Saturday 31 July 2010

Dolly Oven

When the concerns arose last year regarding fumes being given off from vinyl during heating when curing the Genesis Heatset Paints I wanted to get a small stand alone oven that I could use for my dolly art only.  The first oven I got was a Tefal mini oven which turned out to be a bit of a disaster, it cremated the tea towels on the baking trays within 3 uses and burned the trays as well before long.  Which was really irritating. 

The main problem I found with the mini ovens is where the heating elements are placed,  either in bars placed on the bottom of the oven or on the top, or in some cases... both!   But these elements are usually exposed, which is fine when you are cooking food you want to go brown... but not really good for heating a kit evenly.  

I do have to say though that the mini oven did come in very handy for keeping me warm during a particularly cold craft fair... we ended up switching it on, heating it up and then opening the door and standing in front of it to defrost.

I was very lucky to receive a new Mini Oven from my parents in law for my birthday, this one is a Combination Oven, so it can be a convection oven, a microwave or a grill or a combination .  Very handy!

It has a large internal cooking space so can take quite big kits, I managed to bake an Arianna kit in it quite happily. The elements to this oven are completely concealed within the walls of the oven so there's no problem of heating elements being too close to the kit and the temperature maintenance of the oven is very reliable and accurate.   All in all after having this oven for over a year I would recommend it very highly as a suitable oven for reborning.

Sunday 25 July 2010

Christines Doll and Teddy Fair - Weston Super Mare - July 2010

Going to Weston Super Mare was a first for me, never been there before. One of the things I am loving about the Dolly World is the fact that I am getting to visit towns I have never been to and didn't even know existed, it's a fantastic experience and it's definitel widening my horizons.

As Weston Super Mare was quite a trek for us, almost 3 hours and was almost half way between myself and my friend Natalie Milne we thought it would be really fun to make a long weekend out of it. So off to Weston we went. I was as excited about seeing Natalie and her family as I was about the show!

My stand on the day.


The room that we were all displaying in was large, bright and well lit, with lots of space for the stands and wide aisles between the stands giving visitors plenty of room to look around and browse.  As well as reborn dolls there was kits and supplies on offer and teddy bears. 


More photos of the day below.

 Natalie Milne and her daughter Sophie


Monday 5 July 2010

Dulcie travels to Ireland

After a 10 day auction Dulcie, my sweet little Michelle by Evelina Wosnjuk was adopted by a new mum in Ireland who has renamed her Amy Leigh after her granddaughter. 

After being carefully packed for travelling Amy Leigh arrived in ireland to very positive feedback.  


I wish Amy Leigh's new family many years of enjoyment of her company.

Thursday 1 July 2010

Mitsuko- Searches for a Home

I'm not the best most proactive person at marketing my beautiful babies, got to improve that, but over the last year I've been so engrossed in Hello Dolly that I've not dedicated the time into showing off my work... slapped hand time... so I'm going to make a more concerted effort to empty out the Nursery of it's current sweet inhabitants to make room for some new work.

Mitsuko was created from a Lotus sculpt by Adrie Stoete, I loved creating her, I wanted to give her a creamy Asian complexion with a sweet flush of blush but without being overly mottled.

I love Asian baby hair, quite often you see a thick mop of hair that has a mind of it's own and sticks up all over the place and I wanted to achieve that with Mitsuko.


Mitsuko is on Ebay for 10 days in the hopes that she will capture a new mum's heart and leave the Nursery and find a new home.




Mitsuko has a beautiful Peach Satin traditional Cheongsam outfit that she will be travelling home in.

To view Mitsuko's auction click here