Frills and Fancy Biddy construction

A moment about molds! If you are just starting out, and despairing because you can only spring for one or two good molds.... don't worry! See the 5 photos in top collage? All of these are from the SAME WITCH mold!! Just painted and/or wigged differently! The key is to see a face (remind you of the show Alias?) that will look good several different ways! Don't be afraid to experiment!! Even the legs (see bottom photos) can be moved and adjusted for different looks! AND a big difference can be how you assemble the doll (body weight) ... which brings us to.....

Step 2 - Doll Footware. First thing to do, is figure out the *pose* you want your dolls to be in. All my dolls are posed permanently. I treat my pieces as Art Objects and dress them as such (i.e. they won't get up and walk around <G>).

So now you have a painted face, and know the pose ... next thing BEFORE assembling your doll ... is taking care of FEET! As in will they wear boots, shoes, etc etc!

(**NOTE** If you click to the Florida Grandma to the right, you will see a wonderful easy way to make sandles!)

And here is how I do those stockings (often easier if done before assembling doll) ....
I take a regular up to the knee leg ....
add a fimo log to resemble a bent leg,
bake and let cool. Next I take black
netting or mesh, and put a line of glue
up back of leg, press one side of mesh
on ... let dry, and then carefull cut mesh
to JUST FIT, overlap and glue on top of
original glue line. Next add a bit of a
shoe topper to cover bottom edge (AND
this will look like grannie boots/shoes).
Bake one last time and paint as desired!

Now if you are going for the pretty shoes .... this is easy ... simply paint with two light coats of
acrylic paint, lightly spray with matt acrylic spray, and then seal with fingernail polish (for patent
leather look). The reason I spray seal first is so that the fingernail polish does grip the acrylic
paint and pull it off!

To make things easier, you can make yourself a leg stand like I did here! Simply take lump of
fimo, insert two toothpicks and bake. Then you can easily slide leg on each, while drying.

Another wonderful hint is to glue rhinestones, no hole beads on BEFORE running clear
fingernail polish on. This keeps them in place much nicer!

Lets move on to constructing that doll - click Page2 (link at top)