CDDC Challenge Four - On the Fashion Edge

19th of October – Challenge 4

The challenge 4 clue was delivered one day late due to internet trouble and now we have until 2nd of November to complete it. The next judge is Rob Thompson whose work I’m already familiar with from flickr and the challenge is:

On the Fashion Edge - This week's guest judge is an amazing doll artist. His OOAK creations are always on the cutting edge. This week you must create an avant garde casual outfit (no you don't have to use an Avant Guard doll). This outfit must be edgy...think Alexander McQueen.

Hmmm. “...think Alexander McQueen” This sounds like the best challenge for me up to date! Together with John Galliano Alexander McQueen is one of my favourite designers and as a tribute to these talented men I want to do something totally outrageous! Alexander McQueen is all about exaggerated form, unusual materials, pattern and texture, unbelievably artistic (and painful) shoes and weird head gear. I think I’ll be making a business suit that will attempt to corporate these attributes. Off to work it is then – but not before I’ve picked up some antibiotics for my cat Neru who’s quite ill.

I made two sketches and liked both. I think I’ll let the materials I find to dictate which one I’ll make. I think I’ll add both of them to the list of fashion I want to produce in my own fashion line in the future. I also instantly knew I wanted to use the new Elise Jolie as the model as she is very Alexanger McQueen type girl with her severe look and heavily sculpted features!

20th of October - Trouble with Fabrics
Tuesday. My only day of schools and my new official fabric shopping day. I leave home early so I can browse thru every fabric shop in town before my Cantonese lesson. First shop is a dead end, but from the second one I find amazingly thin and soft faux leather, golden fabric with 3mm sequins and some weird stretchy lace with printed patterns. None of them crucial for this challenge, but they could be useful later on so I byu some anyway.

The third shop I got to is the one that saved me the last time – maybe I should head here first from now on, but with these up town prices one does hope to find it elsewhere. The challenge 3 materials cost me around 100 euros since in this boutique some fabrics cost 1800euros per meter! Not the ones I’m using though, but the fact is I need to start selling my works to be able to afford to continue in this competition.

I buy 15cm of burgundy raw silk and am happy to see the nice seller gives me 7cm extra due to an imperfection in the fabric, then finest silk chiffons in burgundy and dusty teal. On my way out I fall in love with a patterned silk in the same colour scheme and even though it wasn’t a part of the plan, I simply have to take it too and make some redesigning to fit it in. I decide to change the skirt a bit and make a tulip skirt to cover the original idea of ruffles skirt. 

All fabrics bought and I’m still early for my lesson in Cantonese which is good since I haven’t done my homework again and I really need to prepare to chapter in advance. The course is taught in Mandarin Chinese, as the teacher doesn't speak any Finnish or English really, and the book is meant for native Chinese learning Cantonese. This meaning no English and that in the 3rd chapter of the book today we are already discussing establishing different types of bank accounts, what interest rates they have annually and so forth. To quote my British friend: “It’s a bid of a kerfuffle really.”

In the evening at home I do some more sketching and start to dread I’m playing it too safe again. I wanted to do something brave and outrageous, but instead it feel simply classic and boring. In the end, I’d rather be punished for going too avant garde than doing well by making it conventional and boring. I thrive to create something new - even though I do know there is nothing new under the sun. Rob, our guest judge for this time, gave a lot of emphasis to the edgy side of this competition. He asked us to watch Alexander McQueen’s Autumn 2009 the Horn of Plenty show as a inspiration.

The Horn of Plenty is one of my all time favourite fashion shows, but I didn't mind seeing it once more. Besides, I've only seen it before as a slide-show and watching the show on video was awesome. I got more motivated to push myself further again. I did watch Spring 2010 show as well and those hoof like armadillo shoes simply blew me away. There were two words in my mind: constraint and exaggeration. Many Alexander McQueen’s clothes are like straitjackets on runway forcing the model to move in a peculiar, bound way and I wanted to incorporate that in my outfit too. Then again, when you look at the McQueen clothes in a store without the runway styling, they are quite wearable after all. So, just like with the warrior woman design from last challenge, I wanted to make the accessories bounding – almost bondagelike – and the fashion itself wearable and more commercial.

So I made leather gloves that morph into a purse that is chained to high leather collar, together giving the effect of shackles – either it’ll be a huge flop or some American designer with no regard to copyrights (they have no legislation to protect intellectual property in States - can you believe that?!) will rip me off and make huge money with it! LOL. I think the accessory set has a nice fetish feel to it.


For footwear I designed a hybrid between the controversial Nina Ricci shoes that caused a turmoil at the Olivier Theyskens Autumn 2009 show (might I add I’d never wear those but I love them no matter what other people say) vs John Nouanesing’s bloody table combining them into a kinky shoe made of blood – it is Halloween when we submit this challenge in after all. ;) 

Before I start sewing I make the staining test to all the fabrics I’m about to use. I sculpted two pairs of blood shoes out of two component epoxy putty (I also sculpted my thumb so the blood shoe is quite a fitting title for the project), one set of soles for sandals and another over a pair of discarded FR boots that I shortened and took apart. Under the platform there is a pool of “blood” (just paint at this point) that provides balance and instead of heels there will only be drops of blood about to fall. The painting takes time as the shoes need dozens of layers of thin acrylic paint for the blood effect. While waiting for the layers of paint to dry, I make the shackle purse out of the soft faux leather I found yesterday. It worked out quite nicely and has a very kinky feel to it.

To make a stain test at home:
- Cut strips of fabric and tie them around expendable barbie's leg
- Pour boiling water over it
- Let it dry over night
- Check for stains 

The staining test is ready, but one of the fabrics has stained badly – it’s the burgundy raw silk I need for the jacket and quite crucial for my design. Usually I would just swap fabrics at this point, but I don’t have time to hunt for a new fabric or redesign my fashion so I resort to the almost as bothersome process of sealing the colour. The process goes:
- Wash the cloth 3 times with bleaching washing solution in really hot water.
- Then rinse it in the shower with in turns with hot and cold water for 15 minutes or so.
- Let is soak in vinegar over night
- Iron it while its still a bit moist
- Repeat the staining test and hope for the best - this time it worked.
This treatment should stop the staining, but it it does take away lots of the fabrics colour as well. So instead of burgundy jacket mine became closer to brick red, but at least my doll is safe from staining.

A pool of BLOOOOOOD... 

Muahhhahhaaa. 

Happy Halloween! 

(Just the anti-staining treatment 

- don't worry, I didn't get this desperate.)

Meanwhile I make stockings out of the green siphon and another pair for Antoinette from the weird lace I bought as an impulse purchase. The stocking lead me to design another outfit for Antoinette using the faux leather and to ponder which one should I use for the challenge. Maybe the Antoinette one is too basic and simple: just a sort of a leather qipao with a corset belt and motorcycle padded shoulders. I suppose I’ll just make a few of them for sale after the challenge 3 scores are up. I know I'll be needing the cash with Neru's veterinary bills piling up on my desk.

24th of October - Done!

I can’t believe it. The challenge 3 scores haven’t even been posted yet and I’m done with my challenge 4. I finished the garment yesterday and took the photos and submitted them today. Done. Weird. I just wonder if my design is too tame – or too kinky. LOL. Well, I suppose there’s no use to ponder about it as it’s submitted already. Now I can hopefully just concentrate on my thesis. It’s not like I want to, I’m totally bored with the topic at the moment, but I suppose I have no choice – I did promise myself to finish it before x-mas. Graduating would be kind of nice if I plan to move to another city and this current situation where my spouse works in another city and I study in another sucks big time. So, like it or not, I’ll have to start reading thru a pile of cripplingly boring books while I wait for the challenge 3 results.

Note: I never got to my thesis as Neru's state started to decline rapidly leading him to be hospitalised and me too emotionally devastated to do anything but cry and worry.

7th of November – The Scores

Exceptionally the scores came one day early on Saturday morning and I woke up to find an email announcing the winner – me! I was so surprised my first reaction was to got to the site and check the scores as I really though it must have been a mistake. Maybe it was the last challenge winning email that had just got into a loop in the system or a prank or something. But there it was on black and white: I had won. Again. A little squeal escaped me. And another. I just can’t believe it. I send SMS to my family as it was rather too early to call them on Saturday morning and kept squealing all thru the phone calls that I got in return.

It was not only that everyone had done so amazingly well on this challenge (there were plenty of designs I had picked the winner before my own) but also, that for the first time, I had been second guessing my design up until the last moment of submission time. I had had several inspirations and also almost finished another design for Antoinette – only the shoes were still in progress because of the severe illness my baby cat Neru had gone thru during these stressful and exhausting week. However, I will not go into the details here and now as I don’t wish to relive those moments ever again. But, for all those who have been there for me and worried about him with me all those days I’m happy to tell Neru is quite healthy now and is playing along with other with his usual vigor.

But to get back to the point, here are my scores and judge comments for challenge 4: 

Shane: Theme: 5 Originality: 5 Creativity: 5 Construction: 5
Absolutely wonderful interpretation of the theme. Your colors and your lines are fantastic! This is an amazing look!

Diana & Janet: Theme: 4.5 Originality: 4.5 Creativity: 4 Construction: 4.5
Diana: So much thought went into every element of this. I was particularly taken with the details, such as the shoes (and soles!) and the shackled aspect of the purse. Woo hoo!
Janet: Bravo on the jacket. It is both tailored and sculpted. A little goth for me, but that theme is carried in three different places, so I like the consistency.

Judith: Theme: 5 Originality: 5 Creativity: 4.5 Construction: 5
Where do I start? Love the caramels, the rustiness, the richness and the boldness of this design. The blood heels are frighteningly captivating, her tailored jacket is beautiful, leather accessories are fabulous, very defiant, punk, edgy, the hat adds the perfect touch of elegance and sophistication.

Rob: Theme: 5 Originality: 5 Creativity: 5 Construction: 5
Fantastic use of form and function! I love the structure of the jacket, with the hidden volume of the ruffles of the skirt. This fashion feels more like it was sculpted than sewn; a fabulous use of skills for each fabric. The accessories are not only well thought out, but scream Avant Garde with the fashion forward edge that I have been looking for in this challenge. I am not a big fan of fall colors, I prefer bold bright colors, but everything works so well in this fashion. I love the use of the various textures playing against each other, and the shoes are extremely runway! Well done, I am impressed. I would buy this fashion in a heartbeat.

Total: 77/80 Ranking 1st

To be honest I’d never do this well nor would be able to exceed myself with these designs without the other designers in this competition. It is the constant thriving to keep up with these amazingly talented designers that keeps me going. Thanks to all of you and all those who are rooting for me! Couldn’t do it without you!

Featured article in the CDDC post

The CDDC blogmeister just wrote an article featuring me as the winner of the challenge #3. I was blushing so hard with all the praise as I was reading it I was sure I'd just compulsively combust! I'm really honoured and flattered and everything, but for the first time in my life I feel like a proper Finn and Finns mainly get embarrassed if complimented. I know it must sound pretty ridiculous, but it's a culture thing. For us small talk means complaining about the little things in life just as the British talk about weather. Praise is easy to take in Asian cultures: in Japan you simply deny it and apologise; in China you say "nalinali" which literally translates as "Where? Where?". Maybe that's why I've always felt at home in Asia. If you compliment a Finn about their outfit, they are taught from childhood that the proper reaction is to say "Thanks. Oh, this old thing? I've had it for years! Its so dirty and all..." and so forth. We find the benauty in modesty. So in short, I really don't know what to say, but thank you. Thank you so much. *blush*

I bet I'm going to bore and disappoint everyone with my next entry, as I did have my own doubts about it and finished it in a rush hoping to work on my thesis. Well, it was good that I finished early this time around as otherwise I wouldn't have finished at all with Neru's severe illness. But for what its worth the horrible ordeal with my baby cat seems to be taking a positive turn - I hope it lasts. And the thesis will have to wait.

