Dorothy and Jeff joined Jujube today as the latest inhabitants of 1 12th Street! They neither starved nor froze on their flight from Great Britain to the US, as Sam, my trade partner, packed them with an unexpectedly large wardrobe of clothing and a significant amount of Rement. Though I did order some 1:12 scale clothing for them from Tabloach Productions, it has yet to arrive, so I found outfits for everyone from the goodies that Sam so generously included.

 

Dorothy and Jeff required some work before dressing, of course. First I wired Dorothy’s limbs with soft brass 22 gauge wire. While doing so, I got an intimate look at her default hair and faceup. Though her glued-on brown mohair ponytails have flattened with time and frizzed slightly, I decided that she was so danged cute that I didn’t want to redo either her hair or her faceup.

I then tried to wire Jeff similarly, but failed. The staff at Elfdoll originally strung her with overkill elastic in her arms that completely filled her tiny arm channels. I have no idea how they wedged such [comparatively] oversize elastic through such small holes. Anyway, while I succeeded with wiring her legs, I couldn’t do her arms.

I finally got rid of Jeff’s original arm elastic and restrung her upper limbs with 1mm beading elastic. Though I always operate under the assumption that working with tiny dolls differs radically from working with, say, 1:3 scale dolls, my experience tonight proved yet again that all of the techniques that I have learned with larger dolls may be applied to smaller dolls. Smaller dolls differ only in that their smaller size. In other words, stringing a 1:12 scale 14cm Elfdoll tiny is the same as stringing a 60cm B&G Dolls BJD like Araminthe. The only difference is that the difficulty increases as the size decreases. Anyway, the 1mm beading elastic provided enough spare space in Jeff’s arm channels for me to wire her arms — hooray!

 

After several hours of work, the roommates finally felt ready to pose for their first photo. While Jujube ultimately needs a 1:12 scale power wheelchair and Jeff needs hair, everyone is now in much better condition [and much better clothing] than they were before Dorothy and Jeff came in! Continue reading Creative projects #2: welcoming the new denizens of 1 12th Street