Gotz Happy Kidz Emilia...A New Custom!

Last week I bought a Gotz Happy Kidz Emilia because I both liked the sculpt and wanted to do some customising.  I got Emilia because she has an interesting face sculpt, not the prettiest of the Gotz Happy Doll sculpts but a face that I find I'm drawn to.  I liked her on arrival but always like to make my dolls 'my own' and she was no exception.

Emilia before:

I've always liked Gotz dolls as their quality is very good and they're great as play dolls, being made with very safe and well tested materials, and for adult doll collectors too.

Firstly I removed the factory makeup and the acrylic eyes.  The eyes were not bad quality but I prefer them to be more realistic so they had to go, along with the eyelashes.  Here she is with her cleaned face, but eyes and lashes still attached.  I felt these eyes were also a tad too large for her eye sockets too.

The hair on these dolls is rooted so I covered her head with an old shower cap to protect it from the chalk and the sealant.

The hardest part was getting her head off.  I had to soak it in boiled water until the vinyl was soft and then pull it off.  The eyes are seated in little 'pockets' inside her head but the back of these are open so you can easily remove the eyes through the neck hole.  Here she is will her default eyes and lashes now removed.

 

I then gave her a new faceup using watercolour pencils and artist grade chalk pastels.  I wanted her to have glass eyes but I found that the ones I have here (and I have quite a few pairs!!) did not suit her or were the wrong size.  In the end I decided that I would stick with acrylic, so these eyes are by Glastic Realistic, unfortunately I have no idea what the colour is called.   As acrylic eyes go, I think these are a great alternative to glass or resin eyes as they are very detailed and natural looking. 

Between layers of chalk pastels, Emilia is sealed with several coats of Mr Super Clear Flat sealant. 

I hope that I've bought her more 'to life' and less dolly looking.  I enjoyed working on her, customising really is one of my favourite parts of the doll hobby to be honest!

She's wearing an outfit that I made for my Zwergnase dolls, I thought the grey of the outfit went well with the grey of her eyes.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you're all having a very nice weekend.

Big hugs and stay safe!
Sharon xxxx
 

August Already.....how did that happen!!!

I cannot believe that we're already in August, how on earth did that happen so quickly?  I can only think that because our summer seemed to take ages to come this year, so it seems to be passing quickly too.  Hopefully we'll see good weather well into October though, which is an added bonus.

Well the temperatures here have been very high, it's not dropped lower than the mid 30s centigrade for weeks and last week we saw temperatures into the mid 40s.  I always say that I love the heat, and it's true, I really do, and I'd be more than happy to have summer all  year round, but even I had to admit that it was hot!  Perfect weather for the beach though, especially later in the day when the sun isn't quite as intense.  Having said that, apparently the weather this year has been perfect also for jelly fish, so we've had to be careful when swimming in the sea!

I haven't done much with my dolls for a while although I have sold a few and taken some photos of a few others.  I am selling some vinyl dolls so will add photos here in case anyone is interested.

My BJDs are still getting most of my 'play time' and attention and today I took a couple of photos of the Fairyland crew.  I would love to take the second photo in a beach setting, perhaps with a camp fire in front of them but we all know that that isn't going to happen with me!  So here they are on our deck.

This first photo is of the Minifee girls, (all tan resin, all 42cm tall) it would have looked better if I'd had them standing further away from the 'backdrop' but they kept wanting to fall down so I thought it was too risky....I did NOT want to damage their faces!!

L to R: Chloe, Mirwen and Ris:

Now joined by the two Little Fee Antes: Fiona and Tyrone.  Ris is strumming a nice chill-out tune for them:

Another girl who got a change of clothes, twice in fact, was Jo (Zwergnase 55cm Junior Miriam), in the first two photos she's wearing a summer dress I made from an American Girl sized pattern....

