Steampunk Barbie
So, I offered to make barbies for friends, and arkivarie requested a steampunk-style doll. She specifically wanted a Black barbie, which actually was a bit of a challenge because I have determined not to buy any new base dolls (or anything else for ooak) until I can move some of these outta here, but I have actually made so many Black dolls since I stopped actively buying that most of the ones I've got left are the My Scene style. Which seemed wrong for this project. But! Then I found one that had a good face sculpt for it, and hair with bangs, too, which I wanted after I did some research. So yay! Pictures and blithering about my process under the cut:
I can't find my light tent (for like two years, now. Oof), so I took some photos on the dining room table, with the blinds open, which still required some flash. So the colors aren't quite true. But you can get a sense. Here is a full front view:
For the clothes, I used a pair of kicky little black ankle boots I had on hand, as well as a long coat that came with some stack of clothes I bought at some point, a frilly white shirt that I had embellished with sequiny things for another project and ended up not using, and some other prefabricated bits and bobs. I also made a pattern for a long, vaguely Victorian-style walking skirt (it has a bit of a train in the back), which I stitched out of dark brown cotton. I flipped the pattern around a bit and then folded like woah and created a super-bustled over-skirt in a lighter shade of cotton fabric. I am overall pretty happy with the results, but I wish I had had some fabric with a little more drape on hand that wasn't satin, which seemed too shiny and posh for the first officer of an airship.
Face-shot!
The actual modifications to the base doll were minimal, and pretty much confined to the head. I did a head-swap for a body with feet that would fit the shoes I wanted to use and jointed elbows, repainted some of the face, and did the hair (about which more later).
I really liked the base doll's eyes, but she had glitter lipstick and glitter eyeshadow, which felt too modern. So I got out the acetone and scrubbed off the lips, then veeeeery carefully took off the eyeshadow without disturbing the eyes themselves. I did some victory fists after. I mixed up a new, fairly naturalistic lip color and repainted her mouth, then did a very dark smokey gray and touched up the creases of her eyelids and her upper lashes, before sealing the paint.
Now, accessories!
I had this chain-y necklace-thing left over from another mod project, where I had removed it from a shirt. I thought it would make a cool detail at the waist, watch-fob-like. Then I attached a little lobster clasp finding, and clipped on a pair of goggles. These are, I kid you not, actual Barbie branded accessory goggles. I got them with a snorkeling doll, I think, a couple years ago, and have been holding onto them, just waiting for the perfect use ever since. They do actually fit on a Barbie head, but only if there's little or no hair on it, so they're pretty much just decorative. I used the jump ring that was meant to be the other side of the clasp to attach a mysterious-looking "crystal" bead, to add a little more bling.
Annnnd hair. First, with the same exposure as the rest of the pictures, and then in a digitally lightened version so you can see the detail:
The hardest part of this doll was probably making the bustle work, but next after that was the hairstyle. I did some research about Victorian-era hairstyles for Black women, and didn't find much. I did learn that the hot comb was in use before and during that time, so I decided to treat the hair of this doll as though she either had naturally straight hair or was straightening it. The doll had bangs already, which were pretty popular, so I trimmed those a bit for tidiness and otherwise left them alone. Hair was often worn loose, but I wanted something a little more tied-back, since she's an active lady. I looked at a bunch of pictures, fiddled around with the physical possibilities (Barbie hair is not like any kind of human hair - there are things that can and cannot be done), and eventually came up with this sort of elegant, simple-looking style that was actually a major pain in the ass to accomplish. Still, I think it looks spiffy. When I had it all secured, Jimmy helped me out by using some of his chainmail-making equipment to create a hair ornament that covers the rubber band pretty well, and also looks nicely industrial.
That's it! I hope you like it, arkivarie. I'll see how much it'll cost to ship her to you, and then let you know so we can arrange to do that. And then she will be aaaaall yours to pose and play with.
This entry was originally posted at http://revena.dreamwidth.org/495088.html. You can comment either here or there.
comments at DreamWidth.
I can't find my light tent (for like two years, now. Oof), so I took some photos on the dining room table, with the blinds open, which still required some flash. So the colors aren't quite true. But you can get a sense. Here is a full front view:
For the clothes, I used a pair of kicky little black ankle boots I had on hand, as well as a long coat that came with some stack of clothes I bought at some point, a frilly white shirt that I had embellished with sequiny things for another project and ended up not using, and some other prefabricated bits and bobs. I also made a pattern for a long, vaguely Victorian-style walking skirt (it has a bit of a train in the back), which I stitched out of dark brown cotton. I flipped the pattern around a bit and then folded like woah and created a super-bustled over-skirt in a lighter shade of cotton fabric. I am overall pretty happy with the results, but I wish I had had some fabric with a little more drape on hand that wasn't satin, which seemed too shiny and posh for the first officer of an airship.
Face-shot!
The actual modifications to the base doll were minimal, and pretty much confined to the head. I did a head-swap for a body with feet that would fit the shoes I wanted to use and jointed elbows, repainted some of the face, and did the hair (about which more later).
I really liked the base doll's eyes, but she had glitter lipstick and glitter eyeshadow, which felt too modern. So I got out the acetone and scrubbed off the lips, then veeeeery carefully took off the eyeshadow without disturbing the eyes themselves. I did some victory fists after. I mixed up a new, fairly naturalistic lip color and repainted her mouth, then did a very dark smokey gray and touched up the creases of her eyelids and her upper lashes, before sealing the paint.
Now, accessories!
I had this chain-y necklace-thing left over from another mod project, where I had removed it from a shirt. I thought it would make a cool detail at the waist, watch-fob-like. Then I attached a little lobster clasp finding, and clipped on a pair of goggles. These are, I kid you not, actual Barbie branded accessory goggles. I got them with a snorkeling doll, I think, a couple years ago, and have been holding onto them, just waiting for the perfect use ever since. They do actually fit on a Barbie head, but only if there's little or no hair on it, so they're pretty much just decorative. I used the jump ring that was meant to be the other side of the clasp to attach a mysterious-looking "crystal" bead, to add a little more bling.
Annnnd hair. First, with the same exposure as the rest of the pictures, and then in a digitally lightened version so you can see the detail:
The hardest part of this doll was probably making the bustle work, but next after that was the hairstyle. I did some research about Victorian-era hairstyles for Black women, and didn't find much. I did learn that the hot comb was in use before and during that time, so I decided to treat the hair of this doll as though she either had naturally straight hair or was straightening it. The doll had bangs already, which were pretty popular, so I trimmed those a bit for tidiness and otherwise left them alone. Hair was often worn loose, but I wanted something a little more tied-back, since she's an active lady. I looked at a bunch of pictures, fiddled around with the physical possibilities (Barbie hair is not like any kind of human hair - there are things that can and cannot be done), and eventually came up with this sort of elegant, simple-looking style that was actually a major pain in the ass to accomplish. Still, I think it looks spiffy. When I had it all secured, Jimmy helped me out by using some of his chainmail-making equipment to create a hair ornament that covers the rubber band pretty well, and also looks nicely industrial.
That's it! I hope you like it, arkivarie. I'll see how much it'll cost to ship her to you, and then let you know so we can arrange to do that. And then she will be aaaaall yours to pose and play with.
This entry was originally posted at http://revena.dreamwidth.org/495088.html. You can comment either here or there.
comments at DreamWidth.