So happy to finally have some lovely lady miniature doll kits in stock and for sale.  You can find them currently on Ebay.

Click here to see Violet:

Some of these ladies are already wigged and ready for you to assemble and costume

Click here to see Francine:

Please have a look and see if anything catches your eye.  I will be adding more dolls in between special orders.

Click here to see Colette:

Each doll has a lovely, very detailed china painted face.

Click here to see Violet 2

Thank you to everyone who inquired about purchasing the two lovely ladies.  I have been gone for the day.  Upon returning  my mailbox was flooded with requests to purchase them.  I chose the very first person who responded to the post/email.

I will have more kits in the next couple of weeks.  If you haven’t signed up for my mailing list, please use the “newsletter” box to sign up.  Your email will never be given away.  You only need to sign up once

I have 2 miniature painted doll kits in stock, available for immediate delivery. These little ladies are not available anywhere else.  They are from original molds never released to the public.  Each face is meticulousley handpainted with several separate firings to achieve the fine detail that adds depth and realism  They are 65.00 each plus 6.95 shipping.  They each come with assembly instructions.  You can also opt to have them assembled or wigged by going to my Doll Kit’s Page and scrolling to the bottom to add these services or Email me here: Gina to purchase these doll kits. and add the extra services.  There is only 1 of each available.  This is a great chance to get one of my kits without waiting.

Okay, so Abagail (doll #4 as she was referred to yesterday), has always called to me. I agree with John that #4 was the way to go.

I took Morena’s advice and decided to block out all of the other miniature ladies that are calling to me and concentrate on her alone. Even her arms were already decided from the very beginning and I handsculpted some 2 tone porcelain arms with white gloves and bare flesh shoulders. These may end up being covered up from above the elbow (or more).

I wanted to do a more “casually” dressed victorian or Edwardian lady, perhaps off to have tea or something. Even when these ladies were not going to a ball they still were so well dressed.

As you can see I am already positioning her. As I have mentioned in the past, this is a very imortant step in achieving a more lifelike doll rather than a stiff doll. Right now her sway in her ack looks exaggerated, but that is because her body hasn’t been wrapped yet.

Here is another angle where you can see the sway in the back, the chest up, etc.  She will get fancy shoes before she is costumed.  Thank you for the emails letting me know your thoughts on my creative conundrum!

 Have you ever been in a Creative Conundrum?  I seem to have so many ideas and so many special, painted doll kits set aside to costume that I can’t seem to decide which one to dress or which costume to do, etc.  It must sound silly to some, but I always make 1 or 2, one of a kind ladies when I am working on my doll kit orders.  I have 6 pretty gals just begging for me to costume them.  I have been working on them for many months already just to get them to this point. Sigh, I don’t know which little lady to create first.  Alas, the poor dears have been banished to solitary confinement and can only dream of stepping out in a new world all dressed and ready for a new adventure.  Does this ever happen to anyone?  You have the most wonderful doll, fabrics, etc. but just can’t seem to settle on what to do with her?  Arrrgh!  It will be fun to see which lady wins!  I think #4 from the left is calling out to me.  Her name is Abigail. Stay tuned…..

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

>

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.

• Draping 
• Scale
• Posture of 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!