INTRODUCTION
I began this project seven years ago, when I went hunting for information on a doll crafting magazine("The Cloth Doll") at the Library of Congress' website. I was trying to figure out when it ceased publication, so that I would know when I had a complete run. I was shocked to discover that not only does the Library of Congress not archive a copy of all periodicals, it isn't even aware of most craft magazines. I felt 10 again, learning there was no Santa! So I went searching for bibliographies of various craft magazines - and came up with nada. Even Wikipedia is largely silent on the subject. (I have since discovered that the magazines "THREADS" and "PIECEWORK" keep searchable databases of all their issues(kudos to these awesome periodicals!!!) and that there are some women out there as dedicated to the dead publication "WORKBASKET" as I am - but there was no collective database of all of them as I'd hoped to find.)
I had also been discovering there were a great many magazines and newsletters out there that I'd never heard of, that had all sorts of wonderful information packed into their pages. Magazines for me are a reflection of what was hot in fashion, handiwork, cooking - you name it. Magazines both reflected and helped form our culture for over a century. They still have their effect - but the internet has been slowly leeching this power away, just as tv did to radio. While we still have radio, it doesn't command the attention it once did. One thing the internet cannot take away from old periodicals, however, is their permanence - which seems like a funny thing to say about a form of media that has always been considered as disposable as newspapers! But websites come and go like mayflies - the information they impart can be gone tomorrow without explanation. I have magazines dating as far back as 1899! They will still be there when I die and this website is gone. My collection will go to a textile museum along with the database, so that it will continue to enlighten and inform on these small arenas of textile arts long after I am gone.
Between the books on Soft Sculpture I'd been finding and periodicals like "National Doll World" and "The Cloth Doll" I began to get a hazy picture of this huge renaissance in soft sculpture art that got started in the 60's and peaked in the '80's that I'd completely missed! I grew up in exactly this time period, sewing hundreds of (Barbie)doll outfits, making furniture for doll houses for my sister and cousins, making cornhusk dolls, applehead dolls, whittling articulated dolls, and designing stuffed animals that I could make out of my mother's scrap bag. I was completely unaware that there was this great movement going on at the same time. I was a rural kid, always too busy to be bored, but pretty insulated from the larger crafting community. My only contact was through books, which could be checked out for a week from the book mobile that came in from Grand Junction from the public library there. Did I mention that I was a (very) rural kid?
Which brings me to this long-winded point: 1) I felt that someone should be collecting, organizing(! - very important, that part) and archiving the documentation for this wonderful time period, 2) that most of it was quickly ending up in landfills as the generation before mine starts dying, and their heirs look at the amassed mountains of paper in the forms of patterns and magazines and catalogs(because we ALL buy and hoard more patterns and materials than we could ever use in ten lifetimes), and decide a shovel and industrial trashbin on the lawn is their best option for getting through the stressful mess, and 3) that the person who recognizes the problem is typically the person who should do something about it. So here I am. I have no formal training as a librarian or curator, and my research training was all geared toward lab work. I had to teach myself HTML and Javascript in order to build this website, so while it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles(though I'm proud of my slideshow!), I can make any needed changes myself - and of course, continue adding information! I'm not wealthy - not even well off. My husband owns a comic shop. Comic shops don't make money - they make back-issue comics. But we are happy, and I've learned so much working on this project. Of course it has been worthwhile, and it has only barely begun. There is still so much more to accomplish! The website will get "prettier" as I get more of the important stuff done.
I started with the soft toy, doll and teddy bibliography page, and it has sort of swallowed my undivided attention for the last seven years. You'll see why when you get down to the magazine reviews. There is a catalog of all the books I am aware of, and reviews of those books in the catalog I happen to own(only about five hundred - don't laugh, to my husband and me, that is a paltry number!), and what has turned out to be the black hole for time consumption - the magazine bibliographies.
I've put off putting the website back on-line until I had a certain checklist of things done, which included completed bib pages for key magazine titles - but I kept adding things to the list! I've finally realized that I would never get the bibliography back up if I continued to wait until I had the list all checked off. So keep in mind that this bibliography is a Work-In-Progress, and that I only have about 30 hours a week that I can devote to building it. I have a full-time job, and help my husband out at his shop on the weekends - and I craft. I'm currently doing a LOT of tatting for a cloak for next Fall, and really oughtta get the bib page for all the tatting books and magazines up...
I've put thousands of hours into the soft toy magazine bib and still have a great many titles to add. General craft/needlework magazines that carried doll and toy patterns are included here, so if you're hunting for other information you may well find it here. I try to have at least three quarters of a run before I start building a full page for any given magazine title, and I have a great many partial runs that I'm still working on filling in. Even so, I have a backlog of material that needs to be data entered that will take about 9 years to catch up on at the rate I'm working! And every time I start getting smug about having a pretty complete picture of what's been published, I run across yet another title or well established designer I was completely unaware of.
