Salem Witches Collection and Dolls Biographies

Happy Halloween! The day when the veil between reality and fantasy is lifted, imagination is steered and one can be anything they wish for one night. 

After being truly inspired by the scenery and culture of America’s halloween town, Salem, I really feel I’ve gotten the full dose of Halloween this year! Also I’m glad I got started on this collection so early, and avoided my usual mad rush. Each outfit is as special and unique to it’s model as I’d hoped it be. And the set has been great! The cauldron casts the place in an eerie glow with a tea candle inside. The trees, cut out from cork board, are decorated with quotes from Macbeth. Finally various items made the final touch-the perfume bottles as potions, the remnants from the trees as fallen branches and even some plastic spiders crawling into the blew. As a final touch I made some ‘spirits’, made from muslim squares and stuffed, hovering throughout the air from jewelry cord.

And so, without further adeu, I wish to introduce you all to my girls...I should probably note that the summer when I received these guys as a graduation gift, I had an internship in New York at the time. As such, they were all given surnames after areas in NYC.

Blanca Brooklyn

Name: Blanca Isabelle Brooklyn

Age: 17

Star sign: Saggitarius

Fav Color: Purple

Fav Objects: Travel size haberdashery kit

Occupation: Milliner

Pet: Venus the Cat

Style Icon: Westwood and Chanel

Phobias: The Dark (yes, she’s a witch whose scared of the dark!)

Magical Inheritance: Witch 

Blanca became friends with the girls late. Often an outsider, she always had a hard time relating to people, and was hesitant whether or not she were meant to have friends. She expressed herself through her millinery passion, loving how hats can express one’s nature. She especially admires artists such as Westwood and Channel as inspiration.

Eventually, the others found Blanca and encouraged her talent and passion, often turning to her for fashion advice. Though the one who is still sometimes insecure, Blanca is learning to blossom with the sisters, often joining them for Tea and dressing sessions. 

Blanca is also a witch from her mother’s side, although from a distant past when she was eccentric about her powers of telekinesis. She nows tries her best to hide them, though there are days when she tries to control her powers by occasionally practicing them, knowing she shouldn’t completely reject her magic inheritance.

Jaime Madison

Name: Jaime Christina Madison

Age: 16

Star sign: Taurus

Fav Color: Teal

Fav Objects: She’s not really materialistic-maybe her iPod?

Occupation: Personal Trainer

Style Icon: Any of the women from Marvel Comic Books

Pet: Harley the Rabbit

Phobia: Small Spaces

Magical Heritage: Valkyrie

Jaime is the boyish, confidant and head strong one of the group. Sometimes rushing into things without considering the outcome, Jaime learns to explore. She is passionate about trying anything, some odd foods to exploring different parts of the world. She is the one who absorbs and respects other cultures, and learning more. She is fluent in several languages, from Japanese to Sign. However, she loves to wear a dress or two sometimes, just to convince her friends that she can pull it off once in a while. She is often seen plugged in, listening to her rock music. While she plays keyboard, she bashes tastes sometimes with Rosalind’s demour style. Spunky, punky but always ready for action, Jaime is to go-getter.

Also being part valkyrie, Jaime is the best fighter, about to adapt and use any weapons within her reach and able to plan perfect battle strategies-and she doesn’t even have to work out all that often to stay in shape!

Erika Lexington

Name: Erika Lavinia Lexington

Age: 16

Starsign: Virgo

Fav Colour: Sky Blue and Green

Fav Objects: Her lace umbrella

Occupation: Runs a tea shop/Florist

Style Icon: Persephone the goddess of spring

Pet: Leo the turtle

Phobia: Being in crowded places

Magical Heritage: Fae

The sweet, fun loving, smiling one of the girls, Erika is gentle natured and optimistic. She loves bright colors and lots of light. She will almost always be found in her garden, nurturing her plants and creating her various teas. She has a strong wish to be a Botanist or a florist, and has accompanied Jaime on her journeys at times to discover new plants to bring back to add to her collection. Her philosophy of plants applies to people; give them time and attention, and they will thrive. She has a hard time connecting with Rosalind because of her love of the indoors, but Erika is confidant in their friendship. 

Her love of plants comes from her Fae heritage-she is a distant offspring of Titania, the Fairy Queen. She has had many suitors, but her mother has made it clear there is no rush for Erika to marry! Erika in the meantime is keen to better tune her fairy gifts of nature to the finest.

