bear Expo.
What a GREAT time that was!
I taught another LDC class that the class supplies did not show up in time for but...my students were amazing!
They all had something to contribute to the class and with me demonstrating the techniques (which they all loved) we managed to complete a full class. The supplies showed up at the end of the last day!
I had a table of reborn babies and my two amazing friends once again tagged along to help me.
We decided to be Dr. Debbie and her nurses!
Aren't we adorable???
This was a wonderful show! I am sad that it was the last EXPO show that was held.
They had a GREAT photo booth!
I haven't done the 2010 tally of dolls yet but at that show, I had Cathy Rowland's twin sculpts,
Logan and Leah prototypes that she signed in person for me:
Such sweet babies with full lower torsos.
I made 30 dolls in 2010.
Of those, 13 of them were prototypes.
The most popular prototype and probably one of the most coveted LE kits of all time was
Jayden by Natalie Scholl.
I still cannot believe that I had the honor of doing this prototype!
Natalie was at the 2009 Tiny Treasures show and also liked my work.
then another prototype that I did, Kristaleta by Laura Tuzio Ross at $1625
What is bigger for me than that ending sale price is the fact that one of my favorite artists (remember, I cried when I met her??) asked me to reborn one of her prototypes. She had asked me earlier in the year when she saw my work in person at IDEX.
She was not a prototype but was a lot of fun!
The prototypes that I did that year were:
Wee Yawns by Marita Winters
Payton, Capri and Sydney by Jorja Pigott
Jayden by Natalie Scholl
Kristaleta by Laura Tuzio Ross
Logan, Leah and Fawn by Cathy Rowland
Noah by Jessica Schenk
Ryan by Samantha Gregory
Nicky Jack by Nikki Britt
Dimples by Melissa Palesse
Dimples melted my heart and I was not a bit sad when she didn't meet reserve on eBay.
I have added her to my personal collection and call her Sammie.
What an incredible line up of artists and sculpts!!!
I still can't believe it all!
I also added another baby to my collection, one I made for myself who I call Abi.
She is made from the Beautiful Embrace doll by Berenguer.
So, that year, 2 of my dolls went to the UK...one of them being Jayden.
1 went to Canada as a gift baby to a dear friend.
And Kristaleta went to Australia!
At the end of 2010, I started studying the art of silicone painting.
2009 and 2010 were launching years for my business.
I am sure that I didn't sleep at all those two years!!
They were lengthy years so I'll cover 2011-2012 tomorrow.
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