Pictures of custom order baby in progress and Quality Mohair?

The above picture is of the Arianna kit without paint. I have applied the Genesis Matte Varnish to her.

Here she is after day one. She is starting to get some color to her.

In these two pics she shows some pretty coloring. I have one more full day of painting on her until she is done. She needs two more blush colors, blue colors for depth, veins, brows, highlighting and painted hair.

It will be more than a week before I can work on her again. I am bringing two of my nieces home this weekend and I will be teaching them to make a doll.

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Quality Mohair?? How DO you find it?

Those are tough questions to answer!

The most important attributes to good quality mohair are how the goats are raised. The owner of the farm where I purchase my raw mohair from takes the best care of her goats. She takes utmost care in the selection of feed to produce healthy goats which produce healthy, glossy fiber. She does not keep aged animals for fiber but rather keeps a young and fresh heard from high quality fiber producing stock. She never shears bucks beyond the first 2 clippings for fiber as they emit a very strong odor that is hard to remove from the mohair. She shears when the weather turns to cool nights and warm days. Those cool nights and warm days can destroy a healthy pelt of fiber really fast so she keeps a close watch on the weather. Due to the climate here in the West where we have two defined seasons where this change occurs means that the locks usually will never be more than 6 inches. When buying mohair, be wary of long locks of hair. That usually indicates that the animal was not shorn soon enough creating dry and brittle hair OR that it is an aged, adult animal which also throws dry and brittle hair. You see, the hair grows coarser with each and every clipping. You are looking for soft and glossy hair for your dolls.

A kid goat is first shorn at around 6 months old. This would be the first clip kid hair. This hair is usually very very fine and sometimes fly away if it does not have a good amount of lanolin in the hair. Sometimes it is very curly but not always. The straighter kid hair is perfect for newborn babies.

Then the goat is shorn again at one year old. This is the second clip kid hair. The fiber is a little bit thicker and less curly. This hair is good for all ages of babies from newborn to toddler.

When the goat becomes a year and a half old, it is considered a yearling. This third clipping is called yearling hair. Yearling hair is lovely! It has a fiber that is thicker than the kid hair, it usually has a great amount of lanolin on it and usually is wavy to straight. If a yearling clipping is curly, that hair is wonderful for big, springy curls.

The fourth clipping is also yearling hair with many of the same characteristics of the third clipping.

The 5th clipping is now adult hair. Adult hair is usually longer (7" or more) and coarser with less lanolin. . I don't use adult hair very often unless it just happens to be an exceptional clipping. It can be very good for big toddlers where you need a lot of length.

Mohair should be colored with quality acid dyes created just for mohair.

To find quality mohair...wow, that's a tough question! I was lucky enough to come across this goat farm that I buy from from the time I started reborning. I never had to look around for qualtiy mohair. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of dolls rooted with other hair...some was very nice hair and others were horrible. The latter seems to be the case. Really look at the locks of hair you are considering. You CAN see brittle hair if you look close. Pay attention to what clipping the hair is, if it is posted in the hair you are looking at. Ask the seller questions. One final note on purchasing quality mohair~you DO get what you pay for. Processing mohair is a huge operation and takes much time. Quality raw hair costs more to purchase as well do quality mohair dyes. If the price is really really low on the hair, I would be wary however, some nice but not the best hair can be priced at well over $100 an ounce. ~sigh~ It's a really tough question to answer!

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The plumber showed up within 24 hours of my phone call! Huh...guess what he found in clogging my pipes? HAIR! ROFL!!!!

Speaking of hair, the custom color I was working on turned out beautiful with the second try. I am delighted!