Dana's Dolls Available at Barnes & Noble

Hardcover New Release

 

Arthur, Andy, & DARK SHADOWS

Arthur & the Doll Show Score

  There is Franz! I was so surprised to see him! That's Doll Magic, meant to be. I hope the same happens with Marie, a Monica doll that has surfaced that I've wanted for thirty years. Shop my original DARK SHADOWS art, support my doll habit. Ronnie's suit is soaking in cold water and Woolite. He's a little bigger than Ike, he's Horsman where Ike is Efanbee. I think Efanbees are a bit better quality. There were great deals to be had at this huge show: fabulous! We ate at The Bluebird Inn in Cornwall afterwards, another favorite spot. I had a Buddah bowl to make up for the pizza I shared with Frankie and Arthur for breakfast. I love my Little Dancer paper dolls. I had them when I was three. Sometimes Ron is too good for me. ✨

Update: Dolls, Ephrata, & the Rugrats

    I finally slept this morning for the first time in a couple of days. My stay at The 1777 Americana Inn in Ephrata near the cloister is finally booked. I have to make a couple of brother and sister doll prototypes for the cloister, working on it. Arthur and Frankie make it difficult for me to get anything done. Arthur has been sporting a man bun. I saw a dude yesterday with one. Arthur wears it better. TTYL... ✨

Ghosts of Fat Tuesday

     I never realized the ghosts in this picture with Shiner and me until now talking to my aunt. Ron says it is just a reflection, me stuffing my face, but it is so much more than that. It made it to my Ghost Stories. That place was so haunted. A guy killed a car load of women and children right outside my door. I heard it all years later, and did not even know what happened until "talking" with one of mycommiespace friends who happened to be Johnny Gruelle's, (yes, Raggedy Anne), grandson. He had gone to school with one of the women who was killed. Here, is what happened: the estranged father of one of the toddlers followed the woman and her girlfriend with her child from the Sinking Spring MacDonald's. When they got to the railroad tracks he screamed, "Where are you going to go now, bitch?", and rammed them into the incoming train, four deaths: two women, two toddlers. It's all documented in my Ghost Stories. The diagonal lines behind me are another sign. Oh, my ghoul... TTYL... Drunk, it's Mardi Gras, Yall! 💖

Read my Ghost Stories

Minou with Rena

   Purple Witch got me Rena for Christmas, and Ron got me Minou, the Corsican Himstedt, several years ago when Shiner broke his hip. She was one of the first Himstedts, besides Tara, the German girl that was my first, that I ever saw back in Bethel Park at Bear Trax next to BORDERS. That was a fun place where I also got a big handmade Raggedy Ann, who was always Mummy's favorite Raggedy. Rena's is spelled Raggady, and she is from the same time, over twenty-five years ago. The handmade dress was made for Himmies and came along with another. The booties are Ron's mother's christening booties, kid leather, and over a hundred. I just got my valentines for Ron and Frankie together. Frankie got a cute new caterpillar as he loves Shiner's old dollar store one that he rips up and drowns in his water bowl. This one is a lot furrier and valentine themed, pink and purple. I'm watching something dumb, an 1895 mystery on free Hallmark channel. Haunted Wedding, on the otherhand, was adorable. I've noticed the same fake Tiffany lamp in three different Hallmark channel movies now. I'm painting the cover of Dana's Dreams Two, it is from a dream. I'm also getting together my gifts for The Farnsworth House, Minie' Ball stuff and Captivating Tarot, as well as an original I did of Elizabeth Thorn long ago. TTYL... Happy Valentine's Day! 💕💘💕

Frankie's First Christmas Cookie & Necronomnomnom

  Frankie and I have been up all night baking. Shiner was my supervisor, but Frankie is worse. He eats about anything. He loves oysters and clams. We are using my Early American Cookbook this year. Christmas has been catproofed, so we're keeping it simple. We made simple butter cookies with a glaze: Yeti, Anne and Andy, unicorns, elephants, and ducks. I'd had one at Cornwall Furnace, a moose, and it was so good, better than mine. Cornwall has Christmas cookies, tea, and cocoa around their Christmas tree once a year. Next stop molasses and ginger snaps. My dear friend sent me Necronomnomnom, and I can hardly wait to get to that. Oh, my ghoul. I have a handmade Lovecraft doll and have yet to finish the complete works, which is huge. I've been sending offers out on Ebay for Collinwood, asking them to save it from the Leviathan, (Frankie). He's been checking into The Collins Port Inn for Christmas. Guess I have to move that too. 🌟

 

Dreams 5/23

 

I'd forgotten to document my dreams, working on The Three Witches Magic Shoppe, so we'll see what I remember. First, I was shopping with Mummy at a flea market with lots of sparkling sequined dolls. There were puppets too. I don't think I had a lot of money on me. The second dream took place in Gettysburg in a metaphysical shop and cave. My girlfriend, Amber, from high school, was there. There were lots of crystals in the shop in little paper velvet lined display boxes, all laid out on table tops. I'd stolen a crystal, felt guilty, and put it back. Amber's hair was gray and piled up on her head like a Gibson girl. She was lagging behind in the cave. 

