Antique Lilac

Hans and His Parents

1/27/2021

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Then Hans and his parents arrived....

The King made the introductions....

Elora was so happy to see Hans again...

"I was waiting for you.... all day...."

The Queen took Hans by the hand, and knelt down....

"And you must be our brave little hero, who tried to protect the Princess from the wolf yesterday.."

"Well.... it turned out that he was really just.... a big dog..."

"But you didn't know that at the time did you?"

"No, Ma'am..."

"Well, that definitely makes you a brave, little hero, in my eyes..."

*That brings us to the end of Chapter 5, now available in Favourite Photos 2021

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Making Wigs

1/26/2021

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With Jude's outfit done, my goal was to address all the little blank dolls I have stashed away. There's three aGatti characters, and four DreamHigh Studio characters....

So I thought I'd start with wig caps. I've developed a new, faster, easier way to make them. Instead of messing with lots of tiny squares of tulle that refuse to take the glue, I tried using long strips of tulle cut from the end of the bolt, then wrapping them securely around the entire head, including the face. Then I use string to tie around the ears to help delineate them. This works best with blank heads, as it's tricker if the doll already has a faceup and lashes. then I have to leave the plastic wrap in front of the face loose, and I can't wrap the tulle or string over the face. But these four heads are all blank...

Once the tulle is wrapped in many layers, and is nice and smooth, I apply Gemtack glue all over where the wig cap is going to be. I use Gemtack since it dries waterproof, so the wig can be wet afterwards...

Then I take a sheet of plastic wrap, cover the glue, and press and massage it into the tulle...

Once the entire wig cap area is saturated with glue, I let it dry....

Once the glue is dry, I brush on another layer of glue and let that dry as well. I decided that FID Grace needed a new wig as well, so wrapped her head too, being careful to avoid wrapping tulle or string over her face, so as not to mess with her lashes....

After the glue has dried, the twist ties can be removed, and the heads removed, and the wig caps trimmed to shape. I've added this new technique to my Hard Wig Cap Tutorial

I've not made the wig caps for the aGatti guys yet. They have face plates, and the backs of their heads won't come off their bodies without unstringing the entire doll, and since I'm not keen on working with such musculature, naked guys, they need bicycle shorts made first. So they just went back in the box.

Yesterday I chose the mohair for Grace's wig. I pulled all the auburn mohair I had, then went with a less red 'Chestnut Brown', since my camera makes auburn hair way too red. I sewed mohair fringes, and glued the centre stitch lines. See my tutorial on Making a Hard Cap Wig. This morning I glued the mohair strips onto her wig cap....

Then after wetting, combing , and letting it dry.....

Grace looks so much nicer now. Her new wig is roughly the same colour as her other one, but without that synthetic fly-away look. The scale of the mohair fibres is much better. So Rosie got the auburn Ellowynne Rose wig back, that she originally had but Grace stole, so now she's beautiful again too.

Now to decide who to do next. The two Averies will get auburn, boy and girl wigs. Archibald will get a white wig like my Santa, and Nolan will get a helmet sculpted from Aves Apoxie, with bits of hair peaking from underneath. I figured it would be safer to build a helmet over a wig cap. Also less likely to scratch his head.

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Introductions

1/26/2021

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The King started to introduce them to the Queen....

"This is Nick, and his granddaughter Nora...."

Then he introduced the Queen..."and of course, you both already know our daughter, Elora..."

"It's an honour to meet you Your Highness..."

"The honour is all mine, dear sir"

...and the Queen gave Nick a big hug, and a kiss on his cheek....

"We are so thankful to you and your granddaughter, for everything you did to help Elora yesterday.."

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the First Guests Arrive

1/25/2021

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The King and Queen stood ready to welcome their guests....

First to be escorted in, were Nick and Nora....

Each carrying a huge, beautifully wrapped gift....

"Are those for me??"

"Yes one is..... but I'm just going to tuck them under your tree for now...."

"You can open it later, after dinner...."

"Okay....I guess...."

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Finally

1/24/2021

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Elora spent the entire afternoon looking out the window, watching for her new friends to arrive....

"You know, time would pass a lot faster if you went and found something else to do...."

"But I'm too excited to do anything else..."

Then suddenly she spotted them....

"Look, they are coming!!"

"There's Nick and Nora!!"

"...and there's Hans with his Mom and Dad too..."

Hans saw Elora up at the window and waved to her...

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Waiting

1/23/2021

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Even though it was still early in the morning and nowhere near dinner time,
Elora kept watching out the window for her new friends to appear..

The hours crawled by....

...and still no sign of them....

"Is it almost dinner time yet??"

"I just don't see them...."

"Maybe they aren't coming...."

"Do you think they forgot??"

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Christmas Morning

1/22/2021

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"Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful day!"

Then it was time to give Elora her gifts...

"Oh, wow!!"

"It's a special wind-up music box we had made for you...."

" It has all your favourite ponies on it...."

"I love it, and I love my new Teddy too. Thank you so much!"

"So, when is it going to be dinner time? I can't wait for Nora, Nick, and Hans to come..."

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Fancy Shoes

1/21/2021

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I finally forced myself to finish the shoes I started several months ago. Making the uppers was the easy part, but I'm not a fan of working with Apoxie. I love the final results, just hate working with it. To me it always feels like trying to sculpt with chewed gum. The stuff is sloppy and sticks to everything. Anyways, I was determined to finish them, so made all the soles first, then carved and sanded them down, then added the heels. After the heels cured, and were sanded, they all needed to get painted before being glued to the uppers....

The shoes were so much work that I decided to shoot a little story around them, as I was finishing them. So, something to look forward to once we get to the end of the current Christmas Story.

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Getting Around

1/21/2021

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Elora was supposed to stay off her sprained foot, but was getting rather frustrated by her lack of mobility...

When her Dad came in....
"I was over at the infirmary to see if they had any small crutches your size...."

"Let's see if this helps you to get around..."

Elora was a little unstable at first...

She just needed a little practice to get used to it....

"I think this will help a lot!"

*This brings us to the end of Part 4, now available in Favourite Photos 2021

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the Window Seat

1/20/2021

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The Queen was so relieved to have Elora home again, and made her comfortable in the window so she could watch what was going on out in the courtyard, as the other castle folk prepared for their Christmas celebrations....