#the resurrection of lucie doll

And thus, Lucie’s underwear is complete! She has her original petticoat so now all that’s lacking is outerwear. I’m going to wait on that until her wig is done, and her pate’s set to arrive on Monday so that should be the next step in the process.

More progress shots! Lucie now has eyes and is stitched onto her body. Now if the wefts for her wig could just get through Customs Hell we’d be in business. As it is, hurry up and wait mode is activated and I’m working on her underwear in the meantime. I actually have patterns for 11-13″ poupees, so I don’t have to just drape and pray for a change. 

A progress shot of Lucie, after the base color was done but before brows, lashes, and blushing

And Lucie’s painting is complete! Not bad for a first time, I think, though there’s obviously a lot of room for improvement. Progress shots soon.

The Resurrection Of Lucie Doll

Earlier, I posted the top photo of a size 0 Gaultier fashion doll named Lucie who’d fallen on very hard times. My boss was generous enough to let me have her (head, shoulder plate, and neck articulation mechanism) when I noticed her sitting on a workbench, separated from the body she’d been purchased for. Armed with epoxy, a round file, sandpaper, and admittedly vague knowledge of what I was doing, I set to work.

The first method I tried involved making a mold using Sculpey and self-hardening Alley Goop silicon mold clay. I must have done something wrong, because the silicon never hardened and I had to scrap that method altogether. I instead just worked with the epoxy (Apoxie Sculpt, recommended by a friend/lifelong restoration artist) sans mold- freehand, I guess? As you can see, the result is generally correct but somewhat clumsy, which I’m attempting to remedy as best I can by sanding.

In several 20-minute periods.

Because the hardware store doesn’t stock size small respirator masks and the larger one makes me lightheaded if I wear it too long. #petiteproblems

Once the arduous task of sanding is done, the equally arduous airbrushing begins. Have I mentioned I’ve never used an airbrush before? This is going to be…interesting.

(That being said, I do flatter myself that I’ve done pretty well for a first try. Having an intact French fashion doll as a model helped immensely in the sculpting phase. Otherwise it seems largely a matter of forcing myself to slow down and take as long as necessary to get things right.)