A Garden of Virtues

A few weeks ago,  I visited the Montgomery Street Antique Mall in Fort Worth for the first time in quite a while. They had some wonderful fashion dolls and fashion doll clothing for sale. I had so much fun wandering through the store and picking a few items, which included these three doll dresses and a (human) sewing pattern.  The dresses were only a dollar or two apiece, and each required some fixing-up. Today, I finally took the time to mend and iron the dresses, and take photos in the beautiful summer weather. The yellow sheath dress with brown dots is definitely a hand-made creation, and I believe the long, yellow evening gown is hand-made as well. The white sheath dress appears to be company-made, but I could be wrong. I thought this yellow evening gown looked so beautiful on Gertrude (Tropical Miko, 1985). I have had Gertrude since 2011. The gathering at the back had come loose and unraveled. I used a lot of Fray Check today! I covered every edge. Ironing the dress (carefully) a

Today has been such a huge day for me, even though I haven't left the house and have just done work all day long. I went forward with emailing my prospective advisor about my dissertation topic on Korean literature, and he agreed to supervise this dissertation. Korean literature, and Hallyu 1.0, topics so important to me, will be legitimated as part of my scholarly identity. I feel like today is a kind of spiritual wedding day for my scholarly career (although the dissertation defense will more literally be that). My goal is to become a professor of Korean literature and that dream, as of today, is much closer. Almost fatefully, I happened to see this Soom Super Gem Girl sculpt that the vendor posted on Den of Angels. I was not in any danger of forgetting the elements of Korean imaginaries that make my blood run cold and my heart drop into the pit of my stomach. "Gross beauty," I have called it, but I really mean it in the nicest way.  A number of Edgar Alla

Over the past several days, I have been going through my digital photo files, restoring images to old posts on this blog, and adding in doll-related posts from other blogs that are defunct. In so doing, I have come across old posts about dolls that I completely forgot I ever had. This 14" porcelain bjd, designed by Aidamaris Roman, is one of them. She was produced for Paradise Galleries under the name "Confetti," and I purchased her on August 24, 2012. She was absolutely amazing! Around this same time, I was head over heels over Emilie Autumn's "Opheliac" album, and it was impossible not to conflate this doll's appearance with the overall aesthetic of "Opheliac."  I named her Bettina Cinders. She was a little larger than a Barbie, but she slept in a Barbie bed covered with a vintage striped apron that matched her aesthetic. Additionally, she could wear some of the looser-fitting Barbie clothes, like those here.  I remember

I just gave Dresden a good cleaning.  After her cleaning, I tried this silver wig on her, and I loved how it brought out that early Dream of Doll look. I decided to dress her casually and pose her with my Urban Decay Rock Superstar Face Case. The face case, a Christmas gift from my husband, is from the early 2000's (I collect makeup from that period). I tried to think of a good early-00's photo effect, but the only effects I associate with the period are black and white or blue tint, which would conceal the color of Dresden's newly-buffed resin. So, I settled for rounded corners, because I remember adding frames and the like to my digital photos back then.

I don't want to go out anymore.  I don't want to go out beyond the perimeter of this property. I just want to absorb the nature of this place. I have seen so much, and I just want to reflect. If I stay here long enough and think through and remember, I'll be able to unravel this tangle of places and people I've encountered over the years, and put everything in order. I'll have a complete understanding of all I've seen and done, then, if I could just take enough time here, and don't see anything else for a while.  I only want to go out to local places, because now, I have learned that the soil seethes with history, and that stones radiate stories. I have learned how to read history in the trees, soil, and stones, and I only want to go out to local places and read those stories, and experience the past overlaying the present. In those moments, the curtain between the past and the present vanishes. Nothing ever

To Garth: I don't know how to fuse your tattered energies together again. I thought I was the one who was meant to be saved.

Bettina loves tea parties and the opera. She has requested a gramophone to help her during her singing practice. 14" porcelain BJD, "Confetti," by Aidamaris Roman for Paradise Galleries.