The Divine Dynasty

Every now and then I like to shake things up so I’m always on the look out for new and unusual nesting doll-related objects. I had my eyes on this particular set for a really long time now but I never got a chance to really think about what I could do with it. But like all things, if you leave a nagging problem well enough alone long enough, you’ll eventually come up with a solution. After watching my neighbor, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Divine the first drag superstar, parade in and out of her house in myriad of outfits in just one day, it hits me. I should paint Divine in some of her more memorable costumes!

This white gown IRL is prominently featured in the Divine Museum, which I’d been salivating over ever since I saw photos of it. Whilst creating it, I realized, to my horror, that the skirt I made was a blinding shade of white and didn’t go with the dress at all. I dug through my fabric chest and unearthed the leftover tulle from my wedding garb, which was a preferable shade of off-white, did some ironing and mixed it in with the bleached teeth shade of white tulle and thus all is once again well with the world.

Unlike the traditional nesting dolls, this one opens up to reveal three individual dolls, all of them are a fun sized 2.5″. It’s still large enough for me to make a little wig for the Babs doll but I fear that the ones after these ones might be a bit problematic. I decided to feature Divine from movies such as “Pink Flamingos,” “Female Trouble,” and “Polyester.”

Well, I said to myself, I have to tools, I have the technology…well, mainly just the tools really, and got to work on these guys. I had to trim off a bit more hair off my .0000 brush in order to get the eyeliner down. As for the Babs dolls, a bit of clay and a toothpick did the trick just fine.

It’s a miracle I didn’t lose these dolls I like normally do!

And there you have it. I may have to try this one again!

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Marie Got Married

Years ago, I happened to come across a fashion blog and gave it a read even though at the time, my idea of high fashion was making sure I have pants on when I leave my house. The blog caught my attention not only because the author was fashionable in a relatable way but she was hilarious as hell. I thought it would be fun to paint her as a nesting doll in her various duds and, even though I was well-aware of the fact that I would probably come across as someone with stalking issues, I took a chance and emailed her with my strange request. Come on, I had to! This girl owned a hat shaped like a pair of lips smoking a cigarette. And she owned a corn suit, for crying out loud.

She said yes and I devoted a week (this was back in the day when I actually had to take a week to paint a set of dolls) painting her in various outfits and had an absolute blast. Thanks to her, I was introduced to her BFF, who runs the most delightful little store in LA called the Pygmy Hippo Shoppe and thus history was made because I got to create so many sets of dolls I would not have done otherwise if it weren’t for these two gorgeous gals. And of course, when Marie got married, my first thought was to make her a set of wedding dolls.

Marie, her man, and her doggie.

From what I gathered, there was pizza at the wedding.

Aren’t they fabulous? Congratulations, Marie and Jimmy! May your marriage be long and full of laughter and joy!

Ab Fab 2.5.5

I can’t exactly call this version of Absolutely Fabulous as 3.0 since only a few changes were made to the original 2.0.

And here’s the newer version:

I was asked to put the words “LaCroix” somewhere on Edina. For her, merely toting LaCroix clothing and accessories isn’t’ enough. The designer’s name must be shown somewhere on her person so I put it on her head. I always thought of her fashion sense as “tastefully tacky.” The new Bubble doll required some rummaging around in my supply closet. The little doodads on her head were leftovers from a Christmas card/ornament (yes, I used to have time to hand-make all my Christmas cards that the recipients could hang on their trees) which had somehow followed me all the way from New York to Oz. Sometimes your subconscious minds does know what it’s talking about!

Desperate Living

When it rains it pours. Just as I was about to start on a Desperate Living set for the man who played Bosley Gravel in the movie, I was asked to paint another version. It gave me a chance to really change things up with both sets, which, in my line of work, is most welcomed…makes me feel less like a one-woman assembly line.

Here is version one:

This one features Bosley Gravel and his wife Peggy along with Grizelda Brown who ended up murdering poor Bosley. Along with this set is Muffy, Mole, and Queen Carlotta.

Version two:

This time Peggy Gravel is decked out in a gold raincoat and sparkly pink hot pants; Muffy clutching her lotto money while sporting hosiery couture; Queen Carlotta looking resplendent in her pink gown; Mole wearing her vagina leotard from her flashback; and Grizelda in her sequin top and pink tutu. I recently unearthed some wool meant for doll hair in my collection and made three miniature wigs out of it. It wouldn’t hurt to look into wig school, since need to learn how to make ringlets for a Marie Antoinette set I have in mind!