I also have a very large collection of tatting, candle-making, costuming, chainmail knitting and polymer clay books. I will post updates on what has been completed in the column to the right of this introduction, so you can check back periodically and see if there's anything new you are interested in.
Please read the FAQ if you have a minute - at least skim the questions in bold to see if any are questions you might have yourself. Yes, it's dry and unentertaining, but there's a good reason why it's called "Frequently Asked Questions!"
Feel free to drop me a note with any questions, suggestions or complaints. If you find errors, PLEASE let me know. I try very hard to be as accurate as possible, but I have no one checking behind me, and if there's a broken link or misspelled word, there's no one to blame but me. Taking a minute to send me a note is always appreciated! And of course, I love creative compliments. :)
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UPDATES
May 12th, 2012:
I'm caught up again on all the doll books that I have(phew), and I've found one of my boxes of polymer clay books, so I'll be doing that next. I've gotten a surprising number of requests for appraisal of magazine values, so I guess I'm going to have to move that particular project further up the list of "Things To do". All together, I now have over 800 review pages up on this website!
April 28th, 2012:
I've changed the format of the tatting bib page to look more like the soft toy bib - except that you get a thumbnail pic of the reviewed book just to the left of the entry. Having that visual aid will help, I think, and putting more space between entries will make them easier to read. I also think it makes the page "prettier". The drawback is that you'll have to do a great deal more scrolling to get anywhere.
Candle Book reviews are done(at least for the boxes of books I could find - I think there's one more box floating around my storage unit somewhere)! I haven't changed the main bib page over to the new format yet, but the reviews are up. Most are missing pictures because my scanner is still not working.
April 17th, 2012:
It has been a very busy weekend - I hope everyone has their taxes done and mailed! The tornadoes that went through Wichita this weekend wrecked my mom's home, but thankfully she is all right, and most of her possessions are still intact - lucky that, or there'd be colorful fat quarters of quilting material carpeting the entirety of Sedgwick county mixed with the soggy remains of books! It was tense until today, as my mom wasn't allowed back into the area because of an exploded propane tank and all the downed power lines to see if her home still stood. Hers was part of the 10% that were still(mostly) intact in the community and we are so grateful. I keep reminding myself that my mom is okay...
I just received a very exciting shipment today of "Milady In Miniature", "Doll Castle News" and "Ella's Doll Publication" - all from the 60's and very early 70's!!! These are impossible to find, so it was a marvelous coupe for the bibliography. About half the MIMs are duplicates of what I already have, so I'll be putting those back up for sale after I've finished processing the lot.
Most of the questions I've been getting have either been for finding patterns in things like Workbasket and Annie's, or asking me to buy magazines that you have. Thank you very much for letting me know what you have available, and for letting me know where the most interest is in the bibliography. It is gratifying to me to know I was right to devote so much time into the magazine bib pages. Please check out the FAQ for ways to make them "searchable" - it will be a great deal quicker! When asking me to do a search, try to give me as much information about the pattern you are looking for as possible. The more I can narrow down the search, the quicker it will be for me to get you the information you're looking for!
April 4th, 2012:
More search requests have been rolling in, so data entry has slowed a bit. I've been getting some really positive responses, and been able to help several ladies find the patterns they were looking for - all fairly painlessly so far, so my database structure seems to be working! And it will just keep getting bigger and better as I slog along. I got a $25 donation today that will go to the new scanner pot(Thank you, Ruth!). If you come to this site looking for something and don't find it, please drop me a note and let me know. Your suggestions help me build a picture of where I need to focus my time. All comments and complaints are useful, and my contact page is easy to use!
March 30th, 2012:
There are now over !!!500 REVIEWS!!! up on the Soft Toy and Doll bibliography page! With the tatting reviews done, that puts me up to over 600 for the site! I'm very psyched! I've been working on a new essay for the essays section: "HOW NOT TO SELL YOUR MAGAZINES ON E-BAY" I hope to have it up some time next week.
March 22nd, 2012:
The Polymer Clay and Wood Carving main biblio page is now up - that should be all of the main pages I currently have planned. I still have the first run of individual review pages to do for Clay, Candle-making, and Chainmail. I'll be working on that next...
March 17th, 2012:
The scanner is still broken, and now I have large stacks of books and magazines that need scanning piled around the computer area! I've priced a large-bed scanner and hope to have it paid for in three weeks. I have proofread the tatting page and fixed all the broken links to Reviews pages(thank you for the heads-up on the broken links). I was in such a rush to get it all up, I failed to double check them all as I added them. Please check out the contributors' list below for a new addition. Bob Keller donated most of a decade of both "Doll Castle News" and "Dolls" to the bibliography in his wife's name, enabling me to add both titles finally to the list of bib pages I can set up for those runs(my rule of thumb is to have at least 3/4s of the issues before setting up a full bib page for that title). Both are ongoing titles and very deserving of attention. I believe "Doll Castle News" is the longest ongoing doll magazine EVER - 5 decades and still counting! The history of this magazine is very cool - it has been completely owned and published by the same family its entire existence. If you're a doll collector(or have decided to become one!), you really should check out their website:
http://www.dollcastlemagazine.com/
My most sincere condolences to Mr. Keller for the loss of his wife Phyllis. It takes a special man to indulge this madness of doll collecting, and I'm honored to help keep the memory of Phyllis alive.
