In progress...

SLyons1

The story of my life are the projects I start and get sidetracked and don't finish so I thought if I put a few out there that I'll have to stick to it and get them done. Project 1 is a group of doll kits that I purchased on eBay made by Sylvia Lyons. They have been languishing for apparel since the mid-70s so I think it's time to clothe them! I've decided that the 1840's is their era.

This is the father, mother, and infant of the group. You can see the daughter to the left. There is a son and a set of grandparents as well. Since I've taken this photo, I've given mother and grandmother a more womanly figure and given each a pair of pantaloons as well.

Another "in the works" project is making some glass eyeballs using glass head pins and glass paints. I read about the pin head technique in Katherine Dewey's book Creating Life Like Figures in Polymer Clay, but I decided to try air dry glass paints on them. The first set I made turned out fairly well although darker than I wanted. We recently discussed this on the MSATMiniDolls Group, and it has piqued my interest to try again. I have about a hundred pins drying now - first part is a surface conditioner which takes ten days to cure - so I'll see if I can experiment some more this weekend. Oh, the eyes are for my someday polymer clay sculpted dolls if I can ever make any that look human...

Finally my last currently "in the works" project is painting a Marcia Backstrom kit with acrylics. I'm actually rather pleased with the progress on this one. I tried a suggestion of removing all but a few hairs from a paint brush, and I find I'm doing much better painting the tiny features than I have done on previous kits.