CDDC Challenge Three - The Epitome of Perfect Embellishments

Challenge 3
Embellished - Our guest judge this week is known for her fabulous embellishments. Use your creative skills to create an outfit that is the epitome of perfect embellishment.  

Guest Judge:  Magalie Dawson 

Embellishments. This seems like a change to go all out Haute Couture. It’s the intricate detailing that has always captivated me in fashion and costume design. I think it was seeing the Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula with Eiko Ishioka’s unbelievable costumes that awoke the passion in me in first place. I wan to make something very couture as a tribute to her strange and inspiring work, but I don’t know if have the minerals for it – if you what I mean. Anyway, now I need to go and buy some groceries and bake a cake as thanks to my cat babysitter. Let’s see what my mind can conjure and if my hands can keep up!


Sunday 4th of October - Preparations




When I think of embroidery, beading, sequins, draping, ruching and other embellishments the first thing in my mind is that 6^th scale is a big handicap. It’s time to make my first fashion for a 16” doll and luckily I have the freshly resculpted and repainted Tonner's Antoinette waiting. This will be a good test of my style’s recognisability as no one really knows I have an Antoinette. Normally, I get several emails from my friends and acquaintances writing “I know which one is yours!” which is always loads of fun but I do want to know if  it's my dolls or fashion design they recognise. 

Luckily, I had ordered a pile of sequins when I first heard I got accepted to this competition which is crucial as the time will be real tight with this challenge and there’d be no way I could place an order now and wait until they’d arrive. Embellishment is all work made by hand and will take ages to do – especially the megalomaniac flashes that keep brandishing my head with ideas and you can’t buy anything in this scale from Finland.



Monday 5^thof October - Design Work

Since I have a limited supply of sequins – and I really want to test them out for the first time – and this small size cannot be bought anywhere in Finland I need to work with what I got. I have two sets of sequins: 2mm satin tones of light and dark ecru, chocolate brown and black; 3mm iridescent tones of dark brown and chocolate – or that’s what it says on the package – I’d call these gold and burgundy with weird brown and purple tones. I also have some beads to match the later. I spend the day trying to find fabrics to inspire me and end up rearranging and cleaning up my whole fabrics stash. Finally the inspiration comes, but I don't have the fabrics to fulfil my vision of intermixed flowing colours. I find yellow and red and brown silk dubioni that might work, but I feel more like silk chiffons and I don’t have any nice colours (only black, white, grey, green, dark blue and brown - LOL). No choice. I have to go to a fabric store tomorrow. 

 I make drawings of an evening gown inspired by the legend of the fierce Amazon warrior women who cut off one breast to improve their archery. I wanted to contrast draped silk chiffon with armoury like sequin embellishments playing with the contrast of soft sheer and hard scaly texture. I also need to make the shoes as I've promised myself when I bought Antoinette that I'll never buy anything for her and will sell all I'll make for her too. I can't afford to start collecting 16" dolls as well! So, I design a pair of high heel gladiator sandals matched with an ornamental bow instead of a purse and a selection of exotic golden jewellery. I have one piece of broken golden coloured jewellery that I use for making a half mask to cover the dolls lower face. I think it gives a nice feeling of mystery and sort bondage flavour too. Its like she is an wild animal ready to jump and that muzzle is the only thing holding her down.  

Tuesday 6^th of October – Fabric Hunting
I rummage every fabric store and boutique in town – in vain. They have nothing. Nothing what so ever. I’m thinking of dying the fabric myself, but then again that will always take trial and error and I simply don’t have the time. Two weeks is a short time to work with sequins and my inspiration is yet to come. This feels like the hardest challenge for me so far, but first things first: my friend has a birthday on 10^th and I need to make her a present. I gather up a cute little travelling set with theme colours for her Momoko using my newly arrived re-ments and some OOAK fashions I’ve made earlier. She just came back from her anniversary honeymoon so now her Momoko can do the same!

Wednesday 7^th of October – Sewing
My day off. Off anything else. I spend the whole day from 9a.m. until midnight working on the challenge and all I have to show for it is a base for bodice and the jewellery. As for the Amazon warrior women of course I wouldn’t go mutilating my dolls and cutting one of her breasts of, but I make the cut symbolic – the armouryjewellery like corset bodice leaves the right breast unprotected. I decide to censor the nipple with golden hoping no one will get any Janet Jackson associations. Took me whole day just to make the bodice as I had to make real boning to support the sheer fabric. My cat Neru was "helping" me whole day too trying to confiscate my arm and by being awfully interested in all my fabrics and yarns all the time. He's being a real bother but love him like his my baby. Now all I need is the skirt, shoes and embellishment. Piece of cake, right – I’m in deep trouble with this one... Tomorrow I really need to go to the library and work on my neglected thesis.

Next Days

The following days are a nightmarish pool of back pains, sequins and draping. I did make it in time – I heard that some of us didn’t. I neglected this diary working with the challenge with all I got. Well, not all as I was too worried about my little boy Neru who has fallen ill. One day spend in the vets office, x-rays and ultra sound shows he has urinary infection and bladder stones are beginning to form. This means new and expensive veterinary diet, weekly urine sample (that he luckily allows me to take – there’d be no change with my traumatized little girls as they are from a homeless animal shelter and are yet to trust people) and a twice a day medication of antibiotics and painkillers that Neru swallows, but is growing impatient to take. I’m so worried. I couldn’t imagine my life without him.

I’m sorry I didn’t keep a project diary this time, but I did take photos of the making of the gown so please see the set in my flickr instead. I will try and add some descriptions there later on.

Thursday 15^th of October - Photos
I submit my photos hoping the risk will pay off and that judges won’t find my design too costumey. I’m rather happy with the result although I have very little recollection of the days that brought me here. I completed the gown I made with very weird and constraining jewellery that on my opinion creates an air of harnessing the raw power it gown bears. I made a pair of high heel gladiator sandals and matched them with a golden ornamental bow instead of a purse. The left shoulder covered with a removable piece of beaded and sequinned netting in a form of a plate mail. I want to give the future buyer the choice of seeing the design either as a daring evening gown or all out couture so all the armoury pieces can be stripped down from it – the shoulder plate can actually be used as hat instead, hopefully with some other outfit, though. Now we just wait for the results and the 4^th challenge.

25^th of October – Victory and Late Night Medical Emergency

It’ s 3 a.m. and I wake up to Neru’s panicky cries. He’s vomiting white and scentless foam in the living room. I stay with him all night, not sleeping, worried sick. The veterinarian emergency clinic in my town isn’t responding to my calls. The vomiting and coughing continues and I give Neru some paraffin oil. He vomits a huge hairball, more like a plug, the size of my thumb. I think it’s over, cat’s have hairballs even if my cats have never had them. Must be the new diet they have because of Neru’s urinary infection. I nap with Neru a little on the living room floor before the sunrise.

Morning. Well, its 6 a.m. anyway. I give the cats their morning food and go to bed hoping to get some real sleep – its Sunday after all. I have just closed my eyes when I hear the coughing sound again. I rush to the kitchen and Neru is vomiting the milky stuff again.  I call the animal ER again – no reply.  The recording says they answer phone 24 hours a day.  Obviously they don’t since the recording is on. What a stupid message to play in your machine. I spend hours reading chat pages and veterinarian magazines about the symptoms, but I’m interrupted by a rustling sound. Neru is eating a plastic bag and there is more vomit. I study the stuff and find fine shreds of plastic in it. Has he eaten a foreign object?  Hairballs shouldn’t be life threatening but piece of plastic stuck in your gut is. Another thought creeps to my head. Neru has been under severe medication for the past week, could his liver or kidneys be failing? Vomiting milky stuff is one of the symptoms and my friend’s cat died like that few years ago. Time to panic. I call again. No reply. I find the animal ER in next town and call them and finally there is an answer. Embarrassed I call my neighbour if her husband could drive us there. It’s a long ride but he will me and promises to pick me up too. I’m in tears with worry, apologise for ruining their Sunday morning and thank him. There should be a word for both apology and thanks combined in Finnish language but there isn’t. Japanese know better: Sumimasen.

It’s 2 p.m. We are back home and Neru is still alive. Not sure if I am after the vet’s bill with Sunday rates, but what would you not do for your kids, right. The bloodworks found nothing so it isn’t organ failure, most likely its digestive but I can’t tell what yet. I’ll go to my own vet on Monday. The diet he’s on is making it worse – the poor thing has lost 600g within one week and that’s quite concerning pace for a cat. Anyhow, he’s ok for now and that’s most important. 

My hubby’s in Paris with his school right now and I cannot call him, so I go to my computer to write him and email. And what I find? The “We Have a Winner” email declaring I’ve won the challenge 3! I’m stunned. I cannot believe it. Sure I was happy with my design but a winner. Wow. And I’m ranking the first in the whole competition as well - with only a half a point away from brilliant Lori, but it does feel amazing. For the first time I’m thinking maybe I could win the competition, but that’s not what this is about al all. This challenge has taught me so much about sewing (it was my first time using sequins), design and myself, that first of all I must be thankful for that, though I cannot deny how good it feels to win and get recognition for my work. It really made my day and it truly needed making. Thanks you so much!

And here are my scores and judge comments:                                                                                  

Shane: Theme: 5 Originality: 5 Creativity: 5 Construction: 5

Wow!  Gorgeous work.  Your fashion is beautiful and disturbing at the same time.  Your interpretation of an Amazon warrior is fantastic!  I believe I am jealous of the ruching and gathering work that you have done on the back of the dress.

Diana and Janet: Theme: 4.5 Originality: 4 Creativity: 3.5 Construction: 4

Diana: High fantasy is well presented.  The mask is an artistic touch that took me by surprise.

Janet: I can see the difficult challenge in the sheer corset.  The embellishments are effective.

Judith:  Theme: 5 Originality: 5 Creativity: 5 Construction: 5

Amazing design showing wonderful originality and workmanship. Beautiful color palette. Definitely an Amazonian flavor very cleverly constructed as elegant and flowing.

Magalie Dawson: Theme: 5 Originality: 5 Creativity: 5 Construction: 5

You should make a print of the first photograph and frame it!  One of the most skillful way to embellish is to be able to "sculpt" the fabric, and you mastered it with the chiffon.  It is also very skillful to be able to create a costume that allows the breast to be revealed and still be viewed as an expression of art, such as you did.  The construction is impeccable, I love the sheer bustier with the "boning", the fit is perfect, and the draping falls perfectly. I love the necklace and the face mask is a dramatic addition that works well with the rest.  You have created a museum quality piece, Bravo!

Total: 76/80 Ranking 1^st  

You'll find the process pictures in my flickr set!

Happyyyy!!!

CDDC Challenge Two - Put Your Best Foot Forward

Challenge Two - 20th of September 2009

Our Guest Judge is: Joe Tai

CDDC Challenge Two: “Put your best Foot Forward - Joe Tai is our guest judge this week. As you may or may not know, Joe is the "king of shoes". This week take a pair of shoes/boots (they do not have to be shoes made by our wonderful judge) and design an outfit around it. Please include a pic of just the shoes as well in your entry (so you will send 7 pics this time).”

This feels like a hard challenge. I’d rather make the shoes myself, but I think the idea is to make an outfit based on existing shoes and the biggest risk is to make the clothes too matchy matchy. I’m wondering should I wait for the huge order of shoes (most Joe Tai) I made a week ago to arrive or play safe and pick an existing pair of footwear. After some consideration I pick the later. One can never know how long it takes for a package to arrive and using the judges own shoes would feel kind of like brown nosing.

