Little Darlings Artist Dianna Effner

In today's post, I want to focus on Little Darlings artist Dianna Effner aka the Khaleesi, the Mother of Darlings, Queen of the (an)Dolls...well you get the picture. I think it's of utmost importance to point out first that without Dianna, we would not have these wonderful dolls that so many of us collect and enjoy. Not only did she develop, perfect, and then teach her painting technique to the other artists, but she actually sculpted and created the dolls themselves. 

Annie, painted by Dianna Effner

I do not own a Dianna painted doll, and I have specifically not reviewed any artists whose work I have not seen myself in person. Luckily, my good friend Janice sent Annie to my house for forwarding on to Australia, and she allowed me to open her up and have a look. The first thing that struck me about Annie was how natural her freckles looked. She absolutely looks like a sunkissed little girl in the middle of summer. I was really impressed when I noticed that even her little chest is freckled! What great attention to detail. 

Close up of Annie's eyes and face

As far as Annie's eyes go, I love the color that Dianna is able to achieve. The color is so realistic, which I think is hardest to achieve with green eyes - I could be wrong but from looking at many, many dolls, green seems to be the hardest to nail down. A friend of mine subscribed to Dianna's Reborn Revolution videos at one time, and in those videos Dianna details the process used for giving the eyes their life-like effect. She uses photos of real children and expertly mixes colors together in order to get just the right look. With this doll in particular, you can really tell the level of care that was taken in her creation. 

A photo of Annie dressed by her Mumma

If I had to use one word to describe Dianna's style, I would say "natural." She goes for an all natural look, one that is very realistic. It's easy to imagine this girl playing in a sandbox somewhere because her features so resemble that of a real girl. 

Thanks for reading Little Darlings artist series so far! These are all the dolls I have at the moment, but I am expecting a Pat Green doll anytime now, so as soon as I receive her, join me back here for a review of her style. 

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Lesly Famosa: La Hermanita de Nancy

Once upon a time, I ordered all my Nancy dolls from El Corte Ingles in Spain, but they discontinued shipping service to the United States. I went for quite awhile without getting any new Nancy dolls. Nothing puts a damper on collecting like an impossible situation where you cannot buy what you want. The other day, I decided to cruise over to El Corte to see what was up with them. And guess what? They are shipping to the US again! Woo hoo! There is a difference now. In the good ole' days, I could order pretty much however many Nancy dolls I wanted for one flat shipping cost. Now, there is a limit of 3 kilos for 40 Euros. It's not as good as it was before, but it's not terrible. As soon as I found out they were shipping, I just had to place a "test order". I ordered two Lesly Famosa Communion dolls, one for me, and one for a friend. They arrived from DHL within one week, which was a lot faster than the previous orders I had placed. I checked their weight, and they were about 1.5 kilos. The Nancys will be heavier, so I'm thinking I will probably be able to order Nancy dolls in the future 2 at a time.

My sweet Lesly

I was really happy to finally get a new Lesly. I have an older Lesly, but I bought her out of desperation to have one (because she was for sale here in the US), and she is in really terrible condition. Her hair is a nightmare that I don't even know how to begin to fix.

My Two Leslys

My new Lesly does have a few flaws. First off, although this isn't inherently a flaw, she is made in China. That was disappointing. I have found consistently that the Nancy dolls made in Spain are of much superior quality from everything from their plastic to their clothes to their hair. This Lesly is no exception, and the most notable issue she has is that her shoes are way too big. They will not stay on her feet. When I pick her up, the shoes just fall right off. I think I will be able to get her some tights or socks and that will fix the problem, but they should be a little snugger than they are. Her legs are also a little unevenly sized, which is not atypical for the other Nancys I have. Otherwise, I really love her and she's such a cutie. I'm so glad I finally got the opportunity to add her to my collection. 

For those that don't know her, Lesly is Nancy's little sister, and she's about 12 inches tall. Here's a photo of her with some other dolls so you can get an idea of size:

Little Darling Elsa, Lola from Berdine Creedy, Lesly, and Hearts for Hearts Tipi

Lesly will definitely need some new clothes, because I'm not a huge fan of the communion look. It looks like she may be able to share with some other dolls, but I haven't had the opportunity to have a fashion show yet. 

If you're on the fence about Lesly, I would say you should have one if you are a Nancy collector. Even though the quality isn't perfect, this is a good way to get a nice, clean Lesly doll to add to your collection.

How can you resist this sweet little face?

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IDS: The First Annual International Doll Show in Asheville, NC

This past Saturday, my friend Diana and I attended the First Annual International Doll Show held in Asheville, NC. It has certainly been an exciting two weeks here in the South for doll shows! I wish this happened more often (actually I don't, because I would be flat broke). What follows is a rundown of the show.

