Tuesday, April 30, 2013

"A Rose By Any Other Name" prototype/Kellie Beckett finished!

It is with great delight that I announce the "birth" of 
A Rose By Any Other Name
by Kellie Beckett.
This is prototype #1
She is 16 inches long of pure chubbiness, happiness and roses!  









Her custom made outfits have not arrived so she is borrowing the dress from my personal collection.
It does look divine on her!  

I will announce kit suppliers when I have more information.
And of course you will get to see her in her official eBay photo shoot and I'll announce when she is on eBay.

Happy Tuesday!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Sharing pictures of real baby Jarrod~10 weeks old

Did I ever mention that I don't like adult children??
They bug me.  Really, REALLY bug me!  
I know I am not alone in this so please, feel free to share your 
"Adult kids bug me" stories!  

We never have found out if Jarrod is kin or not.  
One thing I DO know...
He is ADORABLE!

Thought I'd share a few pics I snapped yesterday afternoon when he came for a visit.







Have a wonderful Monday!! 

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Did you see these two sweethearts?? Full bodied silicone babies

Lorna Miller Sands just released her next full bodied silicone babies~
A set of twins. 

She does not have them up on her website just yet but you can read all about them 

Here are Lorna's pictures of the two:

I think they are splendid!  

Oh how I wish I could.....

Friday, April 26, 2013

Sharing my collection Friday~Do you mind???

They say that there is always room for ONE more.

I'm not sure that Giovanni and Carrie Lynn feel the same way.

They think things are getting pretty crowded in the nursery and don't 
appreciate where Cathe decided to plop down at:


Poor Cathe.  She looks a bit perplexed as to why her siblings are not delighted with where she sits.

Happy Friday!

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Pictures of Stephanie in Silicone repainted

I had a little time yesterday to put this little MAN on his old body and snap a few pictures.
His eyes are on the way as are some baby fat inserts and some clothes.
He won't have the Precious Little Baby Dust eyes after all.  
They are full round/globe eyes and won't fit inside his sockets.  :(  
That's okay, I found some nice glass ones that will be great for him.

He's freshly matted so you will see some powder here and there.  I'll clean him up later~for now,
 he will have some dry baby skin.

Enjoy his pics!

~BEFORE the repaint~


~AFTER~











 His little head shall remain in line for rooting.  

Whooo!  2 babies painted specifically for the 
and waiting for hair  :) 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A source of daily work~ArtFire

I love being a member of ArtFire.

I've had my store up and running for wow....I don't know....3 or 4 years??

It's a grand site and provides a little bit of daily work~mostly in sales  :)  

eBay used to be such a wonderful place to sell.  
I don't feel that way about eBay any longer.  Yes, I still buy things on eBay and I still sell prototypes on eBay but there are so many bad transactions that happen via eBay that I prefer to keep my sales to a smaller selling site, like ArtFire.  The fees are so incredibly less than eBay, with NO final value fees.

(Did you know that the final value fee for the sale of my ONE doll on eBay last month was $125?!?!?!  Then there were the listing fees as well as PayPal's 3% cut once I was paid.  
It's just gotten to be ridiculous.)

This is how my store looks most of the time:


I love it.  I am proud of it.  I sell things through it.

It's all good  :)   


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Silly over silicone!

Indeed I have a new passion.
I am just SILLY about silicone!

I haven't gotten around to taking progress pictures of "Stephanie" in silicone but I could not resist taking these two shots of the skin tone of his/her foot and leg:



I am quite pleased!  And giddy!  LOL

Packages arrived in the mail yesterday...
Did I ever mention how much I LOVE to get packages???  It does not even matter what is in the package...I just LOVE packages!  

In one of those packages were outfits from Piccolissimo Baby Boutique in the UK.
The outfits are for Pebbles in Silicone and I just had to take a shot of her unpainted head amongst the sets:
 
Silly for Silicone!

Monday, April 22, 2013

How to apply Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium

 This tutorial is for the use of Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium as 
a base coat, or primer under air dry paints to prevent shine and create a lovely matte finish.  

It is designed as a primer for glass to allow paint to stick to it so it is best used UNDER the paint.  
If you find that you must use it over the paint to eliminate shine, please make sure that your Genesis Heat Set Paints are FULLY baked and cure and that your air dry paints have had 1-2 weeks to fully cure.  The solvent structure in the Folk Art Glass and Tile Medium can interact with uncured paints and ruin your paint job.  It is always safer and recommended to apply before you paint, however, it is not designed to be baked.  

Before you begin, shake the bottle of the Folk Art WELL! 
And shake throughout the use of it. 

