Monday, May 29, 2017

236. The Customising Bug.

Yep still here just haven't had much in the way of interesting things to post about. 
The doll house is a shamozzle, (yes there's a deer and a jeep in the kitchen)

 
 people are moving about, some have just up and left, others came by mistake and went again, the school closed down (the girls were very excited until they saw the homeschool applications) and I discovered instagram.
I was just checking some song lyrics about Industry from Beaches thinking I could slightly misquote and well got a bit distracted by other songs from that movie, about ladies undergarments, and an interview of the little girl who played Bette Midlers younger self ooh and now I know where I'd seen Regina's mother from Once Upon a Time from, Barbara Hershey's in Beaches. It's not yet known if there's a season 8 of that show but I believe all my faves are leaving, Once Upon a Time, not Beaches .  Or is it 7...?
Um where was I? Scroll up, scroll down. 
Instagram? 
My own account is mostly there at the moment so I can like and comment on other peoples posts, and covet and catch up on the AG news. There's some amazing photographers out there, and a big following of them are of customised dolls.  The changing of eyes and hair the painting of freckles and eyelashes, the boyover and more recently the girlover. It is rumoured that American Girl company itself will branch out in the soon to join the customising world beyond the Truly Me line, and that is quite exciting, how far they will go is to be seen. In the meantime I've kind of given it a go myself and thought I'd show what has happened as result. Nothing amazing really, no business venture opening soon, just little tweaks. Under the boardwalk down by the sea, on a blanket, yep there I go again. 

The eyes: yeah nup.....
 I've watched the eye swap process on YouTube, where the rest of my non blogging time has gone, I'm not yet game to try that yet, yet meaning I'm thinking about a dark eyed Marie Grace mold. If the purchase of said mold and spare eyes ever occurs I'll check out how much a customiser will charge to do it for me, the whole hot water to soften the head and pop out the eyes with a wooden spoon and then getting the eyes back in without damaging anything is just way beyond my comfort zone.

The hair: now I've tried the hair. Who was first? No looking up Abbott and Costello, stop it, ooh, not sure I have a digital pic any more, but for some reason I know I've got a printed one. 
Back in 2014 somewhere between July and November I decided to gift my mother a doll, and thus my first attempt at customising 

Anne Shirley. 
She once was Rebecca Rubin. I remember being nervous at the time just removing her perfectly lovely Rebecca wig, not keen on the chemical removal, I used a spoon, and it was really easy. I think the wig was an auburn rather than carrot in colour, just so Anne didn't have to feel so tortured or resort to going green. 

Kanani was next, I think. Her name is Hanalei in my doll room. Her lovely long Kanani wig was really dry, and my attempts to cure that were really disappointing, fabric softener, baby shampoo, hair conditioner, some kind of de-frizz lotion. Maybe I'd tried too many, but lastly I resorted to rewigging. The nearest I got at the time was a Marie Grace wig. I've since removed the spiral curls and have hot washed out the kinks from the plaits, but found myself redoing the plaits as a style, shrug move on. I've kind of given myself permission to get another Kanani someday, with the beautiful original hair. 


Hair, hair, hair, hmmm, Mariana of course.    Mariana is a friend from one of Josefina's books (I think it's the birthday one). 


She is a Puebloan. 


I really liked that Mariana liked dolls. 


Kaya was my choice to make Mariana, Id gone as far as an outfit similar to those pictured in the book when she first officially arrived in March 2015. She's since modernised. The Kaya wig was unfortunately matted and dry, and well I wanted to give Mariana a fringe/ bangs, and I decided she grown her hair. 

  

Freckles: 

That was the other nervous venture with Anne Shirley. The freckles. How could I bring myself to put paint on an AG doll. It happened, though only over the nose. 

More freckles, Lawrie, the little boy adopted by Andy's family (I have a couple of BFC ink dolls, and in 2015 there was a storyline I did, wow it was that long ago, and not that long ago all at the same time, really? Yep, wow Maddie's body transplant is still holding together, cool, ooh another customising category). 

Body transplant: 
Early last year I decided to support an Aussie based seller and their bid to create their own 18" doll. I bought one. I think I was a little disappointed with the face anyway. The face did not look happy. The body was close in size to American girl though, cloth body a little narrower. The finger and toe nails had been mani/pedicured, so I decided to keep the body. The wig was also quite nice. And so I waited for a head with eyes to become available on ebay. 

