Okay, finally we have come to 200 followers! Thank you so much. I will put all of the names of those of you who commented on my blog asking to be in the give away in a bowl and pull the lucky winner. You have until midnight tonight to still enter the fan contest and then I will draw the lucky winner tomorrow.
Later this coming week I will start a new give away for the Katelyn blank (not painted) doll kit.
Gig Hugs,
Gina
Hi All,
It was brought to my attention that my miniature doll, china painting tutorial was missing several pages. I am not sure how that happened, but I am happy to report it is back up and complete. You can see the tutorial on my website, here: http://ginabellousdolls.com/china-painting/
I am so sorry for the inconvenence. I am still adding back the tutorials from my old site as time allows. I appreciate your following and your patience.
Hugs,
Gina
As Summer has now blown in with a gentle breeze and my children have flown off in different directions like the seeds of a dandelion delicately drifting towards their destinations I have found myself wanting to rekindle lost friendships and reacquaint myself with me.
I want to find myself again now that my permanent job as keeper of dreams, nurse of scraped knees, doctor of tummy aches, cook, storyteller, money tree, & chauffeur to all places big and small has taken a back seat. I sometimes feel like I spent my whole life so wrapped up in being a mother that suddenly being laid off from some of those jobs has left me wondering…now what?
My children will always need me, this much I know, but now is a time for reinvention. I recently called a good friend of mine who I had lost touch with. It was like no time had gone by. We were talking at a bubbling speed trying to catch up on all of the years. She reminded me of a doll that I made for her daughter way back when I first started in the business. She told me she had put it away all of these years for fear that her daughter would get rid of it in her teen years. I haven’t seen it , but it made me really look back and see how my passion for dolls started and how much my work has transformed thoughout the years.
I remember just sort of throwing myself into dollmaking after seeing the most beautiful miniature doll I had ever seen in a miniatures shop. I was spell bound, as I held her tiny form in my hand. I had to make my own doll. This was over 23 years ago.
Do you remember when your love of dolls first hit you? When you felt you just had to make dolls? What was your passion? Please leave your comments.
Big Hugs,
Gina
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As promised, here are several new photos of Chantelle. I will put them on my website for a higher resolution.
Chantelle is an original miniature porcelain doll. She is created from original molds by me. She is 1/12th scale and stands approximatley 5 1/2″ tall. She is a special one of a kind lady with exquisite details.
In this side view you can see the tiny rose in her hair. It is handmade by miniature artist Carol Wagner. I just love her amazing flowers, they are so lifelike.
Chantelle has a tiny hand applied and fired-on 24 caret gold necklace with tiny Swarovski Crystals. She has piercing blue eyes and fiery red hair. You can also see a close up of her dark charcoal 3/4 length gloves.
Here is a back view of the bodice of Chantelle’s gown. All of the lace on her gown is antique andhand dyed to a dark charcoal gray color. It compliments the plum color of her gown and sets off her red hair.
You can see how fine the antique lace is in this photo and how nicely it lays and drapes. You can also see the detail in the styling of her hair.
A nice detail of the front of Chantelle’s bodice. It features tiny beading at her decolatage and lovely swags of purple silk cording, tiny beads and Swarovski Crystals.
Chantelle looks regal in her gown. She is ready for the ball.
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I have finally finished Chantelle. She gave me a few challenges that I will discuss later. For now, I just wanted to introduce the finished doll and show you some photos. I will be posting many more photos of different angles and close ups. Once I get the photos uploaded to my site, you will be able to see larger, higher resolution images.
Today, we will look at several factors when costuming a miniature doll.
Please click on photos for a slightly larger view.
Here are more photos of Chantelle as the draping of her skirt continues. As you can see, I use a lot of pins in the process. These pins happen to be long silk pins, but there are even finer pins out there. They are insect pins. I find that these finer silk or insect pins work great to keep the pin holes to a minimum or just very small.
I use pieces of Styrofoam as a base to pin into as I work (I save Styrofoam from products such as TV’s. electronics, etc. that have it as protection in their boxes.)
As you can see, I have re pinned and kept the pins in the bottom of Chantelle’s skirt. From now on, until she is finished she will remain pinned to the Styrofoam. This is to insure that all of the hard work of draping her skirt will not be lost every time I spray or re-spray a part of her costume.
I had to scrap the original gorgeous lace I intended to use for her over skirt as it was just too heavy and out of scale.
Scale is of utmost importance in miniatures. If you want the costume to be believable then you must use the proper fabrics and trims.
Color really also comes into play when considering scale. Remember, earlier, I mentioned that the trims are all a dark charcoal color but they certainly read as black, don’t they? True dark black was just too much of a contrast with the amethyst color I chose so the charcoal plays well, fits the scale and adds an aire of elegance and richness rather than looking cheap, which can happen if the scale is not correct.
I had a great piece of antique lace that was just big enough (and long enough) to make the lace overlay skirt I was envisioning for her costume. It was also perfect because it was sheer and airy and does not hide all of the hard work I put into draping the underskirt.
You want to be sure that the lace overlay also drapes nicely, and does not stick out funny or hide what is underneath it.
