Just came back from another long weekend up north. I didn't have any new outfits, so I brought Asa again, with the Mini Azure outfit which is still for sale. It was very hot and sunny the whole time, so it took some creative photography in order to take any pictures - like getting up right after dawn and going to the rapids along Chickanishing Creek before the sun rose above the trees, because I didn't want the harsh contrasts of light and dark with full sunshine. I also managed some more photos another morning when the sun was just up and shining through a humid haze. I'll need to put my favourites together for a Favourite Photos page. 
Here's one of my favourite shots of Asa sitting cooling her feet in the rushing water.

I decided to try take some "International Play with Your Dolls Day" photos of my Kaye girls with my collection of Zeedo Zoo birds. There were a lot of fun photos so i think I'll have to make a Favourite Photos page for them all. In the meantime, here's one of my favourites.....

Finally completed my very first ensemble for my Iplehouse EID Asa. It's a commissioned outfit, and the customer wanted something in a 'Medieval'-style like my 'Lucretia' that was made for Ryung some time ago. It's interesting to see Asa in a gown like this since most people put modern clothes on her. Works for me.

My first medieval gown for my large Iplehouse dolls is coming along, albeit slowly. There's so much hand-work, beading and embroidery to do, and the dress just seems so HUGE in comparison to my other doll's clothes, so hemlines and embroidered edges take just that much longer.  

I had to rethink my fabric choice for the first dress too, changing the overdress from a silver-gray brocade to a dark purple one. The EID has quite a thick torso and she doesn't need the lighter coloured fabric making her torso look even chunkier. Dark colours recede, so the dark purple should make her look slimmer. I'll save the silver brocade skirt, which I had already cut out, for my Super Gem instead. She is considerably slimmer and therefore doesn't need to worry about fabric colour making her look bigger.

Once the first EID gown is done I'll try it on my new Hazy. I'm very curious to see how something for an EID fits a Super Gem. But first I need to take a trip to the fabric store and stock up on some thread. I don't have any colour that would work for the overdress hem as I'm totally out of black, dark blue and dark purple. 

Took some photos just for fun for a 'Dolls at Play' photo challenge. I cleared off my stereo, 
got out my collection of my old toys, and stuck up three of my favourite postcards that my Grandparents had sent me when I was very little. 

Now Cinnamon and Narae look like they are having a good time playing in their Grandma's attic.

Charie finished giving Maya a faceup, and sent pictures. She gave him a light smattering of freckles, replaced his eyes with a smaller size and put a wig on him - what a difference from the blank head! Now he needs some boyish clothes and I think he'll make a good friend for my Narae. Here's a photo Charie sent me, since I haven't picked him up yet....

My new Hazy-Super Gem hybrid doll is done, and she's beautiful! I like her so much better than Cuprit - now I have a Super Gem doll with a face I actually like - and that will look good with my other larger girls in photo shoots.  The neck hole in the bottom of  Hazy's head had to be opened up, and the neck on the body had to be shortened 1/4". The resin colour is a perfect match. We changed our mind about blue eyes and felt the gray ones looked a lot better. They are really a size too big, so I need to be on the lookout for some nice gray or light brown eyes a size smaller.  Unfortunately I have nothing for her to wear other than a dressing gown, and I really need to make some new wigs since I borrowed this one off my Miki. It's great everyone can share wigs, but I need to have enough so everyone can look good all at once.

Doll Leaves approached me awhile ago wanting to give me one of their dolls to use as a costume model on my website. No strings attached - just use it as a model for some of my doll costumes. I was very surprised and appreciative of their generosity, and chose Maya, one of their MSD boys.

He was shipped the day before Canada Post started their lockout so Maya ended up in some holding warehouse in Vancouver where he spent the next couple of weeks buried under mountains of un-deliverable packages.  Well, today he finally arrived!  

He is my first MSD boy, and has a nice slim body which really poses well - he'll probably fit well with Narae.  But I always find it a bit odd when a doll has no faceup of wig - they look so "naked" - and it's hard to visualize the possibilities. I'll have to take him to Charie to do her magic on him, and get her to turn him into a nice boy. I'll have to make him some wigs too - I don't think long Tibetan lambskin would look right, so it will have to be one with a crochet cap and sewn-on synthetic hair fringe - or maybe even a mohair wig with a crochet cap. Then figure out what he should wear.....

It's always great to get a new doll! Thank you Doll Leaves!

My son Chris presented me with this chain-mail glove last night. It's the largest size chain-mail glove available, is made of 1/8" stainless steel rings and is intended for butchers and fishermen to protect their hands from the sharp knives. He said I could probably get enough chain-mail out of it for an outfit for my Tedros, and I do think I will be able to, but my Tedros is a big guy - I just have to open up the glove and undo the double parts - maybe even re-connect some of the fingers. A lot of work, yes, but just a fraction of the year or two it would take me to create chain-mail like that from scratch!  I'm thinking of chain-mail sleeves to fit under a decorative tunic, something like Boromir's costume in Lord of the Rings - and possibly a collar if there is enough left over. I'm thinking a long-sleeve undergarment to sew the chain-mail sleeves onto - that way the resin is protected. 

Anyway, I just had to get out my Arwyn's shield and some letter opener swords and take a photo because the glove is just too cool! 

Just a little note - any outfit made with the chain-mail would be purely for my own dolls and not for sale, since these gloves are extremely expensive and therefore anything made from them would be totally cost prohibitive.

Well, the air conditioner is on and I'm working my way through meters of fabric cutting out skirts for three Renaissance-style gowns. EID costumes certainly take a lot of fabric! It was a bit challenging finding three nice fabric colour combinations since most of my fabric stock doesn't come in large enough pieces for such huge skirts. I think I prefer making the smaller MSD-size costumes - not nearly so much fabric or such long seams. But I am looking forward to seeing Asa and Carina in one of my gowns. By the time I'm finished one my Hazy/Super Gem hybrid should be back and then I can see how a dress designed for an Iplehouse EID fits on a Super Gem. They are both the same height, but the Super Gem is considerably slimmer, especially in the waist and hips. Their busts are pretty close in sizso maybe a long high-waisted gown would still fit okay.

Went to the edge of the Dairy Queen parking lot to photograph fairies in the wildflowers. The other day we had noticed that there were masses of yellow bird's foot trefoil and purple knapweed growing there, and I thought it would make a great setting to photograph my last fairy outfits. After all the standard shots, this view caught my eye - of Layla, the little Sweet Pea Fairy, deep in the wildflowers.