I ended up browsing all my collection for my favourite shoes. I don’t know is it the autumn chill or the recent trends, but most of my current favourites are rather bulky. Maybe it is just that I’ve always had a thing for those thick burlesque style soles and have preferred smart casual over evening gowns. The shoes I picked for closer inspection were: the strappy boots from Bewitching Hour Luchia, the short black and white boots from Ayumi the Miracle Child, the bulky pink shoes from the Hopelessly Captivating Luchia and the short black boots from Lost Angel Colette.

The next stage of the brainstorming was to write down all the things that came to mind from each pair of shoes. This is always a good method of checking which one inspires most thoughts - though I usually use it for picking an essay topic in exams. For example the Miracle Child boots brought up nostalgia, Mary Poppins, Victorian home schooling and so forth – so they might work in a business context. Then again they are not really fashionable right now and I want to keep on the nerve of things. The Bewitching Hour boots made me think of gladiators, bondage, Pretty Woman and prostitution – maybe not the best scene in mind for the couture challenge - besides someone else is bound use them as they were the most talked about pair of shoes on the doll boards this year. The Lost Angel boots were also too S/M fetish stuff, so I discarded those too. And the last but not the least were the shock pink laced shoes from Hopelessly Captivating Luchia. For these my associations were: Barbie, Dorothy (Oz), burlesque and Dita von Teese.

Of all the shoes I found the HC ones most inspiring, but their Barbie pink colour offered another challenge. I absolutely hate barbie pink. It’s not really my cup of tea and the best colour to tone it down is grey, but that was already used in the original Hopelessly Captivating Luchia outfit. I browsed my fabrics and found some nice black and white patterns that might do the trick and take my mind of Barbie with these shoes. I want to make something Dita von Teese would wear to as her “casual wear” (the gorgeous Dita seems to wear couture even when grocery shopping) and just like Dorothy’s, these loud shoes would take her anywhere with one tap of the heels.

 At this point I’m coming up with a cold and continue the design process in bed. I took the pile of fabris and my mini dress form to bed and pinned different combinations of fabric on it and photographer the ones that felt like they had some potential. Of those, I sketched out 4 similar outfits. It was a hard choice to pick just one, but I felt one of them popped out more, so I went with that. I also got an idea of making a small ready-to-wear collection based on each challenge entry I make, but that will have to wait until the whole competition is over. Besides, the 60’s line needs to be done for Poppy Parker and I don’t have one yet.

Some discarded ideas:

I spend a week in bed doing nothing but being ill. It’s a common cold but as a severe asthmatic they always wipe me out completely. Meanwhile the scores from challenge 1 arrived and there was some drama on the yahoo group and I’m afraid I was the cause of it as the topic was the judge comment saying my pattern appeared to be a commercial one. Linda defended my honour on the board and decided to walk out of the competition in protest. I feel responsible and pretty sad about the whole mess. The matter was solved and I got an apology from the judge, but Linda isn’t coming back and I'm feeling low.

I have less than a week to go until the deadline and I struggle with time and start to feel the pressure pushing down on me. I’m getting a huge pile of research literature from library for my final thesis, make baby clothes for my godson who’s having his name giving ceremony next weekend and trying to finish the challenge 2 before Friday when I leave for the weekend. The OOAK doll I’m working on is taking too much of my time and I need to make a compromise with her. I wanted to make a Dita von Teese doll, which mean body swapping, rerooting and styling the hair plus doing a celebrity repaint, but the face isn’t coming up right. I just have to settle for the face I got and concentrate on the fashion now.

The outfit is a corsetry inspired hybrid between a business suit and a dress. It’s made of luxurious black and white Armani wool/ silk mix that I could only afford to buy 20cm. The material is very fraying, but rather thin and works nicely in scale. I have to use fraying glue on all the seams. The edges are trimmed with black faux leather to prevent fraying further and the jacket part closed with 4 corset snaps on the front. In the back there is a sexy shock pink ribbon lacing snaking down from the high collar all the way down to the hem line. I lined the outfit with pink satin, put only after doing a staining test* on a Barbie first – I’ve done a OOAK couture gown once only to realise the black netting stained and the hours of labour wasted. Never again.

 *To do a staining test on a fabric, take a expendable Barbie with soft legs (those are material most easily stained), dip the fabric in hot water and then tie it tightly on the Barbie’s leg. Leave for couple of days and check. If there is no staining, you should be fine. Many fabrics that don’t seem to stain still might if they are kept in a box where moisture may condensate. 

For the accessories I made a real fur fox stole, fishnet stockings and a Costume National Butterfly bag. I’m totally against fur trade, but I did get a huge pile of old fur clothing and scraps from my grandma when I was younger, so it would be a waste to just throw them away. You might think me as a hypocrite, but I think the use of vintage fur can be fine when you sure of your sources. Anyway, I made a head for the fox from 2-component epoxy putty and flocked it with KatSilk flock and added beads for eyes. It became almost too real and it feels so limb and dead in my hands it makes me sad. I just want to pet it and tell it everything is going to be alright.

The decision to make a Costume National Butterfly bag might be taking a risk. It’s not like it’s an exact copy as this is satin lined with leather and pink as the authentic bags are brown, green or black leather. However, the shape is quite distinct and I wanted say in my description where it came from so that it doesn’t seem like a stolen idea. Since we were supposed to design an outfit for the shoes that are not ours anyway, I think the purse can be someone else’s too. It’s the fashion I made and the accessories are another matter. I bet people don’t design all the jewellery they use either, so I hope I can be forgiven for it. I’ve just always wanted a Costume National Butterfly bag for myself but can never afford it – at least my little Dita can now. ;)

It took me until Wednesday night to get everything finished and until 3a.m. on Thursday to post my entry photos. I was so tired I saved the resized pictures over the original ones and we are supposed to keep those save just in case we win. I was too tired to do anything about it then, but spend the whole Thursday afternoon trying to save them from my computer with various recovery softwares. Finally I found the deleted but uncorrupted files from my camera. Luckily I hadn’t taken any new pictures so I was able to save them. *whew*. What an adventure. Now just one more baby overall and I can start packing for the weekend.

Some of the official submission photos:

 

I was so knackered in the middle of all this that I had totally forgotten the FR convention was this weekend too, until I read my email at my Mom’s and noticed the first update email. It’s such torture not to be able attend these conventions! The convention collection was utterly amazing with understated colours and designs that are pure elegance. I made a gallery to my flickr featuring the most beautiful photos of the convention dolls and gave them my commentary.

And naturally I fell in love with the most expensive one of them all – the new and severe looking Elise Jolie Blue Blood - and had to have her right away. *sigh* I suppose it was one of those temporary mental disorder things that leaves us much poorer both mentally and financially, but that’s the nature of collecting for you. What can you do? Well, I’ll be waiting for - the new doll – and my challenge 2 points to arrive and then post you this diary. Wish me good luck!

12th of November - The Winner Is...
The winner has just been announced after some delay. As I expected it was no.11 - a fabulously tailored jacket and sequin skirt by Lori Lyon. I feel no disappointment, as I really think the best design won. I was totally awestruck by the outstanding craftsmanship of the jacket - simply impeccable. Even when I was doing human clothes I couldn’t reach that sort of perfection. Lining has always been the hardest part for me and I admire anyone who can do it right. This is why I rather design and leave the sewing to someone more competent! LOL! I’m so excited to hear my scores and judge comment, but since its really late I think I need to wait until morning.

13th of November - The Scores and Comments

I wake up, rush to my computer and the scores are finally up after some technical difficulties.

Shane: Theme: 5 Originality: 4 Creativity: 3 Construction: 4

Applause for the fantastic job you did with the “leather” piping! Wow! Great fabric and colors. I think I would have left the piping off of the bottom of the skirt since it’s already plentiful on the bodice and the purse.

Diana and Janet: Theme: 4.5 Originality: 4 Creativity: 4 Construction: 4

Diana - Extra points for the fox...with head! Great attention to detail.
Janet - Interesting and kick y combination. The suit is well fitted and the details of the leather bra show good drafting skill.

Judith: Theme: 5 Originality: 4.5 Creativity: 4.5 Construction: 4.5

Sexy black, white & pink combination in a HOT outfit. Just enough pink used in the right places. I like that the ribbon was confined to the back allowing the front detail in black to shine. Wonderful silhouette.

Joe Tai: Theme: 5 Originality: 5 Creativity: 4 Construction: 5
Although object and accessory don't have color match, but they do connect with black, that makes the whole work even more completed, so I gave high score.

Total: 70/80 Ranking 4th in the overall competition; 5th in the challenge.

No negative comments this time nor any negative feelings. My only fault is that others are better than me and I’m happy to notice it doesn’t hurt at all. I came to this competition wanting to test and challenge myself and already the competition has pushed me further and further. Without it I would never produce this detailed and complicated pieces from week to week – especially not now as I’ve promised myself to return my Master’s thesis in Chinese before Christmas. I’ve neglected my school and work and sleep because of this and I want to prove myself I could do this for a living. I want to start my own doll fashion line after graduate and in order to do that I really need to believe in myself and that’s the greatest price this competition can offer. Sure, the magazine article might help in marketing my designs, but I’d like to think I can make it there eventually with or without the victory in this competition.

I’m already committed to the challenge 3 so hard it’s difficult to keep my mind on the scores, but there is one more comment I’d like to make. Breck took a change with a nice steam punk inspired outfit that was a little costumey but very couture and was rewarded for in the challenge 2. This gives me hope for my challenge 3 design since this time, I went all out couture and I hope the risk will pay off instead of backfiring on me. After all, this is the COUTURE Doll Design Challenge and I think it’s time to take it there and stop playing so safe and casual!

 My Dita von Teese:

CDDC Challenge One - Make Mod Mine

I promised to keep a project diary during the Couture Doll Design Challenge (CDDC) and here it is. My thoughts and feelings during the challenge one of the competition. I've tried to analyse my design process and work stages, so hopefully, you can be there with me every step of the way.

Challenge 1

6th of September 2009 - The first assignemnet

This is it. The challenge one. I’m nervous and exited. My hands tingle when I open the email with our first assignment. This is what it says:

GUEST JUDGE:  David Buttry

THE CHALLENGE:  Make Mine Mod - Jason Wu designed the Inaugural ballgown for Michelle Obama.  Our guest judge this week is from Integrity Toys too, but his designs favour a mod theme.  Let's jump back 40 years and imagine that Austin Powers is the President of the US. Design an Inagural Ballgown for HIS first lady. 

Your challenge is due midnight Sept. 20th, PDT.
Make it work Designers..........create, enjoy and have fun!!!

Oh my god! David being the judge and looking at my work makes this all the more real. For me, it’s not really about winning the competition, but testing myself to see if I could design professionally and be able to produce inspiring pieces under time constraints. However, now I’m starting to think about all the exposure involved, good and bad, but mainly getting noticed by a designer at Integrity might actually be a career opportunity. Yikes!

OK, Mod and Austin Powers. They are not really the same, so I go for general 60´s look instead. I research the defining cuts and fabrics of the era to refresh my idea of the period look and feel. I put on 60’s music and start browsing thru my fabrics for prints with that certain period feeling. For once I’m glad I’ve hoarded such amounts of fabrics. I find luxuriously soft and heavy draping silk with circular patters and the colour scheme is starting to form in my head as I pin and drape the fabrics of a dress form. To me sixties are all about colour, but I must keep in mind that my “customer” is the First Lady so the design also has to be chic and all class. I draw the first sketches.

7th of September - Research
I watch the Austin Powers movies to get familiar with my “customer” and in a nutshell felt that Austin is attracted to a young woman who is strong, independent and sexy. Naturally, as a non-American, I also had to research the presidential inauguration ceremony as I know nothing about it. I read that the dress code for inauguration is White Tie attire, which is the most formal of all evening attires, the lady wearing a floor length evening gown in her choice of style and colour. Austin Power’s or not, I’m sure the etiquette required by the occasion needs to be followed in the design and balancing a formal gown (usually in solid colours) with 60´s patterns will be a challenge indeed.

