Valerie ~ Goes Home

Sweet little Virginia has found a new family and gone off home.  Her new family love having her and that's got to be the best bit of my job, creating something that brings someone else happiness.

Doll & Teddy Show ~ Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham

Had a lovely day at the Motorcycle Museum at the weekend even though the weather was atrocious there was a good turnout and everyone seemed quite chipper. 

Cheese eating grin!

Below is a selection of photos taken on the day by myself and Cathy Read. 

Cora Goes Home

Another of the things I love about working in the dolly world is the friendships you make, how you end up meeting people you might never have come across just because they have seen and liked your work.  

Cora for intance has gone home to someone I didn't know but whom I believe I have developed a real friendship with and that makes me happy.   Quite often when I send a doll home to a new owner, its to never hear from that person again or sometimes only to hear from them when they want another baby made, but as a person and an artist it's a great feeling to know you have a connection with your customer. 

Cora arrived home very quickly,  well done City Link, less than 24 hours!  That's pretty darn good going so definitely a recommendation for their services from me!

And I have received a positive message from Cora's new mum, so all in all, a jolly super day... What What! 

Cora was created from a "First Love" kit sculpted by Ruth Annette of Simply Reborn Ltd.

Makeshift Home Photo Studio

I get asked a lot how I manage to take such good photos and my main answer is "good light". 

Good lighting is essential but it needs to be the right kind of light, direct sunlight may sound like a good idea but really it's not, its harsh on vinyl, bounces off causing shadows and shine where you don't really want it.  Bright but dull days are my favourite days for taking photos. 

I take mine mostly in our conservatory, it has lots of windows, although I do close the shades on a lot of those depending on where the shadows are coming from. 

Contrary to popular belief you don't need a massive amount of space to take good photos.  In this example I am going to use just a corner of a sofa.  But I use lots of other set ups including crib style set ups which I will demonstrate in another post.

So starting with one bog standard 2 seater sofa, notice the shades are closed behind the sofa as I don't want light and shadows bouncing in from that direction. Obviously if I didn't have lots of other windows bringing in light I would be forced to leave open these shades as the light would be essential.

 

Using cushions of a stuffed roll create a base, cover this with a white cover, as you don't want the colours to show through. 

and then use a white sheet to cover the whole area you plan to photograph, the white will help bounce back the light in a low light environment.

This is the basis for all of your photos.  You can of course also use a black background but that will reduce how much light bounces back from your background. 

All you nee now is a selection of blankets and cloths to pop on top of your background to take your photos. Choosing different textures and colours makes for interesting eyecatching photos.

All of these photos were taken using this technique.

William - Available

Completed and ready to meet a new family is little William, created from a Laura Tuzio Ross "Walter Sculpt" Little William will be accompanying me to the Pudsey Doll and Teddy Fair at the weekend. 

 

William measures about 19inches from head to toe and has been painted with many many layers of Genesis Heatset Paints.  William is rooted with two tones of Slumberland mohair.

WIP - First Love

This is a sculpt that I just had to get, as soon as I saw the original sculpt by Ruth Annette on Facebook I just knew I wanted to do this little one. That fragile gentle little face is just something very special. 

As a little Christmas light relief I thought I would just enjoy some painting time, it's funny how although it's quite a skillful thing to do it's also very relaxing and I find it very relaxing, I find that as I am painting my mood lifts, no matter how black and the tension I am feeling eases.  Maybe that's just a reaction from doing anything that you enjoy.

I've worked on the base laters, the earliest skin undertones in blue, red, green and purple which always look a little strange.

I am really happy with the skin tones that are developing,  I will update in a few more layers.

Kimberley Beth

A sweet friend of mine and fellow doll enthusiast Christine Derry asked me to reborn one of the Bethan Rose sculpts, I knew she liked what I had done with the prototype for the sculpt but was really honoured to be asked to do one specially for her.   I think reborning for a friend is possibly more daunting than doing one for a stranger as when its a friend you really really want to give them the baby of their dreams even more...disappointing someone you care about is very hard to swallow after all.

Christine was incredibly patient with me as I worked on Kimberley Beth really slowly and was really precise in what I was doing... plus there was all the hassles of winding up the magazine etc which kind of brought me down.

