Poupée Mécanique

I love this photo and Tilda Swinton’s hair!

I’m visiting family in Greece these days. I’ve been eating non stop, seeing friends and going to flea markets. The Saturday market has become especially difficult to get to, what with the construction work done on the train lines. You have to get off at a certain point, get a replacement bus shuttle, then get back on the train. It wasn’t even worth it, I found nothing.

However, last week, I had one of my best flea market finds ever!

I have no idea how a rare 1950s japanese celluloid doll ends up in the possession of a gypsy in a greek flea market, but I am thrilled she did. I LOVE those dolls and I always drool over them in Japan but they are so freakin expensive! I got this one for 1 euro and she is in near mint condition! Really big too, 40cm! I can’t wait to make her a little dress when I get back to London.

Seconds after I had picked her up, a lady showed up that clearly would have bought her. I was so lucky, a matter of seconds.

Seems to be a japanese kitty too, he/she’s been served gyoza. :D

This made me laugh. Now THAT is an instantly recognisable designer Barbie.

I’ve just started studying japanese at a very good university in beautiful Bloomsbury. I had forgotten the feeling of learning a new language. You can practically feel your brain expanding. o.o I can speak some basic stuff but reading and writing is a whole different story. It’s by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever encountered. T_T

They have three writing systems, hiragana, katakana and kanji. The first two consist of syllables, hiragana is for japanese words and katakana for imported foreign words such as “computer”. As a european, I find NO logic behind them, there aren’t for example similarities between certain sounds or anything like that, and many of them look similar with an extra line or a different direction of a curve changing the sound. And the stroke order is important or you can end up with a different sound. With kanji each character represents a whole word and they can consist of like 15 strokes. The average japanese adult must know 2,000 of them.

We have to learn all this by next week

I should be able to read hiragana and katakana by the next time I go to Tokyo. I will know what button does what on the butt washing toilets and if there’s meat hidden in my onigiri! My aspirations are reasonable, right? Right??? I’m not adding reading manga to my agenda just yet.

Speaking of butt washing, I have to share this gem.

Only Jun Togawa would play in an ad like this.

My new mohair custom is finally ready. I’m very happy with her, she’s just beautiful! That mohair is insanely long, the longst I’ve ever found. I hope she goes well so I can fund my next trip to Japan! I haven’t been in too long and I miss it and my friends so much.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=170342291606

Her outfit is listed also.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=170342303165

I got this wonderful doll from Gretchen/Shop66.

I really love her hair and the delicate trim on her dress. She’s very dirty and the trim is faded, but I won’t even try to restore her, I quite like her as she is anyway.

When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always…eat some cheese?

Edit:
I received many commission requests, thank you so much! I will stop taking any more for now, and might re-open when I’m finished with this first batch. I’ll make an announcement if so!

I’m currently sewing to fill a huuuge order, and I always like to make more of something instead of one. So if you’ve missed any of the following, here’s a chance to order them now. Please allow a couple weeks for me to make them. You can drop me a line at stadtkind at gmail dot com ^_^

Click on the images for more info.

Harlequin I

Mod plaid – very limited fabric, could make maybe 1-2 more.

Pastel

Musical lolita

Turquoise plaid. I don’t have any more of the little hats, so $10 off.

Red floral suit

Tartan mod – the short dress only, with the bows, $80.

Poodle love

Pierrot Pink ver.