Wednesday 30 January 2013

Don't Panic!! - Invasion of the Tinies

They say good things come in small packages and I have to totally agree with that! Today my special Wonder frog Wanda fortune friend arrived, Sunaro Iain.
These are made in Japan by Studio-uoo. I first found them in my new DollyDolly magazine I just purchased off evilbay and I was totally smitten!  Sunaro stands a whole tinchy 5cm tall and has movable arms, legs and head. There's a whole range of them but there are not many available direct outside of Japan. We only seem to be able to order a very limited selection, but I am happy to have this one! I'm sure it won't be my last!
Quick- Push the panic button!

From the Studio-uoo website

#3 Sunaro Iain
Massage of Expression of freedom
Mind without devotion.(or The mind is not captured in anything.)
Challenge to possibility.

Fortune Wanda’s Friends
“Fortune Wanda’s Friends”is the doll modeled on the figure at the time of Wanda being a tiny little child .They were made as talismans by Rora Misty which is a fortune-teller in the forest of Neuer.
First, ,Rora stirs various stuff round and round in a pan and melts them slowly. Next, the stuff is poured into the mold with which fortune was enclosed.Finally, she cast a mysterious spell and finish making the “Fortune Wanda’s Friends”.The inhabitants of forest of Neure chooses “Fortune Wanda’s Friends” suitable for the fortune which they wish on that day. They enjoy to decorate the room with it, or walk around with .

Wednesday 23 January 2013

A Little Giggle Over A Noodle of a Doodle

I don't like talking politics much but I did get a bit of a giggle today after reading this article. It appears that US president Obama has nominated Jack Lew for US Treasury Secretary; so what's funny about that you ask??

All the talk is about his signature, well if you can call it that! If he is appointed, it will appear on all US currency.

Yep, A doodle!!!


It could be compared to this, only I think the cupcake one is much neater

A lovely Hostess Cupcake, It's tasty too!   

For a little bit more fun, you can generate your doodle signature here , thanks to the folks at Yahoo. Here's mine.

Quite charming would't you say?


Tuesday 22 January 2013

Out for a stroll?

Millie decides to take Dottie and Dasher out for a walk. Of course in all the lastest Paris Couture

Just walking da dogs

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Not your average Family Photo

Ted the one eyed tentacle pirate, Cosma Shiva da Diva and Millie the lightsaber wielding minx

Arrrgg, whonnng whooong

Theres a New Girl in Town...

We've not been properly introduced yet.Just before Christmas this little Makie snuck in under the radar. I've really not had time to redress and photo and play much over that time, so today I set aside some time and took a few pix.

Without further adieu, let me introduce Cosma Shiva...

Looking very studious in with her new tortoise shell reading glasses
A bit glammed up
This is a VERY good book!


This Gal is ready to PAAARTeeee



Tuesday 15 January 2013

Blythe feels a little blue...

I came across this while googling, What an amazing paint job





You can view more of this artist COCOMICCHI on her Flicker stream. Looking through her photos I wish I had an ounce of her AMAZING talent!

Thursday 10 January 2013

A Very Hairy Experience...

Here is my step by step experiment on 'rooting' a cap! I have to say that with the Welsh wool I used it was easy to create this effect

I got the idea from a Pullip Japanese magazine, though it's not too informative and I can't read Japanese :-O It uses wefts of hair sewen onto a strip. I will look for these in future or try to sew my own! Please note I didn't put wool in all the holes, just 3/4 of the front of the cap and sides as I had too many holes and my wool was too thick!




I start off with cutting lengths of Welsh wool and a needle threader (though some fine wire looped and twisted would work well too)




You can see the underneath of the cap, I have been pulling yarn though and then knotting the end to keep it in place. I didn't do it but if I was doing again, I would snip off the end of the yarn so it doesn't get too full. When all is done, a little glue could be applied to the underneath to keep it all in place.



