DollsArtCats

Gideon (Impldoll Chapman) was on this Resinsoul Long body just as a test (it's a bit skinny for him, though the height is good) and I saw this nifty shadow, and took a photo. Today was spent doing some floor scrubbing and dealing with the shower drain, which is being more of a drama than you would think. But there was a treat--a grab bag of glass eyes came from Denver Doll, and I was really pleased with the selection--here they are, all 14mm The "threaded purple" looks really like brown to me, and I didn't see what the taupe ones were, maybe one of the "wheat" varieties. Also, what spiders are green? But there they are and they are all useful, even the crazy floral ones. The eyes also ship right away since the sets are made up already.

I ended up not submitting this one, because it looked too much like a photoshop comp (which it is) and while there were no rules about using photoshop or not in the Granado Photo Contest, I wanted to enter things that were all "in camera', or at least 98% so. I did use Photoshop in places to remove cat hairs and sharpen things a little, but I didn't do any overpainting. I sort of regret not turning in one overpainted one, because it can look awesome. If you go look at SaikoXIX's flickr you can see some amazing paint-overs with her dolls--very profession and awesome. Im pretty sure that Granado Gitana will be the winner of this year's contest, if Saiko entered it. I can't imagine how many hours Saiko put into those tiny designs!

This is labelled as a SID dress, but it fits Audrey perfectly (it even came with some cocoa colored tights, which would be cute if you had a cocoa scarf or belt to sort of pull it all together. The color is a bit bright for Audrey, though, and it may go to Roswell, who looks amazing in hot pink. I will add a photo of her later if the top fits. I also got a pair of NYID boy jeans hoping one of my guys could wear it, and a plain top. It turns out that the legs are too tight for my Granado boys, and are even tight on Rebecca, but I love all the pockets even if Bex is not fond of the air gap around the waist: The top she is wearing is a set with bottoms that look suspiciously small (I haven't tried them yet, but if Bex can sit in them I would be amazed.) But the pants are good with a belt for sitting, so I think I will see if I can get a pattern off of them but redo the waist. I also bought a NYID boy white shirt with buttons that looks great too, so I will take more photos tomorro...

Well, done as far as turning in my last photo entry for the Granado contest, and for the moment while I clean up and recopy some of her patterns onto something better than scratch paper. I ended up making two crowns for her, one with pearls and one with garnets... and then she ended up wearing sculpey horns that I made ages ago for the photoshoot. Though you can't see it, she was wearing shoes :D. Here is one of the crowns: Here is how I ended up finishing the back of the dress--the rings are by Darice and are called "Chain Maille" and I am sure with a dowel and some bolt cutters and patience you can make your own, but I was lazy and I just bought these. I love that you can flip them up to string them, and the fat ribbon actually works very well--you can thread it through the rings easily, but it has enough tooth to stay put when laced. Black silk ribbon might be nice too, but I don't have any. Here is the hook that holds the collar shut--I need to adjust the patt...

After having handed off my gray Bianca and then looking around fruitlessly for a normal-skin one on sale from Den of Angels for less than 800.00; I finally found a different New Young Iplehouse Doll in the form of "Audrey". Audrey is nice in that she has a great factory faceup and looks a lot like the old Mars, who I was fond of-- but never quite got the money together to actually buy before he was discontinued, and even better... the seller was from Texas. Every single transaction I have done with The Ladies From Texas have been awesome from start to finish, and the dolls always look like they have just stepped out of the doll factory showrooms, or in the case of Audrey, with extra hands, feet..and shoes (!). So here is Miss Audrey, wondering how she ended up in a house that doesn't even offer her a decent pair of jeans, much less a stand, a display case. . . or much in the way of accessories besides a leopard handbag. (It is a superior little handbag bought from Swaz...

It must be time for the Downers Grove Ice Sculpture Festival! We went down there last night to eat dinner, and I took some blurry photos. All the sculptures looked great-- and most of them made sense in relation to the store they were "advertising" (The theme was Once Upon A Time), though I am not sure why a unicorn for the style place: Heres the guy chainsawing and chiseling his way around a dragon. It seems like a bit of a waste to put so much talent into something that will melt, instead of making solid sculptures, but maybe he does both: Here's the finished product, a dragon outside the toy store: I went all over the Downers Grove site, looking for the name of the artist, and I can't find it--I hadn't looked for a name or a card at the time I was taking the photos because he was busy, and I assumed he'd be on the website! Here's a really nice ice ring: And finally, here is the second picture I took at Target (where the LOVETACULAR seasonal candy ...

I need to start thinking of what goes on her head--Mesopotamian gods had quite the "do" going on up there, along with her horns, but I can't quite visualize how they will all work together yet. (These doll projects would go faster if I had a finished photo to work from). In any case, the cloak-thing, which ended up more like an Arabic thob split down the middle, is basically put together. I may still put a lining strip around the collar and down the front, and I am considering some eyelash trim for the bottom if there is some black yarn in the box. The fabric was hard for the machine--it's a stretch polyester with a sticky metallic finish and the needle skipped so much I ended up going back this morning and doing some hand-sewing to correct it: But even with the fabric being not very cooperative, I love how it drapes. Here is Eresh just pinned into her dress, with the cloak draped over it: Back to work!