Impulsive behaviour......

A couple of weeks ago I impulsively made a purchase on Ebay of a Sasha Brunette in Pink Dress.  Just as soon as I pressed that 'BIN' button so I regretted it.  However, there was nothing to be done, I couldn't go back on my 'commit to buy' so I went ahead with the purchase and she duly arrived....in fact she was one of my dolly parcels that I arrived home to from the coast.

When I opened the box, I have to say that the first thing that hit me was the smell.  No, it wasn't a horrible smell, it was the really lovely smell of new vinyl, which immediately brought back so many happy memories of Christmas as a child, when my mum and dad would sit down on Christmas morning with my brother and I, to open our presents from 'Santa'!!!  I've always loved the smell of new vinyl and it always evokes those wonderful memories as if it were just yesterday.

However, when I took the Sasha from the box and looked at her face, I have to say that I realised why I'd regretted my purchase.  Being a later girl (I saw in Dorisannes book that Brunette in Pink Dress was made between 1979 and 1982) I felt that compared to earlier girls, she had really awful eyes, they were so flat and lifeless.  I could have kicked myself. 

I took some photos of her and in photos she looked even worse, her eyes were dull and her hair was too full.  I'd gone from one extreme to the other, one brunette with falling hair and the other with too much hair.

I decided to put her up for sale on Sasha Mart, I just wanted to get back what I paid for her if possible.  But no interest.

Then last night as I lay in bed, I started to think....."why don't I make this girl my own?  Other collectors have dolls with 'enhancements', why don't I bite the bullet and enhance her?"  After all, no-one was rushing to buy her, and if I put her back on Ebay, I would lose lots of money.......I decided to sleep on it.

This morning I woke full of enthusiam for my idea.  I would make her a new outfit and then I would do something with her to make her more 'alive'.  So using my faithful chalk pastels I enhanced her eyes.  I used a very deep brown and just layered the pastel on the flat irises, slowly the colour built up and so I added her pupils again, this time using watercolour pencil.  I then redid the whites of her eyes, again using watercolour pencil, I drew lightly over her existing eyelashes and gave a brush of pale blue pastel to her eyelids.  Finally, I toned down her heavy handed eyebrows a little, just to make them less 'solid'.  I then combed her hair through and flattened it down with a sock.  I made her a new dress and a hat, added some white socks and brown sandals (the sandals aren't quite right with the dress but I don't have a lot of shoes for my Sasha's yet!) and although I agree she's not the wider faced brunette that I hanker after, finally I'm happy with her.  She is staying!!!!!

I hope you will agree that she is much more alive now!!!

And so to find a name for her!!

First the 'before' and 'after' photo!!