Dreams 4/16

Dreamt of an evening picnic in the woods with Raggedy Ann and fireflies. Either I've forgotten the rest, (likely), or it was a short dream. 

Dreams 4/4

Another nightmare, guess I can't blame My Pillow for all of them. This one was so realistic, I woke, thinking it was real. It involved two of my high school friends and a teacher. One, was one of my best friends, the other, a teacher's daughter, who lived in my neighborhood. In the dream, Kate had stuck Becky in the small of her back with a tiny double bladed scalpel like weapon. It looked like a pen, but had two razors that shot out the tip when poked. Becky had died, and Kate's mother was covering for her, as if she hadn't killed her. It was quite a long dream. I kept waking myself out of it, but then, falling back in. 

Raggedy Collection For Sale

 Raggedy Collection

Simplification

Dodie, my beautiful handmade doll that I got at Joanna Furnace past Christmas for $5, has taught me how nice simplification is. In a world of simpletons, I'll keep my dolls. 

Doll Therapy 1-2

Doll Therapy: 1-2

Doll Therapy

One

I got my first doll, Raggedy Ann, for Christmas, before I had turned a year old, so I do not know life without dolls. I still have her, and she is as comforting as ever. Raggedy Ann was created for comfort. Attics hold lost treasures and hidden sentiment. She might have been forgotten and left for the mice if it wasn't raining, and Marcella Gruelle was not rummaging through her grandmother's old trunk. Made by his grandmother, for his mother, Raggedy Ann, was created by Johnny Gruelle. She was Marcella's favorite doll, and Marcella died from a vaccine while still a girl. The original still exists, but she has become a world wide phenomenon, like Jesus, as Raggedy Ann is a potent symbol of love. The original was handmade, of course, of rags, but Raggedy's love is so powerful that even the factory ones keep a glimmer. The first reproductions had real candy hearts, but children were sucking them out.

The first dolls that I made were flowers. My mother called the Dandelions, peed the beds, and I would cut their hair. Dandelions are nutritious: the leaves are good for the liver, and the milk is good for the eyes and skin. If you bake the roots, you can grind them into a tea that will help with sleep and dreams. My Aunt Millie would bend the petals back on The Rose of Sharon and twirl them, so they will always be ballerina flowers to me. I used milk pods as parakeets, too.
When I was nine, I had read the books: Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Little Plum, by Rumer Godden. They are about Japanese dolls and wonderfully illustrated. I was inspired, but did not have any Japanese dolls, besides the paper, Origami, one, I had learned to make for a Girl Scout badge. My sash was loaded. So, I made my first real doll. She might have been better if I hadn't used a terry cloth wash cloth, but that is what I had. Her kimono was better, and she had yarn hair, and an embroidered face. But, she opened up an entire cultural world to me, as I got a pen pal in Japan, who I wrote to until I was a sophomore in college. I still look for her. She was born two days after me, had pet squirrels, and joined The Air Force. She would send me pictures from field trips to Mount Fuji. When I was eleven, she sent me a pottery doll bell, and she hangs in my kitchen window, today. She called me her beautiful American sister and had the most glorious handwriting I have ever seen. She folded her letters in animal shapes and made me a tiny beaded crab pin. I also read the Japanese fairy tales, like the boy in the peach stone. Since, I have been able to pick up antiques here and there, and even a Japanese doll house, which was really a lamp, that I'd gotten at a bamboo import store.

When I make a doll, it is always infused with love and magic, but you do not have to sculpt or sew, and there are lots of dolls that anybody can make, besides paper dolls, and you could write an encyclopedia on paper dolls, alone, that is how much fun they can be. You do not have to be an artist, you can use photographs of people you know. If you only have heads, you can be very creative with fancy paper and patterns, maybe even using little sentiments, such as ticket stubs, hair, buttons, scraps... You can make them sets from pictures. You can make them paper book houses to keep them neat, so they are ideal for the minimalist, who hates clutter. You can even make tiny dollhouses out of mint tins and put magnets on the backs of your dolls. These work best with whole body photos, but you can make it work with just heads and fancy paper too. You can laminate your dolls with mailing tape, just watch out for the bubbles.

