Rock Bonnets!

Poor Emmanuel is pretty much my guinea pig for everything at this point, but thankfully he's pretty amenable to it. :)  My friend Sara Richard is a fantastic artist, and she often posts sketches of things she's working on. In particular she had been doing a lot of fashion designs lately, and I think these sprung out of that.  She created something she calls the "rock bonnet," which is pretty much what it sounds like.  A bonnet, but done up rock'n'roll style with spikes and chains and all sorts of goodness.  I loved the designs (1,2) and decided to try and bring one into reality.  Sewing in miniature for pattern testing always seems easier (and cheaper!) to me, so Emmanuel became my victim volunteer.

You can sort of see him trying to yank the thing off here... ;)

Nothing very productive going on in my world of dolls.  I did give Uri a new face up the other day, and it's probably my most favorite one for him so far.  It's not exactly realistic, it's very pale and soft, but I love it.  It kind of makes me laugh because he's the doll that's always had such crazy face ups, and suddenly I want him in neutral colors.

What I really need to do is re-suede the poor boy, which might happen tonight.  I haven't sueded him again since I first got him, which will be two years next month.  The last of the sueding came off his head with his last face up removal, so it's time. He's also insanely kicky because I like my dolls strung very tightly, so some sueding would help calm that down a bit.

Fall has finally begun to show it's face where I live, and I can't help but be a little bit giddy.  The weather is beautiful; chilly and sunny with a little sweet smelling breeze.  I can layer to my heart's content, and I finally dragged my favorite over-sized brown sweater out from its hiding place.  I am a very happy lady.

In other news, since I always update here when I get a tattoo...I got a new tattoo! It had been a little over six months since my last one, and with bills paid off for the month I was ready.  The image has a lot of very personal meanings to me, but aside from that it is based on a song written by a friend of mine.  His song is called "Widow's Gun," and is an interesting, somewhat dark tale of a woman.  I always got a very specific image in mind of the gun when he sang, although the song itself is a bit ambiguous about whether the gun is real or metaphorical.  However I really wanted to do a little more work on my music sleeve, so this came to be.*

I'm not a gun buff by far, though that's mostly because I have never really been around them.  I have a big soft spot for the older guns, specifically engraved revolvers.  There is something poetic about a thing of beauty being so dangerous.  Plus all the time and energy that went into these works of art just blows me away.  My particular design is based on my own mental image, and an antique gun wielded by Betty Grable in a movie called "The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend."  Talk about a beautiful gun:

*Note: It's very hard to take a picture of your own arm, especially while trying to keep it straight. Hence why some of the tattoo looks funky or the lines look warped.  I can assure you that in person they're not. :)

Pictures!

I mentioned that I had bought Connor his very own Saints coat, as part of his cosplay/character.  It's adorable, I must say. :)

 

Next we have a project I've been working on for a while, but haven't taken any real pictures of until today.  It's a doll case that was made primarily for Gabe, but Connor looks cute in just about anything. ;)

The box itself is a sort of mini wooden suitcase from Hobby Lobby.  I loved the outside design so much that I grabbed it without having a really solid plan of what it might become.

Then I realized it would make a great, steampunk-esque doll case.  Specifically I was making it for Gabe (Volks SDC Arashi), who is supposed to be a vampire with the adorable habit of sleeping in a very large piece of luggage.  Not because he has to, but because it is safer for a vampire to sleep in something during the day, and this was what happened to be around at the time.  He took a liking to it and never let it go.

I bought some Victorian style scrapbook paper and used that as a background for the box (previously it was unfinished wood), and then glued various things on top of it.  Here you can see his framed Nosferatu picture, a snipped from the Dance of Death, a planetary diagram, a flattened/imprinted penny, and the beginnings of a world map.  These images were just printed on some stationary paper I had, and then ripped out to give them worn edges.

More posters here, and you can see the full extent of the world map at the bottom.  There are also Clash and Dropkick Murphy's posters on top.

Even more posters!  I printed out a diagram of Firefly's ship Serenity for kicks, a tiny version of "Lunch on a Skyscraper," and a miniature Voltaire poster from a show that was on my birthday.  On the bottom there is a picture of a Davinci sketch.

Just one last bit of detail here, I included a Fleur de Lis, as well as some miniature Mardi Gras bead.

Connor says goodbye and thanks for looking!

It's not completely finished yet, but it's done enough to post some pictures of.

Painting again!

Doing face ups is probably one of the most enjoyable parts of the hobby for me, followed closely by making clothes and accessories for the dolls. Art is calming, and I find that painting and customizing my dolls is a great way for me to relax and process through creativity at the same time.

As usual I'm repainting Gabe again. I liked this last face up, but I wanted to change a few things on it. I think he needs to have some more natural tones for wigs and such, so I'm going to fiddle with it. I'm keeping his character-specific marks and expanding.


I got the new boy's eyes in today, and they're beautiful. I have this mad love for glass eyes, and these ones are just stunning. They're from Mint on Card Inc. and are a pair of blue-grey with looping lines inside. So beautiful in person. I also got some of his clothes and a pair of leather boots in for him too, but no doll until next week. It's funny to have such cute little clothes and nobody to wear them.

I'm still undecided if this little guy will in fact be a small version of Gabe, though that's what I'm leaning towards. Then my mind started writing this other story.... We'll see. :) I'd kind of prefer a little miniature Gabe, not so much as a child version but just a smaller, slightly more portable version.

And now I'm off to listen to some crazy dubstep and paint!

Productivity without proof.

I'm feeling oddly productive lately, though I don't really have any pictures to show for it. ;) My camera is somewhere safe, so safe in fact that I'm not quite sure where it is. However I will find it soon as I'd love to share some pictures of my new projects.

I made Gabe a necklace last night with some very tiny sterling silver chain and some small gemstones in settings. I can't stand jewelry that is out of scale, but these pieces were perfect.

I also found him a carry case that works for his character and for my future steampunk costumes with him. It's a small wooden suitcase with leather handles and metal hook latches. The sides of the case are covered in old map print, and it's the perfect size to fit him and some padding. I've already started getting pieces together to customize it, but I'll leave the details a mystery for now. It has to do with his character which I'm still working on developing. :)