How To Assemble Miniautre Doll Kits

I finally got my instructions for assembling a miniature doll kit back up on my website. You can find them here:
http://www.ginabellousdolls.com/miniature-doll-assembly-instructions/
They should work for most miniature doll kits and even some larger dolls.

This is a quick and easy method for assembling 1/12th scale miniature dolls. It will also work with larger dolls. This method will give you a nice, clean looking body with flexibility to enable posing the doll for a natural, realistic look. I have been using this method for my entire doll career and really prefer this to a cloth body.




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Miniature Doll - Shoe Tutorial - NEW!

Hi All, I put a brand new tutorial up on my website. If you ever wanted to know how to make miniature doll shoes, this tutorial will help you to create some nice, realistic shoes. http://www.ginabellousdolls.com/making-a-miniature-doll-shoe/ All you need is some fimo or sculpy, your kitchen oven, some porcelain doll legs/feet & a few simple tools. Pin It

Abigail Is Assembled And Posed!

In my last post about Abigail she just had a wire armature with cotton pom poms on her rear.

     

She has since been wrapped with cotton batting and as you can see what looked like exaggerated posture is now quite "normal" for the time period. I also gave her some custom sculpted shoes with a strap and she will have more ornamentation added to them, once they are finished.  

You can see the nice curve "sway" to her back. I plan to give her an Edwardian costume. I am thinking a Day Dress of some sort.

 

I am still considering the fabric and whether I will do a tiny print or separate blouse and skirt.

See you soon.

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Miniature Doll Molds Are Now Back In Stock!

Hooray! For those of you who have been waiting, my miniature doll molds are back in stock. I just picked them up from my mold maker! Fine quality miniature doll molds made by a master mold maker. They feature very fine seam lines and release very easily from the molds. Each mold is highly detailed and yields easy to paint castings. Each doll comes with a different set of arms and legs to mix and match. The hands on all dolls have nice separated fingers.

Buy your molds now : Miniature Doll Molds

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Miniature Doll Kits Sold Quickly

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 Pin It

2 Painted Miniature Doll Kits in Stock

Hi,

I have 2 miniature painted doll kits in stock, available for immediate delivery. 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. Pin It

Abigail Has Spoken – My next miniature doll!

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!            

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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.....

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Miniature Doll Molds Are Now In Production

I am happy to report that I met with my mold maker yesterday and my molds are now in production. It should be another 1 - 1/2 weeks and they will be in stock. If you placed a paid pre order your molds will go out first. I ordered a few exra sets but I am sure they will go fast. If you want any molds, you can place a pre-order on the Miniature Doll Molds page.
Hugs,

Gina






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Fantastic News - Doll Molds!

Hi All,

I have recently been in touch with my mold maker.  He has graciously agreed to make my molds for me again.  He will be doing this part time from his regular job.  I am so excited about this.

I am meeting with him next week to get everything set up. 

If you are interested, please go to my mold page and you can pre-order your molds.

http://www.ginabellousdolls.com/molds/

I am not sure of the exact delivery date yet as it will depend how quickly he can make them for me.

They will be shipped out first come , first served.

Hugs,
Gina

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The Winner of the Fan Contest Is.....

Hello to all,
I had over 70 entries for the fan contest.  Thank you so much.
Congratulations goes to.......

♥ Loly Rodriguez ! ♥

Please contact me at : gbellous@gmail.com so I can send out your fan prize package!


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Reacquainting Myself With An Old Friend

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 you love of dolls first hit you?  When you felt you just had to make dolls?  What was you passion?  Please leave your comments.

Big Hugs,
Gina




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New Items Added to Give Away!

I want to thank everyone for their continued support.  I hope to be able to post some doll related messages here soon.
I am adding some more items to my "Fan" give away! 
We only need 9 more followers to have the contest. 
I have added some lovely paper roses, tiny glass beads & antique "amethyst" crystals (24 pcs.)










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Thanks to my new followers - be sure too...

Hi All,

Many thanks for all of your comments and to my new followers.  If you are leaving a comment and you are a new follower, be sure to click on the "followers" box towards the bottom of the right column of the page.  We just need a few more and then we can have the contest.

I am still finishing up some older order and then I will be back posting new dolls and tips of making miniatures, etc.


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Just need 15 more followers to have our Fan Give Away!

Hi All,
Sorry I have been away.  Both of my kids are graduating.  My daughter graduated from High School and my son is graduating from UC Irvine this Saturday with honors in directing.  We had a huge party for them last week so I am still recovering (read...getting my house back in order, lol).

Thank you to all who have signed up as new followers.  We only have to get 15 more followers until the number reaches 200.  Then I will put everyone who made a comment on that post into a "hat" and pull the lucky winner of the fan.
http://miniaturedolls.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-prize-give-away.html

I will also be giving away some lovely paper roses and rhinestones and beads to go with the fan.

Big Hugs,
Gina

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Chantelle - Fabric Choices for Gown

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!

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When the follower count gets to 200...

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:

China Painting Tutorial

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

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.

See the whole tutorial from start to finish here:
China Painting Tutorial

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"Alex" Doll - A Future Bride!

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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