other day - crocuses almost ready to bloom! Maybe spring is coming early this year!
especially among the photographers!
With all our snow melting fast, I went to check out the gardens, and look what I spotted the other day - crocuses almost ready to bloom! Maybe spring is coming early this year! Today the first flowers opened, and it stirred up quite some excitement,
especially among the photographers! -With spring imminent this week, we thought we'd go for a drive up north to take a look at some "real winter" before it was all gone for another year.
I took along several dolls in hopes for a good photo opportunity. There was lots of snow - way more than we've had around our house all winter - and many of the rock cuts had wonderful ice formations from the frozen groundwater, but most were at the sides of busy roads and highways, so completely inaccessible - except this one..... Woke to another dusting of fresh snow, with huge flakes gently drifting down, presenting
an opportunity not to be missed, so I took Carina out for a few portraits Made the effort yesterday to take one more set of photos in the snowy woods. This time with Carina and Tedros, my Iplehouse EID couple. These two dolls photograph so well, and they often look like real people. Carina is especially photogenic. Makes me wish I had an Iplehouse Rex. He's been my favourite male EID sculpt ever since he was released several years ago, and I think he looks so much more 'real' than Tedros. But I don't do much with the larger dolls, so Rex will probably just stay on my 'wish list' forever.
I finished the fourth small mask this morning, so now all the JID girls can go to the masquerade It's interesting when I look at the four masks, that they are all in my least favourite colours. I love pinks, purples, red, and blues. I've never really been a fan of green, orange, yellow, brown or white. Yet all four of these masks, and the costumes they go with, are those colours. Weird!
I'm feeling rather overwhelmed with all the supplies needed for four tiny masks! Each doll's mask is being made to compliment their gown, so that meant four different boxes of fabrics, each needing to be gone through, just for one tiny 1 x 3" snippet of fabric. At least those are all put away now. But there's piles of boxes for all the tiny trims - two tiny white roses out of the "Tiny Fabric Flowers' box; a few coloured leaves out of the "Fabric Leaves" box; the felt box for mask linings; the whole silk ribbon drawer; the pearl beads bag; the sequins packages bag; all kinds of scissors, wires, glue, brushes, dolls in their costumes to match the trims to.......and that's just what's on the table and chairs. The counters have the containers with glitter paints, and my glue gun with extension cord draped across the ground. So much stuff, just for four tiny masks! Good luck even spotting them in all that mess! And that's not including the other two dolls who are getting masks, and after I finish the detail work on Kassia's white mask, then I have to go look for beads to match Soa's Mother Nature gown, and haul up two boxes of fancy yarns in order to find the ones I used on her dress, and take a couple of tiny snippets of each.
Sometimes I wish I had a dedicated studio! Although with Jan retired, I now have a 'gopher' whose willing to run up and down the stairs hauling boxes of supplies. Which is a great thing! I'm working on four little masks so all my JID girls can attend a Masquerade Party. Asa, as Queen of the Night, already has a mask, so that means making four; one for Kassia in her white gown; one for Leona in Lily's 'Summer Goddess' gown; one for Soa in her 'Mother Nature' gown; and one for Isar, whose 'Archery Maiden' outfit will be transformed back into the Fairy costume it was originally. Isar's mask is the butterfly shape, painted to match her fairy wings..... While I'm at it, I've decided to take under construction photos, so I can redo the old Mardi Gras Mask Tutorial which I made for BJDcollectasy five years ago. My Tutorial was turned into a video, and in my opinion that's not the best way to show someone how to do something. It's rather a pain to have to view the entire video every time one wants to double check on a certain step.
Anyway now, as not to infringe on my deal with them, I'm going to use these four new masks as photo examples instead. The patterns will include the old SD-size mask pattern, in addition to these new MSD-size ones. I've done a costume switch with my Leona and Lily. I need to take a photos of my five JID girls together, and Leona - who is my only contemporarily dressed young woman - just won't fit in with the other four fantasy girls. And I needed to strip Lily anyways, since she's going to be my next costume model. She's going to be the model for a traditional native costume, and since it's too cold to be standing around naked between fittings, I put Leona's clothes on her. And to help her get into the role of modelling a traditional native-inspired dress, she also switched to long brown hair. I think they both look beautiful in their new personas... I had been wondering how to make the five JID girls work in photos together. They are all in Fantasy costumes, but in totally different styles, and from completely different periods. So I thought 'Masquerade Party'. Then it doesn't matter what they are wearing, just as long as they are all dressed up. So now I need to make some masks in order to tie everyone together. Asa, as Queen of the Night, already has a mask. So now I need to make four more. I'm going to make simple masks - not like Asa's elaborate Apoxy mask - but masks out of covered cardboard like the ones in my Mask Tutorial, but in a smaller size.
|
AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2024
|