News: The Black Swan Company Q&A Hosted by Coleccionistas de Fashion dolls en Madrid

Today Coleccionistas de Fashion Dolls en Madrid ("Coleccionistas") hosted a special online Q&A with Black Swan Company's Francesco Catalano.

Coleccionistas is an active doll community based in Madrid, Spain, who will be hosting the Madrid Doll Show this fall. 

The Black Swan Company is an emerging OOAK doll based in Italy.  You can also find their creations on their Ebay page.  Please see their latest offerings.

This is the first OOAK Silkstone produced by The Black Swan Company is "White Swan Prima Ballerina."  Isn't she amazing?

White Swan Prima Ballerina Silkstone OOAK Barbie

The Black Swan Company was named after their first OOAK doll "The Black Swan" which caused a sensation in the collector world.  The company features beautiful styling with a focus on ballet, dance and fantasy.

Principal designer Francesco Catalano's focus stemmed from his love of music:  "The inspiration about ballet and dance depends on my love for the music. I am a musician and I study piano and flute since I was 9 years old. I have been in the conservatory of music with flute and I got a degree. In the world I lived I had the chance to see opera and ballet and I fell in love with The Swan Lake, Cinderella, Emerald, Don Quixote and many others I had the chance to see. I [have] love[d] Barbie since [the age of ] 5 so I tried to mix my two biggest passion in my life. The Black Swan Company is the final result of who I am.

The doll making process is not easy!  Francesco notes that, "In one year we were able to produce more than 50 dolls. 5 artists work about a week 8 hours at day to create one of our dolls."  [This does not include those] who work for the boxes, printings and certificates. Sometimes a doll requires more time, like Evanora the Witch of East who required almost 20 days of work.  

Francesco's favorite Barbie is Wind Rider, a true beauty and one of my faves!  I encourage you to learn more about OOAK artists and support these artists.  They are the ones who bring our favorite dolls to life in new and exciting ways!  Don't forget to check out The Black Swan Company's Facebook page and follow this amazing OOAK doll company and their future creations.

News: The Doll Cafe Lives!

LOL, no, I wasn't dead but you'd think I was.  I'm shocked that my last post was April 28, 2012.  It seems like this time of year my doll collecting passion is re-awakened.  Well, maybe it's more of my my pre-Barbie Convention panic mode!

Convention this year will be held in New Orleans!  Wow, that's so exciting.  Being the homebody that I am, I have never traveled to that area of the country so I'm seeing the World with Barbie once again this year!!  I'm excited to report that my daughter Steff will be joining me for the second year in a row.  Her first Barbie Convention last year was a blast!  Here is an amazing picture of the beautiful dolls we both received as gifts from our generous table hostess last year Jen M.  Do you see some Steffies and Basics in there?  Boy aren't we lucky!!??!!

I hope that you have been following our Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Flickr, or Instagram posts.  Did you know we also have a Tumbler?  Just choose your favorite online platform and join us for the dolly fun.  Also, be sure to check out our Facebook Group and the Model Muse and Steffie pages online.


For future blogging I will be tagging posts with useful titles with labels and will try to post daily (ok, you've heard that before).  Most of our news will be posted on Facebook and Twitter so I will use this blog to feature pictures from our collection, doll news, and in a continuing attempt to count our dolls we will also be featuring a post on each doll in our collection so we can keep a handle on it all.

Thanks for all your support, comments and suggestions.  Keep reading for more dolly centered fun.

-The Doll Cafe

I'm Back and Ximena says hello!

Yes, The Doll Cafe Blog returns, actually we didn't go anywhere! Most of the activity here has taken place on several different platforms lately. Of course you can always participate at our super fun and informative Forum. For those of you on Facebook, I post there nearly every day, either some Barbie news stories or pictures of my fave dolls. Please join us there! For quick updates, news and stories, our Twitter page is also updated nearly every day! Be sure to follow us on Twitter since we will be live tweeting from the Barbie Convention once again! With less than a month until the National Barbie Doll Convention, you will not want to miss out on the fun!

We have been working quite a bit to update our Gallery. If you have not been there lately, please check it out. Most of our pictures are by members of the forum. They are amazing works of art. Please be sure to register and post comments and vote to make your favorite picture the most popular! On that note, today's featured photo is by forum member souverignofsilence. She is a beautiful Teresa doll named Ximena. Aren't the colors brilliant? If you like this pic see more here!

Thanks for your support and check back for more regular posts!

Enjoying Barbie's 50th, also Twitter and Facebook

We sure hope all you doll lovers have been enjoying Barbie's 50th! We've been so caught up in all the news stories and festivities that we haven't stopped by for a while!

Thanks to the prodding of a few friends, The Doll Cafe has two new web presences! First for all of you who Twitter, you can find us here! There will be more general real time updating. Follow us for more fun. If you are on Facebook, find us here. Just in case you missed the new info, Barbie also has an "official" presence on these sites too. Here is Barbie's Facebook page and here is her Twitter page! So much Barbie online fun. Enjoy the continued festivities!