Outlander Past and Present

Even though the Outlander sets are one of the more difficult ones to paint, I readily agreed to knock out another one for the annual Outlander SoCal Third Anniversary Gathering raffle. If I can’t be there in person, I might as well send one of my minions over!

This one is the most complicated one yet, largely because I was to depict Jamie and Claire in their wedding garbs, and believe you me, that was a lot of paid! Still, it was good fun and since my health issues have been resolved, I couldn’t complain!

In addition to Jamie and Claire as well as a mini version of its creator Diana Gabaldon, I got to paint Brianna and Roger for the first time in their modern costumes!

Frida Kahlo’s House

This is one of those project I never thought I wanted to do until it was presented to me several months ago.

“What if,” the email stated, “there’s a Frida Kahlo set featuring Diego Rivera, Trotsky, and Frida’s house?”

“Oh my god,” I murmured and put down my turkey sandwich. “Let’s do it,” I whispered to my email page as I stabbed out a reply with my crumb coated fingers. I was at my parents’ house when the request came so I had to do a mental assessment on my inventory. I distinctly remember having received a peculiar house set that’s larger than average which would be perfect for Frida’s home/museum and crossed my fingers, hoping I haven’t done something stupid to it like painting a lurid flower on it. As soon as I got home I headed straight into the sweatshop and it was still there, unmolested by my impulses and two months later, I got to work on it.

The main challenge is trying to find which aspects of the house/garden that needed to be included. After some back and fourth, we decided on this:

As I was working on this set very slowly late at night after other ones are sorted, it seemed like a really daunting project. But it got painted in the end and all I can say is that I am forever grateful to Netflix and Stan and Hulu+ for keeping me sane throughout the entire process. But honestly, it’s not as bad as I made it sound. I’ve been doing miniature interiors since forever.

Since I had once spent a great chunk of my life commuting on the subway, I often daydreamed about having an entire car devoted to my comfort.

Since there’s an extra doll left in the set, we kicked around the idea of painting one of Frida’s fetuses or a monkey. We settled on a monkey.

Henry VIII Variant

Henry VIII is one of those sets I don’t mind repeating. It’s not based on the TV show or any of the movie versions so I can go hog wild on the costumes. The recipients of these sets can expect something different each time.

Now that I Have a grander collection of bling, I get even more extravagant with the jewelry and embellishments on the costumes. The construction of this set did not come at a timely manner though. For over a month I’ve been suffering from the kind of headache that makes you wish someone would come along with two bricks and put you out of your misery. Focusing on the minute details didn’t help but hey, the show must go on, right? I did do the responsible thing by going to see a doctor about the headaches and after a stern talking to about not coming to see him sooner, I was given a prescription that simultaneously eased the pains considerably and made me feel very very old indeed for being on the same medication as my Dad.

But the meds kicked in almost immediately and I was able to happily paint the rest of this set with glee and pain free for the first time in ages!

I should have been listening to “Wolf Hall” while painting this set, but instead I decided on “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” which was great fun, especially now that I’m officially out of the cloud of pain. It took a lot of self control not to paint the ladies wielding katanas and daggers and muskets.

What Fresh Hell is This?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of summer TV programming and am ready for the fall lineup. The one show I’m most interested in (after American Horror Story), is Scream Queens. This is another version of the three Chanels in their finery. Instead of messing around with furs this time, I played around with sequins and glitter and came up with this:

Henry VIII Double Deluxe Sets

Oh this? Just two jumbo Henry VIII set I did a few weeks ago.

Telenovela

It’s not every day I do a giant set of 8…especially if there are two sets to work on at the same time! Luckily it’s a set featuring a new sitcom called “Telenovela” starring Eva Langoria that’s all about bright colors and bling and muy delicioso abs and many funny moments all on the set of a Spanish soap opera. I once had a student who would spend his after school art class in my room reading out loud the exploits of Juan-Carlo and Carlotta that he’d painstakingly transcribed in English off shows he watched with his Chinese grandma on Telemundo. It used to drive me nuts, but what else is one to do in an after school art class once they’re done with their assignments? Watching “Telenovela” now reminds me fondly of that particular student and lazy afternoons watching Telemundo with my own Chinese grandma.

Here are Set A and Set B of the core cast of “Telenovela” with several slight differences.

Some details: