SUPPLIES secured: Yarn, hooks, patterns, embellishments: CHECK !
Dolly MODELS: Researched, bid on, won, and RECEIVED (10 dolls in total): CHECK!
ALL ready to roll ... TIME to put my ideas into crochet ACTION ...
But WAIT !
I just can’t leave my Girls the way they are! First of all, the real Blythe … I mean, her hair, yikes! THE most hideous hair-do ever ! And now I have “repeat” Little Big Eyes … 2 Lemon head blondes, 2 with grape color hair ~ ugh; and 2 with pitch black hair … IDENTICAL. The two from Hong Kong, especially in comparison with the Blythe, were just somehow, sad. The Basaak’s hair was NOT the color I ordered (but I couldn’t just hop in the car with my receipt and return her! Ha!), and the CCE’s body, well, I was loosing sleep over this one. Her limbs were like little toothpicks stuck into her sparse body … and I just did not think she was comparable to even the Little Big Eyes.
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| Left: ADG Blythe (Aztec Arrival). Center: CCE Doll (notice no rotation of waist). RIGHT: Olsen Twins body |
Since I had been doing so much intense research, I KNEW there were a lot of things that can be done to “change” a doll … from the easy steps like changing her outfit … to the most extreme face carving, and re-rooting her entire head of hair. These changes also had a range of expense … not to mention, EXPERTISE! My first thought was that surely I can remove the Girls’ eye chips, clean them up, make them all shiny, even use some foil, which I had seen done, if even JUST to attempt to make them not so "dull". I mean, I already had a glue gun and sticks … and on the pucci collective site, they tell you how to clean the chips, and there are several sites with instructions on how to “foil”, etc.
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| LITTLE BIG EYES DOLL ~ UN-TOUCHED: STOCK BROWN EYE CHIPS, LASHES, HAIR, FACE, LIPS, NOSE |
However, most of these instructions were for BLYTHE DOLLS. Not my poor, ugly, little “LBE” dolls, of which I now have 7 !!! I searched, and searched, and searched …. And NOPE. No one had any information, much less PHOTOS of the actual DIFFERENCE in their eye chips, much less the eye sockets. I did pick up on a few "Blythe Clone Haters" out there ... but again, for ME, all the MORE reason to HAVE these Little Big Eyes ... maybe even rescue them from the "Island of Misfit Toys" or something ;)
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| LITTLE BIG EYES factory box: Showing Series 1 ... I don't think they ever offered Series 2 for sale, but there are some out there on flickr ... |
Another relatively inexpensive “change” I could make, would be to cut their hair, and give them some curls. Information on plastic/acrylic doll hair is out there, for sure, and I know it can’t be treated the same as human hair (heat appliances), as it IS plastic, and would melt. SINCE, my goal was to make EACH GIRL look a little different, to make her an INDIVIDUAL, even if she does have the same color hair as her “Sister”. . . I thought that giving them a no-cost hair style would just have to do. I was not about to attempt a re-root, and I would have loved to buy a wig or two ... but again, the EXPENSE is what stopped me.
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| This is pretty much how ALL the LITTLE BIG EYES hair looks: Lemon Yellow, Black, Grape, and Raspberry models. NO style, a little bit choppy, bangs in the front, straight down style. In my opinion, it is very GOOD quality hair. Some made note of "greasiness", but in all 7 of my girls, I did not find that at all. |
I made some blue-prints, charts, and grids on my ideas for each of my Girls. I made notes on their hair COLOR, what I wanted their style to be, how or if I would cut their hair, etc. Now, I do not know how to cut hair. Or plastic. So I knew whatever I did, would have to be very slight, and nothing too drastic. Surely I could get rid of that “factory chop” look the clones had! As for my real Blythe, I wasn’t about to make too many changes on her … she was only $125., but I KNOW my limits. I am not a customizer! Attemping a simple hair-do couldn’t be THAT hard, now could it ???
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| This is the LITTLE BIG EYES, Series 1, Black/Raven hair version |
After chosing hair styles for each of my girls ... my thoughts naturally began to further consider ... Hmmmm… what would my Girls look like if I took the shine off their faces? I sort of like that shiny look though ... but ... a package of Mr. Clean sponges can’t be THAT expensive, can it? And how hard could it be to just gently rub the shine off? (aka, sand-matte)
Which is at what point I think I took ... THE TURN …. THE TURN into my now obsession, to give my Girls REAL make-overs! I am not calling them “custom” dolls … I am not going to insult the REAL, bonafide, talented customizers out there. I am simply going to change MY GIRLS appearance, as much as I can without a lot of effort, money, or skill …
I shall take you through MY PROCESSES ...
Cleaning their eye chips;
Getting the shine OFF their faces;
Trimming and curling their hair.
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