A few more photos of Phairby....
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Discovered Phairby and several of her butterfly friends in among the crabapple blossoms the other day, so had to take some photos...           I finished making Rex's coat yesterday. Well, at least the main sewing part. I'm really happy with how it turned out, even though several things needed to be redone, and there's still one minor issue with the lining to be figured out for next time. I can already imagine the coat being made in richer fabrics for fancier outfits from the period. With Marie Antoinette style gowns for Bianca.  Now the fun begins. I get to sand the fabric and stain it to make the coat look old and lived in, like it's been his only coat for the past two years - worn in town and country, on ships and in the wilderness. Which I why I thought I should take a 'before' picture. And while I was at it, I decided to take a photo of him with Bianca, whose latest outfit now includes a knit cowl scarf and an apron.  Rex's coat still needs the buttons, as well as some fake buttonholes. I had chosen some dark gray buttons, because I didn't want anything flashy, but there weren't enough. I really didn't make to make buttons out of polymer clay, so I printed off some discount coupons and headed over to Michaels to see if they had any tiny buttons in the right colour. No. Only packages with really bright colours. So I checked out their bead section, and they had some strings of an embossed silver metal bead, about the right size. Kind of a bright silver, which wasn't really what I wanted, but I bought two strings of them anyways. So today I brushed one string with dark brown paint, killing some of the flashy silver. Now they look more like 'brass'.....  Rex will also need some knit fingerless gloves, and the first set I made were too 'rough' and thick. I had combined two very thin yarns and knit them together to give it a more 'home-spun' look, but they turned out too thick for my taste. So I knit a second colour combo, alternating two medium browns. Unfortunately I cast off too tight and messed it up when I tried to undo it, so now I have to start all over. Again. I just hope there's enough of the one yarn.  Now to go 'age' that coat....and start some more arm warmers....
Encouraged by Lily's attention, Rags jumped up into her lap...   "He really seems to like you.."  "Looks like you both have made a new friend."  "Well, back to the tea. Who would like some??"  "I would!!"  Asa was ready to pour the tea....  ...and Rags was watching from his pillow on the floor....  Lily was just quietly sitting waiting for her tea to be poured...  ...when Rags suddenly wanted to get her attention....  "Why,.... hello there!! What's your name??"  "His name is 'Rags'....."  "...and he doesn't usually warm up to strangers...."   Our youngest son works in the movie industry, writing computer programs for special effects. His newest project involves something to do with green screen, and since he's just starting work on it and isn't ready to rent a studio with real, human models, he asked if he could come over and photograph some of my dolls. That certainly sounded interesting, so sure, why not?? So yesterday he came, with all his computers and camera equipment, and set up downstairs in the photo studio he had set up while he still lived here (and I still use occasionally) He had brought along three big computer screens to provide his light source, and positioned the dolls between them, and took lots of photos as the lights flashed from all the different directions....  He asked for dolls with a wide range of skin tones, and different colours and styles of wigs, especially ones with very fine hair that would be in scale to a human's hair. These were some of the dolls, standing in line waiting their turn. The dolls on the left were all different skintones, and Kassia was chosen because she was all white, and would provide an extra challenge. He noted all the dolls were dressed in warm tones or neutrals, and he needed someone in blue, so Narae in her blue plaid joined the line up....  His photos were taken with the room in total darkness, but he left the lights on a couple of times so I could take a few pictures (with my trusty tri-pod, of course)
After shooting everyone else, he needed someone wearing gray....so Rex had a turn too....  This morning he said his tests were a success and that my dolls would work perfectly for what he had in mind....until he's ready to use live models...
Anyways, once he's further into the development of his program, he will need to come back and photograph dolls with more specific requirements. Should be fun!
I'm very busy working on an 'Outlander' inspired outfit for Rex, so taking interesting doll photos has taken a back seat all week (and the two weeks before that as I made some for Bianca). has his socks, underwear, shirt, cravat, and a pair of pants. I found an 'Old Navy' brand shirt at Value Village that was just the right colour, and thickness for his pants and coat. I chose a gray twill for his vest, and painted that down this morning, so it could dry while I was away for my semi-annual appointment at the cancer clinic. When we got home, it was time to design a coat to go over everything. It always helps to have an actual garment to use as a jumping off point, so tried on Steve's black Victorian morning coat....  It's the wrong style, but the most important parts fit him, so that helps. The new period coat needs a different neckline, much longer sleeves, and the pleats at the back on this coat, need to be moved to the sides. So I've drawn up the new patterns and am ready to start cutting it out. But first a close-up...  It may seem hard to believe that I never do anything other than doll related stuff....but once in a very long while, I actually have to do some housework too. So I took some photos to prove it... Everything off the floor so we could vacuum....  All the dolls off their shelves above my sewing machine, so I could dust them....  All but the Our Generation doll are handmade cloth dolls (including the octopus)
I'm busy working on the travel clothes for Rex and Bianca, and have made Rex's shirt and cravat, as well as an apron for Bianca. But they all looked too new. Definitely too 'new' for people out on an adventure in the wilderness. So I dirtied them up, lightly staining everything with diluted acrylic paint. Kind of the opposite of what people normally do - instead of washing to make everything clean (which I did to the fabrics before I started, to remove any stray chemicals, and make sure all the old clothes were actually clean) I'm making the clothes look dirty and 'lived in'. Now everything is hanging on the line to dry.  By the way, I used cream coloured cotton fabrics for the shirt, cravat and fichu; and a heavier beige fabric for the apron, to give it a natural coloured, homespun look. 'Whites' were never as white in the old days as they are now. The chemically-bleached, super white fabrics available today, did not exist back then. Their 'white' is what we'd consider 'cream' today. Something to keep in mind when making period clothes.
I finally got around to creating, and updating, all the new photo albums in Favourite Photos 2019. There were a lot, thanks to the longer than usual Scilla bloom this spring. So now you can look at all the photos and stories, in the proper order that they were intended to be seen in.
...and I updated everyone's favourite........Behind the Scenes.....
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
June 2019
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