As promised, here's the last of Volume 26 for Judy. Apropos since it's June and these last two pieces correspond to the month. Click on the image to download a printable .pdf.

If you need the doll, click on the Judy category at right and you'll be able to find her. If it wasn't so hot and I wasn't so lazy, I'd link to the first post, but this way you can see all of the Judy-related posts at the same time.

I was going to go back and pick up Volume 25, which I accidentally skipped, but since I kind of like the whole corresponding months thing, I might continue with Volume 27, which picks up in July.

In other Nudes: If you haven't voted on my poll in the previous post, please do! I had to smile when I checked it this morning since in the night someone quietly voted for the stark naked option (but left no comments; boy would I like to hear about that choice). 

Here is a very beautiful German set of dolls that were misidentified on eBay as Edward VII and Alexandra, but they are really Kaiser Frederick III and his wife consort Victoria. The dolls date from the late 1880s and have the most gorgeous color. Paper dolls of German manufacture during this period were quite impressive and royal personalities were a favorite subject (they were the movie stars and the tabloid fodder of their day).

Click on the picture to enjoy the detail!

So much beautiful art out there in the paper doll blog world. Can't seem to focus on my own. It may continue to be a while before I post anything original, though I will try to be regular-ish about keeping up this blog while I sort out what it is exactly that I want to do. Hope you enjoy these posts!

Came across this fun and unusual advertising doll, which is typical of the late 19th Century. These dolls always required assembly and I love all the parts! Wild Ike is a non-copyright-infringing variation on Buffalo Bill & Co., which was at the height of its popularity (fascination with the Wild West would see a precipitous decline within the decade ~ not to be revived again until the advent of television). America was climbing out of a depression and paper toys like this were relatively cheap. It was one of a series for which there were 5 dolls, with interchangeable costume pieces.

Found this example on eBay. I had seen one actually cut and assembled before, but it's really cool to see how it originally appeared on the page. Click the image to see more detail and read all that teensy tiny print!

In other news: I guess I have been gone for a long long while. Been very very busy on other projects and, having not made decisions about what to do with this blog, I guess I have neglected it. Thought about it all weekend, but apparently came to no particular conclusions. There's so much I want to do (with this blog, and in my creative life in general), and since everything is competing for my attention, nothing appears to be getting done.

So I have been trying to set priorities and paper dolls, while still a passion for me that I am not ready to give up, have slid down the exigency slope toward the bottom. Just for the time being. I'm sure as soon as I get organized, I can come back to this with renewed effort.

An exchange over at RLC's blog about double-sided paper dolls reminded me suddenly that I hadn't updated my own blog since returning from a long visit to my sister's.

So I thought I should share a few double-sided dolls I came across (I know not where) during my internet travels.  This is an advertising set (though I don't know what the product was), and the figures are characters from the Pocahontes story.

I would love love love to make full-on double-sided dolls in the style of the 19th century, but I am horrifically daunted by the complexity of it ~ I can barely seem to get single-sided dolls together, let alone tackle something like this. Still, I do get all moony-eyed and hope-sick when I think about how totally cool these are.

In other news, I've got Frank all re-tooled (after finding my lost files), and will try to post his final plates this week. I have been to busy to make either his hats or his final street clothes, so maybe this coming weekend I will try to make that a priority. Since I don't know yet what I am doing with this blog, it's been hard finding time to commit to it one way or the other. But I ain't giving it up yet!