Re: Work In Progress--Deryni Action Figure Project (was Duncan Action Figure)

[Evie]

Nope.  Not unless simply paying attention to him counts as a treat. 

[Jerusha]

Isn't that the best treat of all?   

Though I did wonder about the plastic baggie Luke appears to be laying on.  Did it once contain something of interest to cats?

[Alkari]

Helena gets new nightwear (and/or a chemise).  Actually, she and Richenda will probably end up sharing at least some of their clothing, since I don't see any need to make two identical chemises just so both of them can have one. 

Richenda just smiles innocently and says it's not much use giving her a nice one like that when Alaric's home, as he only has to remove it! 

[Evie]

Though I did wonder about the plastic baggie Luke appears to be laying on.  Did it once contain something of interest to cats?

LOL!  Not unless a couple of hair extensions and the bald male test head are of particular interest to him.     Then again, I suspect part of Luke's seeming fondness for the little people stems from them being the ones getting all the attention these days, so he's learned that if he cuddles up to them, sits on their laps, gets in the way of my sewing, etc., I'll have to pay attention to him also.   

[Evie]

Helena gets new nightwear (and/or a chemise).  Actually, she and Richenda will probably end up sharing at least some of their clothing, since I don't see any need to make two identical chemises just so both of them can have one. 

Richenda just smiles innocently and says it's not much use giving her a nice one like that when Alaric's home, as he only has to remove it! 

Oh, but that's part of the fun!  It's called "giftwrap."   

[Evie]

And now for the update du jour:



Here are the original Duncan head and the female test head.  In hopes of removing the Sharpie marker stains from their hair and faces (especially their faces, but I wanted to get as much as possible from their hair as well so that hopefully their faces won't get restained by the marker ink), I slathered both doll heads in Clearasil anti-blemish cream.  Yes, you read that right; they're getting zit cream facial masks! 



Forgive the Early American Bordello decor in our kids' bathroom; I didn't decorate it!  Heat is supposed to make the stain-removing power of the zit cream work faster, so after both heads had a chance to sit overnight with their "facials," I decided to heat their mask treatment with a blow drier for a few minutes each before washing it off to see if there was any progress in the stain removal or if I'd need to reapply the cream and let it sit longer.  I've read that sometimes it takes up to a few weeks for the zit cream to remove marker stains.



Nearly all of the rusty brown staining that was all over Duncan's forehead and neck has come off, as well as most of the brown splotch on his right (our left side) cheek that he got when I tried dyeing his hair with the hair dye.  He still has a puppy dog nose, but even that seems to have faded slightly.  I have put another glop of cream where the remaining stains are and will leave the mask on for another few days to see if that will help.  There is some danger of bleaching the vinyl "skin" itself if I leave the cream on too long, so I will continue to check it every few days so I can wash it off before it gets to that point (I hope!)  I'm trying not to be overly optimistic, because I've read that the type of staining on Original Duncan's nose can be permanent, because it's not just on the surface of the vinyl but has permeated it.  (IIRC, there's some sort of chemical reaction that takes place when the vinyl head rubs up against some sorts of dyed plastics that vinyl doesn't react well to, which is what happened when Original Duncan spent the day inside the tote bag with the black plastic lining.)  But since it worked so well on the other stains, I'd like to at least give the cream a chance.  We're having outdoor temps in the 90s now, so if I can find a safe place outdoors to let him get some sun and heat, that should help accelerate the cream's effects.



The girl test head had a small brown stain on her left eyebrow that she had when I first bought her, and a gold paint stain on her left cheek from leaning against Duncan's crozier.  The brown mark has faded a bit and a bit of nail polish remover took off most of the gold, though I hope to swab the remaining smudge off with some industrial strength acetone.  I also washed a lot of the red from her hair, though there's still quite a bit left in.  Hopefully what remains won't rub back off on her skin, as I washed her hair with hot water until it ran clear rather than reddish-brown.  There were some Sharpie ink stains on her face and neck before this "facial," but those are gone now.

All right, back to spending time with my parents!

[Evie]

Today I got the reroot tool and a free skein of "Malibu Blonde" Barbie hair in the mail:



Maybe I can use the skein to reroot an Araxie head someday.  I already had some hair extensions in dark brown and soft black, which I blended to get a hair color with subtle highlights.  I will use the dark hair on the male test head to see if I can figure out how to style Kelson's border braid.  If this ends up working out, I might be able to make a new Dhugal as well.



Luke inspects the newly blended hair.  I can already tell that trying to reroot hair in the presence of nosy kittehs is going to be a problem.



Allegedly it should be possible to reroot a Barbie or Ken head in ten minutes.  Obviously whoever wrote that ad must be a lot better at it than I am!  This is what I had done in about fifteen minutes.

Fortunately for the ponytail/border braid look, I shouldn't have to reroot the entire head, but I do need to reroot all of the hair along the perimeter, then pull it back into a ponytail and see if that gives me complete coverage of the scalp without adding too much bulk to the braid.  If there are any bald spots, I might need to fill in the middle bits lightly as well, but hopefully there won't be.  I've only got most of the front hairline done at this point, but so far it's looking fairly promising.  I've accidentally split the vinyl between the close-set hair plugs a few times, but none of the tears look conspicuous and so far the hair is holding fast.  I'll definitely want to get better at this before I try it on something besides a test head, though.

[Elkhound]

Cats make good supervisors.  They make poor assistants.

[Evie]

Boy, don't I know it!  

