Sally the Rag Doll

Sally is near completion! 

This photo is much better than the previous ones!

I am more used to photographing at noon than before 8 am.

I still need to finish drawing on her stitches.  

I also have to correct one set of eye chips.  I made a careless mistake and placed a side glance set in the other straight gaze.  It may be stuck in the sockets.  They chips were such a tight fit no glue was needed.

If I cannot get the chips out, I have a black set of Brain Worm chips coming that I will use instead. 

The hardest part will be finding good charms for Sally's pull cords.  This part I thought would be easy! 

I have checked a few stores that typically carry Nightmare before Christmas merchandise, but apparently I missed the boat.  I could have purchases tons of items about 2 years ago!  It is frustrating when this happens.

I plan to order Sally some additional hands.  

Fun!

Sally's Patched Dress

Shoot! My photo is out of focus! 

This is Sally's first dress.

Eek, I am starkers!

I touched up areas on Sally using a Q-Tip.  It went well!  The ink is still drying on her stitches in this photo.

I am hoping to have her completely stitched up soon.  

Sally has been a slow project with painting and drawing. 

Pansy is saying good bye

For awhile now Pansy, Takara EBL Fruit Punch, has been unhappy here.  She is cute but I am feel less content with her.  Plus, I am feeling my Blythe family is getting out of hand.

I found a trade offer on Blythe Kingdom about a custom work for a trade of an EBL doll.  I jumped on it. I am sending Fleur, Simply Vanilla, on a spa vacation to China Lilly in Australia.  She will return home with face up, new lashes, 4 new eye chips (2 Brain Worm and 2 hand painted), custom pull cords and lip carving.

I am super happy with the trade.

Good bye, Pansy!

New addition!!

I got a middie!  She is super cute here is some photos:

Size comparison, Angelica Eve, Macaroon Q Tea Party, and Kitchen Queen.

She is perpetually sad looking.

Clothing by me.  I used the Puchi Collective patterns at a smaller ratio.

The poor girl doesn't have a name yet. 

I also purchased/traded a SBL Skate Date from a friend.  I am contemplating lip carving and other customizations.  

I am ordering Hujoo Pastels to use on my Hujoo Wawa. My pastel are just not working.  I am hoping to use them on my Skate Date also.  

Hopefully, finished photos of Sally will be coming up! I need to get her finished before starting any other projects.

Sally has stitches

Sally is starting to look like a rag doll.  This weekend I have had many opportunities to work on her.

Mab Graves necklace

She has received her final paint and I am beginning to draw on her stitches.  The good news is that they are drying and not smearing.

Face plate, socks, necklace and boots

Boots are Ruby Red Gallery.

Socks are made by me.

The body stitches are "organic" looking- a nice way of saying very sloppy.  But, overall I think that is okay.  I am not bothered by them.

Her wardrobe is growing little by little. Now she has socks to go with her boots and necklace.

The face plate is finished also!

Progress Report on Sally

Things have improved since my last update on my Sally the Rag Doll.

I scrubbed and cleaned off the majority of the Valspar paint and have successfully repainted her with Krylon Indoor/Outdoor.

My poor Sally is looking like the Black Dahlia in this photo.

I tried painting her lips last night and decided to give the face plate and body a fine sanding before attempting again.  I really don't like the glossy paint, but had no other option!

A friend of mine, who is a paper maker, is looking into some nice thick handmade artist paper.  All of my paper from my art student days have too much tooth.  I am needing nice smooth, stark white paper for the custom eyes.

I am really happy to see this project starting to come together.  Once my nylon hair came in I started preparing for the knot method of rooting all I was waiting on was the scalp.  Last night I determined it was dry enough so I started on the hair part with the strands.  Now I am sewing wefting on the bulk of the head. I nearly have been late to work twice because of the hair!

Coming soon are photos of my completed Nicki Manaj custom. Or, re-custom! One of my black Blythes now has a Nicki Manaj face up with a perfect pink wig!

Gah, Paint!

Once again, paint has been the issue with my custom Blythe. I am transforming Blythe (clone to be specific) into a Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.  This time I thought I covered my bases.

I made sure to buy paint that said most plastics, tested it, sanded the Pure Neemo body, washed the body and still disaster.  I even waited between coats- days and even weeks.

I thought I was putting the last coat of paint on yesterday.  I put some pieces together and the paint slid right off.  Gah.

I looked on Flickr and Google for some answers.  I found a nice "How to Paint on Plastic" tutorial and on Flickr observed that someone used plain Krylon (not Fusion) on her Pure Neemo.

So, last night I started scrubbing- yes, scrubbing - off the paint.  It is pealing right off for most part.

I think I figured out the culprit of my disastrous experience.

My husband, daughter, and I went to pick up a few household goods from the store. One of the goods was dish soap.  I grabbed Gain or something.  My husband said he preferred our previous soap.  Guess what it was- Dawn Hand Renewal with Olay Beauty.  

Okay, so I am assuming the soap put a oily lotion film onto my doll body and that is the problem.

Well, that is at least what I am hoping.

I am sanding the rest of the paint off and washing the body with a different soap.

I am going to use Krylon Indoor/Outdoor.

Wish me luck.

What do you dress a Burtonesque doll in?

So what do you dress a Burton-esque doll in?  I am trying to create a wardrobe for my Sally the Rag Doll Blythe custom.

Sally is going to have a kitty necklace made by Mab Graves.

photo from Mab Graves Etsy shop

I am so obsessed with Mab Graves right now.

What else would you dress a blue gal in?  

This is the current state of Sally.