Princess Belinda

Miss Delilah Bones

Today I finished the second of my Lolita Poppets dolls. I wAnT hEr OuTfIt!! If only it was as quick, easy and cheap to make a dress the same in my size!   

Meet *Miss Delilah Bones* who lives on a pirate ship and is the daughter of Captain Bones:

Here she is gazing out to sea:

I am very pleased with how she has turned out as she is only the second doll that I have made from polymer clay. I am getting a little better at designing and sewing clothes on such a tiny scale. I still need to practise a lot with the glue gun because, at the moment, I am getting glue eVeRyWhErE! I am pleased to report that the technique of using baby wipes on my hands  before handling the clay was largely successful in keeping the clay free from dust and fluff. My doll joints work well (read about their development here and their design here) and in terms of movement this doll is a big step forward from my first doll Chloë. With the next doll I am going to work hard to improve my sculpting skills. I will try to model more dainty hands and feet and put more detail in the face. I am also going to attempt to give the next doll joints at the elbows and knees. Ooooh, I am looking forward to making her already!

In a happy coincidence I have found that my Lolita Poppets are roughly the right height to live in a dolls' house in 1/12 scale. Perhaps Fluffball and I will make our dolls' house for the Lolita Poppets! *Hooray!*

Doll Joints

In the morning I found myself trapped in the doldrums, a silly place to visit when you are so lucky and fortunate as me. I was so annoyed with myself for drifting there. Happily I managed to steer myself out of that dreary place, where it always rains, and work on my next Lolita Poppets doll. Here are the baked Fimo doll pieces ready to assemble. As planned I made a torso with two horizontal bores and one vertical bore. The head has a central vertical bore. Each limb has a bore hole through the top of it.

The next step was to assemble the doll. As it was my first attempt at a jointed doll I was making it up as I went along. I devised a system using spandex elastic, thin wire and, one of my favourite materials in the world: buttons! After some fiddling I had doll joints that were pulled tight enough by the elastic and strengthened by the wire but still moveable. YAY!

This view shows the button holder at the top of the doll's head. When I was sculpting the doll head I made a small dip so that the button does not make too much of a bump on the top of the doll's head. The button holder will be completely covered with the doll's hair:

This photo shows the button holder at the base of the doll which joins the head to the body. The button joints look a bit obvious now but they will all be covered by clothing. :)

Next it was time to bring the doll to life. You can see the completed doll here.

Fabric choices

I spent the day working at Madame Katerina's Habadashery & Fabric Emporium, which will please Dr Ambiguit Deleter greatly, as I earnt some shells. During the day I was visited by my puppet clients. Their visit certainly helped the day to pass more quickly, and talking to them about the puppets and their characters re-enthused me about the project. Here is the fabric that they chose:

I will need to start working my magic on it very soon in order to make their puppets come to life.

And here is the fabric and lace that I chose for my new doll project the *Lolita Poppets* :

More about that tomorrow . . .

Creativity clock: 1h

Other news:
I had a lovely phone conversation with Mama in the evening. I love my Mama. :)