I have found that the best way to apply the Folk Art Glass and Tile medium is by using a wedge. 
Have a couple of dishes of warm water available to you as you will get sticky doing this and might want to clean up some, plus you will need to rinse out brushes that you use.
On a small plate, place a small puddle of FAG&T medium (FULL STENGTH~do not thin it), no more than the size of a nickle.  The medium dries and thickens fast so you don't want too much on the plate. 
Barely dab the end side of a dry wedge into the puddle then pounce it quickly on the plate leaving just a thin coating on the wedge.  A very thin layer is all that is needed on the vinyl. 
Pounce it onto the vinyl in small sections....say the back of the head.  Using a clean, dry wedge, pounce the medium until JUST DRY.  Over-pouncing will cause it to pill and get grainy. 
Do another section, paying close attention to joining the sections together.  Change your pouncing wedges often as they will begin to build up too much medium causing problems when you pounce.
It is important to change your application wedge after each piece of vinyl as it begins to build up, and change your plate.  I just use a wedge to clean off the medium that is left, then use water from the dishes to fully clean the plate then dry the plate with a clean paper towel. 
Use a damp brush to apply in creases and in hard to reach places.  Use a dry brush (it's good to have several for when they get too much medium on them you can wash and switch) to pounce out those areas. 
I like to brush the medium onto the nails creating a texture.  This you would not pounce out.  You can create some texture on the lips by brushing and pouncing, but it's not as good as Genesis Matte Varnish for texture.  I also create textured brows with a brush and toothpicks after I have the layer applied onto the head and it has had time to dry. 

Let the kit dry overnight then you can start painting. 

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Working on my second silicone repaint~Stephanie

Oh this is just so much fun!  

Since I ran out of thinning gel the other day and could not work on my AA toddler,
I decided to make use of my time and start work on an Ashton Drake silicone doll named Stephanie by Linda Webb.

I hoped this little darling would be a girl but I am seeing ALL boy right now.


I think I see an area on the lip that needs correcting.
These are not the eyes that will go with this baby.  They are just what I had in stock. 



I will buy a set of these from Precious Little Baby Dust:


I love the blue in the Selera.

I should be able to finish up his paint today, then it will be back to rooting little Miss
 "A Rose By Any Other Name" tomorrow.  


That will make TWO babies painted specifically for the Down East Doll Show!  
Yay!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Sharing my collection Friday~Line em up!

Wow...my 9 1/2-10 inch collection of OOAK babies is growing!


Oh they give me so much joy!!


It's about time to get them changed into spring attire.  
FUN!

XXOO

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Supplies, supplies and MORE supplies!

The attempt at beginning to paint my AA toddler was a fail yesterday.

I was out of Genesis Thinning Medium.  I must have forgotten to order it the last time I used my Genesis paints.    Seems like I'm always having to order something!

So....
I started on my next silicone doll instead!  

This one is an authentic reborn because she was already a fully assembled silicone doll,
Stephanie by Linda Webb and Ashton Drake.

Here is a before I took-her-apart picture:


She is tin-based silicone so I am using the Cirius painting system on her which is hard to work with.

But, she's coming along nicely.

Have a great Thursday!
(I do have a cute picture from my collection to share tomorrow so be sure to pop in)

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

A break in rooting

I am a little more than half done rooting little prototype 
A Rose By Any Other Name.

Her hair ended up being darker than I had planned but it is going to be darling on her anyway.
Uhm...I had a chocolate brown from another processor that I wanted to use on her.
It was the same hair that I tested a while back.  

I hated it.
It broke and it would not stay in.  

So, I pulled that out and switched to what I had on hand, my own mohair in a dark brown kid hair from the goat named Violet.  Ahhhhh....

MUCH better.

But, I need a break from rooting.  Three days is enough for me this week.
This prototype's pictures are not due until April 30th.  I'm good.
I'm itching to start painting an AA toddler for the Down East Doll show so that is what I will be doing today and tomorrow. 

EXCITED!




Tuesday, April 16, 2013

My first silicone kit is here!

It simply took forever for the mail man to get here yesterday!  

But finally he bought my little bundle to me.

Please meet solid silicone, limited edition (#2/5) 
Pebbles by Sharon Azzinnaro!


Pebbles is much smaller than I anticipated so I've got to rethink my overall plan for her.

She is going to be approximately 9" long to her stretched out toes, and her head is 6 1/2 inches around.

And I have already made her very hairy!  Until she is painted, everything will stick to her!  

 
Pebbles is sculpted very well and poured well in platinum silicone.  

She should be fun!

What do you think of this sleeping angel?

XXOO
 

Monday, April 15, 2013

PROFIT!

Happy Tax Day 2013!  

Of course, this tax day is for the year 2012 which for the first time in
They Never Grow Up Nursery history (8 years), showed a profit!

Last year my nursery broke even with expenses to income.

This year showed a profit of nearly $1700!

Whooo-Hoooo!  I believe I have arrived!  

XXOO

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Come see "A Rose" painted!

Here she is!
A Rose By Any Other Name
prototype sculpted by Kellie Beckett and produced by Petra's Dolls and Doll Fashions 


This sweet baby will be approximately16 inches long.

 She will have chocolate brown hair rooted over lightly painted hair.
(rooting begins today)








I had some sheen issues, particularly on one limb that I will have to attend to after her paint cures well.  Now sure why that happens.  It does NOT happen when I first prep a doll kit with Genesis Matte Varnish but some collectors do not like the feel of the matte vanish. 

Off to root A Rose!

XXOO