Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Second Doll, Sam - The Process 2

So, this is the second day of working on Sam. Can't wait to finish her!

- 12.15pm: Start working. more touch up on the skin and nails & lips.
- 01.02pm: Out of the oven, now on to painting eyebrows. I use a mix of Skin 07, Burnt Umber and a bit of Yellow. I'm happy with the result. Light and faint the way I wanted it. Then I added a bit more brown on the color mix and paint hair on her head, just the outer section, kinda could use it for guidance when rooting too. Take a while but I'm pretty happy with the result.
- 2.34pm: Out of the oven for the last time. Will start rooting when it's cool.
- 3.10pm: Start hair rooting. Decided to use just the needle without the handle, actually it makes my life easier.
- 3.32pm: Broke my needle, I have one left. Uh oh.
- 4.50pm: Broke the last needle, I'm so %^$#@%^&* Pissed! I can't work now, and I have to wait for the new needles I ordered a couple weeks ago. AAARGH!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Second Doll, Sam - The Process 1

My shipment from MacPhearson arrived today, in it, a premie doll kit called 'Gumdrop' from Secrist Co. I practice using this line because they are small (means a bit faster to work on than the bigger size) and cheaper, and they have many cute choices. Gumdrop is chubby and have closed eyes. It will be easy to attach the eyelashes, oh yeah! (",) I'm keeping a record step by step working on her. I will experiment with the color mix too. And I will use some tools I made myself. It's all about adventure on this one. (",)

- 5.00pm: Start working. Putting base skin color, mix of Skin 08 & 07. Realized I use number 08 a lot and I'm almost out of it. (Me no likey Skin o7!).
- 5.48pm: Out of the oven for the first time. Mint green color is added.
- 6.34pm: Out of the oven for the 2nd times. Painted my own color mix which are Skin 07, Phthalo Green and a wee bit of Pink.
- 7.42pm:
Out of the oven for the 3rd times. I draw the veins. Easy Peasy. :P
- 8.44pm:
Out of the oven for the 4th times. Time for blushing, it's kinda more fun right now, although my back is killing me by now.
- 10.09: Coming out of the oven for the 5th times. I do many things at this point, more blushing, and mottling, using the homemade tools. Then detailing, painting the creases. Wait a bit, another layer of color for the mottling effect. I am so happy with the result. Holy Molly!!! ^__^
- 11.39pm: Coming out of the oven for the 6th times. More painting on creases, more detailing on the skin.
- 1.25am: I'm beat. Exhausted, the fume kinda make me dizzy, I opened the window but can't be too long because it's cold out. Painting the nails and lips. More detailing, creases and face, It's late so I can't really tell if the face might be too red. I will add a couple more layers tomorrow if it's too red. I totally forgot the eyebrows, so I still have to do painting tomorrow. Sigh.

At least I'm done. 95%. I'll root the hair tomorrow. God, that is the hardest part. Yikes!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Thank you sweet Debbie!

I talk online to this sweet lady named Debbie, she read my blog and told me that they actually don't paint the inside of the doll anymore because the paint could leach overtime and cause bruising on the dolls. LOL. I feel so stupid, but so thankful to her. I will probably find out about this sooner or later, but because of her I only make this mistake once. Thank you so much, sweet Debbie. I'll never forget this kind gesture.

I decided also, I will not find a course for this, I will do research online and practice a lot. For this particular craft, I find that I can teach myself. Just like glass melting, practice make perfect.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Impatient Monkey

Argh! I hate waiting. Soon as Bianca's done, I want to do another one, you know, because practice make perfect. I ordered 2 doll kits and some more important tools. I only use regular brushes working on Bianca, and I know if I use better brushes it will make a world of difference. Plus there's this 'Berrymaker' tools, to do 'mottling' on the skin, I can't wait to try those. I have to wait at least 2 weeks from today. This is killing me!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Bianca - The First Baby!

Oh my God, I can't believe she is done. I work on her for 3 days now. Well, I ruined one of the eyelashes, so I need to buy a new pair and try again, but other than that, she is done, baby! World, meet Bianca, she is a premie baby, she was 'born' at exactly 8.30pm today. So this date will be her official 'birthday'. She is my first ever reborn doll, so I'm still proud of her even though she is not perfect, I don't know if this the mother in me, but I really think she is cute. Not perfect but pretty darn cute.

The most difficult is rooting the hair I must say, I broke 8 needles on this doll! I think after about 4 dolls I'll get the hang of it. I hope. Oh and attaching the eyelashes! OMG! I think I spent 20 minutes to attach the left one and I finally ruin it! %^&*$#@#*$!!! Just for the record, I did everything by the book, I painted her in layers to get depth, I spent 8 hours of painting her head and limbs. I painted her inside and out and bake her between each layers. No creases left unattended. :) Then I rooted her hair for about 8 hours on the next day. One strand at the time. I will have to spend more hours in this next time, to achieve better and realistic result, like real human baby hair.

I found that I was discouraged a couple of times working on this new type of craft, I think it's just my nature, I'm a perfectionist, if I can't do it well I wouldn't do it at all. Right now, I think I can do this, I don't think I will be an expert in this, but I think I can do this well especially if I practice a lot. I also found, that assembling the doll at the end was very exciting and to see her assembled and not 'pieces' anymore, was very rewarding. Taking the photos was fun too, and unlike real babies, she sat still for me, hee hee... Oh, click on the photos to view them larger.