I was finally able to present Kimberley Beth to Christine at yesterday's Discover Dolls fair and it really made my day to see her reaction and I managed to get a couple of fantastic pictures of just how pleased she was with her new baby.

Maya

Maya is another of the dolls that I will be displaying and with luck rehoming at the Discover Dolls Show this weekend.  Maya has been created from a Deshawn sculpt by Jen Printy.

Maya measures about 19inches and has gorgeous baby blue german hand blown glass eyes.

Come along and meet her at the Discover Dolls Show on Sunday 17th October at the Holiday Inn, Peterborough.

Motorcycle Museum Doll Show - 26th September 2010

I had a fantastic day at the Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, I joined Cathy Read and Lisa Dawson on the Discover Dolls stand for the day, thanks ladies, it was great to have such good company.

Shows are always so much more fun when you have company to share the day with.  The Show was its usual mix of teddies, vintage dolls, reborn dolls and OOAK's and as usual the customer turn out was excellent, and customers seemed very enthusiastic about the artwork on show.

I was particularly delighted to have one of my babies adopted on the day, Charlie was rehomed to a really lovely lady who loved him on sight. 

Teeny Tiny Finn

I will also be presenting for sale this sweet little morsel at the upcoming Discover Dolls, Finn was created from a Tamie Yarie sculpt,  Quinn, at 12 inches this little sweetie fits into your hands so well.  But even being so tiny Finn is wonderfully detailed.

The tiny delicate limbs have all the detail and beauty of a full sized sculpt. 

Finn will be available for a cuddle at  Discover Dolls on Sunday 17th at the Peterborough Holiday Inn.

Come along and say hello.

Georgia

The sculpt I used to create Georgia is one of my favourite sculpts, there is something so endearing about the cheeky face that Evelina Wosnjuk has created for this sculpt.  Everytime I look at Georgia's face I find myself smiling, it's something I just can't help doing.

Georgia will be one of the dolls I will be presenting at the upcoming Discover Dolls Show in Peterborough at the Holiday in this coming Sunday 17th October. 

The Discover Dolls Show is a great show with 3 rooms full of wonderful dolly art and supplies.

Tessa Off to Meet Her New Family

Tessa is one of the biggest babies I have ever done, she is very similar in size to a Reva Schick Ariella and wears clothing up to 3 months very comfortably.  I didn't want to make her too babyish as she is so big so I gave her a full head of curly blonde hair. 

Tessa has gone to live with a lovely lady who has renamed her Angel and I wish Cathy many years of happiness with Angel.

Feedback

Hi Lisa love - i have been on tenterhooks all day wanting to let you know ho much i love my little girl. ngel is beautiful and is sitting on the bed beside me as i write to you. My little dog Bonnie has quite taken to her too and is snuggled up fast asleep with her head resting on Angel's feet - I love her shoes by the way, they are so pretty, and Thank you for the photo albumn love, what a sweet touch. She was in a lovely sturdy box and so well packaged, and in her pretty dress, she was as pretty as a picture. Thanks for everything. Cathy.xxx

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

Introducing Baby Pia

This is baby Pia, she has been reborn from a gorgeous sculpt "Lacey" by the very talented Shawna Clymer, I have spent many days creating a delicate young baby skin by using incredibly thin layers of Genesis Heatset Paints, each layer carefully oven cured to make sure it has set.

Great attention has been paid to the detail of this baby, she has had every crease and crevice of her body painted.

I used a very fine need to micro root her hair with ultra mohair in black. Her hair has then been sealed inside with a waterproof sealant that allows the new owner to dampen and restyle Pia's hair.

Pia has been weighted with a mixture of poly pellets and glass beads and that squidgy baby feel is achieved by the use of "baby fat" and polyester fibre fill. Because Pia's limbs and head are weighted she has the feel of a real baby and requires support to her head and limbs just like a real baby would do.

Reborning is an incredibly time consuming art, it's a real labour of love to create these amazing life like baby dolls.

If you would like to have a go at reborning please visit my website for kits and supplies http://www.gloriarty.co.uk/reborn And a wonderful resource for more information about reborning is RBUK a friendly welcome community of UK reborn artists and doll collectors.

If you like my work please feel free to leave a comment. If you are interested in purchasing one of my reborns or having me make a custom reborn specially for you please email me.

Pia is at present available for sale please contact me for information.

Enjoy the photos of Pia.