Hello there! Well, here I am, the surprise doll mentioned a couple entries back. MamaT has been nagging at Sasha to give me a turn on the blog. She's as excited as a kid to see me introduced to you all. But first, I have to back up a bit and tell you how I came into MamaT's home. You could call me a birthday present. A day or two before MamaT's birthday, her husband announced to her, “Do you know there's a doll you're watching on Ebay that closes in 10 minutes and no one has bid on it yet?” Really?!!! was her response. So she went down, waited for the last minute to put her bid in, and amazingly no else bid. Granted I wasn't a perfect doll, but it's enough to give a doll an inferiority complex to only get one bid at a low price. You see I am 1960s Gotz doll, and MamaT picked me up for a mere $200!!! She's seen dolls with split sides go for more than that. The same day I sold, a red headed 60's Gotz girl went for more than $900, and MamaT insists that I have a much prettier face than that doll did. I was in Switzerland, Sasha M's homeland, but I arrived in Montana only 10 days later! And so I was named Magdelena Alexandra in honor of Sasha, whose given name was Mary Magdelena Alexandra von Sinner. Sasha was a nickname, short for Alexandra I think. Magdelena Alexandra IS a bit of a mouthful, so I have my own nickname and usually get called Madie for short, or Alex for my tomboy image when my wig is off.
I started my life either as a unisex doll that later got a bad haircut, or more likely as a Gregor doll, we think since my hair is a bit shorter around my ears. But it's a bit uneven, so may have been cut. Now, it can truthfully be said that I am not entirely missing any hair plugs. However, I do have some plugs that are rather thin or short, especially the front row along my hairline. I also had a few marks from a life of being played with, most notably, one on my nose that couldn't be hid with clothes. I'm also missing a bit of paint on my upper lip. But MamaT says she could tell I had beautiful eyes and didn't hesitate to snap me up.Once I arrived is when the real patience was needed. I first got an overall cleaning and then began the Oxy treatment. (See Patrick's entry on stain removal.) But the thing is, those dark purple stains that Patrick had practically disappeared overnight, while the dull dark spots that I had were far more persistent. MamaT was cautious about putting heat on me, so the oxy treatment seemed to go on for weeks. We don't remember exactly how long now. Eventually, it reached a point where the dark spots were mostly still there, but they were very faint and not very noticeable, and that's when she stopped the oxy treatment. If you push it too far you'll get bleaching and light blotches on our skin.
So while I was getting the skin treatment, MamaT set about looking to find me a wardrobe. First, she ordered a wig. She searched on the SashaL site for recommendations on what size to get and chose a Monique Gold mohair wig, Faith style, size 8-9 in carrot red, emphasis on the carrot, as you can see in the pictures. It is a beautiful wig, although it doesn't seem to take a curl at all when she tried to set in rags. But I don't mind the straight look. As for the sizing, size 8-9 MIGHT work on an entirely bald English doll, but never in a million years on a doll that had any hair. Fortunately, I'm a bit more petite than the English dolls. She really didn't want to be responsible for cutting my hair off, so she put it up, and actually got this wig to fit (almost). A larger size really would be better in this situation. She was almost tempted to clip the wig in back but glad she didn't have to do that. A bit of my hairline still shows if you lift up my bangs. Sasha says I shouldn't tell you that as you would not know from the pictures otherwise. I'd be a little frightened to pull this wig off and see what kind of hat hair or wig hair I have going on underneath now. As for clothes, MamaT wanted to find a repro style outfit that looks like something an original 60's Gotz Sasha might have worn. She found something she liked on the Dayzee's website, but alas, Randall Craig was sold out of dresses. He is, however, still selling shoes, and they sell in sets of 3. Well, we had exactly 3 unshod dolls in the house, so that worked out perfectly. We thought 3 pair of shoes for $33 with shipping was a fantastic deal.
MamaT watched Ebay for awhile hoping to find just the right dress. There was one, not exactly repro, but very nice, she watched and then couldn't be there at the close of the auction, so she missed it. In all her searches, she kept going back to Jackie Hyatt's blog, Sasha's closet, and looking at this nice brown cord dress there. I think she was kind of hoping for something turquoise or the black and white check, but the brown cord dress was very common on the Gotz dolls, so she decided to order it and was absolutely delighted with the result. Myself, I love the dress, and I'm really glad MamaT got me this one. It wasn't til after she bought the dress that she realized it was one of the dresses made by Randall Craig that she had wanted in the first place, so I am fully decked in Dayzee's fashion after all. I kind of like my new look. What do you think?So by the time MamaT paid for shipping, wig, shoes and dress, my total cost was close to $300, which we still think was an astounding deal. MamaT says she had always thought it would be several years before she could save up enough for a 60's Gotz Sasha, so I was a dream come true for her. Literally. She once dreamed she had a doll like me, only that one was blonde. But as we say around here, redheads have more fun. We are kind of dominating the shelf here, but that's a story for the next entry.
I am going to be indulgent and give you 2 links today:
1)Randall Craig's Dayzee's web page. The dresses are sold out, but the shoes are still available.
http://www.randallcraigrtw.com/sasha.html
2)Jackie Hyatt's blog, Sasha's Closet
http://sashascloset.blogspot.com/