March 10th, 2012:
The rest of the tatting reviews are up - anything with a clickable button on that page should now reveal a review page for that title. My scanner is broken, so there are a few pages where the cover pic won't show, but the information should be available. I've got a bunch of cloth doll books that have been piling up and need to be entered - I'm close to having a complete run of Susan Sirkis' books! I would also like to get Joan Chiara Ciglar's bib page up, which could take several weeks - she's a very impressive and seriously prolific designer. She's given me permission to reference her catalog for the bib page!
Feb. 25th, 2012:
I just finished putting up most of the Tatting Bibliography book reviews! About half of the Coats&Clark booklet reviews aren't done, but other than that, if you push the review button, a page should pop up! My tatting group meets today(Hi, Tri-Tatters!!!), so I get to pass my website address around and find out what they think. :)
Feb. 14th, 2012:
Happy Valentine's Day! Any excuse for chocolate is a good day in my life. The sale at the shop went really well - the best we've had in seven years. Maybe the economy is starting its u-turn? Let's hope! I've just added a slideshow to the banner showing off some of the first issues and antique books that can be found in the bibliographies. This page looked so dull without some images. The tatting book images for the reviews pages have all been cropped and resized, so it's back to building the review pages for individual entries...
Feb. 9th, 2012:
Tatting Bibliography
page is up! I only have about 30 of the book reviews up at this point(about a third), and none of the cover scans - though I've got the raw scans done and can start the cropping and resizing process. The bibliography is only a stub, as it mostly contains only what I have on my shelves - I have not had the time to go out in search of everything that is out there! I'm sure there are a lot of important books that I'm not even aware of. Also, the majority of tatting books are self-published and difficult to track down once they go out of print. I'll happily put up pages for independent designers to hawk their designs.
Rick(my husband) is gearing up for his anniversary sale at the shop, so I'll be really busy till Monday helping him set up and run the shop. If you're a comic fan or gamer, it's worthwhile to stop in this weekend at Foundation's Edge, Raleigh, NC - 20-90% off everything in the shop!
Feb. 3rd, 2012:
"International Doll World"
bibliography page is complete! I've had three issues that have eluded me until recently, so I just had to stop work on the tatting book reviews long enough to get them entered and complete the page. I started putting these together about seven years ago, so you can imagine how excited I am to finally finish it! Scans of the covers will be added as I get them cropped and resized. Okay, back to the tatting book reviews...
January 26, 2012:
WOO HOO!!! The website goes operational again. Welcome to the ever-expanding CRAFTER'S BIBLIOGRAPHY!!! Check out the "Soft Toybooks Bibliography" page! It covers cloth doll, stuffed toy and teddy bear craft books and magazines. Clicking on a review button on this page will take you to a scan of the cover of that book/magazine, their Table of Contents, and a brief review!
For those of you who miss Igor9 and Dr. Moraih's excess lab specimens - they will return when Igor9 has space again to assemble the specimens.
BIBLIOGRAPHY LIFETIME CONTRIBUTORS:
(In Alphabetical Order, not in order of contributions)-
These are the awesome people who have gone way above and beyond the call to provide obscure materials,
solid advice and indispensible expertise. Thank you, one and all.
Kristy Effinger- Colette Wolff's biggest fan and a fellow collector of all her patterns - Kristy has been a huge contributor to the CW bib page - it would look very thin without her contributions!
Phyllis C. Keller(In Memorium, Oct 12, 1918 - Jan. 7, 2011)- Doll Making and collecting were her hobbies and passion for 40 years. Her loving husband Bob donated most of a decade of "Doll Castle News" and "Dolls" to the bibliography in her memory, enabling me to put both titles on the list of bib pages I can set up! In memory of this lovely lady and her generous husband, you have my heartfelt thank you.
Ruth Wilson- Librarian extraordinaire and another fellow Colette Wolff fan - also clued me in and introduced me to Joan Chiara Ciglar's amazing work, gives advice freely on this arcane business of documenting and archiving vintage materials, and has helped complete several runs of important doll magazine titles from her private collection. Lovely lady, you Rock!
Zendelle- Donated an obscure run of "Milady In Miniature" out of the blue after seeing my website during the first time I was able to put it up - the only issues I've ever been able to locate of this title. Zendelle runs a fantastic searchable(yay!) website for doll collectors that I envy greatly. You should check it out if you are a doll collector of any vintage:
http://www.vintagedollcollector.com/
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