Then there are the period accessories: capes, hats, scarves, gloves, shoes, bags and jewellery. I might even consider making some eyeglasses with that special 60's look. I want to make each challenge as perfect as possible down to every accessory. It may not be visible in the pictures I send the judges, but if I’ll ever sell these, they must represent me to perfection and give the buyer the doll experience I would want every time I buy something. I make new drawings and add fur cape to the design.

8th of September - Choosing the model
As for the model, I consider the colour scheme and the beauty ideals of the era. If you think of 60’s Twiggy is naturally the first thing that pops into your mind, maybe followed by Jackie O and Audrey Hepburn. Thus I selected the MB/NU.Face body type for my model. Originally I wanted a black girl to wear my design in honour of Michelle Obama, but the effect was to monochrome so I ended up choosing the pale British skin with freckles. Then there was the face and hair to consider. First I thought of using Astrid, my blond Erin OOAK, and gave her the Twiggy haircut, but then felt a big 60’s hairdo would complement the formal garment better than the short cropped hair. So, to capture the big eyed look I ended up using one of my OOAK Misaki and swapping her to the MB/NU.Face body and restyling her hair into a huge braided bun with turquoise beading that matched the jewellery. I also gave her a French manicure in turquoise and white to complement the look.

8th of September -Sewing
Then it was finally sewing time. I followed my drawings almost to the last detail, only the extra bow on the back of the dress felt like going overboard so I left it out. I was thinking of making a hat, but after I desided to make a huge bun instead of the Twiggy cut the hat just wouldn't fit anymore.

I tested the Perfect Pleater contraption I just bought for the first time on the dress lining and it worked quite nicely, though the pleats did not set that well on soft silk – I’m sure the effect will be better on cottons or silk dubois. The silks I chose were an ordeal to sew but heavy and drape nicely so they function very well in the 6^th scale.The Stop Fraying glue helped a lot keeping the fabrics more manageable the seams thin - cross stiching always makes then so thick. When making doll clothes, especially in 6th scale, the flow and thickness of the fabrics are one of the most important matters to consider, they must behave in the right way on the doll creating the illusion of life like movement. If you use thick, statuesque fabrics they often look stiff and silly on the doll ruining the design of the garment. Often this shows in dolls not able to lower their hands when wearing a jacket.

9th of September - The Finishing Touches
Always loving that something a little extra, I completed the gown with a brown faux leopard shoulder cape for evening chill, lined with the same dark chocolate brown silk as the gown; turquoise silk siphon socks and frilly underwear, matching earrings and bracelet, a clutch and all handmade high heel shoes with brown beading. Even the shoe soles are unique and handcrafted from putty to fit the FR foot arch. I use the turquoise fabric I used for the purse as background as I think it really makes the brown pop.

I’m rather happy with the ensample, but must admit I’m very nervous about how the judges will view it and what others will come up with. My main concern is whether strong patterns such as this are all too improper for Inauguration as I’m really not familiar with the perceptions surrounding it. I even heard the Michelle Obama’s gown designed by Jason Wu was criticized for revealing her arms and shoulders. Well, I though long gloves would have been too much with my gown anyway. The deadline isn't until the 20th, but there is nothing else left for me to do but to choose the photos I’ll submit to the judges.

 

 Wish me good luck!  

  
Sunday 27^th – The Scores
After the long and agonizing wait the winner is announced. It's Kathi and I'm happy for her, but my heart sinks. The scores aren't up and the not knowing what went wrong feels horrible. After hours, the comments from the judges arrive:


Judith
Great 60’s silhouette with a very successful fabric choice. Contrast accessories work really well and the fur cape adds texture for a perfect finishing touch to the outfit.

Happy! Thank you, Judith!

Shane
Beautiful design and it truly fits the theme!  Love the color and the patterns.  Love the gorgeous lining of the skirt but unfortunately it makes the skirt too bulky at the gathered waist.  Also the skirt could have been ironed.

O h dear. They did notice. I had real trouble ironing the skirt part as I was worried of ruining the pleats in the lining. I tried steaming, but it didn't do the trick. So embarrassing. And true, the skirt is humoungous. You wouldn’t even believe how heavy the garment is and there is easily a meter of fabric in that skirt! I mean, full skirt was really fashionable in the early sixties, but I did go a little overboard. *blush*

Diana and Janet 
Diana – I really liked the use of brown and aqua together.  Bravo on the shoes – they look terrific and are a bang-on touch
Janet – Garment would show more nicely if better pressed, plus appears to be a commercial pattern.  Ideas for presentation are good.

Thank you Diana! I'm so happy someone noticed the shoes as I spend hours on those. Janet's concentrating on the negative might be some good-cop-bad-cop thing, but I was deeply hurt by her comment saying my design looked like a commercial pattern. It really felt like a slap to the face as I don't even use patterns, but cut everything on the doll. That one sentence makes me childishly moub around for the whole evening.

David Buttry 
Beautiful garment and a lovely couture take on the theme. The hand crafted shoes, beaded bag and fur wrap are stunning!

Thank you, David! I know I should be happy as his really was the most important opinion to me on this, but Janet's comment still drags me down and I cannot enjoy the positive side.

Just before I go to bed the scores finally arrive. I've ranked 5th with the same score as rank 4 and only half a point away from rank 3. I'm surprised to notice how much I really want this and how competitive I feel about the challenge. In my heart I feel the only place that worthy is the number one and everything else feels like a failure. I know its ridiculous, but I can’t really help it. This is only the first challenge and rank 5 is not a long way from the top. I should be happy.

The scores:

Judith: Theme: 5 Originality: 4 Creativity: 4.5 Construction: 5

Shane: Theme: 5 Originality: 4 Creativity: 4 Construction: 3

Diana and Janet: Theme: 4 Originality: 2 Creativity: 3 Construction: 3.5

David: Theme: 5 Originality: 4 Creativity: 4 Construction: 4

Total: Theme: 19 Originality: 14 Creativity: 15.5 Construction: 15.5

Total: 64/80 (ranking 5^th)

I don't know if its my Finnish nature or just a personal flaw to concentrate on the negative, but instead of the fours and fives I stare at the score 2 for originality Janet gave me. The 2 just made the whole thing just more aggravating. It feels like an insult to my designing skills. I view the scores other's got and  Janet seems to be the one taking the harshest outlook on all the designs and I shouldn't be taking personally. Sutill I spend the night moubbing about that awful number 2. “A commercial pattern” is such a curse-word! It feels simply unjust. Then again, my biggest fear was playing too safe by making my design too classic and using period cuts so maybe that's it. But at the same time I don’t want to compromise who I am and what I do and that’s classic high quality fashions. Better luck next time and space for improvement, eih?

28th of September - Going Public
I post the pictures to flickr and publish the judge comments on the chat board for others to read. I think it’s helpful to all the designers see what the judges commented on the designs.  The positive comments on flickr help me put the negative behind me and I start making my challenge two outfit – finally. I just wanted to wait until the scored were up before I begin. I’ve made the design, so now it’s just the sewing ahead of me. This is going to me a busy week as I need to make baby clothes to give as a gift as I will meet my first godson the next weekend. So, off to work I go!

The Couture Doll Design Challenge

 I'm very exited to tell you that I will be a contestant in The Couture Doll Design Challenge aka CDDC featuring many prominent doll fashion designers all around the world. The contest will include 8 challenges and the designers have 2 weeks to complete each task. The first task was given on 6th of September and will end on 24th. I will keep diary throughout the competition, but since we have to submit out designs anonymously I will publish my diary and designs only after the panel of judges has finished its evaluation. If anyone has watched the Project Runway you are already familiar with the concept. 

You also a have an opportunity to give your vote to the design you find most smashing so follow the links below and join the crowd!

The Couture Doll Design Challenge official site

The Couture Doll Design Challenge blog

My Designer Page 

The doll house project upgraded

The summer holiday is nearly over and I've been working full days just to get my doll house done. I decided to make a façade for the doll house to prevent my cats getting in and suddenly the whole project has gotten out of hand. A mere door to cover it wouldn't do, no, it had to looks like a proper house. And not just any old house but of course Art Nouveau, my favourite style of design and architecture since my dolls do live in Paris even though I may not.


So, I build a façade with different window designs for every floor as typical for Art Nouveau, add decorations, ornamental rain-lids, an opening door to the hallway, address numbers and you name it.


And am I satisfied with it? Nope. On the contrary, I feel so exhilarated I have a dream where there is this house on a steep urban hillside, the pavement being nothing but stairs - maybe something inspired by Montmartre in Paris. And I wake up and start to sketch it. Its 5 a.m. but I'm too exited about it and start making the darn thing before I even consider do I have the space for such a contraption. Well, obviously I don't but by the end of the day I'm facing a diorama framework 120cm wide, 90cm high and 50cm deep. There's a house - Art Nouveau again - and beneath and behind the staircase that is the pavement there are two shops: a antique shops and a shop for Japanese antique swords. Above the stairs a door to an apartment building awaits for my dolls to more into this overgrown backdrop.


A month passes by and over the foamcore frame layers of papier-mache and card board and paint pile up. Finally I add the patina, rust and dirt any urban building must have and add the little shop signs and names on windows in French. My French being poor the articles are misspelled, but I was too anxious to wait until my friend who teaches French could check my spelling. When inspiration takes me I'm always in too much of a hurry - afraid that the inspiration will dry out and that the project is left unfinished until the rest of an eternity.





Just today I added a final little detail of urban culture to my doll house - a graffiti.
Banksy was here!


Its been a lot of work, but at least now my dolls have a place to live, to shop, to love. All too soon I have to be back with my real life and the long, wonderful holiday is over.


To see more pictures got to my flickr set!

Eyewear Tutorial - Important note added!

Here is how to make eyeglasses for your dolls at home. Easy, cheap, perfect fit and any design you want.

First, cut strips of old doll box plastic for material. I draw took some measurements of my dolls head and drew lines to help me get the strips perfect sized.

Hold the strip over the doll for sketching and design.

Draw the design on the strip. Make the part over the nose a bit bigger since it will shorten when we bend it in the end.

Measure the length temples so that the frames will rest well on the node and ears.

Now you have the simple sketch of the frame.

Now to paint the frames. You can use rather thick undiluted paint to give the rim thickness and texture.

Pick a colour for the rims, more detail the better. Here I've made the basic layer in simple all black.

Now take a pair of sharp scissors and cut out the frames but leave the lenses.

I added metal paint to the temples and I'm testing if the size is ok. You can still cut the glasses smaller if necessary. I also painted the sides to give them more bulk.

Now for the final touch: bending them into shape.

First bend the nose rim. I used a toothpick to give it roundness instead of a tight fold.

Then, bend the temples against a sharp angle and squeeze then flat against the lenses. The average plastic from a doll box can take about 30 foldings before breaking so don't worry.

Finally curve the part that go behind eye slightly for more natural look and tighter wear.

ADDED NOTE:
Finishing the frames from every side with a layer or two of gloss varnish
gives them a more realistic look and makes them more sturdy.
It also prevents the paint from flaking when you are playing with them.
Especially varnish the parts that touch the dolls face to avoid staining
or discolourations (just in case the brand of acrylics you use might cause this).

DO NOT colour the eyeglasses with a magic marker
as that is very likely to stain and ruin your dolls!

And finally, you have a pair of perfectly scaled eyewear for your dolls!
Browse internet for great ideas and details and indulge the new fashion accessory! :)

Here are some I've made:

The Sofa Set

 It´s been a while again, butt his is what I´ve been working on - a FR size (a tad bigger than 6th scale) sofa set with three parts. The idea is that you could either have one of these as a lounge or put them together as you like to form different sorts of sofas. The sofa set pictures here is only the prototype and the brass legs are still missing, but I think you can get the idea. I will post better pictures of the finished product as soon as I get it done.