The head had blue eyes fair skin pierced ears and some wispy remains of a blonde wig. I checked wikia and the AG website. I believe I have a Truly Me #27. 
With the new body and hair though, we now have Sadie. 

The flash is not showing the right colour, it's more light brown. 

Nice nails. 
Oh, the head on the original doll was zip tied on, I didn't have another or official neck string. I had some nice green stuff though, and safety pin fed it through, or was it a long crochet hook I used, and bent out if shape? Lucky for Sadie her head is on and she recovered well. 

The eyebrows and The eyelashes: 
My Truly Me #24 arrived in January 2017.  I'm  pretty sure the possible pics of Tenney Grant were already floating around by then and rumour that #24 was being discontinued. She was very cute and Maybe it was the Tenney grant eyebrows and lip freckles  that decided me to get #24 instead of waiting for the new girl. This is Bounty. Yes it's a chocolate bar and a mutineered ship, but it also means a generous gift, and well the name just stuck. 

#24 originally had the one line eyebrows. It didn't bother me at first, fact was Tenney's eyebrows bothered me, but for some reason late April those one liners kept looking at me and I decided to try a hand at fine paint brush painting. I think I've made them too dark, but like them better now. 

Which brings us to the eyelashes. When eyes are shut it looks a little funny, and I've overdone them but it turns a classic mold from this

(Hi Pippa aka Samantha)

To this. 
I like it, for now. There's some awesome artists out there with a steadier hand and a finer brush, hopefully as I'm using water based paint my attempts can be remedied if need be. 
I might fill in josefina's eyebrows. 



The boyover:
Before American Girl announced Logan, as their first official 18" boy doll, many collectors had made boys of their own. Mostly it just required a hair cut/new wig. 
Lawrie is a Truly Me #53, I just cut his hair and added a little watered down brown to his lips and eyebrows, and of course the freckles. I think his clothes are from the Pumpkin Patch Teddy bear line. Not sure if I'll do anymore boyovers, though the previously mentioned dark eyed Marie  Grace was intended for a custom set that  involves a male character so we'll see.  

The girlover: Logan has been made over into a girl. There are some instagram pics I've seen. It might just take a bit for me to get used to. I think it's the eyebrows. Haven't written him off yet as a no go for either gender. Just hasn't been added to any list of mine yet. 

So this long post did have another doll I've been adding touch ups to. 

When I decided to buy my first secondhand American Girl, the dealing directly with American Girl just didn't seem a possibility at the time, in the early part of 2013, I had always wanted Julie Albright. I think it was her beautiful long blonde hair that swayed me most, once upon a time I had nice long blonde hair, well at least imagined I did, and felt she was maybe my mini me, despite the fact that I have blue eyes and freckles and look more like a chubby version of Kit. 
Anywho, so well in 2013 with only ebay as my international market place I was impatient and ended up buying Marisol. Sorry Marisol, consolation prize. The josefina mold was what I wanted. We didn't bond at the time so marisol moved house. 
When I decided to give the AG brand another go in June 2014 I waited to find the one. 
A preloved Julie arrived on the 4th of July, so appropriate. Llewellyn. Nasty hair but I loved her all the same. Tried softening it, consulted with a hair dresser who specialised in wigs, she was going to cut it and I ran out of the salon. 

So today after much procrastinating. Llewellyn has had her lips painted, her cheek rouge darkened, wings at the outer crease of her eyes, eyebrows still being contemplated, but we have...


Softish but frizzy looking


Dut dut dut

New hair (beamed in from the bottom left, aahh like Mr Bean). 

Yellow by flashlight

Mmm maybe

Centre (ish) part

Off to the side

Wha!!

She looks all grown up! Will she still want to play with me?
I think so mini Julie. She's still a little girl at heart. 

Wow Llewellyn you look so pretty. 
Hehehe thanks Lawrie. I don't dare move it's not glued on yet. 

So, who's next?

Hmmmm, mr Spot.....

1 comment:

  1. I think several of us have gotten the customizing bug. I'm trying to be good at the moment as I'm out of room, but it's so darned fun! I'm with you though on the whole eye thing, I'd much rather pay someone else to do it, my arthritic hands aren't up to it. Nor are my nerves. LOL @ the Mr. Bean reference!

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