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Another New Look for Hope

4/19/2012

Today Hope is wearing the "Mother Nature" ensemble with a reddish mohair wig. I like the Tibetan lambskin wigs on her, but would prefer a darker colour. She sat down in a patch of forget-me-nots for a portrait, and the colour of the flowers really brought out her blue eyes.

I dyed Aeran's skirt and cloak, and re-pressed all the pleats. The skirt waistband wasn't dry yet so I couldn't put everything back on to see how it looked. I'm also working on another free BID pattern - this time it's a very simple sundress, and it will be posted on BJDCollectasy. I want to make two samples just so there's variety, plus it's more fun to photograph two little girls.

Good-bye MacBeth!

4/19/2012

I bought some deep blue Rit dye, and this morning I tried it on the leftover tartan. I like the new colour much better - it's more blue, and those pesky light threads are much subdued. So, off came Aeran's skirt and cloak, and into the dye they went. I hope the pleats don't wash out!

My Hope - a Little Angel

4/18/2012

Hope arrived this morning, and I had to take a few photos. For her first portrait I chose an angel outfit - one of the ones that had been commissioned specially for Hope. If she looks 'familiar' it's because Hope is a "modified Nyssa" (one of Kaye's first BJDs) and so is my Miki elf, so they have a 'family resemblance'. Hope is my first Kaye Wiggs girl in the new sun-kissed resin, and the factory did a very nice job on her faceup (there's no choice, all KW dolls come with a faceup)

Hope came with very pale gray/blue glass eyes which looked a size too small, so I gave her some nice blue acrylic ones instead. Kaye Wiggs created Hope on September 11, 2011 in order to raise money for a special charity. Almost 500 were sold, making almost $100,000 for the charity. It's been quite some wait for Hope to arrive, and I'm glad she's finally here.

Hope came with this red Jojo wig, a gift from Grace at JPop dolls. From all the photos being posted of Hope on the various forums, it's clear she looks great in almost any wig.

Power Couple

4/18/2012

I took some photos of Kyle and Aeran last night. Aeran has changed from her demure white gown from a few weeks ago, into a Celtic Warrior Maiden, ready to go on an expedition with Kyle.

I'm thinking the light threads in Aeran's plaid make her outfit look too "busy". In real life they don't stand out as much as they do in the photos, but photos are what count. I'm thinking maybe I should over-dye the tartan with a blue in order to mute all those light lines. Problem is, it will mute the reds too, and if I don't like it there's no going back. Maybe I should just get some dye and experiment with the leftover fabric first. Dyeing would definitely be faster than remaking the skirt and cloak. In the meantime, I'll go check what other plaids I have - just in case.

Beautiful Fairies

4/17/2012

One of my good customers, Julie, sent me a photo from her doll club meet-up this past weekend. The theme was "Fairies and Elves", and Julie had two of her dolls in my fairy costumes. Her friend Jay also brought her doll, wearing my very first fairy outfit. Don't they look wonderful!!

Thanks Julie, for sending me the photo, and giving me permission to post it!

Not So Brave

4/17/2012

Nelly and I went outside for some more photos of her in her Celtic Warrior Maiden outfit. Well, she may be dressed for the part, but a "warrior" she sure isn't. When a bee, forging for nectar in the surrounding flowers, came a bit close, she quickly ducked behind her shield! Sigh...

Two Celtic Lovelies

4/16/2012

Well, the Celtic commission for Nelly is finally finished, so now I need to take photos of her, but it's way too windy outside right now, so I just took one quick shot. Nelly looks cute in the blue ensemble, but she sure isn't very formidable-looking - she's more likely to run and hide at the first sign of any skirmish. Hopefully I'll get to take some more photos of her tomorrow.

Aeran's outfit is done too, but she still needs her own headband (she's borrowing Rosy's), but I need to look for the jewelry parts when I go downtown - hopefully next week. Aeran's plaid fabric is the MacBeth tartan, and she has real chain-maille sleeves. She also needs a sword hilt.
Oh yes, and some new pantaloons, and black stockings, and brown boots........then she'll be completely finished, and she'll be able to come with Kyle and Maya on their big adventure.

Isar is Finally Home!

4/13/2012

We phoned yesterday to see what the problem was with Isar - why she was being sent all over southern Ontario - and they finally got our address right, and delivered her today. Turns out the problem was Iplehouse had spelled our postal code with all lower case letters instead of capitals. Who knew that could mess up the system so much? Anyway, she's here now.

Even without a faceup she's very beautiful. She reminds me of Carina, but in a much smaller size. She also reminds me of Natalie Portman. She is 'Real Skin' with the 'large' breast option - they only allowed a choice between 'large' or 'glamour' (which was way too big for my taste) - but the large isn't so big after-all. She has little pointy 'elf' ears, and one of the first outfits I'm planning on making specially for her (eventually - later this summer) will be an elven warrior maiden. I think she'd also look amazing in romantic Renaissance costumes like the ones on 'the Borgias'. I'm hoping I can bring her away for a faceup this weekend, and when she comes back, she'll just have to borrow Asa's Topaz fairy outfit for awhile until I can make her something special just for her.

Leather and Studs

4/13/2012

It's time to make all the studded leather accessories for the two Celtic Maidens: a wide belt, wrist-guards, and fancy leather bag. I like the studs to be set-off by a separate colour of leather, and have discovered, through trial and error, that it works best to insert the studs through scrap leather first, and then cut it out around the studs leaving a small leather 'frame', then insert the 'framed' stud into the main leather item. Years ago I actually pre-cut the small leather pieces first and tried to insert the studs into them - which proved almost impossible.

For simulated the tiny studs on my original belt and wrist-guards I used gold seed beads, but find they are not round enough, and look 'messy', so now all simulated stud-work is done with perfectly round gold or silver metal beads - which looks a lot nicer.

It's still early and my fingers are already sore from the studs, and the most difficult part of the job is still ahead. Fortunately I found 'glover's needles' to sew the beads onto the leather, and they work so much better than regular needles.

Isar Still Going Everywhere But Here

4/12/2012

I checked the tracking first thing this morning and Isar was still in Barrie. Then I checked it again just now, and now she's in Port Hope!!!!!!! Tracking says there's some kind of addressing error and they are looking to correct it. I sure hope so! After all this time I'd hate for them to send the doll back to Korea.

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