Today is a convention day! Bobby is in Seattle playing in the L5R Kotei (Legends of the Five Rings collectible card game tournament). I'm hoping he does well! Today I decided at the last minute to go to the Crossroads Doll & Teddy Bear show at the Puyallup Fair Grounds. I brought my BJD, Haruka, with me. I found this nice weeping cherry to take a photo under. Managed to get a picture just before it started raining.
Inside the convention hall are tons of booths selling dolls and bears of all types, mostly antiques. Most of the convention customers are older ladies, and many talked to me when they saw my doll in my arms. Most people will say that Asian ball joint dolls look creepy, I think because they are used to the traditional types of dolls, but more ladies this year said that my doll was very beautiful. I think after a few years of working this convention they've gotten used to seeing the various other BJDs that are carried around, which are mostly goth!
Some of the vendors were rather rude to me. I was talking with a doll wig vendor, nicely told her what I was looking for. She looked around a bit and rudely told me "I got nothing for you. Try someone else." My reaction was, wow, ok.. but I decided to browse anyways in case I found something that would work. But she came back and said "I don't have anything for you!" and shooed me away. I also encountered many rude, elderly customers who had no problems with pushing me around and knocking me over (even though I'm obviously pregnant now! I yelled at one old man for shoving me) and taking things right out of my hands. I wasn't planning on buying anything anyways, but still people need to learn to be more courteous.
Most teddy bears at the show are standard, but I like this lady's creations of dragons. Some look a little cartoonish for my tastes, but some were quiet impressive. They are stuffed animals, but I think some use clay in the heads and especially the horns.
The bodies are velvety and they have wire skeletal structures, so they can be bent and posed however you want. Each one is unique and interesting! She even had a unicorn or two.
Every year there is this one vendor that sells clothes especially for BJDs. The clothes are rather plain, but well made. I guess the theme this year was "Woodstock". I got a picture of Haruka sitting with the vendor's BJDs on display. Haruka looks bigger, but just because she's in the foreground.
At this vendor's booth was a group of BJD owners. They had about 5-6 dolls with them, all of them goth. Most BJDs that I've seen are goth, with white skin etc. The owner of this doll was awesome. She had huge platform boots, wild makeup, grey spiky hair, and was wearing a short satin "kimono" coat.
The owner was nice enough to let me take a picture of one of her dolls. This boy has very white skin and twisted black wings. I forgot to ask what this doll's name was! I wanted a picture of one of her girl dolls, because she had a lovely goth-lolita dress on, but she was in the process of trying doll clothes on the other dolls. This boy doll was the only one fully dressed.
So that was my day at the doll show! I hope to report later how things went with Bobby's card tournament. Hopefully he remembers to take pictures for me. If not, I at least have a picture of the costume he's wearing.
Bobby tells me this was a smash hit at the tournament. He won a prize for having the best imperial favor! Lol!
Inside the convention hall are tons of booths selling dolls and bears of all types, mostly antiques. Most of the convention customers are older ladies, and many talked to me when they saw my doll in my arms. Most people will say that Asian ball joint dolls look creepy, I think because they are used to the traditional types of dolls, but more ladies this year said that my doll was very beautiful. I think after a few years of working this convention they've gotten used to seeing the various other BJDs that are carried around, which are mostly goth!
Some of the vendors were rather rude to me. I was talking with a doll wig vendor, nicely told her what I was looking for. She looked around a bit and rudely told me "I got nothing for you. Try someone else." My reaction was, wow, ok.. but I decided to browse anyways in case I found something that would work. But she came back and said "I don't have anything for you!" and shooed me away. I also encountered many rude, elderly customers who had no problems with pushing me around and knocking me over (even though I'm obviously pregnant now! I yelled at one old man for shoving me) and taking things right out of my hands. I wasn't planning on buying anything anyways, but still people need to learn to be more courteous.
The bodies are velvety and they have wire skeletal structures, so they can be bent and posed however you want. Each one is unique and interesting! She even had a unicorn or two.
Every year there is this one vendor that sells clothes especially for BJDs. The clothes are rather plain, but well made. I guess the theme this year was "Woodstock". I got a picture of Haruka sitting with the vendor's BJDs on display. Haruka looks bigger, but just because she's in the foreground.
At this vendor's booth was a group of BJD owners. They had about 5-6 dolls with them, all of them goth. Most BJDs that I've seen are goth, with white skin etc. The owner of this doll was awesome. She had huge platform boots, wild makeup, grey spiky hair, and was wearing a short satin "kimono" coat.
The owner was nice enough to let me take a picture of one of her dolls. This boy has very white skin and twisted black wings. I forgot to ask what this doll's name was! I wanted a picture of one of her girl dolls, because she had a lovely goth-lolita dress on, but she was in the process of trying doll clothes on the other dolls. This boy doll was the only one fully dressed.
The obi is a deeply pleated tateya that normally is a solid rectangle, but I spread the bow out using pins to hold it open. I like what they did with the hairline on this doll. It's painted in the back to give a natural look.
The kimono is not removable. The obi is sewn on and can not be removed. The obi is the unfortunate feature. It looks as though they attempted to do a fukura-suzume bow and failed miserably. Also, there is no obi-age. After the release of this doll, the did a remake to sell exclusively at Walmart. Looks the same but with a white kimono instead of pink, and she has a purse instead of a hagoita (battledore). Originally sold for $70, but so few were made that now I can't find it for under $1500. I'm not a die-hard collector, and the quality isn't worth looking into it.
So, that's the collection so far. I hope to start adding kimono Jennys (Japan's version of Barbie) to my collection, and maybe some Licca-chans.
Its a very florescent, Hawaiian-looking kimono. The collar is very narrow and the sleeves are sewn closed all the way around. The kimono actually does have a ohashori fold, but its so small that it always hides under the obi and is thus a usless feature when they were making it. Not to mention the perma-bent, robot arms. Obi is white with gold cross-hatch pattern, obi-jime is orange and gold. I actually like the obi-age, it's a sparkly pink netting, and looks like what girls where on modern kimono. The obi is tied in a sad, droopy tateya bow.
I bought the kimono/obi only for $7 at a doll show and I added my own shamisen and hair accessory and dressed it on a vintage Barbie remake. The kimono has gold wisteria pattern and the obi is white with gold cherry blossoms.
The kimono is lined in white in the sleeves and skirt portion. The obi is tied in a tateya bow and is attached using a snap closure, rather than velcro like most others.
If you remove the kimono you will see that there is a white full-length, sleeveless juuban. (Please don't remove the kimono unless you know how to put a kimono on yourself, neatly. Otherwise the Barbie will look sloppy if amateurishly redressed.. Also, there is a slight amount of clothing adhesive used to keep the kimono dressed neatly, undressing her will loose the benefit of that adhesive.) The juuban also doesn't have a true collar, but isn't well noticed when dressed completely. She also has 2 belts underneath. One is for padding, to soften Barbie's curvy figure, and the other is an elastic date-jime under the obi to keep the kimono neat and slip-free.