I really like this girls unusual face:
 

And here she is wearing a dress I made for her in anticipation of her arrival last year.  I made the pattern from looking at a photo of a child's dress so it isn't perfect on her...but she's happy enough! ;)

Another thing that I've been doing this summer, apart from relaxing and reading, is making dolls eyes!  I watched several videos on You Tube on how to make resin eyes and decided that I would give it a go.  I love to change my BJDs eyes but I hate that I can only get the eyes I want from outside of Spain, from either Greece, Hong Kong or South Korea, and I sooo  hate the long wait.  By the time the eyes arrive I've often forgotten who it was that I ordered them for!  So I ordered the supplies and also some silicone molds on line and thankfully they all arrived quite quickly.  And I was off!  I've only made 8 pairs so far and some of them have been...erm...pretty disasterous, but I have also had some small successes so I'm happy.  And I will hopefully improve as I continue making them.

Here are the first ones, these came out a complete mess!!!  I'm not sure what happened but the domes all went flat!  And there were a lot of air bubbles......the little balls you see in the blue ones are not air bubbles though, they are tiny little balls that I found in a shop selling finger nail decorations!

The second batch came out a lot better, there were minimal air bubbles and the green pair are actually better than they appear in this photo....LOL....but not a lot!!!!!

And finally I was able to make a pair that were good enough to use!  I wanted a pair of brown eyes for my little Secretdoll Meng as she came with a sort of lavender eyes that I thought I'd change.  I know you can't see the details here but they are definitely wearable!

 And here she is before her eye change, I had to add these photos as she looks so cute!

Now on to girls for sale.  I am selling only vinyl dolls at the moment. I have a Gotz Happy Kidz Sophie looking for a new home.  Sophie is quite a 'hard to find' girl these days as she is from 2012.  She is a beautiful redhead in lovely condition and includes her full outfit with shoes and shoulder bag.  The only fault she has is her knees are quite loose, although the hips are fine.  She can stand on her own, but she really could do with those knees being tightened, I just don't know how it's done so I've not touched her.

I'm asking £125 for her plus postage from Spain.  I do not have her large original box but she does have her wrist tags.  

I am also selling this 18 inch girl by Robert Tonner, she is a Tonner My Imagination Deluxe Basic girl with jointed knees.  She is all vinyl and comes with two wigs, the brunette in the photos and a blond one that has never been used.  You may remember that I opened the pate on the top of her head under her wig and repositioned her eyes as they were very 'deer caught in headlights' looking.  Her eyes are her original ones and are now held in place with eye putty.  She will also come wearing her original underwear as shown in the photos.  I don't have her box either but she will travel safely packaged to her new home.

I'm asking £75 plus postage.

If you're interested in either of these two, please email me:

dambuster0662@gmail.com

I will also be listing some other vinyl dolls in the next few weeks or so, so please stop by and see if there is anything that takes your fancy ;) 

Finally I just wanted to add a couple of photos of my handsome son Brendan and his beautiful wife Virginia.  These were taken last weekend at a wedding near Pisa, Italy.  I thought they looked too lovely to just keep on my laptop, so thought I'd share here:  

For a young woman who, as an archeologist, spends her working week thigh deep in mud, Virginia certainly 'certainly scrubs up well' as us Brits say!! :) 

 

Thank you very much for stopping by, I hope you are all enjoying your summer and hope you also have a great 'rest of the week' !!

Big hugs Sharon xx

My Dolly Week....

This week we went to a local castle/fortress which is just about 15 km from us and yet we'd never visited there before.  We did actually try to go there last week but loads of roads were closed due to a cycling event.  So we tried again and this time our satnav took us somewhere entirely different.....and then finally we just took a chance on directions and found the place!!  But I must say it was a bit stressful as the roads we were sent down by the satnav were really scary, very narrow, very steep and some with sheer drops with no barriers.  One paved road was so steep that as I turned into it, still in 1st gear, our tyres just started to spin on the road surface, they just couldn't get a grip on such a steep road!!!  Never again!

