Some average dolls and some unusual details

     Back in March Anna Blackburn ordered a couple of dolls. A vaulting doll and a jumper doll. A vaulting doll is not an everyday occurance, but I have now made 4 of them, including my own. They are not overly challenging to make, other than trying to get a two piece outfit to be a one piece outfit. I have not yet worked out how to make a pattern for a 1 piece body suit that does all the things I want it to do. 

    So Anna ordered some not overly complex dolls, other than the fact she wanted a showjumper that had hair like Dani Goldstein. She sent me a reference pic and to me it looked like she had yellow and red hair. Pretty cool, my own hair is (currently) pink and purple. Then I Googled Dani and looked at more photos and realized her "hair" was actually feathers! Wow! So I needed to make lots and lots of tiny feathers to make this doll work. That is not a horribly complex prospect, it just takes a lot of time. I worked on the feathers for awhile. When it came time to put them in the hair I found out that that was actually the easiest, and fastest, part of the process. 

     Anna hadn't given me any other specs on the doll so I just went with what I could see in the photo. I made a very average jumper doll with really cool hair. 

     She really did turn out to be very fun and very distinctive. Every time I have posted a photo of the dressed doll several people have immediately known who it is meant to be. 

     A couple of weeks after the initial order Anna realized she needed a handler for the vaulting entry so she ordered this guy. He can also double as a judge in other scenes so he is somewhat multipurpose. I actually really like the simplicity of a guy in khaki pants with a polo shirt. And I swear, his pants are not actually crooked like they look in the photo, they are just sitting funny. 

     I finished up the order for these dolls on Wednesday while sitting out in my yard. It was such a gorgeous day! Low 70's, sunny, not windy. The ideal weather for outdoor doll work. I would actually love to do more work outside but the weather needs to be basically perfectly still and very warm. Wind, even slight wind, makes it impossible to work outside. So I had the perfect day to finish up the order outside. And while I was out there I got some nicer outdoor photos of the vaulting doll. Because I feel everything looks better out in the sunlight. 

     It was a relief to finish up this order. I did work on them very consistently but since I am in my busy season with school and track they sat in my book much longer than normal. I can't stand letting stuff sit for too long. But now they are done, Anna loves them, which makes me incredibly happy, and I still actually have a few more days of vacation. Next week it's back to work, back to track and back to having nearly no time to work on dolls and miniatures. 

    I'll leave you with this random photo I took of Anna's dolls. Over the years I have done a variety of interesting doll pics, mostly just to amuse myself. The vaulting doll seemed to need to be dramatically posed. And the Dani doll had to show off her hair. I am actually getting better at doing the pics where the dolls are mostly all looking at the camera. This one only took about 4 or 5 tries with adjustments to get it right.

    I do still have LIMHE show reports coming soon. And only a week left until QVPO. It may end up being an almost uninterrupted stream of show report posts!