*I* had to strip a doll!

Ahh yes, remember her?

Remember that she was a test baby?  I was attempting to fully create her ethnic tone with air dry paints.  Typically, I start my ethnic babies out with Genesis Heat Set Paints.  

I struggled a lot with her during the 7 days it took to paint her.  I was not fully happy with her outcome but she looked pretty good.  

Yesterday I told you that I was going to add some Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium to a few shiny spots on her.  

Things were going well until I hit this spot on her cheek.  This is one of the areas I really had problems with while painting her.  The paint smeared with the use of the medium!  So I decided to do a check on a leg too.  Yep, that paint smeared too.

Now please don't panic and believe that the problem is with the Art and Magic Water Borne paints I was using.  I believe it was not the paints but the fact that I put too much Ultra Matte Gel in the brown colors to get them the thinness that I desired.  (The Dark Ethnic color is very, very rich. I do need to recommend to Hunnybuns that is needs to be mixed in a thinner ratio).  Another reason I believe it not to be the paints is because the "Caucasian" colors that I used on the bottoms of her feet and palms of her hands did not come fully off, even after 4 strippings:

One of things I thought as I worked on this baby was the possibility that the Genesis Matte Varnish made it difficult to paint her.  She is the first doll I used my old method of Genesis Matte Varnish first on with the new Art and Magic paints. I've done it successfully in countless CAUCASIAN dolls and thought it might work on this Ethnic.  It still could but I'm not going to attempt it again on this doll as I don't have the time to experiment.  

Here is what she looks like now:

Click on the photo to see it full size.  You can still see shades of red and flesh on her, but hardly any brown.  

The entire time I worked on this baby, I thought she looked really Asian.  I might go that route with her now.  :)  Using Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium and Art and Magic paints.  

So how did I strip her?

I LOVE the LDC/Doll Dreams Lotion Cleaner.  It cleans matte, is non toxic and smells good.

I still protect my hands, always, with vinyl gloves.

Using cotton balls, small toothbrushes and elbow grease, I cleaned her once and washed her well in warm, soapy water and rinsed. 

Then I repeated the process.  

I could see that some of her Matte Varnish remained (I really did not know that the Lotion Cleaner could/would remove the matte varnish~now I know!) so I used cotton balls and pure acetone to remove the remaining varnish.  I only use acetone as a last resort when I strip.  I washed and rinsed her again.  One thing I do not like about acetone is that it makes the vinyl shiny, so I once again cleaned her with the LDC Lotion Cleaner which restored her to matte again.  (Of course she got another bath and rinse.)  This entire process took three hours.  Thank God I have a massage appointment for later today.  After so many days and nights of rooting, my back and shoulders were not ready for 3 hours of stripping. 

I have not had to strip a doll for years and years.  It was a bit humbling!  

I guess I take for granted how well things go and I THOUGHT I  had it ALL figured out.

But I still love to learn and grow and a failed project like this creates the perfect environment to do both.

And I did not cry ONE tear.  

I might have if I was fully happy with how she turned out to begin with, but I was not.  

And I had these HUGE blue eyes watching me the whole time

How could I be sad??  :)

Oh by the way, the mail lady should be bringing me someone in the mail today!!!  

YES!  I'm expecting...AGAIN!!!

See you tomorrow on Sharing my Collection Friday!