Now let’s talk about your doll’s posture. Can you see how regal Chantelle looks? She is slightly bent forward, causing her back to sway a bit but her chest is held high. She is not merely standing there. She already displays an attitude which goes well with that look on her tiny face. I have always been drawn to that “look” on her face. I think that is why I kept her back to costume rather than sell her as a kit. She seems to have so much life in her.
I see a whole story unfolding when I look at her. This is a woman who perhaps has her eye on a gentleman at a party and is not happy with the attention he is lavishing on a woman she considers her competition. “Game on!”, Chantelle is not going to stand by and watch her would be suitor slip away. Do you see how having a vision, story, etc. can really help the doll and her costuming come to life?
Next I will be adding all of those fine details and trims that will make this a special gown.
Please check back!
I am still working on Chantelle in between orders. I am trying to keep her gown simple but elegant. I want it to drape nicely and realistically and I don’t want to cover up those pretty gathers I worked so hard to put in. She is coing along nicely.
I have finally had some time to go through some fashion plates and get some inspiration for the gown that Chantelle will be wearing. Chantelle has since received the beginnings of her undergarments.
The fashion plate pictured is just for reference. The gown will be similar but not a miniature copy as I have some other ideas and elements I want to add. I also have a great pieces of antique lace that I want to incorporate into the skirt as an overlay. I found this great fashion plate online and was thrilled to see how much it sort of resembles Chantelle, her gloves, etc.
I have decided on a nice color palette of rich lilac & purple and dark charcoal laces. I went through all of my antique lace & trims and pulled the ones I think will work for the idea I have in my head. Since all of the lace and trims are ivory colored I had to dye them a deep dark charcoal color. They will read as black in such a small scale which is what I want. I used Tulip fabric dye to color the laces. I added a bit of brown to the black to warm the color up a bit.
I especially love the dark charcoal tuck pleated fabric on the right. It is originally from the lower edge of an antique pair of pantaloons. The pleats are only about 1/16″ wide. So fine. It still has the tiny cotton lace edge attached to the bottom.
I found some terrific silk fabric at a store that was going out of business. I wish I had bought more. It dyes beautifully and is so soft. I used Jacquard Acid Dyes to dye the silk. It is specially formulated for silk and feathers and really binds to the fabric nicely. You can see my tutorial on using the Jacquard Acid Dyes (feathers), here: Silk/Feather Dyeing Tutorial
This dye will NOT work on cotton fabrics which is why I used Tulip Fabric Dye for the cotton lace & trims.
Stay tuned for the next installment of Chantelle!
Often times I have a customer who would like me to make a doll in a person’s likeness but cannot afford the fees for a one of a kind sculpted doll.
There are other more affordable ways to have a doll made that will resemble a person. It helps if you have a good repoire with your dollmaker/artist. They should be willing to work with you to find the right face and talk about options for hair, painting style, gloves, etc.
My customer wanted me to make a doll kit that she will dress of her daughter for her wedding. She did not want a custom sculpted doll. She chose the face from my selection of doll kits I carry on my website: Gina Bellous Dolls . After narrowing it down, she chose Lydia from a mold by Stacy Hofman. I had to agree with her that this was a good choice. It is a mold that is not available commercially, but has no dropped shoulders. Her daughter is wearing a strapless gown and her shoulders will be bare so no matter what type of shoulders we chose, there will be a seam showing.
This is Alex. She is such a pretty girl. After making both dolls, I realize that her hair will be worn down like in the photo so doll #1 with the full arms will work just fine, but I like the face of doll #2.
I decided to make 2 dolls and let her choose which one she likes best. To offer a variation of the shoulders I cut the head off of Stacy’s doll and put it on my Victoria body and flattened the bustline a bit. This gave the doll a nice youthful neckline and body. I was able to squeeze her face a bit when I removed it from the mold to make it narrower.
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| Haley Kit will be blank – not painted |
Hi,
Thank you so much for all who are following me. I hope to be posting more often with doll kits and dressed dolls I am working on.
When the blog follower count gets to 200, I will hold another contest! This time it will be for a porcelain doll blank that you can paint yourself.
You can find my china painting tutorial here:
It is a great tutorial for beginners and also advanced doll artists looking for some tips on painting eyes, etc. You will find a list of all the supplies you need as well as the colors and supplies I like to use. You can also apply these tips to using oil or acrylic paints if you don’t have access to a kiln.
Here is a sneek peek at the tutorial:
See the whole tutorial from start to finish here:
China Painting Tutorial
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Step #10
 Okay, This is one of my favorite parts,
but also one of the MOST frustrating! I will admit, it sometimes sends me over the edge, lol.Wash your brush in water, blot on paper towel. Dip brush in area medium, and run brush over your skin (yep) to blot excess medium without removing too much from brush. Carefully set the tip of the brush in the center of the paint. It will blot up some of the paint. Now repeat this step several times until you can see a nice light circle in the center. Remove enough paint to leave a radiant circle in the iris. Step #11
Ahhh, Dannie, here’s looking at you, kid!
Repeat the last step on the opposite eye.Turn that little head upside down to make sure the irises match.This is a really important step. The irises should be as even as possible. They should look similar in size, shape, and coloring. It is very easy for one to become lighter or darker than the other one, and that will show up when you go to add the pupils. It will be very noticible. |
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See the whole tutorial from start to finish here:
China Painting Tutorial
