This and That

The shop has been all over the place these past few weeks. There was some jewelry making, trying out different fixatives on faces, finally taking on the ears challenge, body work, research for fun, and thrifting of course.

There was more experimentation with fixatives to ensure the makeup stays put. The workable fixative is useful if additions or changes must be made. But the high gloss product was not a success. The fabric simply absorbs it. So no gloss. Might have to put a layer of glue on first. Hmmmm.

The face painting department insists on having their work approved before handing torsos back to the body builders. (No, not that kind of body builder.) While the sewing is not difficult, using handy dandy hemostat forceps to turn tiny limbs right side out sure does help. The stuffing, stuffing and more stuffing is time consuming and boring. But once that is done the closing seams and putting together isn't so bad. 

Hint! The stitchers find it easier to sculpt tiny fingers and toes BEFORE buttoning the limbs to the torso. We use regular double thread for sculpting. But its heavy duty thread for attaching buttons that mostly match from the Great Aunt's button tin. The thread does not pass through the limbs from button to button. Stitching the buttons one at a time on either side is easier and works like a charm. Be sure to take some good deep stitch/digs in the body pieces.

Feeling lazy, the stitcher did not sculpt Abby's toes. After all, she will be wearing stockings most of the time. But the boss may have a change of mind about that soon.

The jewelry department was beyond happy with the new magnifying lamp and workers no longer squint when dealing with teeny tiny jump rings and fasteners. There are still complaints about the glues and how messy the work space gets though. Someone finally dug up all the jewelry bits and bobs from storage and the thrifted jewelry jar took pride of place next to the cameos waiting for their button bases. 

Hint! Use a tray or piece of velvet under your work for when you drop the @!##&%?? bits. They bounce.

Some of the recovered crafting supplies will now go to the thrift store, since they are not needed and it's time we donated something in return.

Speaking of thrifting! The buyer found some delicious chintz that turned out to be a dress disguised as a table cloth in the linens section. And then a lovely bed sheet with the palest blue chintz ever. All the right scale for the ladies. Oh my!  

The thrift store folks are so used to the buyer digging in the yarn bins that they wave new donations at her. And don't tell anyone, but the boss was waffling about creating a gentleman doll and now has no excuse. The fabric bin and cushion cover section contained the perfect fabrics for not only some men's day wear, but the flashiest velvet for court wear and breeches. And, the Clairbearsfolly pattern has already been adapted for the male body. More fun planned researching those items.

Speaking of research! New books were added to the library as Christmas gifts. One is all about men's wear in the 18th century. Yay. And another is all about women's wear 1785-95. Yay again. Check out the reference section for both of them. They are TERRIFIC.

Best of all, after much consideration, the library now boasts a copy of the Holker Album. Deep sigh. It boasts lovely colour facsimiles of 18th century English textile swatches. And essays about the textile industries in England and France. Seriously, go look it up. There is also a surprising amount of 18th century textile examples on the interweb. Some of them are from the Holker Album if you would like a taste.

If you want to know more about Queen Anne dolls in general check out Theriault's Doll Auction videos on YouTube. Queen Annes regularly appear and the moderator, Florence Theriault, is soooo knowledgeable.  She has written 50 books about dolls and also puts together the auction catalogues. You can look up past auctions and catalogues on their website www.theriault.com, as well as what prices the dolls sold for. 

It's time to close up for the day and so the next blog will be about making and applying ears. Its not as terrifying as first anticipated. And the head of jewelry has come up with a way of changing up earrings without damaging the little ear lobes. 

Now for some more relax time with the Holker Album.