The Late January Sale & Sell Out of Many Older Kits & Other Items
Is Now Over
(This information was written January 27, 2010 and I ask your patience over the next week while we struggle to cope with the far-beyond-my-wildest-dreams results of the sale - it turned out four times as great as the best sale I have ever had and I am so very grateful for the incredible response - you have no idea how empty the coffers were. We, and I as the web master here, will need a lot of time to try to make up as much stock as possible from supplies at hand soas to fulfill our goal of filling nearly every single item ordered. this means, in turn, time to update all the products on the website.)
Further, it will take us about 30 days to fill all of the easier orders of kits, patterns, supplies, etc. and longer on some orders containing many finished items, which we only ever have one or two and then only in stages of done. Each order will be confirmed as soon as we can as to expected delivery dates. All items that had more finite limited numbers we are selling to the order in which requests were received.

The sale is now over, but there are still items available at really good prices. When they are gone, they will be gone forever. As you peruse the pages, you will see the items that are being discontinued and those that are sold out are marked. Please be aware that sale prices do not show up in your cart and that if you click on "Add to Cart" for an item and it says,
SOLD OUT, price $0.00, it is now gone.

I am not going out of business! I have been trying for several years to find a way to do what I love to do and really to provide more of what you have come here to find instead of spending the majority of my waking hours administrating stuff and well, administrating a business. Recently, trends in the economy (I need not waste words on this tired subject) and then a health scare with cancer have repainted my priorities. Much as I prayed for a clear cut lightening bolt of a plan, none really materialized, so I am much like a traveler striking out into unknown territory with some heavy fog. And like fog behaves where you get glimpses of clarity now and again, I know some things clearly but most is not so clear.

One is that I cannot go forward economically by continuously adding to my inventory of what I make and sell and have it always available. It is simply too much stuff. And the older some of my products are, the harder it is to find replacements for all of the many fabrics and supplies they contain when manufacturers stop selling the materials. So, the place to start was to get rid of older kits. Then, so as not to end up in the same place, but to continue designing kits and patterns, I will only be doing limited edition kits in the future. Maybe one or two per year - I will purchase an initial amount of supplies for these new kits, then when those disappear, the kit will be retired. I will maintain any patterns that I already have since these do not require much beyond the simple printing process which we now do ourselves due to the benefits of state of the art computers and equipment, as opposed to high volume printing done by a print shop. Hitty and all of not only her present long list of clothes, furniture, and accessories will be maintained far into the future but I will have more time to devote to providing new things for this most beloved doll. I will continue to teach in live classes and online classes. I hope to make use of most of my old kits and repurposing them into patterns or booklets of series of projects. Occasionally, I may bring out a reworked kit from the past or make some finished items to sell in what I project to be quarterly email-announced mini market days. But the final and most important part is that I will at last return to where I began in 1974, by making dolls from my heart using all the skills and knowledge acquired over almost 36 years of full-time dollmaking. I hope to be making dolls that will never be sold as kits with the freedom that that will make not to have to consider each step as if someone else, not me, would have to be told how to make it. These I will also sell perhaps through the many shops and galleries that have been asking for years or perhaps through email announcements. That is the Idea as it is now. I am turning 60 this spring, so I am wise enough to know now that what is more likely is Plan B. But, what is for sure is that I will not retire (can't) nor will I stop making dolls and the way the world is so now committed to the world of computers and the internet, I will maintain this website for a long time.

The list of selling out items is as follows:

The Early American Doll Series
All of the wooden furniture pieces and accessories intended to be for the Early American Series and including Shadowboxes and one remaining Completely Furnished Doll House
Most kits on the Christmas Page
The Dolls in the Historical Doll Series
Many other Kits found on the Old-Fashioned Dry Goods Page
Some Supplies, especially ones that are found commonly (but not to worry about most of my stock-in-trade kind of supplies like things we make here or wool roving and other things I will need myself in dollmaking) - these will be marked in red until they are gone.
Fabrics by the yard will pretty much disappear - it is hard and costly to be a fabric store when you are not a fabric store, but I will continue to offer select bundles of fat quarters as good ones come up knowing how hard it is for many to find just the right fabrics for dolls.

An illustration from Goldie, the Dollmaker, a favorite book since a friend gave me my first copy in 1978.

