now they have lashes and eyes.
ananda has lovely new glass eyes.
ellyce has to wait for her new eyecolor. she was supposed to fit either 12mm or 14mm but the 14’s were much to big for the socket and i didn’t have another pair of 12’s, so they are now on order.
the faceups continue, many layers of paint later the girls are done and waiting for the varnish to dry around the eyes so that they can get lashes, eyes and wigs.
i used mostly pastels to color them, rubbing the pastels on sandpaper to get my pallet then applying it with a variety of brushes and q-tips. the eyebrows were done with pastels and watercolor pencils and the lashes with thinned down acrylic paint.
here is ananda
and ellyce
i’m surprised at how different they look even though i used similar painting schemes and the sculpt is identical for both. ellyce’s shorter neck makes her face look chubbier.
my cans of mr superclear finally arrived – by sea all the way from hong kong, no less – so i’m ready to try my first face-up ever. my first victim – er i mean subject – is my cousin ananda, a dollmore, narsha friend shabee. she’s been looking very pale and ghostlike ever since she came to live with us, and begged to be the first to get a facial.
in the spirit of true makeover articles, i will start with the before shots. this will show what she looked for to start with. i apologize in advance for the crummy lighting. they were taken in the bedroom and the light through the curtains makes her look very greenish. i assure you she is not normally green!
here she is looking as she did when she first arrived.
this is a closer look at her face.
even without makeup she is very cute!
with her wig and eyes removed for protection from the first spray coat. she will be getting a new hair color and changing her eye color as well, but that’s no reason to muck them up with spray 🙂
another angle.
she is trying to be patient with all these photos but is really ready to start!
i got up early today and decided to try and finish my new hoody before i had to start work. all i had left was grafting the hood seam – no sweat i’d whip it up quick and on to blocking. after ripping back 3 times because i made a mistake and got it uneven, (a real pain when working with almost black yarn and 1.5mm stitches) i finally got to the end with about 3 inches of yarn left, barely enough to weave in.
finished! just one quick check before burying the end forever.
turning it right side out (those who know grafting can see where this is going) i saw to my dismay that in my inexperience grafting, i had turned the sweater inside out like you do with most seam finishes, and i now had a beautiful graft – with the seam on the outside…….
carefully, i unpicked it yet again. this time i came to the end with only one mishap – 8 stitches from the end my poor abused yarn broke and i had to splice a new piece on – but i persevered to the end, and this time got it right.
here is a picture of my hoody, not a great one but after all that i was out of time. it is much lighter than the original so that you can see at least a bit of the stitch pattern. once it is washed blocked and has the buttons sewn on, i’ll put up a better pic.
i think i’ll be very happy with this one and anticipate wearing it often.
