I'm working as fast as I can to spruce and dress a large lot of Sindys that I bought from another collector back in February. I need to get them up, on show and ready to ship. This involves a fair amount of work including running up to Bunnings (our local hardware store) to fetch Sindy size boxes from their bumper box recycling crate.
Rummaging is another large part of the job. I have various doll clothes packed in boxes and bags. They're organised by type, rather than year. So skirts in one box, day dresses in another. And so on. This is useful for photography and picking things out to assemble as a styled photographic set, but less useful for putting together the original sets favoured by collectors. I had a tiny piece of white rope in a compartment of one of my bits boxes. And it was the key to this whole outfit for Beach Party Sindy.
I suddenly remembered the other components of the outfit - they were squirrelled away in about 6 different hidey holes. The jeans I hadn't really studied before (and therefore remembered) but I was thrilled to find a pair in the box labelled TROUSERS. They're quite intriguing, with a red stitch design printed onto them.
The sun visor is so cool and reminds me of various House of Flora designs.
I start by identifying the doll with the help of the Petra Dolls website and other delving around. Once I've established the year as close as I can, I try to find a matching outfit. And as any Sindy collector will know, the best place for an outfit ID is Our Sindy Museum This doll is quite unusual as she has dark, straight hair. In case you're wondering about the yellow lips: it's a symptom of age in some of the dolls. Some collectors do a great job of painting new make up on with acrylic paint.
Beach Party Sindy was sold within an hour. I was rather sorry to see this one go. On the other hand it's good to keep the dolls circulating so lots of people can enjoy them. Having said that, if I could build up a collection and then start a real life museum one day that would be great. I created a museum for a day last year. Perhaps a museum for a week would be the next step. Watch this space...
More Beach Party Sindy loveliness >