Dolls have always been a part of love magic and love magic is a powerful thing. If you use it to impose your will upon another, like Angelique did to Barnabas in DARK SHADOWS, with not one, but two dolls, it will surely backfire. The writers for DARK SHADOWS were brilliant. The gypsies use poppets for love magic. They are also used in Voo-Doo, it's true, but avoid that Spanish Moss, as it has microscopic mites that bite, and is said to be cursed, due to a Spanish girl, who was scalped, and her beauiful hair strung in a tree. As the moss spread, it wiped out The Natives. That is how the story goes. But, it may be more than a story. It may be biological. Suppose The Spaniards brought the spores over in their capes, on their shoes... Some common ingredients to use in love dolls would be: rose petals, pink salt, jasmine rice, cinnamon, dried orange rind, Cardamom, red Geranium, dried tomato, Rosemary, rose quartz, Carnelian, Garnet, Ruby, and, of course, Diamond. Love dolls can be cotton or silk poppets, they can have the lover's hair or clothes. They can be wax, or elaborate, but what is most important is secrecy, will, and intent. You can make tiny dolls of your lover and yourself, out of pipe cleaners and beads, with hair, and personal items, along with a few stitches or fabric glue, tie them together three times with a red ribbon, and put them away in a special box, that you can fix with lace or ribbon trimming. You can make this for somebody for an anniversary, using photographs or other sentimental items. It is a very magical and thoughtful gift, and the possibilities are endless.

Two

Some dolls, and maybe people too, are only made to be looked at, but, the ones, you can play with, are the most fun. I had all kinds of dolls to play with as a kid, but my friends and I seemed to play with Barbie the most. I only had one Ken, Malibu, who had somehow lost his legs, so we pushed him around in a Barbie chair and said he had been a POW in Nam. I had Shawn Cassidy, too, but for some reason, Shawn did not mess with Barbie, much. Later, somebody had gotten my brother Western Ken and the sportscar, much to my father's dismay, but this made things a lot more fun. As bad as Ken was, and he was a cowboy, my Barbies were always worse. I had a giant black Barbie, too, she had two toned hair and was nearly as big as I was. I can remember getting her, as there was the blonde, in pink, and the black one, in blue. My mother wondered why I wanted the black one, but agreed, she was prettier. The other dolls that we played with the most, besides Raggedy Ann, of course, were Glamor Gals and Sea Wees. Glamor Gals were a lot of fun, as they were tiny: dollhouse size. My next door neighbor had the Glamor Gals cruise ship, and this was back when we never missed The Love Boat. I believe the ship's Captain was the one, and only, Glamor Guy. I know, I had a lot of the gals, as my city case was loaded, but I did not have any boys. That did not matter, but I am one step ahead of myself, as my mother and I built a three story house for my gals using: cardboard boxes, left-over house paint, glue, carpet remnants, wallpaper remnants, catalogs, and magazines. My brother's G.I. Joes and A. Team men were just the right size for the gals, and he had the A. Team van, too. One day, I came home from school to find mouse droppings in the house, the gals disrobed, and violated. They had pins sticking in their heads: some in their faces. I screamed and cried and beat my brother. He set the A. Team van on fire, too. I must say, he was a fun playmate, as he always had a lot of gay G.I. Joes. They always seemed to be into bondage, but never at war. But, my brother is younger than I am, and the dolls that we probably played the most with were the peg people. He had the garage, and we had a lot of fun with those. You can get naked pegs for next to nothing, and paint them, or decompage them, to look like the people you know. This can be a lot of fun for all ages, and they make for great stocking and Easter basket stuffers. Perhaps we have the most fun with the things we have to use our imaginations with the most. I still have my Sea Wees, though. They are mermaids you play with in the bath. They used to have lily pad sponge rafts.
Dolls can be learning tools in more ways than we can imagine. I used to teach English, and I had several different projects which involved puppets. These were group projects, so the students had to work together. They were so much fun and so successful, that I did them again and again. I believe the first one was Medea. Each group had to write a script, make the puppets and props, and present their version of the play to the rest of the class. The shop boys had made us a swanky, real-for-sure, puppet theater, straight away, and we covered it with marble contact paper, my old homemade velvet curtains, that no longer fit my windows, and fancy trimming. Inside was a goat hair rug, and the students signed it in markers. That famous Medusa head painting? They used that for Medea's head. I still have their script for that, and Cannery Row, as they bound them, and they are so nice. We also had productions of MacBeth and Dracula. It helps the students, especially the ones that only learn by doing: that is, they do not recall information well from books, learn the plots and characters. It is a great study aid for tests and could work just as well with history. We made all sorts of puppets, but there are all kinds of finger puppets that you can make. If you are not crafty, you can use photographs. There are obvious finger puppets that you can make an easy stage for, but you can also tape toothpicks on the back, or cut out two holes in the bottom for legs.
I found myself sick and shut-in with my dolls. At the same time, my best friend, across the state, was even sicker. My boyfriend had gotten me a video camera, which I did not use much. I found myself producing doll soap operas: just to make us laugh. Laughter is the best medicine. I found myself making spoofs of my favorite television shows and movies. I have Scully, Mulder, Bewitched, I made W. the Principal of Monster High. One of these days I might take my Joker out of the box. Not likely to sell him.

1 / 2