dargosmydaddy's attempt at a doll a week...

[davidd]

Kermit photo-bomb!

[Lejays17]

Matching green - so cute

[Cornflower Blue]

Ha! Sanada manages to look annoyed with Kermit.

[dargosmydaddy]

Week thirty-one (only slightly late...)

Phoenix5 by tisue999, on Flickr

[neon_jellyfish]

I dig that dress!

[Alliecat]

Wow, that typewriter looks even older than the one my parents had. Who's your model? She reminds me of Date Masamune, with the eyebrows…? She's really pretty. And yeah, cool dress. Did you make it?

[davidd]

Her outfit complements the colors in the typewriter! I love this pic!

[dargosmydaddy]

Yes, that is my sadly under-photographed Date Matsume, Phoenix. I usually have her dressed casually, and had been planning on using my Eos as today's steampunk model, and then I saw Phoenix and thought she'd look good in the dress. And she did! The dress came from last year's Dal House holiday swap, I think from Etsy.

As for the typewriter, it came from a great-aunt's attic and has been gracing my desk since last month... I have been planning a dolly photo shoot ever since! Googling around, I think it's a model from the 1920's... I wish it could talk (or produce it's own ghostly typed manuscript) and tell me it's history.

[Alliecat]

Ha!
OK seriously, what does it say about you as a person that you can look at someone's re-wigged/re-chipped/somehow-customized Pullip and recognize what the base doll was, and yet when you meet real people in real life, that you're supposed to know, you can't remember their names!!!???
I have such a mental block on names/faces, and am finding it so bizarre that I seem to be better at recognizing dolls than people
Anyway, she looks great. I didn't know (or remember) that you had her. And yeah, I bet the typewriter's history would be very interesting.

[werepuppy]

Ooh, Phoenix looks very classy next to the old style type writer. Is this her trying to encourage you to write?

[davidd]

Your typewriter makes me feel like crying, as in real tears, by the way. You see, many years ago I had an absolutely beautiful old Underwood typewriter... possibly this same model, does it have glass panels in the sides? As with yours, the gold-stenciled lettering and pinstriping was perfect. The typewriter was given to me as a birthday gift, and as part of the gift, the giver paid for me to take it to a typewriter shop... there was still one typewriter repair shop in town at the time... to have it professionally cleaned, which I did.

To "clean" the old typewriter, the shop dipped it in what they call an "acid bath," which removes all the dried oils and inks. Then they lubricate the mechanism and it is back to excellent working condition.

However, the acid bath also stripped off every vestige of the red and gold lettering and pinstriping. The typewriter was perfect aesthetically, and just needed a minor cleaning and lubrication, but the typewriter shop ruined it!

When I pointed out what had happened, the shop owner brusquely replied, "we repair them so they work, we don't care how they look."

So take that as a warning: do NOT take your typewriter to a "professional" typewriter shop for repairs. And steer well clear of anything called an "acid bath."

I've never seen another model from this era in such perfect condition as was mine, not even in museums. Treasure yours.

(Chances are that if you spray some WD40 in there to clear out the sticky mechanism (keep it away from the exterior) and replace the ribbon, you'll be good to go!

[dargosmydaddy]

Your typewriter makes me feel like crying, as in real tears, by the way....

So take that as a warning: do NOT take your typewriter to a "professional" typewriter shop for repairs. And steer well clear of anything called an "acid bath."


I've never seen another model from this era in such perfect condition as was mine, not even in museums. Treasure yours.

Aw, that's awful! We did some cleaning mostly with water and a q-tip (the keys looked like someone had put "caps" on them to practice touch typing, and they'd left behind a weird residue). A few of the keys stick a bit (if you push them, they stay down and the letter part that would hit the paper stays up), and I'm not sure what's up with the internal bits. I definitely treasure it as a historical artifact (and occasional photography subject) and am fine with it being non-functional. Mine does not have glass panels on the side. It is super heavy, though!

 Is this her trying to encourage you to write?

 
Ha! I need all the encouragement I can get.

OK seriously, what does it say about you as a person that you can look at someone's re-wigged/re-chipped/somehow-customized Pullip and recognize what the base doll was, and yet when you meet real people in real life, that you're supposed to know, you can't remember their names!!!???

I have such a mental block on names/faces, and am finding it so bizarre that I seem to be better at recognizing dolls than people

LOL! I am the same way-- I'm terrible with people faces. Doll faces are easier to figure out!

[Cornflower Blue]

What a nice photo of Phoenix with that ancient typewriter! I wouldn't have guessed that was a Dal size dress on her, it looks like it was made for her.

[Elfy]

I love shots of dolls posing with human sized things like that typewriter. They’re very cool.

[Lejays17]

The colours complement each other beautifully.