Special Dolls
Something Different
All of
the photographs apearing on this page are the work of Phillip Floria.
Click on Thumnails for larger image
After
accumulating over 300 ceramic dolls; Flo and I have been trying to
restrain or stop bringing them home. It's hard, after all, they are
beautiful, and dolls have a way of speaking to you that's hard to
explain. Yes, they do take up a lot of room.
American Girl Doll |
However in the
process of waneing off the ceramic dolls, we discovered the 18" the
"American Girl" style of dolls and the others like her, "My Generation,
My life and more". What we discovered is that they seem to show up at
the thrift stores almost as often and cost about the same. They are
easier to repair in most cases and new clothes, shoes, and accessories
for them are as easy as a trip to Target, Wal-Mart or Amazon. Because
these dolls are meant for little girls to actually play with them, they
are a lot more resilient to abuse, better rooted hair, plastic heads
and limbs with a very durable cloth body.
"Kimberly" the name Flo gave to the doll, during cleaning, we should
have taken before pictures of "Kimberly" with her rat's nest for hair
and her Crayola makeup job. Kimberly had a badly dislocated hip making
her look like a polio victim. I fussed with her to trying to fix her
Kimberly after cleaning
and hair combing |
broken hip. I
eventually got her upper leg to fit better into the hip socket, but she
really requires major surgery to repair the hip correctly. I really
didn't want to pull the doll apart fix it so it will have to do for
now. Flo worked on her hair and later on presented me with a very
beautiful doll with nice long hair.
I found another one on yesterday's thrift store hunt. We named this
doll in honor of best doll destroyer, lover and doll playmate I ever
knew; my daughter Kelly Celeste. Kelly's Dolls never stayed dressed,
and their hair was never neat again after leaving the box they came in.
She would feed, bathe, and sleep with them and loved them.
Celest waiting for
cleaning and grooming |
"Celeste's"
body was in better shape but her hair had been subjected to the same
"styling by little girl". Flo once again went to work, and preformed a
miracle. Celeste clothes were missing she had only one shoe and looked
in need of a real cleaning. We bought a complete outfit for her at
Target on the way, and now she looks brand new just as she did when she
came out of the box.
I commented to Flo, that with the patience and care she put in to the
last two dolls she must have been good to her dolls when she was child.
She looked up and me and told me she was one of those little girls who
destroyed dolls playing with them. She told me her older sister Jan was
good with dolls and kept a nice collection of dolls, at least until
little Flo got to them, and would wreck havoc on them. I guess that
explains why Kelly was so rough with them too; Daughter like mother
thing...
|
23 July 2022
