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Copyright © 2022 Martha Boers
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I'm finally finished my first two House Elves! Well, actually the third and fourth, since Willie and Phairby are also House Elves. I've had Nolan for over two years, but he couldn't go to get painted because of the pandemic. Gino arrived recently but I wasn't happy with his paint job, so he went for a redo as well. I've always wanted to make a 'Gnome on a Dragon', and thought Nolan would be perfect. Which is why I made Saphira back in the winter. To be his 'steed'. Well, the tiny knight outfits were a ton of work - way more than my fashion sized ones - but they are finally done.  There's Nolan, who looks to me to be a General in the tiny 'army'....  ...snd his ride, Saphira, who also got some protective armour, in addition to a saddle and reins...  And then there's Gino....  ...and his ride, my polar bear cub....     Nolan's hair is glued into his helmet, and he will need a separate wig with a white braid down the back, so he's not bald when he takes his helmet off. I was stressing over how to make a thin white wig and not have the brown wig cap show through, until it occurred to me to make a new wig cap out of WHITE tulle. Duh!   They have arrived at the castle to sign a pact with the King, but are waiting for their Wizard, Archibald, to join them (whose costume is next on my to do list)  Copyright © 2022 Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved A month ago when I was taking photos of my little flower girls, I also took some of the three wearing the newest gowns, with our bridal wreath spirea. There was Paige....   ...and Bonnie...   ...and Judith....  Since then, Judith has been away to the spa. She had the red removed off her nose, given a bit more blush, and a manicure. I like her much better now...  There's a new guy in the house. Dominic, by SartoriaJ, arrived last week, a whole eight months after I ordered him last October. I've never had to wait that long for anyone ever before! Anyways, since I'm determined to work on my House Elves, and I don't have a costume design in mind for him just yet, I quickly made some underwear, socks, and pants, borrowed Lawrence's formal shirt, and found a half decent Monique wig, so he can stand in my work space where I can look at him and hopefully get inspired as to what I want to eventually make for him to wear. But that Monique wig just screamed 'Musketeer', so I put the JID Musketeer tunic, hat and cloak on him.....and had to take a photo...   As good as he looks as a Musketeer, he won't be staying one. I ordered him to become a companion to Miho, so he'll need something more suited to the Fantasy Medieval period. I will also need to make him a wig, with long dark brown hair, and maybe some graying at the temples. I'll think about it.
Anyways......back to those tiny House Elves..... Copyright © 2022 Martha Boers All Rights Reserved It's going super slow with my tiny knights, and I'm constantly having to redo things. I was working on the saddles for Saphira and the polar bear, and I chose some dark red leather to make Saphira's saddle straps. Big mistake! I'm guessing the leather is old, because it gets damaged very easily. Too easily! I only tried the saddle on Saphira twice and the straps are already very damaged from going through the buckle. It's the saddle on the upper right. Now I need to remove the straps and make new ones. Two-steps forward, one step back.  Some of the other pieces are also made out of that same dark red leather, and I'm hoping they won't fall apart as quickly, as I really don't feel like redoing them. I suppose I better throw out that leather so I don't use it again. Unfortunately I have a lot of it.
I also sculpted some armour for Saphira and the Polar Bear. Just something to protect their faces, and some epaulets for the dragon. They need to be sprayed silver, and then I can 'age' them with brown paint. And figure out a way to attach them. So, still lots to do. I need to make stirrups for both saddles, finish the face armour, make something to attach the tiny daggers I found this morning, and both Nolan and Archibald need a wig. I thought I'd be able to finish all my House Elves this month, but I'll be lucky if I can just get Nolan and Gino done. However, I did manage to draw up patterns for the next one, Archibald, so that's at least a start. He's going to be a LOT simpler, so maybe.... Copyright © 2022 Martha Boers All Rights Reserved I've been getting a lot of work on my dolls done lately. It's been over two and a half years since my friend Charie was able to take any of my dolls, and now that she finally can again, I have a long list of dolls needing some work. Most need body blushing and manicures, especially the fair resin ones, but some also needed a bit of faceup work. One of those was Little Lenny. Here's what she looked like when I won her...  ...and here's what she looks like now. Still a bit sad, but not nearly so utterly depressed looking.  She got darker eye shading and lashes, and more blush on her cheeks. She also needed darker eyes to go with the new look, so ended up with the brown glass eyes she originally came with. She also had her body blushed and was given a manicure and pedicure...    Copyright © 2022 Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved I have ten Fairy Books available for purchase! They are beautiful, professionally designed, hard cover books, with my favourite fairy photos taken over the years.     They cost $90.US plus shipping.
If you would like to purchase one, they are available first come, first serve, so just send me an email - martha@marthaboers.com It's interesting that back in the winter when I first started thinking about Baron and Naomi's wedding, I thought it would be nice if the court ladies could get some new gowns for the occasion. But it turned out that the men needed new outfits more. They couldn't - or shouldn't - go in chainmail or armour. So, after making Rex a new tunic, I needed to make Jude a more formal tunic to replace his leather armour. He would wear it with the rest of his 'Braveheart' outfit, so I wanted the new tunic colours to match. I chose a dark navy fabric, and a dull gold brocade for the under sleeves. I added a white ruffle at the collar, to simulate a shirt being worn underneath, but it just didn't look right to me after I sewed it in. It was too high. He didn't strike me as a very 'frilly' sort of guy, so I ended up removing and shortening the ruffle, not once, but twice, until I was finally happy with it.  His son, Jamie, also didn't have anything appropriate to wear to a wedding, so I had to make him an entirely new outfit. I actually made the turquoise top twice. It was a really flimsy brocade, so I thought of using a soft interfacing to reinforce it. But the top ended up way too stiff for such a small doll. So I started over, and only used the interfacing around the shoulder area so the fabric wouldn't distort when I sewed on the trims. It turned out much better.  Jamie and his little sister...  ...and their whole family...  Copyright © 2022 Martha Boers
All Rights Reserved So I've been slowly getting my dolls ready for the upcoming wedding. After making the three flower girl dresses, the next project was to make a new 'formal' top for Rex. I'd already made new, formal tops for Baron and Lawrence back at Christmas, but hadn't gotten around to Rex yet. Back when I made his knight costume, I had started a tunic out of a blue brocade, but I decided that the pattern was too 'bright', so started over using the same fabric, but on the wrong side where the pattern wasn't as strong. I still had that rejected tunic, and decided to use it instead of starting from scratch. So I finished the collar, adding a tiny white ruffle at the neck, and made under-sleeves.  Then with his surcoat over it, and he's ready to attend the wedding.  The whole time he was standing in my work space while I was working on his new top, he insisted on holding one of the babies I was also working on at the time....  He held that baby for almost two weeks, and every day Jan would comment on how he must be getting really sore arms. LOL Personally, I think Rex just likes babies.
Copyright © 2022 Martha Boers All Rights Reserved Some photos of the girls in their new Flower Girl dresses, on the patio....  Faye and Judith....  Faye..  Bonnie...   Paige..  ...with her little sister, Nami...  And all five together...  Copyright © 2022 Martha Boers
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
June 2022
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