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Dinosaur Eggs

3/13/2020

7 Comments

 
It felt really satisfying to finish that old cat figure, and then I remembered two figures that have been lurking in the back of a cupboard for years, and thought it was finally time to put them together on a finished base.

The two figures are Lex and Tim from a scene from Jurassic Park. Lex was made in 1994, and Tim the following year in 1995. They were intended to be part of a scene with Dr. Grant, stopping to look at a nest of empty dinosaur eggs. 'Malcolm was right....life finds a way..."

I never enjoyed making contemporary doll clothes, and the two kids had the most contemporary outfits I'd ever made. Plus they were all torn and dirty from their harrowing encounter with the T-rex in the rain and mud. And Tim had been partly electrocuted. They were supposed to be a mess.

Unfortunately, Dr. Grant was never made, so the piece was never finished, and the two kids have been in a cupboard ever since.  Which seemed like such a waste, since they were highly realistic, and really should be out on display. So I thought I'd just make a base with the two of them at the edge of a dinosaur nest. Which meant I needed empty eggs.

After thinking about how to make strong, empty egg shells, I got the idea to cover some small wooden Easter eggs with foil, then cover one end of the egg with a thin layer of Aves Apoxy Sculpt. It worked perfectly. The foil came right out of the insides of the shells....
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The insides of the egg shells had the impressions of the wrinkled foil, and I really didn't feel like sanding them, then remembered that the shells from hatched birds have all kinds of dried blood veins on the inside. I expect dinosaurs would have been no different. So I painted the inside of the shells with reddish-brown paint, wiped away the excess with a damp paper towel, leaving just the veining from the foil impressions. Then I rubbed a bit of paint on the outside, and splatter-painted them. After all, who knows what colour dinosaur eggs really were? After a coat of varnish they looked very believable - just like quail eggs.....
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7 Comments
Lorraine
3/13/2020 07:28:59 am

Eggs-cellent! The eggs do look real. And the children look like living, breathing, human children. Are they in a scale that will work with any of your dolls? It would be great if you could work them into some of your stories.

Reply
Martha
3/13/2020 07:34:49 am

No, they are too small in scale, plus they can't be posed at all. Plus they are proportioned like real children, so none of my dolls would work with them, except maybe the FIDs. I'd have to check.

Reply
Martha
3/14/2020 04:25:46 am

I did check, and the FID guys are too tall, but their heads are the right size, so maybe if I switched one onto a JID body. Of course that means having to make some really dirty clothes for him, and it's not like I'm not already way too busy. But I always welcome a challenge.

Rae
3/13/2020 04:23:27 pm

Thank you for always sharing your process. Will be using this method to make empty egg shells. You also introduced me to Apoxy Sculpt, which I use frequently for doll modifications, so thank you for that as well. The dolls are just fantastic. I'm glad you'll be able to display them.

Reply
Martha
3/14/2020 04:27:50 am

I think sharing my techniques might just give someone else an idea. Like why keep everything a secret?

Reply
Dorothy
3/13/2020 09:53:56 pm

I very much like the children. I am probably one of the five people in the world who never saw Jurassic Park so I don't know the story line so I don't know what the eggs mean but I like the concept.

Reply
Martha
3/14/2020 04:31:07 am

The dinosaurs were engineered to all be female so they couldn't reproduce, but they used frog DNA to fill in the missing gaps in their DNA, not realizing that some frogs can change sex if needed. Coming across an empty nest proved that "nature will find a way".

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    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
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