My Poor Neglected Blog, Elves, Dragons, and a Bishie*

Well, I've been a bit slack with the blogging recently.
Partly due to my computer being a stupid-head and dying, and partly due to dealing with a depressive period. Which sucks - and isn't a very good excuse - but there you go.

I have been busy whilst hiding from the world though:

Two of the Elves are finished - and will be posted on Etsy along with the Floofy pink lady, as soon as I've taken decent photos.

 And the third Elf is waiting to be dressed.

I've sculpted a scarred "pirate" elf who will have a hook-hand, and also needs a costume. And a body too, while I'm at it...

The paperclay "dollhouse" BJDs have been giving me a real hard time with their fiddly little arms/hands - so I'm cheating and making them out of polyclay. (no photos - boo!)

DRAGON!
Who will be getting painted this weekend, and then I have to find a small plaque to hang him off.

I've been working on a commissioned BJD too (secret - no pics)

And dug out a very old half done full figure sculpt and am attempting to salvage it.

I've started altering a "My Scene" Barbie that I brought early last decade, that then got chewed on by a cat, and stolen by the Sprog (who told me could have the broken doll back if I wanted - generous kid). I've wiped off her face paint and chopped off the chewed-up hand - I'm debating trying a re-root, or just giving her a wig, as her hair is really ratty. Also no photos. :)

I have also started another BJD - this time a "mature tiny" - or a 1/6 scale doll.
For a change, it's a he. *A bishōnen or "pretty boy".

At the Sprog's request - I've made a "Zuko" head for him, but this won't be his "official" head if I get him to the point of saleabilty. Fanart is fun - but it's a bit iffy to make it for sale due to copyright issues.

So, that's what I've been up to in the - gosh - 66 days since my last blog post...

Musical Bradley Doll

Finally finished!
That was only, what, 3 years?

ETSY Store now open

... Actually - I've had an ETSY store for a couple of years.
I'd just never got 'round to listing anything...

The Bradley Doll (Alyssa) is on there, and so are some of the wee resin girls.
The Sprog decided that the little doll was called "Evelyn" - so there you go - the sculpt now has a name!

I've started working on an alternate head for the small doll, and - inspired by the progress I made on the 'Alyssa' doll - have dug out and almost finished the musical doll - which is also a Bradley doll... I only have a week of vacation time left!
There's still so much I want to do!

Bradley Doll again...

Soooo...

For some reason, my computer is acting slightly screwy - and I'm having severe troubles uploading photos - either to blogger or flickr. I get random colour banding like the image to the right - and the pattern is different each time I try uploading.
I've updated then switched browsers - de-fragged & virus checked, and tried with & without the firewall going.


The photos on here now are the best of a bad lot.

Stupid Computer.

ANYWAY.

This is a "Ruffler":
I became closely aquainted with one over the last couple of days...
I needed it to sew her skirt...


I've finished!





Her face lost a bit of detail when I re-covered it with the stocking - as it was coarser than the original fabric used - so the eyelashes are not as clear or delicate.



I gave her something that she'd been missing - SHOES!
No more barefoot tiptoeing for this girl...

The Bradley Doll...

A couple of years ago - I fell in love with this Bradley Doll, which I then scored for about $4 on Trademe.

Bradley Dolls were cheaply produced figures, made in Korea, Japan and later China. They started production in 1954 - and stopped roughly 30 years later. They're made from polystyrene and stockinette and worth approximately $zilch...

She was a bit worse-for-wear (read: falling-to-bits) and I gently put her in a box and forgot about her.




She re-surfaced when I moved all my crafting thingies two weeks ago.



I'm 'restoring' her (read: pulling her to pieces - and cleaning, repairing, repainting, and re-costuming).


So far I've
* cleaned the polystyrene base
* re-skinned her (with fresh pantihose)
* Sewn underpants, a crinoline, and ruffled skirt
* remade her arms - after bleaching the cotton stuffing (which was so discoloured, it looked like cardboard...urgh)
* Painted a fresh, new face (in the same style - but different colours)
* begun to re-wig her (this is the trickiest bit!)






SO much fun.

I should get her finished tomorrow or the following day...

Ah, knitting...

... so relaxing...

...so...damn...fiddley!!!

I'm not very fast (or good), but I have completed some things. I've done an Every-new-knitter-knits-a-scarf-scarf (two of 'em), and a pair of fingerless glove things.

I'm currently knitting a pair of tights for my childhood dolly - I'm doing a restoration job on her.

I cut her head apart, removed & cleaned her eyes, pulled out the densely rooted hair, and made her a lambskin wig.

She has been repainted (lots of thin washes of paint - possibly the most tedious job ever), and has new faux eyelashes.

And, of course, I did not take a before photo - but trust me, it was horrible. She has sleep-eyes, which had developed milky cataracts, and looked completely white, and a lot of thick blonde hair - which I had cut very short (think 80's Madonna - but shorter).

Yes, I had even drawn on the beauty spot...

Incidently, isn't Little-Miss-Five cute?

She's told me that she wants the doll when I'm finished ... we'll see.

(I might grant her naming rights though)