 

There are still some details I´m working on as well, such as better cut for the pillow covers that can be removed and replaced with a set of another colour for variety. 

Originally, I did shoot these photos in full colour, but somehow my Eugenia gave me such a strong Femme Fatale wibe in this set that I had to do it all in black and white. I´m a huge fan of film noir and I think it shows. Here is the film noir diorama set in full. It you look carefully to the shadow behind the sofa, you may spot a tiny mouse the cats lurking towards. I´m a sucker for details and can never get enough of them in my dioramas. The lady is propably waiting for some company as there are two champagne glasses on the Chinese cabinet. I just love this tiny cabinet I found from PanJiaYuan in Beijing. I work part time in a Chinese antiques dealership and old finely carved furniture always has a special place in my heart.

  

 I´ll get back to you with the final product soon 

and then it will be available for custom order in the colour of your choice!

Photo Story - The Nerd

I just finished my newest photo story The Nerd. The whole thing began when my old cell phone died and me and Juhana - my spouse - decided to take it apart and, if you allow me use Finnish idiom, "see what it had eaten". We spend the best part of last Sunday afternoon mutilating the poor devise and I was surprised by the microscopic scale of all the innards. They were so tiny they kind of worked in 6th scale too!

When I was in high school, I had this friend who´d always sit in his room, sleeping all days and grouching over his desk at night, putting together his dream computer from parts. He almost hated the day light and always had curtains drawn if he´d be awake in the light of day. So I get this idea of profiling my new repaint that had no name yet after him. An antisocial nerd, not always easy to deal with but I do always remember him with affection. ;)

So my FR Erin OOAK became Myong Shin, a Korean top student moved to Paris - as that's where my stories take place - with her parent who work too much and whom she never even sees. Similarly to my old friend she is messy, frank to rudeness, sometimes takes things only as literally as a brilliant mind with no social capabilities can, jealous over her stuff and loves junk food. 

The original idea of the diorama had nothing but a desk in a dark room full of my old cell phone parts, but I wanted to make the room more whole. Its still needed to be crammed but also give a tiny hint that this was in fact a girls room and not the layer of an old treckie going bold and still living with his parent - although Shin really does. I decided that she only worked in the room and slept elsewhere. It gave the room more space and was reasonable as the dust from bedding is not good for electronisc.

So, as you can see, the room became small but economical, nothing extra, just the basics. I wanted to put a foldable chair to the corner to indicate that she does, occasionally, have guests - not that often though. As it turns out the chair is fenced in by a horde of empty cola bottle which are essential part of any nerds room. 

 

Shin does have a serious disrecard towards computer safety as she eats and drinks next to her laptop and electronics all the time. This was an aspect that always confused me in my friend, for after lecturing me about dust and such he´d eat over his key board and drop bread crums in it. Accordinly, Shin´s room and especially the desk are a mess.

Originally, I started shooting the story in a morning sun light and I loved the general airy lighting of the scene. But then it started to rain and it rained the nect day too and I lost my lighting after only 10 story frames. So I had no choice but the change the storyline - well I suppose I could have waited until the weather changed, but I have no patience when inspired. ;) 

 

I made a change in storyline, Shin asking Morwen to come back later - her later being around midnight. The night view seen thru the window is a part of a photograph taken by Riikka Kaakkurivaara (all rights reserved) from my balcony in China, Peking. 

I actually like the effect the "window" gives as the glossy surface of the photo reflects the scene in fromt of it. I´ve been thinking of making windows for my doll house for ages, but now I have second thoughts as that would limit the use of interchagable backdrops like this.

The infamous Charo from the last photo story will be making an appearance too!

Remember to read the full story! :)

Obitsu 1:6 Dog Review - Updated!

This is the new Japanese Obitsu toy dog. It has huge amount of articulation and comes in 3 different colours and 2 different types. I bought the black flat eared one.

The material and joints remind me of Playmobile or Lego. The material is pretty fragile, I broke of one ear when deboxing but the poseability is really pretty good. The only down falls are that the poor thing cannot wiggle its tail sideways and cannot reach enough to lick its own balls. What sort of a dog´s life it that? ;)

The body type of the dog is pretty general so it seems to work nicely with different size 6th scale dolls. Below you can see it posing next to Momoko, Dynamite Girl, Fashion Royalty and FR Homme. It seems size is not an issue for this jolly little thing. Well worth the 25 usd.

I love how it can prance around so joyfully, it makes me easily forget its mechanical looks. However, my plan is to try and sew a stretch fabric around its frame in order to make it look a bit more real. I´ll keep you posted! And lets hope they´ll make a cat soon!

For more information see:

www.parabox.jp/eng/dog.html

UPDATE:

The dog now has skin, but looks a bit weird. I can never get animals face right and the frame is quite bulky around the shoulders, but at least he is more than a skeleton now.

 

 

Tutorial: Coloured Pencils

Ok, how many of you, like me,  have always been dreaming of that illegally expensive double layers Re-ment crayons box? It is truly the holy grail of any Re-ment collector.

Thank you for Pricilla for permitting me to use this photo! 
To learn more about Re-ment secrets, go to my favourite Re-ment source: 

*Priscilla's Treasures* and see her Secret Sets Archive

Its to die for, but even if you would have a couple extra hundred buck lying around, its not always there to get it. Well, I don´t have that sort of money, but I do have paints and toothpicks, so here is how to make a porr man´s version of the highly desired item!

My version finished:

 Ok, lets get started. What you´ll need for this tutorial is:
- Average round toothpicks
- Acrylics paints and a small brush
- Sharp hobby knife
- Sand paper or sand paper nail file (work´s wonders!)

What we go first is take a toothpick, measure suitable length of it and cut it. 1/3 is ok, but I like to vary the length so that the pencils appear to be used - favourite colours being shorter of course. You need a sharp knife for cutting and better than snapping the toothpick with one cut is rolling the knife around the wood making the cut gradually deeper so there´ll be no splinters.

Take sand paper or a nail file - I´m using the later and it gives more precicion with tiny carvings. For this tutorial, how ever, either will do. Sand the cut end of the toothpick smooth. Keep it on 90 degree angle to get a flat end. 

Also smooth the edges after sanding the end as too rough sanding may also cause splinters. If you want really perfect surface without any texture, moisture the wood first, let dry and then sand the whole thing. Moisture will make the wood grains stand up so when you paint with wet paint the surface will turn uneven.

Now, take the paint of your choice and be careful not to use too wet paint. Paint the sharp end of the toothpick, but don´t make it too long. Its important to leave some wood showing between the body and the sharp end.

After letting the tip dry (this should take no time at all), carefully paint a line to the sharp end just where is starts to get narrower.

Then fill the full body with paint until the tip. Its better to hold the pencil until it dries or you might smudge the paint.

 
I prefer to put a thick layer of gloss varnish to the brown body - do not varnish the sharp tip or bare wood or it will look less realistic. If you have a steady hand you can also scribble a pencil brand like Faber-Castel or something on the side. Now just repeat the process to make as many colours as you like. I also folded a box for my set out of copy paper.

  Here is the finished set in my diorama.

Enjoy!

Photo Story - Débutante

Well, its been a while but I have a pretty good excuse for that. ;) 

It all started about a month ago, as I found these pretty kitsch acrylic photo frame sets from a local shop and instantly thought of them as shop displays. It´s funny how once you start building dioramas as a hobby, you also start seeing everything around you in scale. So, the tacky frames I wouldn´t usual touch, not to mention pay good money for, came home with me.

I had only bought the small set, but as soon as I got home and put them in my doll display case, I wanted the bigger set too. The small one seemed perfect for shoes and bags an such, but the squares were definitely too small for boots and an idea of a huge boutique diorama was starting to for in my head! I went back and bought the bigger set too.

The idea I had was this huge and modern upper class department store type store for fashions and accessories. I didn´t have a table big enough for it, so I decided to build in on the floor next to my doll showcase that was impeded into the diorama as a window display. The walls consisted mainly of empty FR doll boxes - its a material with a nearly endless supply in this household. ;) I also temporarily decapitated one of my Model Muse barbies, and found another poor soul that had been experimented on from the bottom of my zombie barbie drawer. They made great mannequins for the shop and since they are even skinnier than FR I had this fun idea to make an FR doll complain about the unrealistic images of beuty they created! LOL!

Then there was the shop counter to be made and making dioramas is all about scavending your environment for stuff that is easily turned into something else. And as I said before, it becomes new new of seeing things all together.

The counter is a Misaki doll box balanced on its place with bluetag. On top of it, two jewellery glass boxes as display cases for smaller and more valuable merchandise and a plastic cash register from a cheap pirate barbie toyset I bought from a supermarket. The marble staircase is the same one I made ages ago for my doll house and the round acrylic stand for shoes and vase is my spouse´s pencil cup. 

NOTE: Among the pictures above, in one on the left you see a doll walking up the stairs pasts the wall display. Can you imagine how precarious it was balancing that doll there, without a stand and the wall display levitating there with nothing more that couple of sewing needles! Man, how many times it fell and created a nice domino effect. Sigh. All the other dolls were on stands, but that mean erasing them with photoshop from all the 170 pictures!

As you can propably quess by now, my diorama was quickly turning into a photo story. It just seemed that the dolls has a life of their own and I thought it would be fun to write so dialogue to bring out their personalities.

 

The story was suppose to revolve around these two characters: Charo and Tori, who are simply out shopping for a début outfit for Charo who is very much not interested in the whole business. The story actually begins with Charo complaining about the high heeled shoes Tori lend her as she would have preferred her own military boots for comfort. Her general lack of interest and fashion sense keeps agravating Tori through out the story line. But as I brought in more characters as extras, they started to demand attention for their own and soon my "little" diorama project had swelled into a 1700 file pile of photos.

 

 Along the way I had to introduce more and more characters such as the emotionally unstable Akito Yuri and her friend of a mother hen Sophie York. As one can imagine, a diorama build from loose boxes in a house with three cats it about as stable as a snowman on June, so I felt that if I wanted to share this fun it had to be done now or never. So I called my friend Marika - it was around 6 p.m. I think and she rushed to my house right away - and as always, with visitors. Marika´s tourists (in the middle) also wanted their part of a story and as 5 more of my dolls entered the scene I had to build the diorama even bigger.

 

In the earlier picture above the diorama ends right there with the left edge of the photo. As in the one below, more wall has been build and a lounge added to accommodate all the dolls in one scene.

 Originally, I hadn´t planned for thse sort of wide scale picture to be taken at all and it was now I realised that the second shelf of my doll display case was showing  (you can see legs of dolls sitting there) so I decided to write it into the story line. In the end of the story, the ladies in the "upstairs café" abandon their seats and take interest in the happenings below in the boutique.

 

So, that´s what I´ve been up to these days. It took me about a month to finish this photo story but here it is, finally. If you want to read the whole 170 page epic, click here! 

Keira Knightley

I´ve always had a thing for British actresses and Keira Knightley is no exception. There is just something so mesmerizing in those somehow brittle features dominated by strong jawline. Or maybe its the fact that - with correct make up - she reminds me so much of Natalie Portman. Anyway, as a doll collector, I often feel like I´m collecting people - go a head call me weird - and though that it would be nice to squeeze a little Keira of my own into a cookie jar for safe keeping! LOL.

So, when first I saw the head of a 1:6 scale Hot Toys "US Secret Service Female agent" action figure on eBay I instantly realized they were using the same sculpt they had used in their Movie Masterpiece series for Pirates of the Caribbean Elizabeth Swan figure, only that this one had rooted hair instead of plastic! I knew instantly I had to have it to be repainted as Keira.

Here is a picture of the head with its original paint:

The system they use for rooted hair is a bit weird but easy enough to reroot. The seam between two part behind the jaw line is not pretty, though. I had to do quite a lot of resculpting, sanding and painting to cover it.

