Taking a little time off for a doll show!

So many things are close to being completed right now, but I simply don't have time to do the final touches and take pictures....or list mohair  :)

I am finished painting and matting my two OOAK clay babies.  They are still in parts on the painting table and will remain that way until next week.  (I do still have to glue hair on Lahne.)

I will be completing a mini full body silicone today that I won't have time to show off either!

I will be packaging one more color batch of mohair this morning and doing the final washing, rinsing, combing, double rinsing and removing bands on two other big batches today.  I may not have time to package them tomorrow when they are dry.  

I am leaving tomorrow afternoon on a road trip to pick up my 13 year old granddaughter and we'll be headed for the 

~Portland Crossroads Doll Show~ 

on Friday!  

I don't enjoy road trips much but since my grandgirl doesn't live between here and the show, I will just have to go get her.  

She loves dolls and we love our time together in the car as well as at the show.

This is her second show and I wasn't planning on going but it is close to her birthday so...we are GOING!  :)

The show is just on Saturday and I hope that I bump into some of you there! 

I'll be back to work on Tuesday.

XXOO

Laurie Duncan does it again!

Laurie Duncan of Fancy Pants and Flounces has worked with me for most of my reborning years. 

I love being able to send her a message with an idea I have (usually very general and vague such as a theme or a color/style) and let her run with it.

For this micro-preemie silicone doll, I said that I needed a hooded bath set in a duck theme.

Here is what she came up with!

Precious ducky wash cloth:

Hooded towel:

(I told her it was best to use cotton because terry type fabric would be too fuzzy for a silicone doll)

And a little diaper!

This baby is Melissa McCrory's "Punkie" full body sculpt.

I would like to root hair on him before I offer him for sale but some have expressed love over his baldness.  Oh to decide!  

Here are a few more pictures...

I am HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY once again with Laurie's work!

Dabling into unchartered territory using Baby FX POWDERS!

I have been processing mohair by day and rooting a full body mini silicone by evening and last night I simply just HAD to take a break and play!

My mission was to re-weight two of my newest OOAK clay babies.

Do you remember these two by Lilianne Breedveld?  I purchased them in October.

Well, I began taking them apart and remembered that they really do not have any color left and thought to myself..."well, I now have Baby FX powders!  Let's see how they work on clay!"

So, I washed the clay and started work on Lahne, the one on the left above.  She had hair but it was a clear cap wig and I wasn't totally in love with it as it was super pluggy so I took it off.  I will glue wonderful hair onto her later.

(Cell phone pictures taken at night)

I didn't want to go to bed!!!!  

I have her limbs colored and did this much to her face.  I will seal all of this with the SureBond and water spray then do more.  Since she is mine, I can see how she holds up over time.

I'm super excited because my own baby is getting face lift, something I rarely have time for!  

I'll keep you posted  :)

So pleased, so proud, so excited!

Last week was a busy and thrilling week as Jazz's auction ran.

He ended at $7500....my highest sale date...and is going to a follower of this blog!

THAT makes me much more excited than the money does!

It is awesome to be compensated for a job well done, but with so much of my heart into each baby, I love having a connection of some kind with the adopting family.  

The top question on everyone's mind on a high end doll and sale is always....

"Did she get paid?"

Yes!  My buyer paid and Jazz is on his way to Australia!  

Please wish him well in his travels.  It is always a breath holding experience while they are enroute anywhere.  

I simply am so anxious for his "mommy" to meet him in person!  

I couldn't be any more excited for her!!

So, let's talk about that  $7500.

Any other artist reading will attest to the fact that daily, we get asked to give our dolls away or sell them at very low prices, like $100.

I have been called greedy before.  

It is assumed that time should be given away.

It is assumed that "it's only a doll" so should be cheap or free.

I only post the following numbers in hopes that some will see this break down and be educated.  

Feel free to share it.

Please understand that I am in no way complaining and diminishing the outcome of this sale!

I feel VERY blessed!

The final sale was $7500

PayPal's fee on this payment were $298.22

The Final Value Fee and auction fee on eBay were $753.25

The cost of the blank sculpt was $2200

(Yes, I know it is a prototype and typically prototypes are sent to the artist at no charge...IN VINYL.  This is not vinyl and rarely are silicone prototypes sent at no charge.  I did get a small discount on his sculpt but as you see, he was not free.)

I did not figure the cost of outfits, blankets, accessories, needles, mohair, paints, painting supplies etc etc but I'll throw a number out there of $150.

That leaves a profit of 4098.53

I worked on Jazz for 8 full weeks, plus the time I did not calculate to process the mohair for his hair.

Dividing $4098.53 by 8 means I was paid $512.32 per week ($12.80 per hour) for my work.

I do believe I got a raise!!!!  

From my heart

XXOO

Onto the next project....

MOHAIR MADNESS!

Doing the photo and video shoot of Jazz and getting his auction up was largely stressful and my body is feeling it!  

I've not been able to have my weekly massage for the last 2 weeks due to lack of funds and my shoulders, upper back and neck are causing me trouble!  Mohair processing should be fun...

NOT!  

But, here I go and I WILL be able to get back on my weekly massages again this week so I will survive  :)

Have a great day everyone!

XXOO

Ps...what I really WANT  to do (besides play in my dolly house) is to make my Angelica. 

She is Reva Schick's 5 year old child doll.  I've had her kit now for 2 years or more and she is for me.

I try to make a doll for me every year but I think I am going on my 3rd year without making myself a doll.  :(  

I need to take Decembers off.  Please remind me of that next year!   

A little glimpse of Jazz

Here he is!

Introducing Prototype Jazz!

