Monday, October 7, 2013

Back on an AG kick!

Wow, I have really abandonned this blog lately, no? That's what happens when, after almost a year of being unemployed, I finally land a job! YAY! And, it's a good job, at that! However, it's contract work, which means I never know when it could end. . . So, between that, and the fact that I've started back at school in the evenings, I'm not ready to jump back into doll making class just yet. . . But I am enjoying a little splurging on the doll front. ;)

At the moment, American Girl dolls are the current obsession again. This is due to the fact that my Mom took her granddaughter to get her first ever AG doll, and I got to tag along! We went to AG Place Natick, and after investigating the dolls in person, she settled on Saige. Meanwhile, I swung by the doll hospital drop off before picking out a couple of accessories from Molly & Emily's collection (since it is being archived this year).

Who was I dropping off at the doll hospital, you may be wondering? A new-to-me Kirsten doll, who was near perfect, except for being a zombie. No, seriously. . . These is, straight up, the WORST silver eye I have ever seen!!!





Do NOT scroll down unless you can handle creepy zombie doll eyes. . .





No really, I mean it. . .





Okay, don't say I didn't warn you!







Yeah. I couldn't live with that! So off she went, to the doll hospital. . . And I should receive her back any day this week. Very excited about that!

So, how I ended up with this Kirsten is by randomly deciding to look up American Girl dolls on Craigslist one day, and happening to be the first one to respond to an awesome deal for Kirsten & some other stuff. I paid $100 for the lot, and feel like that's an okay price to have paid for the doll alone, never mind all the other stuff that was included. . .



OMG did you see what is on top of that outfit pile?!? My personal holy grail of Kirsten's outfit: the drindl. This has been near the top of my most-wanted AG outfits list since I was around ten years old. SO EXCITED to finally have it! I didn't have the nightgown yet either, so was happy to score that. I do have her entire "meet" outfit, so I will resell either this or the one I already have. The original PC box for her "meet" accessories was included, so I might sell that one, since that should up the value a bit. I snapped this picture pretty quickly after getting her home, and once I took the time to investigate more closely, I realized the birthday outfit is totally a knock-off. But, on the up-side, I thought she was missing her pantalettes, and they turned out to be on the hanger under the drindle. ;)

So, there was actually even more stuff included in this lot. . .



So, a little handmade stuff, the hair care kit, and the rollerblade outfit, etc. I'm not really interested in much of this, so that's just more things to resell. . . Although, I may just pass some of it along to Mom's granddaughter, since she's at the start of building her AG wardrobe. ;)

So, all this AG stuff has launched me on quite the AG kick again. Expect more posts with AG doll-related fun in the near future. ;)

Friday, July 5, 2013

Birthday treasure!

I had an awesome birthday last weekend!!!

Among my presents. . .



OMG!!!!! Does that look like not a big deal? Well, it is! It is, in fact, my first doll mold, and it's for this doll:



*squeals*

My absolute dream FFD mold!!! Of course, I have no kiln, and am not currently taking any classes, so I have no way to make her. . . Yet! But, at least I know I won't be crying some day if they stop offering the mold. ;)

Also, my in-laws gave me some dollhouse things! A miniature sewing machine (I had vintage a vintage style machine; this one was modern, like my people-sized machine!) and three beautiful porcelain dolls! I arranged them and took a picture to send to them to thank them, so figured I'd share it here as well. . .



This has inspired me to want to mess around with finishing my dollhouse, which has unfinished floors, walls that are all painted just plain off-white, and some needed repairs (mainly, fixing the front door, but also replacing some windows which have yellowed with age). And I really want to hang some pictures/wall decorations. I was always terrified of "ruining things" as a kid, but now that I'm a "grown up" (HAHAHAHAHA YEAH RIGHT!!!) I feel brave enough to put holes in the walls in order to finish the decorating! ;)

Thursday, May 2, 2013

So long doll class, for now. . .

Well, it turns out that it's taking me a long time to score a new job, and with finances therefore being tight, I'm cutting some corners. . . One of the things to go is doll class, sadly. . . So, I'm taking a break from class until I get a new job and pull myself together again.

But all is not lost, because I still have plenty to do as far as making bodies (and then clothing)! Plus, I bought some paint and a random doll head to practice on, and took home my brushes and such, so that I can practice brows and lashes like crazy. When I go back, I'll be a brow/lash pro! ;)

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Another French Fashion doll. . .

Finished the MD2027/Renee doll, but having my doubts that she is MD2027! Supposedly, MD2027 makes a 15" doll, but the finished head is much larger than the heads for my 18" dolls. Also, the limbs that supposedly go with her are so tiny that they'd do well for a doll that was maybe 13"-14" tall. I did some digging and found another mold by bell (MD2742) that looks similar to my doll, but I'm not sure my head is quite large enough to be the 23.5" tall that doll should be, and also, my doll teacher hasn't mentioned having that mold! It's really too bad that the popularity of this sort of doll making died out before the internet really took off, because I'd love to be able to Google and find someone else who made this doll and see if they had the same experience as me.

Before I post pics, I should also warn that I made a major mistake on day #1 of painting this doll: I used the totally wrong shade of red for her lips. Reds are tricky because they paint on all bright and saturated, but then fire off to be much lighter. I chose what I thought looked like a rose red color, but after firing. . . Eep! They were almost brown, they were that dark! But at that point, there wasn't much I could do, except to just go with it. . . So now, I'm apparently making a brooding, possibly secretly evil, gothic-yet-still-Victorian doll. . .



The wig needs some taming and she obviously doesn't have a body yet (and you can be she's last on the list to get one since I will need to pattern and sew hands with fingers!) but you can see where I'm going! I've been having such fun dreaming up a personality for her and planning her ensemble that I almost don't regret making the mistake with the lips after all! In fact, the only regret I have is that I didn't make the brows more angled, and I would have liked them darker, but alas, this was the darkest brown I could find. . .

This brings my total "floating head" count up to three:



The two in front are my first two French Fashion dolls, and they are from the same mold, but look so different from each other, don't you think? I think the one on the front left (the one I most recently posted about, but now with eyes, so decidedly less creepy) is my favorite, which surprises me because I hated her when I got her home.

Now I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do in doll class. I'm overwhelmed by the growing number of floating heads (never mind dolls with bodies but still without clothing) piling up on my shelf, so don't really want to add to their number. It's already so bad that I had to give up the second shelf of my hutch for the dolls. By "give up" I mean that the fabrics that filled every particle of this space had to come out and be fit elsewhere, and I'm going to have to find new homes for some of it as it didn't all fit in the shelves in the closet!



While this arrangement is fine for now, I don't think it's going to work out in the long run. With the dolls seated, they just fit, but once those floating heads have bodies and are standing, they will no longer fit. I suppose I could try to find more furniture and have them all sit, but it seems kind of a shame to do that since the elaborate costumes I have planned for them (which were the whole point of getting in to the doll making in the first place) aren't going to look nice if they are seated. I'll just have to try and figure out something else, storage-wise. . .