Anyway, I thought I'd start 2015 by showing you a special doll that I bought for myself about a year ago. She is a "Little Darling" 13-inch vinyl doll made by Dianna Effner and painted by Geri Uribe. Ms. Effner sculpts a variety of art dolls that are cast in vinyl and porcelain. She sells a few completed Little Darling dolls through her studio website and a variety of her sculptures are also available in kit form on the Expressions website. Ms. Effner is well known for her realistic face painting style, a technique that she has taught to several other artists over the years. Little Darling dolls hand-painted by Dianna Effner herself are highly sought after and quite valuable. They tend to sell on the secondary market for over $1,000. It is theoretically possible to get on a wait list to order a custom-painted doll directly from Ms Effner (for just under $400), but this list opens only sporadically and tends to close quickly.
Geri Uribe is a doll artist who has been working with Dianna Effner for over 20 years. Little Darling dolls painted by Ms. Uribe are gorgeous, and they're easier to come by than those painted by Ms. Effner. Geri's wait list tends to be open, with a wait time of around 12-15 months. I emailed my custom order request last January, thinking that my doll might be completed in time for Christmas of 2014. As it turned out, the doll was ready way before I expected, and my beautiful girl arrived in late September:
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| Dianna Effner Little Darling doll painted by Geri Uribe, $350. |
