She will be released as a Limited Edition very soon.
Anyways, it's all very exciting!
Today Ruby Red Fashion Friends released a teaser photo of the beautiful doll that we've been collaborating on. They've named her Zora, and she was based on my design for the Princess and the Frog. They've done a great job reproducing the classic Medieval style gown many of my ball-jointed dolls wear. I especially love the elaborate trims they used on the underskirt and hanging sleeves. She will be released as a Limited Edition very soon. So, I guess the 'cats out of the bag' so to speak, as to why I had been posting photos of Ruby Red dolls every now and then. It's because I needed a few of their actual dolls in order to sew my sample costumes for.
Anyways, it's all very exciting!
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A few weeks later, after the portrait was finished and framed, it was hung in Lawrence and Monica's private royal apartment... "So, what do you think?" he asked her. "Are you happy with it?" 'Yes. It's magnificent. It's everything I had hoped for, and more." "But then, how could Narin go wrong, with such a handsome subject." And he gave her a hug..."I'm glad you are happy with it." "I'm thinking.... with Narin having proven himself to be such an exceptional artist, I may just ask him to paint a portrait of you next." "Well...I don't know about that...." 'Well, maybe," he continued, "after this special trip you promised me?" "I cleared my schedule, and am really looking forward to it."
Lawrence's portrait had been coming along nicely before Monica arrived. Narin knew the King wanted this second portrait done as soon as possible, so he had been painting as quickly as he could.... ... and he really needed Monica to stop distracting his subject. But he couldn't very well ask her to get out of the way. After all, she was the Queen, and the one who had commissioned this painting in the first place. But Lawrence recognized Narin's frustrations, and wanted to get the posing over-with as quickly as possible himself.... "If you keep distracting me, my love, this painting is never going to get done." "So, why don't you..." he suggested, "...go on over to see how it's coming along?" So she did.... And he could get back to his pose... "The painting looks wonderful so far." "You've captured His Majesty's likeness perfectly." "You are so talented." Narin tried his best to focus on his painting.... Monica finally realized she was proving to be too much of a distraction, both for Narin and her husband... "Well, I think I'll leave you to your work now." "And I'll see you later, back at home." And Narin could finally get back to his painting undisturbed...
Monica arrived... "You look absolutely magnificent, and so handsome in your armour." "Thank you for doing this." She went up to him, and he took her in his arms.... ...totally oblivious to Narin who was in the middle of painting his portrait. "Anything for you, my love." Their's had always been a true love story. They had been smitten with each other from the moment they first met, and their love had only grown stronger over the years... "I love you." "I love you too." she whispered, "And thank you for doing this. I'm really looking forward to having this portrait of you." "And I'm really looking forward to our little getaway together."
After seeing the finished anniversary portrait of her husband, Monica had asked Narin to paint a second portrait of him. She had promised Lawrence that she'd arrange a special second honeymoon getaway if he'd pose in his armour for another painting of him that she could hang in their private apartment. So, after catching up with all the things that he'd let slip while posing the first time, Lawrence was ready to pose for the second painting... Narin started with the King's likeness, just as before... ...and it was coming along nicely...
Bianca was wandering in the garden with little Lizbet.... ...when Saphira happened by... "So, is this your new little one?" "Yes, she is." "Say hello to the lovely dragon, Lizbet." "She's adorable. Hello there Lizbet. It's so nice to meet you." Then to Bianca, "Young children are so adorable. But they are also a lot of work. Even so, there's nothing quite like the joy of being a mother."
May 11th is Archery Day, and several kids were out practicing their skills... All their arrows had hit the bullseye, and Ringo was impressed. "You two are really good." "Thanks. But this is really easy and not much of a challenge at all." "I can actually hit an apple at two hundred paces." Ringo was skeptical, "Really? I'd like to see that!" "Well, I just happen to have an apple handy." "Hmmm....Now I just need a place to put it." "And here's the perfect place." "Now, don't move." Lonnie became alarmed. "You aren't really going to try shoot that apple off of his head, are you?" "Who said anything about 'try'? I never miss." But then, right at that moment, Jamie's father arrived at the shooting range, and realizing what his son was about to do, he quickly put a stop to his reckless behaviour.