Of Interest to Serious Collectors:

For most of my career, except for the early years, my dolls have been limited by what I felt I could pass on to others in the way of classes, kits and patterns and I have sometimes been saddened by the lack of time to do dolls that tax my own talents entirely. And I have long pondered how to fulfill a 20 year dream for one doll in particular and recently a good friend and customer/student made a suggestion that planted a seed. She asked if she could sponsor me to make a doll of my dreams. Even though her request was a pleasant surprise, a seed was sewn. The dolls I want to make ever since first becoming aware of them are, of course and so obviously, Izannah Walkers. But not a make-do version, rather one complete with similar metal molds to achieve the true style. This means that it is far above the initial and most generous offer made for such sponsorship, but as we talked more, the seed grew into the idea that what if she were not the only sponsor and that what if a number of people like herself were to all be sponsors with the return being the recipient of one of a tiny prototype edition of these dolls who would all come with an illustrated self published chronicle of the entire process. Because I was reluctant to ask, I felt it meant sounding this out with someone else, another collector-customer and a good friend as well who was in turn enthusiastic and has encouraged me to follow this star. If you are interested in this project, please email or call me personally to learn more. I will be writing up my proposal with illustrations and levels of sponsorship to send out. I would ask serious collectors only.

Send emails to me at email@gailwilsondesigns.com with subject line Re: Serious Collector Project
I will be sending out more information in about two weeks. To date, I have received a wonderful and enthusiastic response.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:

LAYAWAYS MAY BE PLACED BUT PLEASE BE AWARE OF NEW LAYAWAY POLICY

Please accept that like other small businesses, these sales are final and that you may wait for a bigger discount, but the risk will be that it may be gone. We will only make adjustments for faulty things (damages or items left out of kits) and only within 14 days of receipt.
Please note that due to the economic times, we have been reducing inventory on hand. This means that we have much lower numbers of everything in stock. If your order includes items sold out forever, only temporarily sold out, or items that require making up for you (such as most finished dolls and some finished items) we will let you know when to expect delivery.
All orders will be confirmed with approximate dates for your order to be shipped.

Orders will be personally confirmed by email.

Due to the enormity of this sale, we will not be able to ship any orders for at least two weeks and that due to the high volume, it will take about 30 days to get through the pile. It takes many days to transcribe and collate all the items and to make sure everyone gets the last items in the order we received the orders.

~ GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT MY SALES ~ TWO BIG ANNUAL SALES: There will be two big annual sales which will be announced both in a banner on the Homepage and also by email announcement which you will receive automatically if you are on my email mailing list (see info below concerning this). These have been going on for many years - my version of a blog before there were blogs - and are called: "Gail by Email" - A Newsletter with Dollmaking Hints and Stories and Always a Sale ~ Now Twice Annually. NEXT ISSUE ~ January 2010 THE OCASIONAL SPECIALS: (These were happening weekly, but we were getting worn out with sale fatigue and so will be changed once again to a little less frequency, but with email notices so you will know - you must be on our email list to get the notices). New starting June 1, I began featuring weekly specials on selected items. Check into the Homepage on Tuesdays to see what has been chosen for that week. The way the sale works: I select several items which are in stock trying to pick one or two finished dolls, a couple small finished items, a kit or two, a pattern, one or two supplies, and a couple of fabrics. The point is that I try to give more than usual discounts (many half or more off). Some weeks, due to the time required to do web/computer work such as this, there may be only a few items or some other special feature. Leftovers will be put onto the Leftovers Page until supplies run out - see the link above. ABOUT ORDERING DURING A SALE: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: • Orders are not automatically charged on this website. We get each order from the secure site and type out a whole new invoice here on our computer. We confirm all orders and apply any discounts, add shipping then charge your order only as it is ready to ship. • Layaways are welcome on all items, sale or not - please check layway policy. • To Place an Order During a Sale - Please place your order as usual on the website. Sometimes I am able to put in sale prices that will show up in your cart on unusual items, but normal items with sale prices will NOT show up in your cart ~ but rest assured, we apply all relevant sale prices when we make up your invoice here.If you prefer, fax or call in your order, and if we have your personal information, you may email the order. • Sale items are only on items in stock (first come, first served) and prices cannot be combined with any other discounts. Shipping rates apply as for regular prices. Web Hint to Remember: If you come to my website at any time and are sure you should be seeing things you are not, it is usually because your browser is showing you a version of the page it has remembered from a previous visit. This is a common problem on the internet. To update the content on the page you are on, look up in the tool bar at the top of your browser window for the circular arrow which is the refresh button. You can also refresh by going to one of the menu items at the top of your screen (sometimes under View) and click Reload. Browsers will refresh on their own periodically but sometimes they are set for a longer refresh period.