A full bodied, anatomically correct silicone boy sculpted by Lilianne Breedveld,

 poured by Claire Taylor and brought to life by me!

He has a ball jointed head and his body is poured in one piece.

He has full armatures in his arms.

I did the complete photo shoot out in my brand new Dolly House.

The sun played peek-a-boo all day so the lighting danced the day away.

Some of the pictures show his tone darker and richer than it is but I loved the effect as like in this first picture, Jazz looks JUST BORN with that ruddy-red tone.

That newborn tone quickly diminishes as it did with Jazz when the lighting was just right

I had such a great time in the Dolly House!

I have some wonderful vintage cribs and I loved using this one for Jazz. 

Jazz is 20 inches long.  He looks amazing in the crib!

This is the wonderful thing about dolls...

I can still use a vintage, double drop side crib AND a bumper pad and be legal  :)

Jazz's full head of hair is nice to style and easy to keep.  

It's rooted with a barbed needle which allows hair to stay in silicone heads.

I brushed it a LOT during rooting and right before the photo shoot.  

There is no need to worry about his hair falling out.

When Jazz's blank arrived to my studio, I filmed this video.
It sat unattended to in my little camera until yesterday!
Now it's ready to view.  It shows the blank doll and his amazing features

And then this one I filmed after all of his photo's were taken.
I did not have to wet his hair at all during photography or filming...and it was a LONG day!
By this time of day, the light was being really tricky so the very start of the video is a little dark but it gets better.

 

~CLICK HERE FOR JAZZ'S AUCTION~

Have a GREAT day!!!

Jazz's hair is DONE!

Every time I finish a rooted head I am in awe!

I can't believe I finally get the head done and I can't believe how the baby turned out.  

And I can't wait to show you!  

But for now, I need to root lashes and brows, which is an all day process because of the sealing and matting of them.  

Have a good day...

You know what I'll be doing!

Photo shoot starts tomorrow!

Moving into the Dolly House!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful entry into the New Year!

I found myself stuffing my car with baby furniture that I had stored at our old house.

Inside 1 Ford Edge is this:
2 full size vintage cribs and mattresses, 2 mini vintage cribs and mattresses, 1 changing table and pad, 1 toddler car seat, I infant car seat, 1 walker, 1 vintage bouncy rocker, 1 Jenny Jump Up, 1 vintage full size buggy, a crib mobile, a box of hangars, 3 big bags of bedding and me!

They don't call me the "Master Packer" for nothing! 

But oh, I disliked the mess that my Dolly House became!  

I guess this is the reason that I stalled beginning the move in (plus the fact that there were holidays to deal with!) as I wanted to enjoy the peace and serenity for a while.

First, I lay plastic down on the carpet to protect it from the outside elements and I carried things in. 

I could not get a vehicle into the back yard where the dolly house is due to the snow so I had to trudge through the back yard from the front driveway carrying each item into the house.

I placed the plastic strategically so that when I came in, I could walk to the place that I had pre-planned to set things down keeping my feet off of the carpet.

Let the mess begin!

This mess was after load one:

I put a lot of the things I did not need right now up into the loft (hence the ladder) and went to get load #2.

At this point, there was a still a bit of serenity in the house:

 

In the car this time was:

It contained another full size crib and mattress, 6 shelves for the walls, a huge tub of clothes, 3 very full laundry baskets full of clothes and a large box of clothes that I took out of the wardrobe that will be moved over later, 2 plastic drawers of shoes and socks, a potty chair, a small fainting couch, a shoe box of something that I don't remember what I put in and taped up, a decor box, a tub of toys and a doll sized high chair!

At this point, serenity barely existed!

Once again, I moved the things I did not need right now into the loft.

On New Years Day, my dear, local dolly friend came over and helped me do this...

I was excited to put the new set of bedding into the white crib.

I found it on eBay for under $50!

 The crib is more of an off white and the lace in the bedding matches perfectly!

Oh that was so thrilling!!!!

Yesterday I gussied up the cribs in the bay with nets that arrived in the mail.

The hooks that I used arrived in the mail a week ago.  They were black when they arrived.

What I loved about them were the added butterfly and bumblebee!  

Two of my favorite things!  I have always used butterflies in my nursery design and I have some outfits of bumblebees for my babies!

What I didn't love was the black but I fixed that.

Just perfect!  AND....I only paid $3 for the pair of hooks on eBay!

I added some lavender butterfly accents to the dust canopies:

 I added a high chair to the bay arrangement:

Place the floral arrangement between the two cribs:

Hung up this pretty crystal Guardian Angel one of my BFF's gave me for Christmas

(It is in the center window of the bay)

Oh!  Did you notice the blinds???  

They arrived last week and one evening I went out and hung them all.  

I LOVE them!

And I added this sweet set of rabbits to the window sill above the changing table.

I've had them in the studio for nearly a year now.  I got them at a winter yard sale last year specifically for the Dolly House.  You see, I love rabbits too and you will see plenty of them when the Dolly House is fully decorated.  And I may have a new silicone bunny on layaway with a silicone artist that will be added to my personal collection  :)

I so love how things are coming together!  

The cribs didn't work out how I originally planned in the bay but I do believe that I love this arrangement better.

I can't be any happier!  

I hope everyone else has as wonderful a new year as I did!  

XXOO

AND THE WINNER IS......

The woman who bought this baby that EVERYONE loves...

MELISSA REASONER!  

Melissa is going to be SO excited and my heart is just overflowing with joy for her!

She bought this baby, Lakesha, after she could not attend ROSE and my painting class.  She was so sad not being able to attend so when she saw this baby come available, she grabbed her!

CONGRATULATIONS Melissa!!!!!  

I can't wait to work with you on your custom baby!  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!