"But Dad," Jamie tried to explain in his defence, "I was only fooling. I wasn't really going to do it!" Two weeks ago I went to the Greater Toronto Area Doll Show. There's only two shows every year that are within driving distance, and it's always exciting to go and see if there's anything interesting I can use for my dolls. Some years there's nothing, but this year I hit the jackpot. I was especially thrilled to come across two pieces of MSD size furniture, and took a quick photo when I got home... The two new pieces of furniture needed their own room setting...so I put one together... Lawrence, who just happened to be in contemporary garb, volunteered to try out the chair... I took a photo and thought it looked so wrong. Unlike a human, he didn't have the weight to press down on the seat cushion, so was sitting high and dry ON top of the cushion, as opposed to comfortably IN the chair. So I was determined to do something about it. Thankfully the seat cushion was loose, and quite well made. I unpicked the back seam, removed the foam cushion, then sliced the foam much thinner - to less than half. Then I stitched a wide tuck into the edge of the cushion cover, inserted the thinner foam back in and stitched the opening closed. I also added some tufting to help shape the cushion even more... Then Lawrence could finally get comfortable. His elbow could rest on the armrest, and the shaping from the cushion tufting gave the impression that he had some substantial weight as he sat IN the chair. All the work had definitely been worth the effort.
A Tiny GardenI thought it would be fun to take a photos for Naked Gardening Day using the Avery twins, as they were the only dolls who wouldn't mind the indignity of being photographed naked. But where to create their garden? My spring garden is no place scale-wise for photos of such tiny dolls, the tulips being at least four times as high as the dolls, so I had to come up with something else. The large garden urn was empty of plants, with just the yew in the background, so it seemed perfect. I smoothed out the dirt, surrounded the edge of the urn with dried moss, put up a clothesline, and 'planted' rows of tiny orchids, goutweed, and moss. And to represent 'cabbages' I used Brussels sprouts, carefully placing them on bits of moss so they wouldn't touch the dirt. Willie & WinstonI had wanted to take some photos of Winston and Willie having tea in the Scillas in our backyard grass, but it just wasn't working out to my satisfaction. Taking photos on the ground was getting way too difficult for me, so I moved them to the upper garden instead, somewhere with just short plants, and positioned an old tree root behind them to hide the ugly fence... Then I could sit on a bench to take the close ups...
I was busy taking some additional photos for the May section of the Special Days book we were working on, and I asked our son if I could borrow his R2D2 Mr. Potato Head for the May cover page, as well as some of his Lego mini figures for a new Star Wars Day photo. I was originally going to have some modern kids playing with the mini figures, but then a new idea presented itself.. When I had altered the commercial wig for Emily's butterfly fairy photos, my sister called it a 'Princess Leia' wig, which got me thinking about making her and Avery tiny Star Wars costumes. Then I needed some kind of set to suggest the inside of a space ship, so used the white backs of some foam core walls for the background, and then positioned some white kitchen appliances, and clear plastic lids and containers, on the white bristol-board floor on my kitchen table.... Then I could just sit on a chair to take close up photos... When I told my sister I was making little Luke and Leia costumes she asked if I was going to have them swinging over a cliff. Well that got me thinking. The scene she had in mind took place inside a star destroyer, and I started looking around to see what, if anything, in my house could double as the inside of a star destroyer. My refrigerator!! So I cleared out the top two shelves, and put in some small white appliances for 'architectural' interest. I positioned the two dolls together and tied a cord around Emily's waist, then suspended them from the handle of the cupboard above the fridge. A second thread tied to the other cupboard handle prevented them from spinning. At one point I needed that thread shortened but couldn't undo the knot, so I asked Jan if he could just hold the thread a little higher, so hr got up on a chair... Because the dolls were actually outside the fridge, they needed the photography light on them so they wouldn't just be silhouettes against the bright fridge interior behind them. After taking the photos I needed to remove the second thread in Photoshop...
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
May 2024
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