I’m still on a little bit of a high after my latest artistic endeavor.

Let me explain:

I won a blank doll’s head in a giveaway on Instagram. It’s one of the dolls, “Freesia,” designed by Little Keiko dolls. They are BJD (ball jointed) dolls made of resin. This particular line of dolls is very popular among Blythe aficionados. I was thrilled to win and knew I would have to find someone to do a faceup – the painting and sometimes carving of the face. In this case, there wouldn’t have to be any carving. Just painting.

The head arrived here on September 19th.

I had been slowly collecting the materials required for a face up: pastels, watercolor pencils, white gloves, Mr. Super Clear – a sealing spray, a mask and goggles for using Mr. Super Clear, which is quite toxic, Magic Erasers, foam wedges, paint brushes, and makeup brushes. I gathered all of it because I had been pondering doing the faceup myself and a good friend on my feed gave me a list of what I’d need.

But I was very fearful, so I was about to have the face up done by a wonderful artist (recommended to me by my friend, Gwen.) But, after our initial conversation, she didn’t get back to me when I asked for a price quote. To be honest, money is very, very tight, and that’s why I was thinking of doing it myself. I finally wrote to her and thanked her and said I was going to do the face up. Turns out she’s going through a painful divorce and there’s too much on her plate. So the universe seemed to be saying “Do it!”

So, I started in on the project on Monday. I finished yesterday. Every little step I took was scary. I was so afraid I would screw it up. And it’s not perfect, but since she’s my doll and I’m not selling her, it doesn’t matter.

Here’s the blank head. (I’m not using the eyelids.)

At the end of my first day, here is where I was:

Every layer of work has to be sealed with Mr. Super Clear. You spray MSC over the blank head. Then, you start with the base – in this case, a flesh-colored pastel and then the cheeks and lips. More MSC. (I sprayed outdoors.)

Then you add more layers; the area around the eyes, the eyebrows, and other additions to create the final look. Then, two final coats of MSC. I purchased the eyes and the wig from Little Keiko. I attached eyelashes (which was very tricky – it’s much easier on a Blythe) and inserted the eyes, secured the wig, swore a lot, and – drum roll – here is Jessie!

I can’t tell you how tickled I am about the way she turned out! She’s on the same body I use for my Blythes, so she can wear Blythe clothes. Of course, Don was cheering me on and was seriously stunned by the final look.

I did this! I customized a doll!

One side benefit was that I was so engrossed that I barely thought of the clown show of cabinet nominees.

My birthday is tomorrow. I’m going to be 72. Trying something new at this age can be a bit frightening. But I pushed myself and this sweet girl emerged from all of the worry and trepidation. On my first try!

I think it’s the perfect birthday gift for myself.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

I don’t know if she’s better or worse, but here goes:

First, I’ll share two photos from the blog archives of the way she used to be.

I attempted to curl her hair once before, but I was nervous about it being mohair, so I didn’t wet it before I made the curls. The curls didn’t stay curly for very long. There were metal clips on each side of the part that held a certain amount of hair in place. I finally decided to get rid of them because they’d rusted in place.

I studied lots of Shirley Temple dolls and they usually had big, fat curls all around the face. This particular Shirley clone/knock off didn’t have a ton of hair by the time I started working on her. I had to trim a wee bit of some of the ends so the curls wouldn’t be sloppy.

Here she is:

What do you think?

She’s temporarily sitting on the pew while we wait for the product I ordered to arrive – the one that will hopefully fill in that hole in the composition. She’s been cleaned up using Gojo, a cream that takes away dirt but doesn’t damage the composition. Her face is now much cleaner (and brighter.) I think she feels pretty once again!

Goodness knows, the girls are fascinated by her.

She’s not exactly the way I envisioned her, but given the realities of the amount and length of the hair, I think she looks pretty darned adorable.

I’ve learned so much in my research. I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s a knock-off doll. Her cloth midsection is a big giveaway. In one of my Shirley books, I saw a body like hers and that doll was identified as a clone. She also has blue eyes and the Ideal Shirleys have brown eyes. (My grandmother probably loved that as her Shirley, my mom, had blue eyes.) But she has the adorable dimples, the same eyebrows (though they’re greatly faded,) the same lips and teeth and she’s a happy little girl.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my mom during this whole process. I miss her so much. Even though she wasn’t at all happy with this edition of a Shirley Temple doll, I have to think she’d admire her redo.

I’m a bit wary about filling in that hole, so I’ll tackle it gently. If I think it is too fragile to fill, I’ll leave it alone.

Mom and Grandma.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.