This doll is the second proper celebrity doll repaint I´ve done - the first being the Takeshi Kaneshiro project I introduced on my last post. This time I did not take that many pictures of the repainting and sculpting process itself, but will try to keep this sort and just present to your the final results.

The first attempt:

I rerooted and repainted the head and modified an Monsieur Z doll bodies neck joint to fit the head - as shown on the Takeshi Kaneshiro post. The first version of the repaint became too severe and made her look like an old horsey tranny. The main issue was her hairline and for some time I pondered whether to give my Keira bangs just to cover it. Then someone commented on my flickr that she looked like Sandra Bernhard and the statement began to haunt me until all I could see in her was the ghastly Sandra - that lady just ain´t my cup of tea! After some photo research on the Internet I decided that she looks better without bangs and just deleted the first version all together.

The second version:

This time I tried to paint her as young, cute and innocent as possible and I hope it worked out better than the first attempt. I also used the photos of Keira that reminded me of Natalie Portman as reference I tried to make her seem a bit like a mixture of them both. I really prefer this one and we´ll see if she´ll be here to stay.


NOTE: If you want to try this at home you can easily find the head on eBay. It usually goes for 30-40usd and its original skin tone is pretty dark matching Colette´s (FR4, MB3). The head is pretty small though, so I recommend DG or MZ doll as a body donor - their proportions are a much better match for Keira as FR body might make her seem like a gargantuan amazone! Here I repainted her skin to match the FR2 Caucasian tone since its hard for me to even imagine a tanned Keira with her sensitive British skin - burned maybe! Lol. To find a good body donor consult my other blog, the Skin Tone Data Base for best match. Hope this was helpful! :)

Hot Toys Takeshi Kaneshiro

Here is a blow by blow account of my first encounter with a Hot Toys action figure. I´ll add photos asap.

Deboxing:
The doll came better packed that I have ever seen. The huge box itself was covered in a Styrofoam box and then wrapped with cardboard. Not sure was this the seller´s or factory´s packing, since this is my first Hot Toys figure.

As I opened the box I was mainly horrified. First of all the skin of my Japanese dream boy was ugly, dark olive with a distinct grey hue. He looked like a dead and decaying arab! The paint job on his face did nothing to remind me of Takeshi Kaneshiro or the prototype. I studied his face carefully - I´m usually good at seeing the potential behind a doll sculpt, but could not find him there. For a moment I though of not deboxing him at all and trying to recover parts of the money I paid in ebay.

However, the huge photo in the box reminded me that somebody had painted this very same blob of rubber to look exactly like Takeshi, and I wasn´t ready to accept I couldn´t. If it could be done, I´d do it no matter how many times I´d had to try. I took a deep breath and deboxed him.


As I peeled of the intricate clothes layer by layer I began to appreciate my purchase more. The clothes were true to the movie and the historical period and had no short cuts for dressing them. The top layer of his clothing including a fur lined hat, jacket and trousers were padded for cold weather. Still they kept their ability to move and fold and I love the way the fabric is worn around the edges and smudged with dust in parts. Under the jacked I discovered 3 more layers of clothing. First, a grey cotton high collar jacket with the same perfect tiny chinese buttons that the padded jacket had, a collarless light grey cotton shirt with more buttons and finally and typical sleeveless diagonally wrapped tank top with high collars. The clothes of the top layer were lined, the wrest were not.


The accessories I pretty much discarded without a second glance since they are all made of rubber, but they too were very true to the original movie costume. The huge sword seems rather crappy and doesn´t even go all the way into its hilt. Don´t know if I should sell these to some action figure enthusiast or keep them for a rainy day. I suppose I could repaint the sword and the scabbard and carve the scabbard a bit to make it fit. Sounds bothersome, though. Its not like my Takeshi is getting into sword fights hanging out with my FRs. Oh, almost forgot, I didn´t know Hot Toys guys don´t have feet, but have shoes instead. Well, this guy came with ancient military armoured boots that will not look good with a pin stripe suit he´ll be wearing so I popped those off and plan to build the body new feet with epoxy putty so he can wear proper shoes.


I had seen the Hot Toys body nude before I ordered and had a FR Homme replacement body waiting, but alas the skin tone was completely wrong. I had to decapitate a Francisco to find a closer colour match. What surprised me in a positive way was that the size difference between FR and Hot Toys is almost non existent. The 12" scale is always so untrustworthy - my friend bought a Jack Sparrow 12" figure only to find out it was around 11" instead and useless around the gargantuan FR girls. I´m happy to inform everyone that Hot Toys scale really is perfect! HT guys might have a tad shorter legs, but the clothes are totally interchangeable! Also, the body does look good with its clothes on and I don´t need to see my Francisco naked anyway - Takeshi I do!


Body swapping:
The head came of with a simple pop without any use of hot water or anything. In order to put the HT head into Homme body you need to cut the Homme neck joint into a small ball similar to the HT´s neck joint. If you heat a Homme head in hot water it will pop into place on HT neck joint without any modifications. It seems a bit loose though but I do appreciate the articulation. You can also help the FR Homme neck stiffness issue by carving the round hole in their neck joint into a fish eye shape. The extra nudge will grant you that mobility you need for them to be able to look their girls in the eye.


I´ve seen some HT severed head sold in ebay that still have their necks attached, does anyone know if the head is sculpted together with the neck or do they consist of two parts? If the neck is together with the head it might required some serious surgery to do a body swap...

Repainting:
This part is still a bit under construction. I´ve made three failed attempt to recreate the prototype now. Well, not exactly the prototype since I modified the head sculpt quite a bit more. The of the hair and beard. This rubber is very nice and easy to sculpt with a surgical knife and responds well to sanding. It doesn´t melt from acetone either, so you can use that for removing make up and smoothing the skin after sanding. My main issue with the repainting is that no matter what I do this bloke ends up looking like Heath Ledger. I wouldn´t mind having him in my collection, but I want Takeshi Kaneshiro and I want him bad. Hopefully today, I´ll finally succeed.


Conclusion:
+ great sculptor
- useless painter
+ finely detailed clothes
+ accessories are true to original
- accessories are poorly painted
+ body has great articulation
- body looks hideous naked
- no feet!!!

A Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece figure costs around 150usd (plus shipping and taxes). Was it worth the money? Can´t say. I think I´ll just buy separate heads in the future - although I have already pre-ordered the Godfather. I hope he´s face up is better... In short, this must be the most expensive repaint project of my life.


The final phase:
Thanks to a goody bag my friend Mutsuo send me I had an extra black wig lying around. He was cute with cropped hair too but somehow it just didn´t feel right - its not that often you see Takeshi Kaneshiro without his signature mullet! I never though I´d be giving a mullet to a any doll of mine but here I was glueing on a wig, cutting it to layers and styling it to not-so-sweet 80´s. Oh dear oh dear! :D It did make the likeness more pronounced so I suppose its fine no matter how retro it is... So here he finally is wigged and all.

Bedroom Turns Into a Kitchen

For the longest time, I´ve wanted a place to display all my rements. Then, at flickr, I saw a nice modern kitchen set on my friend Susanne´s photo stream. She was kind enough to help me get one and the process to turn my doll house bedroom into a cosy kitchen began.

Here is the original kitchen set


It was bright red and had background papers with pictures of food and dishes on it. Not really my cup of tea, so those had to go. Also, as most sets are, this too was far too low for FR dolls. So, I also decided to make a pedestal to increase the height of the set. First, it was just a piece of wood, but in the end that made it a bit too high. However, my first priority was to change that loud fire engine red.



This is the kitchen after a brown base coat. I covered the part I wanted to keep original with tape and news papers and sanded the surfaces to be painted with rough sand paper. This not only helps the paint to stick but also makes a wood grain like surface that increases the realistic feeling to this all too polished plastic.

The base coat was made with brown spray paint, but that was a grave mistake. Don´t use spray paint! It corrodes the plastic. Sigh. Even though I had covered the windows of the cupboard over the sink well with tape the spray paint corroded the plastic underneath too. So, now they have a effcet that makes them look awfully dirty. Well, its not like my own kitchen is perfectly clean either, so I won´t let it bother me. Still, I would not done it if I had known.

Finished:


After the base coating I use acrylic paints and a small brush to paint wood grain patterns to the brown surfaces. I also made some "marble" tiles from cardboard that I hot glued above the sink and stove. That warm marble looked kind of out of place first, so I toned the cupboard under the sink with same warm creamy tone.

I also build a proper pedestal from foam core. It is about 2,5cm high and painted white with acrylics. If you use a coarse brush and quite dry paint the brush strokes will give you a nice wood grain feeling. I also painted all the handles white and replaced the background cardboards with plain white ones. And now, I finally have a place for all my rements - and there is quite a bunch of them! ;)

Her Grey Eminence Vanessa

This has nothing to do with my doll house, really, but I want to share this project with you anyway. It has, of course, still something to do with dolls, or a single doll more like - let me present Her Grey Eminence Vanessa!




This Vanessa doll is the first one in my FR collection. I bought the doll completely blank with not face or hair and transformed her into a complete and luxurious OOAK gift set. Its the first time, really, that I have even attempted anything like this, but I must admit there was something endlessly more satisfying in creating something this complete compared to mere separate phases of repainting, rerooting and sewing. A design of a doll where all those aspects of OOAK (One of a kind) doll making coming to together in a well planned look with hair, make up and wardrobe made just for this doll. It was quite like publishing a FR doll of my very own. I liked it.



The wardrobe of this doll celebrated the current fashion trends of grey and sheer. As presented in the picture above, the wardrobe includes three sets of clothing common to most FR girt sets that inspired my work.


My original inspiration was the business suit. I had acquired a small amount of the finest wool ever imaginable when I was interpreting for my spouses sister as we shopped for fabrics in China. What ever she bough I got a small provision - namely half a meter of every luxurious fabric!

This perfect grey wool was perfect for the suit. I used a figure adoring cut, that made the jacket a nightmare to make. This one is the third version, the first two ending up as momoko and MB clothing. The jacket and the pencil skirt are both fully lined and then hand applied with pearl coloured beads. I also made a matching clutch handbag and pearl bracelet to complete the look as well as simple silver bumps and a luxurious faux fur stole.


As thiss was suppose to be a gift set style wardrobe there had to be a long gown - even though I´m not a gown person at all. For some reason I just don´t like my dolls posing in evening gowns, instead I prefer them in something that could be worn on high street - but that is still far from casual! Ok, got carried away again, the gown. For the gown I chose a grey silk chiffon that obviously without any lining would be an outrageous thing for a real person to wear, but that is the whole point and fun of dolls - they can!


For the strategic places I used more beads for censorship. Well, its still obvious the gown covers all but hides nothing, but I suppose I´ll just have to create a character well suited for such questionable behaviour. ;) The fur stole made for the business suit works well with the sheer gown as well.


Normally the gift sets have lingerie as the third outfit, but I wanted this character to be of mature age and though a night gown prudent no matter how vague the morals of the person were - as Finnish maxim says: "Age does not arrive alone". So instead of bra and panties or sexy corsets I made a 20´s style sheer lace night gown with matching panties.


As before, the outfit was decorated with hand applied beads, but this time used in moderation - only scattered around the cleavage and sleeves. The tiny beads are almost invisible but yet give the gown that distinct feeling of luxury.


Vanessa was rerooted using KatSilk saran fibre in the mother of pearl colour called the "Opal Essence". The famous hairstyle was inspired by the FR " A Fashionable Life" Vanessa, that is considered the most beautiful Vanessa doll ever made by most FR collectors worldwide. I must say this hairstyle was a nightmare to make and I will never ever attempt it again.