Rosalind Lafayette

Name: Rosalind Beatrice Lafayette

Age: 125

Starsign: Scorpio

Fav Color: Dark Red, Purple

Fav objects: Her violin

Occupation: Musician, song writer

Style Icon: The Vintage classics-Queen Victoria

Pet: Hermione the Hamster

Phobia: Being made fun of

Magical Heritage: Vampire

Poised, prudent and elegant, Rosalind is the aristocratic picture of a lady of the 18th Century debutante. At 125, she has seen a lot of the world, and finds it a little over-rated, her immortality. But her time on earth has served well, and she is grateful to have witnessed the great masters of fashion in their prime. A true vintage fan, her wardrobe pays homage to all the ages, though she is particularly drawn to the Victorian era.

She is the 75th child of the vampire Leopold, and as such, surrounded by her siblings she has a determination to prove herself the worthiest of them all in her poise and perfection. She believes in mind over matter, and is often found reading in her library, studying philosophy and such. She is a famed musician, skilled with the violin and piano and loves writing music and loves the classics, but lately has come to find herself appreciating the talent of one Idina Menzel. 

Once Upon a Zombie Doll Review

Is it me or was I was totally ahead of the trend last year when I created my Twisted Fairy Tales collection for Halloween? Now it seems everyone in the doll industry is jumping onto the Fairytale band wagon! First Mattel’s Scary Tales line for Monster high, followed closely by the Ever After High dolls, and now Once Upon a Zombie.

These dolls have a really compelling backstory, where the Fairytale world has been cursed, and all its inhabitants, including the classic Princesses, have been transformed into shaded living corpses. I’m drawn to the idea of these glamorous characters being stripped of their natural beauty and being forced into these circumstances. It’s in sync with my Twisted Fairy Tales, though mine was focused on the idea that these stories didn’t happen in the way we’ve been told, ‘twisting’ their legends in a gothic retelling.

I loved the design of the Once Upon a Zombie characters, as it seems the designers make a point of making them being prettier in their zombie form. I can see people being drawn to them, in character and design, seeing them so defiant with their bare feat and tattered ball gowns. I particularly love the running mascara their faces are painted with! But they could have gone into more details in so many ways. For example, the Little Mermaid in particular is kinda boring with just her shell bra and starfish hair clip. True, maybe the designers wanted to steer clear of copying Monster High’s Scary Tales line, but fairytales are so rich in detail, the imagery could have been played out waaaay more! It seems more like a great foundation for a spooky Fairy Tale concept.

That aside, my one real bone to pick with this line, I’m afraid, are the physical dolls themselves. I have a real problem with companies that show drawings of their characters, but when manufactured into dolls disappoint in how much they couldn’t resemble the original design, like the Mystixx Vampires line. For example, the character drawing of Sleeping Beauty has flowing straight hair, so why does the actual doll have ugly crimped hair?

Overall, though, I like the line in that it’s a fresh approach. However, unlike the Ever After High line, I won’t be rushing to the store to get my hands on one of these creepy little ladies. Basically great concept, poor execution in the production. However, I can’t help hoping to finish my Twisted Tales collection sometime before the 31st.

Halloween Collection 2013: Witches of Salem

The time has come once again! I’m pulling out my special DVDs saved only for the month of October-Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows etc, and measuring myself for costumes. But what is making this year freakin’ amazing is that I will be spending Halloween in the most bewitching town in the world-Salem! Sorry, England, you’ve got loads of catching up today before you’re even in LEAGUE with American Halloween! I am looking forward to some unique shopping for witchy crafts and handmade goods, walking tours around the city honoring the poor souls wrongly condemned and what I expect to be some wicked cooking.

And in light of this trip, my Halloween collection this year will be honoring the infamous craft as I transform each of my girls into gorgeous witches. But not just any witches...

Last month I wrote to Sister Diane, whose Podcast Craftypod offers brilliant advice to crafters worldwide, from crafting techniques to offering ideas on making a living in crafting. Check out her stuff at Craftypod.com. If anyone could give us suggestions on the next step for Punkee Pixie, she could! And as silly as it sounds, a part of me felt as if I were writing to a celebrity. Within 24 hours she’d written back with some great advice! But one thing she urged was showing more of the stories behind the dolls and the characters I’ve created. My girls all have a story behind those gorgeous eyes, as you will soon find out. So part of this collection is really thanks to her!

Here’s my mood board. Many ideas came instantly, such as color palettes and trends. I liked the idea of having a gorgeous catwalk worthy look, but when toped with a pointed hat makes an instant modern witch. 

A new idea just dawned last night. I was watching Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters on Netflix last weekend (finally they uploaded it!) and was really inspired by the design of the witches’ wands. They all looked clearly handmade, and personal. So I thought why not give the girls each a wand, or some sort of handy item that’s a prop to represents their personality? 

There’s a lot of details going into each girl, so I’m trying to get started asap. Only four weeks to go...total rush job, right? haha!