I belong to two terrific doll boards at Yahoo. One is Vintage Cloth Dollmaking and the other is Edith Flack Ackley Dolls. I have met the most fabulous women (and one man!). Both groups are fun, informative, lively, challenging and above all, friendly! No flaming or bad behavior there. Just really great people coming together over common interests. I’ve learned so much and been so supported in my efforts and able to encourage others in their efforts. If Yahoo ever wanted to do a commercial about their free groups, I’d love to be the spokesperson!

Anyway, there is a reason I am writing about my groups. I put the call out to both groups that I would love to do a doll swap if anyone else was interested. I got five responses! This is really exciting to me because I am only familiar with my own work. Now I will get to study other dollmakers’ work which I am sure will be a big learning experience. A humbling one at that!

My friend, Helene, in France makes beautiful clothes and accessories for her extensive doll collection. I will make an EFA little girl for her and she will make an exquisite pink straw hat for me. *squeeees gleefully* This is one she made for her own doll. If mine turns out half as cute, I’ll be beside myself with joy.

Elaine, my Texan friend, is going to make a little girl for me and I’m making one for her. It’s going to be so interesting to see how we do things differently and how we do things the same. She is so talented! This clown is the first EFA doll she ever made! She is also an EFA Rescuer! She buys sad and sorry EFA’s on ebay and revives them. I call it the dolly spa!

Another friend (a new one!), Courtney, offered to trade with me too! She makes miniature bears! I get giddy when I think about this, but she is going to make a Pooh bear for Christopher! All I have to do in exchange is make a seven inch tall EFA little girl! Yikes! I’m especially keen to make one with wires inside so that it will be pose-able. I did one that turned out pretty wonky so I’ve got to try again. 1) It’s a pretty small scale 2) getting wires and stuffing in those tiny limbs is really challenging and 3) it’s a pretty small scale! Courtney also makes cloth dolls and she carves wooden Hittys! That is one talented girl. I think this cloth Hitty is so beautiful!

A fellow contributor to the Booth home doll auction and also a member of VCD, Cindy, is going to trade something with me! The dolls she made for the auction-WOW! Just gorgeous. The emails have been flying back and forth as we try to come up with the “perfect” project. This has been great fun as it involves lots of web surfing to look at beautiful doll patterns. She sent me some photos of some dolls she has made and now I’m kicking myself for not saving them! What was I thinking?

One other friend offered to trade with me as well. The incredibly talented Patti-Ann Stanley! To give you an idea of how big that is to me, imagine that Jennifer Anniston or Gwyneth Paltrow were to pick you up for a lunch date! She is a star in the dollmaking world. Here are a couple of my favorite Patti-Ann creations. She’s at EDAC right now and I told her I’m a little too intimidated to trade with her. We will see what happens when she gets back. Man, that would be amazing to own one of her dolls. If only it didn’t mean having her look at mine!
That little pink girl is only 6” tall!

So, all in all, I would say that I am pretty darn blessed! First, to have all these talented friends and second, because they want to play dolls with me!