I pulled the threader in from under the cap


So the loop came through the top. I would then slide the yarn into the loop
and gently pull the yarn to the underside of the cap




I then tie a knot and pull the yarn from the top end so the knot is against the skull cap



Then ta daaaa! It's a wigged cap



This is just a simple first step version. I've never done any sort of root work before but I think for Makie dolls this came out great.

Some more experimentation to come!

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Drilled Skull Plate for Makie Doll Tutorial Part DEUX

I finished this last night so this is part two of the Tutorial of preparing the wig cap for making a Rooted Makie Wig. I forgot to Mention before that you can purchase extra skull plate direct from the Makie shop for £9.

I decided with the yarn I plan on using that I needed a bigger hole than what I originally started with. I also found that by using a 2mm drill bit, it was a bit more sturdy and I didn't break any bits!. So as an amendment I would recommend trying as much as possible to use the hole punch to start the holes and then use the drill to re-drill them to make it bigger. Being a curved surface it is much better to have prestarted hole to drill the bit onto.

So... I re-drilled ALL the holes to 2mm

New Drill bits- so I drill again!


As you can see underneath there were some holes with little scraggly bits hanging out. I just wanted to tidy them up a bit (being pedantic and all)

I don't like the scraggly bits!


So I got a craft knife out and cut to my best ability as many of the nibbly bits off.
Careful not to cut yourself


I wanted a smooth surface on the top because I didn't want the 'hair' snagging at all so a light sanding over did the job. I used a fine grit sandpaper.


A fine gril, about - I used P180


To smooth the holes, I used a rotary tool round filing bit on the holes that still had a few rough bits. A 2mm round jewelers file will do the job too but I just didn't have one and improvised.


The start of a pin head?


So this is the finished product, I am quite pleased with the results!

Where a hole in the head is good!

This is the finished wig I made with the skull cap, but I will put up a full tutorial on how to make that :)
Lovely 100% Welsh Wool

Drilled Skull Plate Tutorial For Makie Doll- Part One

Part ONE!


Ok this is a LONG post, it is instructions on how to drill a skull cap to allow you to make a rooted wig. I started this back in November so this is the first part I had posted over at the Makie forum. I have posted it here too so you can use for future reference.

So - started off marking the cap with pencil dots


Lots of dots!






I then used my beadsmith metal punch which works perfectly on the nylon and punched as many holes as I could. It doesn't have a long neck stretch so I will have to drill the remainder.
I also found that towards the back of the skull was harder to punch so they will need drilling too.

The tool of choice for punching thigs!




As you can see I can't reach all of the holes but I got a lot done!


As Far as I could punch- the rest will have to be drilled

Out comes the heavy artillery for the drilling- I used the biggest tiny bit I had which is a 1.5mm. I accidently broke it before I completely finished it so I have decided to order 2mm ones which is close to the beadsmith punch. The nylon is VERY easy to drill. I had no issues at all

Drill on hand, good ole fashioned stanley handrill


This is it for now, the skull came went back on fine, just have to wait for my new bits to arrive and I'll be able to carry on. I did think about sticking some pins in to create a pinhead from Hellraiser effect but the holes are too big for dress pins, so that would need to be another project another day LOL

Times where a hole in your head is useful!


Tuesday 8 January 2013

Eye will be seeing YOU!

I ordered some eyes off eBay for my Makie doll and thought I would try them out. These are full glass eyes so are not suitable for the eye holders that Makielab have inside of the head so they have to be put in with a bit of white tac. These are 18mm eyes but I think the 16mm glass ones would work fine.

It's pretty poor light here, so the natural pictures are probably not the best! The flash makes them look in your face, though the purple ones looked fine with flash

The red Devil Eyes- Natural Light

The Devil eyes in flash - OH MY

I like this purple!

Perfect Colour Purple

In the natural light it is hard to make out the gold sparkle in the blue
VERY STAREY!!! but you can see the sparkles