I had set my mind upon it and tried without success for hours and hours until I got it looking like this. And this, mind you, is nothing even close to the AFL Vanessa´s perfect up do. First of all, the side part is on the wrong side. This is mainly because the doll I used had had a side part on thast side that was rooted for tight rerooting it might risha fractured "skull", so I made the decision to reroot the parting on the other side. Second, I just could not get the hair as tidy as the factory style on AFL Van. Just couldn´t. Impossible. Maybe I´m just bad at this or something. Anyway, if anyone ever askes me to do a commission with this hairstyle, I just say I´m not talented enough to do it. Sigh. :(


The face up was done, as usual, using fine artist acrylics and completed with faux lashes. HGE Vanessa has grey eyes, nude lips and some tiny age lines around her mouth and eyes. I wanted to paint a portrait of a woman well aged, but yet powerful and full of rigour. I will be writing her character profile when it comes to me, and it will be updated to my flickr "FR character profiles" set in:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliacouture/sets/72157606266758910/

The Bedroom

I started making this room ages ago but I wanted to write hear about it only when it was done. I call it the bedroom but in truth this room is maybe the most versatile space in the whole house. The white walls with plaster finish function very well as a soft light booth for photo shoots as demonstrated in the picture below:


So, lets get started shall we! The first thing I did was to cover the walls with plaster to give them rough texture. I used a hard brush and kept changing the direction of the strokes to make it more lively. The plaster alone would have been enough to make the walls white but it did paint them too with normal matte wall paints for more durable surface - plaster absorbs all the dirt.

Next, I cut strips of cardboard into floor boards and glued them in place. I left small cracks between them to give the floor feeling of old. I´ve always loved those huge wooden floorboards creaking when ever you step on them...


Next, I added few more strips of cardboard as foot boards framing the floor and painted the whole thing with the same colour of white.


At this point I had also made the doors, already presented in the post: The Hallway - chapter 2. Anyway, hare are some pictures of the doors in place. I bought the hinges and doorknobs from Eurominis and the doors are carves out of foamcore.


Now that the room itself was ready it needed some furnishings. I had already set my mid upon one photo I had seen in a Chinese interior design book - or more on feeling of the picture. White, ascetic, very little furnishings and the gorgeous futon four poster bed!


It took me a while to make the futon four poster bed I had been dreaming of but I think it was worth the bother! I did not want to make it as thin as the original bed, but ended up using thick bamboo as material. Well, I did have black bamboo available, but the sequence of the sections was not suitable for 1:6 scale, so I bought round wooden pole instead and made the sections with epoxy putty. The futon mattress is just cotton padding in a cotton cloth with typical futon stitching.


The flowerpot is re-ment and the rosewood pedestal is a souvenir from China.


I think my Tallis is looking sleepy between those comfortable cotton sheets!

The hallway - chapter 2

Here you can see the door from both sides. The dark wood art nouveau doors are from the hallway side and the white panel ones from the bedroom and bathroom sides. They are attached with small jewellery box hinges and the ornamental doorhandles with keyholes are from Eurominis.

I had originally planned a floor of zitan wood, that is to say the same wood the tea table allegedly is. I had already finished the floor, but then noticed that the table - which after all been the only furniture was the centre piece of the décor - vanished in it. So I ended up using chestnut instead. Besides, it gives the hallway more retro atmosphere as the almost black floor made it so much more modern. I want the whole house to have an old feel to it, with fine decoration, but still with a lingering air of neglect.


And below you will see the final version. Or almost final, since it still missing the lamp I´m suppose to do. And I´m thinking of placing a Gistav Klimpt painting on the wall...


I already have a lamp in mind for the hallway. But it might be too ambitions project for me to do since I´ve never made lamps before. Anyway, here is the inspiration picture:


I will keep you posted with my progress.

The Bathroom

As I´ve told before, I got this doll house from my sister and she had already decided the place and size of the bathroom as well as started tiling is with blue ceramic tiles. As the main colour was decided for me I simply continued the theme with more blue, white for refreshment and gold for the feeling of luxury my picky dolls require. I have also explained, step by step, how I created the art nouveau style fresco on the bathroom wall. So now its time to take you thru the making of the bathtub, sink and the other finishing details of the room.

For the bathtub, I used my favourite material: foamcore. It is so easy to cut and glue with hot glue, not to mention loads of other qualities, that I recommend it to everyone. I have always had an fixation to those lion pawned tubs but for this one it seemed more suitable to make a build in tub like a jacuzzi to give it that utterly posh grandeur. In this picture the bathtub and a seat next to it are photographed from below showing the basic framework.

In the picture below the jacuzzi has already been covered with tiles (sorry, forgot to take pictures of the process again). The tiles haven´t been seamed yet and the element is completely removable from the room. For the tiles I did not have any tile glue, although I strongly recommend it. I was soon to notice that hot glue, even though it kept its hold well in the foamcore, did not stick at all to the ceramic tiles as could well accepted. I experimented with other glues I had at hand and wood glue functioned all right. It was the seaming putty that held everything together in the end.


Then my bathroom needed a sink. The problem with fashion royalty dolls is that all the furniture and stuff made for 1:6 scale dolls is always too small for them. So, instead of first trying to hunt down a nice sink and then configure it to proper size and heigh I decided to make one from the materials i had at hand. I had always though my make up powder box would make a great sink and I had just finished one too. Originally I intended to keep the lid with mirror too, but then the sink would have had to be so far away from the wall and take too much space. So, I cut off the oval lid with mirrors and all and patched the wholes with epoxy putty. The two component putty I use is Magic Sculpt. Its good stuff but too sticky, even though you can speed things up a bit by adding some talcum powder. Anyway, you can buy it in huge quataties instead of those tiny strips you get from hobby shops, which is good since I use it a lot!

So below, you can see the basic structure of the sink. I made a pipe with hot glue from foamcore again, covered it with the epoxy putty and just stack the powder box in place. Then I added a tap from Eurominis and its ready to be painted. Well, there was loads of sand paper used before that.

Jump forwards and below you can see the bathroom with the painted sink and the fresco in place. I have also added a gilded mirror on the wall. It was simple enough to make. Buy a nice post card size photo frame from a shop, cut in in half from the middle and fill in some epoxy putty in similar ornamental shapes until the size is right and paint it wild gold paint. Oh yeah, and cut a piece of mirror to a size you need too. Glass is easy enough to cut if you have the proper tool.

Almost forgot to mention that at this point I had also painted the seaming putty blue. I find the grey stuff really boring and average, but used it anyway since its the cheapest. For a real bathroom you´d of course just buy the right colour since this paint is not going to be water proof.

And here they are, my dolls, already using the bathroom even though its still missing lots of things. I have now added white boards above to frame the tiling. I´m not sure yet, but should I paint them blue too? well, we´ll see.

Lucretia and Elizabeta can´t wait their turn, so they just gram in the tub together.


In the picture below you can see the golden mirrors more clearly. The bigger one has nice and sharp ornament frame on the sides but in the middle you can see the part I have made to mimic the pattern. Not perfect or even near it, but it will have to do. ;)

I added the second smaller mirror above to sink just to be able to take this sort of photos! ;D


Well, the bathroom is almost finished now. It still lacks electricity and I haven´t even started making lamps yet, but the materials I ordered have just arrived so it shouldn´t be for long now. I have also planned huge white baroque ornaments to frame the sealing, but the school is starting soon so I will not have as much time in my hands anymore...

The Monastery Stone Floor

As for the floor of my library, I wanted something special and old. The oldest libraries of Europe were all monasteries where monks copied the ancient books by hand in the echoing halls. To preserve that notion of history into my own library I chose those stone tiles worn by centuries as my inspiration.

I painted the floor with same shades I will be using on the tiles to lessen the contrast between the tiles and the floor between them. The paint has three layers: black, dark grey and brick brown beaten together with a dry brush.

Forgot to take pictures of the phases in between again, sorry. What I did before this was cut the tiles out of cardboard and carve some cracks and ancient tombstone markings on them. I used the same materials, tools and methods as in the water nymph fresco earlier, so you can check the process from that post. I could not fit all of the text from my inspiration picture to the main stones, but for me the visual effect is much more important than the meaning of the tomb markings on the stone - actually I though it better to leave out the name of the buried anyhow, not really politicly correct to have a historical person buried under your library is it?

The secret of painting stone like surfaces is to paint layers after layers of different shades - three or four layers ought to do it. So, over the dark grey I added brick brown with a very dry and hard brush to give it texture and highlight the cracks in the stone.

This is the third of fourth layer, if I remember correctly. Could even be the fifth, I´m not sure. I have been toning the same shade of brick brown lighter with white after every phase still using a very dry brush to beat the colour to the "stone". You can see how the uneven texture of my early carving becomes more visible and how the cracks and markings on the stone pop out.

To finish a texture and feeling of stone worn over centuries I add gloss varnish for the smooth surfaces careful not to let any lacquer slip to the crumbled parts that need to keep their rough feeling. Two layers of lacquer give the "stone" depth and more natural appearance.


Here it is, my library, the spiral staircase, red brick wall and monastery tile floor all finished! However, the library itself is not finished as one might guess, for what is a library without books?
Now that everything else is done I can finally start making the bookshelves that will cover the wrest of the walls. The wall on the left side, where the doorways are located will be covered by a face bookshelves; the back wall, on the other hand, will hold real ones reaching up from floor to high sealing. There will be a sliding ladder of course - how else the dolls could reach their books? And the hard part is, I want the books to be real books with pages and leather covers with golden capitals. The mere though makes me sigh dreamily, but then again, its going to be a hell of a lot of work. Happily, Juhana has agreed to help me on this, but knowing him the books he´ll be making are all going to be some Lovecraft related occult nonsense, but no matter, I don´t think my dolls can read anyhow. ;)

The Spiral Staircase

Now then, the library. One of those perfect, classic, dusty, dark, ancient libraries with green table lights and iron spiral staircases. How could it not have a staircase, that´s so essential it´s simply given to have one!

I might be fairly good with my hands, but building a spiral staircase from scraps felt like too much of a brain wrecking idea. I had seen a barbie play set with 1:6 scale stairs in W-club forum and hunted down the same set on ebay. My though was not to keep the whole barbie house with two floors, but only use the stairs and the railings and let the seller keep the wrest. Luckily, I had also asked her to send me the foot- and head boards of the bed, that I cut into pieces and used for supporting the new balcony I made from foam core.

The stairs are put together from several pieces so I used putty to fill all the seems.

After the putty had dried over night I sanded the surfaces and painted everything black with acrylics paint. This must have been the easiest part of the whole house, which is funny because I thought it would be the most difficult one. Making such a staircase myself would´ve been a real bother. ;)

The Water Nymphs - a Bath Room Fresco

I had originally planned the bath room to have a fresco on its wall but it was suppose to be the Botticelli´s Venus. However, I started to feel that particular piece of art was too much of a cliché. So, browsing the flickr for inspiration I found this Art Nouveau fresco, that I considered quite perfect - especially since the house was going to a be from that era.

This time I remembered to take photos all thru the process. Hopefully this can even serve as a sort of an tutorial (doubt its usefulness, though.) The first phase was to do a rough sketch to a piece of cardboard and then carve the form with a Stanley knife.

The second phase was to paint the water in the background of the picture. For this I mixed white acrylics paint toned with preussian blue watercolour.

Next I painted the uplifted lines white. This will create a nice feeling of water with the light reflected broken from the waves.


The fourth phase was to paint the skin tones of the water nymphs.


Here I am painting the background tones for the nymphs´ hair flowing free in the water. Every one of the three had a bit different shade of hair varying from maroon to okra.

These were the shades of colours I used for the painting. Acrylics white mixed in with preussian blue, brown, red and okra watercolours.

In this final phase I have added all the details: The water plants, outlines of the bodies, curls of their hair. I am not yet sure will I have to tone the water darker in some parts to make it fit better with the bath room tiles of darkest preussian blue, but that will be left for later.

