Suzanne Forbes, a New Yorker thriving in Berlin. Crowdfunded documentary art made possible by the generous support of her Patrons. https://www.patreon.com/SuzanneForbes.
Category Archives: Dollhouse and Dollmaking
I have an action figure dollhouse that I built myself over a decade. I also make and customize dolls, usually unpleasant ones.
Tim Burton stripes are back, big time, and I’m also in love with bustles again!
Not that I ever stopped loving the bustle silhouette, but wow I am suddenly so excited to wear it and draw it and see it again. The goth and burner fashions of San Francisco in the Oughts were absolutely marvelous, and I am personally ready to bring these looks back in Berlin. It’s gonna be cold drawing at outside events this Fall and I am happy to wear some layers 🙂
Like this little commercial maid doll who I radically upgraded into the goth maid my dollhouses need!
I used fourteen different trims, ribbons and micro-picots plus three fabrics to do this customizing! Of course all the original articulation of the doll is preserved, and a cool bonus to narrowing her skirt silhouette and loading it with ruffles is that she now stands on her own!
I hadn’t touched my black-and-white trims bin in years and it was marvelous to see how many cool things I had saved every scrap of.
Below, the doll (I have named her Myrtle the Maid) with my biggest Little Shop of Horrors Audrey Two, made last year. The last image is the original doll before mods.
If you’d like to see more of my doll customizing, check out the Dollhouse and Dollmaking category on here, or these specific stripey-doll projects:
I’ve spent so much time over my lifetime in bakeries, cafes and coffee shops, whether working or drawing. I wrote about it here, on the post for my miniature patisserie, and here, talking about the bakeries I loved in the Bay Area. Although I drink instant espresso at home these last few years, I still bake. My flapjack recipe is here and my Peanut Butter Pie is here!
There’s a whole album of coffee shop drawings here!
The coffee shop side of Cafe Morgana features some of my favorite miniatures from decades of collecting them.
Some are very new, like the espresso machine, roasting drum, coffee jars and bags, and other coffee roastery specific items, from the just-released Re-Ment Snoopy’s Coffee Roastery set. (The Snoopy logo or text had to be carefully painted over on several items!) And there are things on this side from the new Re-Ment Witch House set as well, like the cute owl on a perch.
I swapped a vamped-out Darla head onto the school uniform Darla body, and painted her lipstick and nails black, then cracked myself up by putting a witch hat on her. She looks so pissed!
I only got Geordi this spring!
I was so happy to find a Geordi in 6″ scale in Berlin. I am gonna make him a visor though, as I don’t believe in magic disability cures/erasure. Assistive tech, yes!
There are a few spaces left in case I find something amazing and coffee-related.
The Little Prince figure is a feve, as is the figure of the Chinese tea master and sage, Lu Yu.
The Plague Doctor mask on the very old DC Direct Dr. Mid-Nite is from the Re-Ment Witch House series – so good!
I had to build out the counters for the coffee shop, using foam core, balsa wood, and miniature moldings, all painstakingly stained to match.
I hate that part, so I didn’t document it very well!
I used commercial components, kitbashed them together carefully, and wound up with a workspace that felt right to me.
And of course, I had to have as much space to show off baked goods as possible!
There are miniature treats in this display I’ve had for twenty years.
As well as very new ones! I was thrilled when Re-Ment made clear glass teapots with flower tea, like we used to sell at Wicked Grounds. You can see Geordi is enjoying a pot, with his timer at the ready. Ah, the fucking timers! The bane of baristas!
I have so many coffee shop memories!
The bags of unroasted coffee beans in the window are a memento of my days in 1991 at Dunn Bros. in St. Paul, when Ed Dunn roasted fresh every single day, and the bags at Ritual in the Oughts, which reminded me of Dunn Bros. Being a barista is one thing I was always able to do, in St. Paul, in DC, in Berkeley, in San Francisco. When I came to Berlin and met my friend Suzanne Wegh, who was a barista, it seemed like a magical connection.
I will probably never be physically able to work in a coffee shop again, but this project is a tribute to the labor that I did.
There were hard days, and good times – I met my husband at my last barista job, at Wicked Grounds!
Part one, the Magic Shoppe side of Cafe Morgana, is here.
Tim Burton stripes are back, big time, and I’m also in love with bustles again!
Like this little commercial maid doll who I radically upgraded into the goth maid my dollhouses need!
I hadn’t touched my black-and-white trims bin in years and it was marvelous to see how many cool things I had saved every scrap of.