Well, no new pictures of the rerooting yet, but I do have a few others to upload today.  I did get the rooting done all along the perimeter of the test head, but I managed to destroy it in the process by tearing a gash in the vinyl along one side of the hairline.    I hope to get a smaller needle soon that I hope will handle the more closely-spaced holes at the hairline better than the larger needle.

But in the meantime, here's what else I've done:



Here is Richenda's new sideless surcoat, done in green "velvet" (actually velour) and embellished with gold couching and beadwork.  The couching follows the sleeve openings on both front and back, although the beadwork is only on the front.  It's uncomfortable having beads between one's back and the back of one's chair, after all.  (At least that's my excuse for not beading the back; the true reason is that I'm too lazy!)  This style of garment is actually a bit later period than the early 1100s, but it's a very easy pattern to draft and sew and I quite like the "Gates of Hell" surcoat style, so I decided to veer from strict historical accuracy and just go for "pretty and period-looking."



Here's a close-up of the embroidery.  Alaric is also enjoying his own close-up view of his pretty bride!



Underneath the surcoat is a close-fitting girdled undergown.  (Actually it's the dark gray chemise I made a while back; I have a more accurate undergown planned for her to wear with this surcoat, but it's not cut out and sewn yet.)  This tantalizing glimpse of feminine curves beneath the wide-sleeved surcoat is why many disapproving clergy back in the day dubbed this style the "Gates of Hell."  However, Bishop Duncan thinks his cousin's lady is quite pretty in her new outfit and not at all immodest.  She is still covered up from neck to toes, after all!

So, what is that wooden structure in the background of those last two pictures?  Well, give me a few minutes to update the Mini-Duncan's Mini-Castle thread at http://www.rhemuthcastle.com/index.php?topic=862.0 and you'll soon find out!  

[Jerusha]

Beautiful outfit, Evie!  It may be a while before Morgan is able to tear himself away from Richenda to return to his duties! 

[derynifanatic64]

Beautiful outfit, Evie!  It may be a while before Morgan is able to tear himself away from Richenda to return to his duties! 

Quite a while!

[Evie]

And now for an update on the reroot:


Newly rerooted test head by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Here is the newly rerooted test head with his hair pulled back into a ponytail and braided.  Unfortunately either my needle was too big or my technique is still off, and I split the vinyl in a gash nearly an inch long along the hairline, where the holes are very small and close-set.  But they still hold the hair in well enough for me to test the Border braid hair style as long as I don't tug too hard at the hair.


Rough idea by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I don't have any  thin, clear vinyl bands suitable for styling doll hair, so I made do with one of my own ponytail holders.  It's a bit oversized but it was sufficient to hold the hair so I could see how the front part of the hair would look pulled back and how thick a braid I would end up with.


Regular braid by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Here is the hair in a regular braid.  Even with only the outer edges of the scalp rooted, the resulting braid is quite thick, so I won't be able to do a novel-accurate doubled braid, or poor Kelson would end up looking like he's got a beaver tale at his nape!  But I think wrapping it in the colored cords will slim the braid down a bit.


Four strand braid by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I didn't know if the Border braid has four strands like the Gabrilite braid, so just in case, I tried out a four-strand braid.  Again, it still comes out rather fat, though I like the pattern.


Bound with colored cords by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

I already had this bit of braided cord on hand for holding on Helena's veil, so I used it to see what the braid would look like after wrapped in the Haldane colors.  (Pretend that the blue is  actually gold!)  As I guessed, it does reduce the thickness of the braid by a fair bit.  Now it's around the right size for what a double-thick (i.e., folded in half and bound) Border braid might look like if made with human hair.


Split at hairline by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

If you look closely, you can see where the vinyl has separated, and the face actually juts out from the hairline.  Because of this, I'm afraid to pull the ponytail too taut for fear the rooted hair will come out.


Side view of corded braid by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Once the hair was secure in the cord, I removed the ponytail holder.  The ponytail still sits a bit too high, but I can't properly style it until the hair is rooted more securely in a new head.  This gives a general idea, though.  I think if I just cut the excess hair off, leaving just a little to tuck under and secure with a clear vinyl band, and then wrapped cord over it to hide the vinyl, it would end up looking approximately right.  If it still sticks out from the head once restyled, a pin might be hidden in the braid to make it stick more closely to the head so it will hang straight down.


Rear view of braid by evian_delacourt, on Flickr

Here's a rear view of what the wrapped braid looks like.  Of course, on a final version the ends would be neatly tucked out of sight and the hair trimmed to the right length.

And that's it for now on the rerooting experimentation until I can get a smaller rerooting needle.

[Elkhound]

Am I the only one who finds the sight of the heads detached and stuck on poles to be a little creepy, almost as though Gwynnedd has gone through its equivalent of the French Revolution?

[Evie]

Yeah, the test head stuck on the castle tower reminded me a bit of Prince Conall, except that Conall would never have worn his hair in a Border braid, given how much he looked down on Borderers and their customs.   Maybe I should give him a haircut and try again....    

[Shiral]

Beautiful outfit, Evie!  It may be a while before Morgan is able to tear himself away from Richenda to return to his duties! 

"Rhemuth? Where's that? Haldanes...yes, the name does ring a bell.... I guess! And please, someone keep those cats away. They distract me from the charms of my new Duchess!"

I second Jerusha--that IS a lovely outfit. 

And you've quite the doll salon going, Evie. Facials, shampoos, hair dying and new wardrobes!  It is just a TINY bit disturbing that the clients seem to lose their heads. =o)  Although rather than Gwynedd's equivalent of the French Revolution, I'd say it's more like the end of Camber The Heretic with Hubert and the Regents going mad with power.

Melissa