The Tim Burton Nursery

I´ve always admired the visual style of Tim Burton´s. It has a unique quality that is visible throughout all his work. That style was the main inspiration for this neglected nursery abandoned years ago. The idea was that a lonely woman in her fifties lives in the house accompanied only by the ghost of her daughter who died in early age. She has guests and visitors, but no one knows of the history lurking in the attic converted into a nursery. The lady keeps up her appearances, plays well her role as a hostess and tries to forget. Nevertheless, she sometimes wanders in the library only to witness the ghost of her child running the spiral stairs or sitting in the balcony that leads to the secret room. The woman is not scared, but finds this oddly comforting.

The ripped wall papers and the distorted floor create a gloomy atmosphere of years of abandonment. The room is far from being finished, of course, it is too clean to begin with. It will still need a thick layers of dust, a crip with a worn raggedy-Ann, some posters by Edward Gorey such as the Gasthlycrump Tinies and of course a distorted little window on the wall.

This is the only room that could be make with no particular care on detailing. I wanted a rough hand sketched look so I painted both the floor and the wall papers using a brush and acrylics paint. Once more, I forgot to take pictures of the steps on the way, but luckily there is one of the distorted floor tiling in progress. All the lines in both wall papers and the floor distort the perspective of the room creating what I hope to be a hindering sensation of anxiety.

For example all the stripes on the wall papers grow smaller towards the back wall making the room seem deeper. I also plan to airbrush the slope of the roof in the lower end very dark and menacing and may even add a cute pair of gleaming eyes belonging to a monster under the crib. The whole point of the room is really not to be serious at all but more of a bed time story book approach is to be adopted.

Up Against a Brick Wall

My dream library would have an old brick wall stripped bare with beautiful masonry framing a stained glass window. I considered lots of different type of materials for the brick wall. Clay, foamcore, sand paper, but Juhana suggested using an old note board made of thin cork. After some consideration and material tests I found it quite suitable and got to work.

The first phase was to draw lines throughout the sheet to keep all tiles in equal size. Then using a very hard pencil I forged in the outlines of the tiles into the soft material.

I made the wall in small sections to save material since the wall was dominated by the huge window.


After putting all pieces together I glued them on a piece of paper. Then I mixed acrylic paint in the shade of mortar and painted the cracks with it.

Then I continued with different shades from tile red to black using a very very dry brush. Layer after layer of slow phases paid off, I think. I must apologise that I forgot to take pictures of this phase. Finally, I used a white watercolour pencil to highlight the cracks and a black one to highlight the bricks. The result is quite nice even from up close.

The Attic

According to my original plan I was to build an attic to my doll house. So I removed the original flat roof and replaced it with a half roof supported by the wall in the middle. Then, with Juhana´s help, we sawed window openings to two pieces of plywood and attached them to make a pitched roof.

The library will be the room on the left, featuring a huge rose window on the sealing and another small cathedral window on the wall. As planned it will have a spiral staircase leading to a balcony and there, thru a secret passage in the bookshelf one can pass to the nursery behind.

The nursery will be too low for most of my dolls to stand straight, so the idea is that is was originally the attic converted later into a nursery. At some point I even considered making a folded ladder often used in attics as the only entrance, but then I couldn´t have realised my dream of a secret passageway thru a bookshelf - its such a classic.

The original idea for the window in the nursery sealing was the studio of Sweeney Todd. This would have been wonderful if it wasn´t for the fact that the space was so darn low. You may ask me why did I make it so low, but is wasn´t by choice. There is only one place in our home where this huge thing can be placed and that is on the small bookcase that use to serve as a old diorama set of mine. If the roof would be even a one centimetre higher it would reach the sealing of our own apartment.

So, Juhana came up with the idea of adding a dormer to the attic in order to widen the space that was high enough for the child dolls to stand. I am still not sure do I like the idea. On my opinion the roof looks now more like a staple than a normal house. Besides a dormer window like that is so "Wish upon a star" and Peter Pan instead of Tim Burton feeling I want for the room. Oh well, we´ll see. Maybe I´ll tear the whole thing down in the end...

The Hallway

The entrance to a house gives the important first impression so the hallway was next in line. Being a tiny space, no more than a corridor made it possible to go a bit overboard with. I already had the perfect little Chinese tea table made of dark rosewood to be placed on the end of the corridor, so an oriental approach was required. Then again I was making an old house form the era of Art Nouveau and thus I came up with a mixture of the two.

My first inspiration: Chinese gold leaf lacquer panels

My second inspiration: Gustav Klimpt

Instead of gilding the walls completely with gold leaf - this was my original plan - I ended up painting the base with fine paint made of gold pigment dust and arranged the tiny squares of gold leaf into a seemingly random formations on the surface. Then a layer of varnish on top and the walls were finished. I really liked the result that was both modern and retro at same time as well as oriental and very Klimpt, I think. I used the wall as a backdrop for a doll photo shoot before I glued them in their place in the house. Here the doorway has been covered with a piece of golden gift wrap so the contrast between shining gold and my more matted style is well demonstrated.

The hallway will have a dark wood floor and doors, but those will be another chapter indeed.

The Marble Staircase

The very first thing that to me defines the whole house are the staircases. I had just won the one for the library on EvilBAY so I then put my efforts upon the one in the dining room. This one was suppose to be an Art Nouveau style so I searched for references on Flickr. I found one staircase that carried a light air that pleased me and used it as an inspiration. The staircase I had to make was to be a lot steeper than the original one and I´m still not sure about the railings, but the warm marble and the slight curve really pleased my eyes.

I began the work by drawing the outline of the staircase and the curve below to a sheet of foamcore. I cut out the framework and made an identical piece and the stepping boards. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of this part of the process at all. The first picture is from the staircase after is has been coated with plaster. It is merely a coarse form but I could see it ready and perfect before my eyes from the first moment.

After the plaster has dried I sanded the surface and used water to wipe of the grinding dust. Then I painted it on layers. First an equal surface of white, then touches of warmer shades layer after layer and veins of brown to complete the marble look. Then endless layers of varnish for depth and gloss. I only painted the steps and left the side part white, since it would seem unreal to build a whole staircase from marble no matter how wealthy one is. I want to preserve the realism in my house, want to be able take pictures that make people think whether it really is real or not.

As you can see the floor reveals the scale quite easily and even though I really like the colour and texture of the original floor, I really need to do something about it. But that is one of the last thing on my mind, there is so much work to be done.

The Doll House Project

It is the doll house project that is the actual reason behind me starting this diary, so lets get on with it.

The whole matter started with my boyfriend Juhana´s mother offering me the old doll house of Juhana and his sister Riina from their childhood. The potential mother-in-law was staying at our place at the time and we talked about the house with fair amount of enthusiasm. She had though of renovating it herself in the hopes of future grandchildren that are happily expected more from Riina than us - I can´t stand children myself. Not that I hate them - well sometimes I do - but I somehow can´t seem to act naturally around them. One thing I know for a fact, though, is that no child, not even a one of my own flesh and bone will ever be allowed to tough my doll house or dolls. But I have wandered of from to topic and I thing I will do so often enough in the future. The old doll house affair ended when we asked Riina for opinion and she was honest enough to admit that she liked the idea of such house at the future grandparents´place even if my mother-in-law would have happily found something else to do with the space the huge thing was occupying.

But the seed had been left in my mind and all too soon it began to grow. I wanted a doll house and not just any house but the house of my dreams. You know the drill: "When I grow up..." and so forth. The thing is I have recently started feeling quite worryingly grown up yet the dreams one imposes to such phase in life are no closer than before. But then again there are several types of owning and for me it was more important to own an idea of my dream house than actually live in it, so it did not really matter in which scale my dream were to materialise. The scale is 1:6 chosen simply because of the scale of the dolls I collect. The house would be small in their scale but huge in mine - if that makes sense in the slightest bit.

My sister is a fellow doll addict and some years ago my folks made a doll house for her. The house was 120cm high, 100cm wide and 40cm deep. It had three floors and she had extensive plan to turn it into a students dorm for her Momoko dolls. Well, my dolls are a bit more adult than hers, but we´ll get back to that later. After the house was build for her, she had broke up with her boyfriend or few - I can´t seem to keep track, really - and moved into a smaller flat that had no room for such a monstrous contraption. She had also lost interest in the project as she often does with things and men so I dared to approach her with a suggestion. My birthday was coming and the bloody thing with its bothersomely huge bulk was blocking the way to the attic in my Mom´s place. So two birds with a one stone: I would get a present, Mom would get rid of it and as a added bonus my sister wouldn´t have to feel guilty about abandoning the thing there. Great!

So, after a painstakingly long way from my Dad´s car in the parking lot to my flat in second floor the heavy thing was in my bedroom. Juhana was not too happy with the new improvement of the doll regime already occupying a worryingly large amount of the bedroom, but he was still kind enough to help. The room heigh of the house was a bit too low for my FR dolls - being considerably taller than the Momoko dolls, but it would have to do. The windows, however, would not - they had to be make taller by far! This was were Juhana came in since even though good in crafts I never was very good with a saw especially when making round cuts that the arched windows I had put my heard on required.

The first view of the house after it arrived

Juhana enlarging the windows

The windows weren´t really the most modest part as one who knows me might expect. In fact I had already revised a megalomaniac plan at work on a scrambled piece of paper. I will enclose the sketch and the plan here for you to see.

"1) I plan to build a roof on top of the house creating a classic two storey library with spiral staircase and cathedral style rose window on a sealing.

2) A secret entrance thru a bookshelf on the library balcony will lead to a Tim Burton style nursery with a distorted tile floor and striped walls all in shades of grey and a tiny window with a view to the Nightmare Before Christmas cemetery! It will also have a huge industrial roof window quite like the one in Sweeney Todd´s studio. (As one might guess I love Tim Burtons visual style)

3) Below the nursery will be my cha-no-yu room with tatami lined with dark wood floor and white shoji walls with reflections of willow branches outside.

4) An art nouveau style staircase will descent to the second floor that has nothing but the great dining room with an white art nouveau fireplace and my very unfitting gothic dining set (this is a style crime of worst kind but it will have to do for now). And on top of the fireplace there will be a photo of the lady of the house, naturally.

5) In the first floor there will be a bedroom and bathroom divided by a small corridor. The corridor will have nothing more but the Chinese rosewood tea table with a simple flower arrangement , but the corridor itself will be gilded with extravagance. The bathroom is already tiled with blue mosaic tiles and I intend to keep it that way. There will be an integrated bathtub, a huge mirror and fresco of Botticelli's Venus on the wall. As a contrast the bedroom will be utterly minimalistic. All white with nothing but a black four poster futon bed with white chiffon curtains matching the ones on the window.

And I forgot to mention: I want real electric lights for every room of the doll house."

The plan has naturally changed now in a place or two, but the dream itself become more and more real every day. I will try to keep this diary up to speed and take pictures on the every step of the way, but I must admit I am many times too exited about the process itself and have forgotten to do so. Therefore this will probably serve poorly as a tutorial, but will hopefully encourage others to fulfil their dreams - what ever they are. (How corny that sounds...)

The Welcome, Beginning and so Forth.

Welcome to my blog, I should say.

I still have no proper idea of what I will write about here, but one might guess - and quite educatedly - that it will have something to do with dolls.

Dolls have become a passion, obsession and a severe addiction to me but recently. As a child I was far too enthusiastic to scrape my knees than to play with such girly stuff such as dolls. I though climbing and fighting much more proper to a boy of my age, which might be true, if it wasn´t for the fact that I was a girl.

But I do not plan to use this blog to write an autobiography, oh no. It is merely to burden more people with my obsession, and unfortunately and unavoidably with my dyslexia as well. For the latter I apologise.

Nothing much more to be said as an introduction, so better stop here and start with something more substantial.