Anyway, as I say, we finally found La Fortaleza de Velez Malaga and it had beautiful views and you could see the Mediterranean Sea in the distance, as well as several churches and the town of Velez Malaga from above.  You can read a little bit of history here:  (If you click on the photo it will enlarge)

I took two dolls with me; Claudia by Bonnie & Pearl and my Gotz Happy Kidz Emily from 2015.  I walked up to the top of the tower to take some more photos, there were about 100 narrow winding steps to the top and fortunately no-one else was there because there's no way I could have got past someone coming in the opposite direction whilst I was holding a big bag, a camera, a handbag and two 19 inch dolls!!!!  It was definitely worth climbing those stairs, the views were wonderful.

Claudia, from Bonnie & Pearl,  enjoyed her morning out.....

The gardens outside the castle are very pretty and nicely laid out, the shade from the palms and the olive trees was very welcome as it was quite hot up there....

Claudia and Emily...

Resting at the top of the castle....

Although it's a little hazy, in the distance you can just see the Mediterranean Sea....

Evidence of the Moorish architecture....no, not Brian, the archway behind him! ;) 

The red and yellow Spanish flag and the green and white Andalucian flag, flying in the breeze.....

Views north towards the mountains....

Church of San Juan Bautista....

I hope you've enjoyed seeing our local castle and the girls who visited with us.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Hugs Sharon x

Disaster....averted!

Although I don't show her on here that much, one of my favourites of my 19 inch vinyl dolls is Emily, my Gotz Happy Kidz Emily from 2015.  I really like her and think her sculpt is my favourite of the Happy Kidz, being very innocent and child-like. 

A couple of months back, for some very strange reason I suddenly thought that I'd prefer her with a fringe.  She had lovely hair, but it was in a centre part with no fringe.  Now why this crazy thought came to me I have no idea, and why I decided I would act on that crazy thought, I have even less idea....but I did!  And woah, did I regret it the moment those scissors started cutting into her hair.

Now most of you know I can be a bit 'scissor happy' sometimes but I really was not happy on this occasion.  First of all I cut the hair far too short, but secondly, I could not get the newly cut fringe to lay flat.  I tried wetting her hair with boiling water and then leaving to dry covered by a beanie hat, I tried a wide rubber band around her head, I tried warm curling tongs, I even tried ironing it down with a hot iron over a wet flannel, nothing would work.  Oh it would work for a few hours but as soon as I left her, so the fringe would spring up again and look ridiculous!

Here's how she looked before:

And here's how she looked once I'd got carried away with the scissors:

Poor girl, she really doesn't look at all happy, does she?  And what is that longer bit on the right of the photo!!!  I'm sure it was straight when I cut it!

So yesterday I decided that as I'd already ruined her, I might as well go the full hog.  I carefully removed all her hair and left her with just stubble.  I then went through my wig box.  As you already know, I have a ton of wigs here as I've been collecting them for more than 10 years now, so I was sure that I'd find something to fit her. 

As it happens, I recently bought (yes, I'm still adding to my wig box!) a new Monique Gold wig that I thought would be perfect for her.  It's a Geneva in brown/black, although I have to say it's really much nearer to brown than black and it fits her perfectly.  It was a bit long, reaching down to the back of her knees and the fringe was down over her eyes, so I cut about 10cm off the length of the wig and about 1cm off the fringe.  I'm delighted with her new look.  The stubble on her scalp keeps the wig perfectly in place and I just think she looks so incredibly cute again!

I particularly love the two photos below of her, I used the mosquito net to difuse the direct afternoon sunlight that was coming through our bedroom window....I think she looks incredibly child like here.....and I love the way her face is in part shade.....

So now I have a little brunette, but because I miss my blond Emily, yesterday I purchased a 2016 version from My Doll Best Friend in the UK.  She will be delivered to my son's address and he'll bring her over for me at the end of the month when he comes home.  And if I am ever tempted to give her a fringe again.....please slap those scissors right out of my hands!!!