Carving, and NOT the Sunday roast!

I've been itching to do some more Blythe customising but didn't have a faceplate here to work on.  I'm already happy with Heather (PD Heather Sky) and Noelle (Nicky Lad) and that only left Hershey, my Simply Chocolate.  Well Hershey got a new face when she arrived here back in the winter of 2010 and I've not done anything with her since then apart from change her body from her stock Takara one, to a jointed Pure Neemo one, so I decided that I would do some work on her. 

I spent yesterday morning carving a new mouth for her, I really wanted to create fuller lips but I don't really know how it's done....but I had a theory that it has something to do with carving and sanding the area under the bottom lip but above the actual chin area.  So I gently shaved upwards from chin to bottom lip using a sharp curved Xacto blade.  Then I carved the lips using my diamond needle files, then it was just a matter of sanding, sanding, sanding, until the whole lot was smooth and ready for new makeup.  It took me a long time, several hours, to get the plastic faceplate as smooth as I'd like, but once it was done, I was happy and ready to move on.  However, by then I'd lost the light so had to leave it until today!

Then this morning I started on her makeup.  I use chalk pastels for the faces as I'm hopeless with paints, and gave her a soft, child-like look.  I also gave her new eyelashes as her other ones were a bit thin....I painted her eyelids in a coffee brown colour but then decided to brush them with gold powder, so she has very nice shiny eyelids now!  I kept thinking that I'd not be able to seal it all because the weather today has been awful, lots of heavy rain, and humidity can play havoc on the sealant, Mr Super Clear Flat,  spray.  But thankfully I was successful and I'm very happy to say that she is all nicely sealed and finished.

Finally I gave her a haircut.  Her stock hair wasn't too bad compared to some Simply Chocolate hair that I've seen but I wanted something different all the same.  So she got a very short bob and I think it suits her new look perfectly!!

Unfortunately I had to take all the photos inside with flash as the weather was too wet for garden photos, but hopefully tomorrow, if it's dry, I will take some more.  I'd like to take some of my three Blythe girls before my Blythe family expands....yes, I have another couple of girls on their way, but that's news for another day!!!