Source: The Enchanted Doll
So I had a huge amount of Barbies when I was little, and I was never much into them. My mom pressed it but they really just weren't my thing...I couldn't see the point. Plus, they were all the same doll, with this awkward body and dorky smile... but when I was 13 my mom got herself the original 1950s Barbie doll to display in her office, and I adored it, I thought she looked great. These are some of the original styles.
Above that, is Batgirl. Batgirl's just cool. I think they did the doll well. 'Nuf said.
Ok, the top doll requires a little more explanation. The woman who makes these dolls is Marina Bychkova, and they are handmade porcelain dolls with handmade clothes and accessories. See the beading on that dress? The painted silk on the underskirt? Yeah, she did all that by hand. This particular doll is meant to be Alice in Wonderland (one of my favorite characters of all time) and she "got bored" of the traditional and cliched versions of her so she made up her own personal version, which is stunning. The woman is not just a doll-maker, she is an artist, a master of her craft, and I'm enchanted by her girls, I think they're just beautiful, so delicate and detailed and exquisite.
But they also disturb me on some level, there's just something about them that creeps me out a little. Maybe its the blatant sexuality of the dolls, or the materials she uses... they remind me of old fashioned porcelain dolls, which in turn remind me of Victorian macabre story... either way, I heard about these dolls a couple of years ago in an issue of Craft Magazine (love) and I never forgot them... or my fascination with this woman's skills.
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