Almost finished!

Last weekend I finished up the re-painting of my new custom doll, a brown Blythe.

Unfortunately, the face plates and eye mechanism were not a perfect fit.  I took the mech out and tried to alter it. This did not fix the problem but it relieved some of the pressure on the arch. I decided to take the tbar completely out and hand roll the eyes.  The lids open and close with the pull chords.

I order a lovely piece of Tibetan mohair that in auburn that I plan to make my own wig rather than purchase it.  I think I saved at least half the cost and I get the experience of making my own wigs.  I bought seconds to make smaller wigs for Petite Blythe and R's Little Pullip.

I've decided to keep her eye chips the stock colors to make her   look more stock Blythe-like.

No name yet.  I will think of something soon.

New bodies for Petites

I recently have purchased two lots of Takara Petite Blythe heads, 6 in total.

Waiting for their bodies

New bodies, the yellow haired doll is the same as the red head below

The bodies are Littlest Pet Shop Blythe that I have matched the best I could to the skin tones of the Takara Petites.  One set of face plates are completely unusable for a nice doll.  They have become my model set try to get the bodies just right.  The red scalp is a spare and I thought it would be fun to make this doll (scalp came detached) be able to have 2 scalps and wigs.  Mixi Michi has photos on Flickr about making a clay scalp to fit wigs over it.

I will attempt to take photos on a least one of the next 3 dolls on how I altered the LPS body for the Takara head.  It was not a breeze as I hoped.

Ralphie is here!

Nelly Nibbles arrived just an hour ago.  Promptly, she took the name Ralphie

Here she is still strapped into the box:

Other than greasy hair and these WTF undies (see below) she is cute.

Progress-ish

The paper got caught by the wind.  Fortunately nothing was damaged.

Still pissed over how the paint is spraying.  In this next photo you can see how the paint is speckling. The back plate has been sprayed with MSC already (then I stuck my finger in it GAH), the face plate looks terrible!!

I am going to sand her down again and try respraying her.  Then try it again.  The MSC seemed to even out the back plate's paint and made it look prettier.

When I stuck my finger in the MSC (at right bottom screw hole), it caused a huge wrinkle.  I will be sand that area down again as well.

Every time when I start a painting project I think I've got if figured out.  Well, I don't.  The last time I bought this paint it sprayed nice and smooth.  This can seems to cough it out...

Ugh.  I will make this work.

The Licca is still tacky.  I may strip the paint and get plastic primer.  I should have did that first, but you know, I apparently like to do it the hard way.

I do hope to have this girl together by Monday.  She will be so lovely if everything else goes as planned!

Painting

I always say I'm going to take progress photos and then get into the moment.  I sprayed my head pieces and the Licca body yesterday.  I do not think the Licca is going to work.  The legs felt like they were drying but this morning they are sticky again.

I'm not overly thrilled how the paint is spraying from the bottle.  In fact, it pisses me off considering how much I paid for it.  I'm hoping another coat will even out the overall look.

I will spray the Neemo body today and give the Licca body probably a week dry time.  Since I have 3 body options, I don't feel as rushed to get things finished.

After I painted the face plate, I realized that I did not enlarge the eye sockets to compensate for the painted eye lids.  That will require repainting.  Since the paint is not as smooth as I wished for, I'm going to give her a light sanding before the next coat of paint.  If I'm correct, this is a proper way to paint anyways.

I will attempt to get a photo to insert into this post later.

Estate sales

I love estate sales.  I feel a little guilty for enjoying them so much because of the circumstances of the sale.  Lately, I have really scored!

Vintage Pinking Shears for 1 dollar along with other junk

Vintage typeface (Roman pt 8) shelf now full with my little things

Edward Mobley Co. 1960 sleepy eyed kitty. I wish I would have taken a before photo.

At the same sale as the kitty, I also purchase some vintage Barbies who will find new homes, a Topper Dawn Dale doll who is staying with me, a Skipper dress that I did not have and some other stuff.  The worst purchase was a 1960 Barbie Dream house.  I didn't really know what I was buying.  Now, I remember my childhood friend showing me her mom's house.  It isn't in the best of shape on the exterior, the interior is okay.  I hope to rehome it also.

The Skipper dress concerns me because it is red and it stained the Skooter doll it was on.  I'm trying to determine what's the best way to clean it.  I also purchase a repeat outfit with hopes to clean it up for resale.  Once again, not overly sure how this outfit will react to cleaning.  It is the velvet and plaid dress...can't remember the name.

I might need to invest into an identification book.  I know when a I see a Skipper dress, but I don't know the names.  I overall know the values of the current market or the ball park area at least.

I had a lot of fun and hope to catch a few more in the future.

All the pieces

Every thing is prepped for the Brown Blythe project.  All the pieces have been washed in Dawn (original without Olay- I've made that mistake before, see: Gah, Paint!) and ready for when the paint arrives.  I'm hoping it shows up before Friday, but it is being shipped Fedex so I have my doubts.  For how much I paid for shipping...grumble, grumble, grumble....

I'm starting to get excited!!

I hope to get progress photos.

Trying it again

Lately, I've been gathering supplies to give another African American Blythe a go. Since my last attempts, there has been a fair bit more experimentation and a good article written on these lovelies.

Here is the supply list:

Head plates
Eye mech- about to order
Cool Cat dome- about to order
Belton RAL paint- about to order
Non-tilt neck Licca body
Hasbro World of Love, Soul body
Pure Neemo Flection Medium body
Cool Cat Scalp
MSC
Mohair wig- will order eventually

I know that the paint will match Soul's body, but I wanted to experiment a bit on the other 2 bodies. The Licca body had to be taken back from R (she's not happy).  It was the Ebay one that was stained and discolored-- perfect painting candidate. (See the label "Licca" for the post)

I may eventually order the 2nd dome piece, but I have spare scalps.  I will glue it down to make the wig stay on better.

The prospective date for this project to start will be in about 3-4 weeks depending on how quickly the pieces will arrive.  The paint is in the US so that should be snappy. If the eye mech makes it before the dome I can go ahead and start the project.  The dome really doesn't have to be painted.

I plan to spray paint the head plates without any carving.  Essentially, I want her to look exactly like a stock Blythe with different skin tone.  I may attempt to paint on lips but I doubt it. I just want her to be simple and pretty.

Hopefully all will go well.