Poppits Workshop in Timaru!

We had a lovely group of enthusiastic learners doing this workshop at the weekend in Timaru!  Shona and Zelda made very classy pop-ups dolls and were very pleased with their accomplishments.

 Suzy is an old hand at doll makeing and has been to a few classes, so was at home here!

 Sharon was trying something different out after rearing miniature horses and quilting, so she tackled this new hobby with great enthusiasm!  chris managed to escape the pictures, but she cleverly needlesculpted the hair on her doll!

Aren't they all cool!  This is a great accomplishment for women who have never made such things before!

Another Marie Antoinette Bust

 I decided to try a different colour hair  to see what it does for the Workshop I am preparing for Fabric Addictions Website.  This is some Merino wool that I dyed a long time ago and have never used.

Not too sure of the colour combo, but it looks ok to me.  What do you think?  I am making several of these as part of my workshop.  I hope to have some video's as part of this workshop, to demonstrate the process of needle sculpting the face, doing the make up and needle felting the hair.

I like the shapes of the little vases I found in the Warehouse!  They work well for this, but candlesticks or any other little things can be used as a holder for this bust.

 This Bust will be a workshop on Fabric Addictions Website, starting in mid October.

Doll makeover, restoration - kind of!

Remember this doll I was repairing?  Never having done anything like it before, and only the head to work with, I began.  I sent away for an air brush & compressor kit, which got lost in the post and had to get a new one sent out!  Then had to earn how to use it, how to mix the paint - I used acrylic because that's all I had - and keep it from clogging up the nozzle - used pantihose to strain it!  Utube for some quick lessons!

All over skin colour to develop a base. The original was quite dark, but my paint colour made it look deathly!  Didn't get pics of that!  LOL!  Then sometime after midnight and several additions of most of my tube of white, it came right!  I was matching it to the velour colour.  Still not perfect.  A million coats of spray - if you can't get the right colour!  I used a hair dryer alternately with the airbrush, as each layer needed to be dry to check the colour.

The hair ended up being lighter than the original because I had such a limited pallet.  I mucked up the front, but decided it would just have to do rather than fiddle with it and make it worse - it's not a competition and is the reason I make cloth dolls!  I also mucked up the lip shape - probably used the wrong brush!  I was pleased with the colour though.

The eyes!  Oh the eyes!  Tricky and time consuming and not for the faint-hearted! Undercoat of  white to cover the original, then they got stuck and had to release them!  These eyes looked so stary, and it took a lot of thinking and study to get them right.  (Cloth dolls are so much easier!)  Eventually, I worked out that I needed to darken the eyes and make the pupils larger.  The iris had to cover most of the eye, as it was in the original, to make it look effective.

Then I made the dress, with little knickers, socks to match the dress and shoes.  I had to make a last of clay to make good shoes.  Not perfect, but better than nothing.

I used Kezi Mathews Toddler Doll pattern for the body.  It was just the right size and and a perfect shape!

I am relatively pleased with the way she turned out and I just hope her owner will not mind that she has changed colour, as all she possessed of this doll was the broken head,left over from her childhood nearly 70 years ago!  She wanted to pass something on to her granddaughter.  I hope I have created something she will be happy with.