Location
The IDS was held at the Crowne Plaza resort in Asheville. The resort itself is a bit dated, but the expo room where the show was held was nice, large, and clean. It was also very well lit, which is good when you're inspecting dolls for purchase. I liked the location, and would hope it would be held there again next year (if there is another IDS next year, more on that in a bit).

Doll Artists and Vendors In Attendance
There were a lot of reborn artists in attendance, I would say about 50% of the artists there were reborners...if that's what they are called. I am not into reborning at all, so I'll leave that post for someone else. What I am into is some of the other types of beautiful artist dolls. What was so fascinating about this show to me is that it was the first show of this type I had ever attended. The other doll shows I have been to in the past were just re-sellers of dolls, mostly vintage stuff. At this show, I was introduced to lots of other types of dolls that I would never have discovered on my own. Since there were too many artists there to talk about them all, I'm just going to throw some doll porn on here and talk about a few of them.

Twisted Wickets

Twisted Wickets

Twisted Wickets

Twisted Wickets was one of the new artists I discovered at this show. I absolutely loved these dolls. They are so unique, and so pretty. They really are more than just a doll, they are art pieces.

I don't remember who this artist was, but I loved this piece.

Marbled Halls

Marbled Halls

Marbled Halls

Marbled Halls

Marbled Halls

Marbled Halls

Marbled Halls

I really wanted this doll, she was so supernatural in her look and feel.

Marbled Halls was another great artist I discovered. I would actually like to save some money and buy one of these dolls. They remind me of fine art that one would see in a museum. Seriously. Just look at that last picture and tell me that isn't art. It's beautiful and perfect. 

Another fun doll, but I can't remember the artist.

I was also impressed by Canadian artist Kimberly Arnold of The Trinket Box. I bought a very cute necklace from her. Here is a photo of her table:

Berdine Creedy was also there, with her lovely dolls. I wanted so badly to buy a Lola doll, but I didn't have the funds to do so. 

Berdine with Diana (Diana creates some of the doll outfits for Berdine). Just look at all those Lolas in the background!

Another artist I was really impressed with was Judy Rankine. She makes cloth dolls, and they are gorgeous, and different. I was so drawn to them because they are totally unique in today's doll collecting universe. She has been making them since the 1970's, so I was a little surprised I had never heard of her before. She apparently has quite the fan following as well.

Cloth doll face

Alice doll

Her dolls were only $250. I say only $250 because the quality of craftsmanship in these dolls is impeccable. Each hand has five perfect fingers that can bend and pose (wire inside, of course). I really loved them and can see myself acquiring one in the future.

So, what did I buy anyway? Well, Helen Skinner and Joyce Matthews, both of whom are Little Darlings artists, were there with a handful of Little Darlings! I have deposits on two little darlings, but they won't be delivered until sometime next year. I couldn't resist, and bought two:

Anna and Elsa

And guess what? I got to name them while I was there. Don't you think the names are appropriate? Now I just need to save some money and get some cute outfits for them. There was something of a teaser in their booth though:

Dianna Effner BJD

YES!

Yes, that is an Effner BJD. Collectors have been asking and here she is. She's not quite ready for sale yet, but I believe it will be fairly soon. The head is made of porcelain and the body is resin. Isn't that exciting? This particular model was painted by Dianna Effner. 

Activities At The Show

There were several activities going on during the show. The Dolls Magazine awards were given away on Saturday night, and you could purchase a ticket to attend these awards, which included dinner. Also, about once per hour, there was a drawing for prizes. I didn't see all of the prizes, but I did see that one was a pair of Marie Osmond Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. This was not an additional cost, you just dropped one half of your entrance ticket into a box, and they pulled tickets every so often.

Technically, this is not an activity, but the awards and the event were sponsored by Dolls Magazine, and they had a special where you could purchase a one year subscription to both Dolls and Haute Doll for $20. Yes, $20 for BOTH. I couldn't throw my money at them fast enough. 

Friday, there were also some activities offered by doll artists. Berdine Creedy hosted a tea party where you could paint your own BJD (would LOVED to have gone to that one), and there were some reborning classes as well. Next year, I would possibly be interested in one of these classes.

Next Year...

Diana and I both enjoyed this show tremendously, and are very hopeful it will return next year. According the IDS website, they will see us in 2015, so that is very promising. The only force working against its return is how well the artists fared. One artist told us she had been moving dolls all day, but still hadn't even met her expenses. She said if artists couldn't make their expenses, they wouldn't come back. Makes perfect sense, but I really hope everyone had a great Saturday and Sunday so that it will be back, bigger and better next year!

Did you attend IDS? Leave me a comment and tell me what you thought of it!

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