You met Olive pre face-up. She was already beautiful then, with her flowing green hair!
Olive is seen here with her best friend, Trixie.
What you don’t see in that photo that was taken 8 years ago is that her hair became quite the rat’s nest, So to speak. Between allowing my then 5 year old daughter to play with her, and storing her in a bin for so long, she was nothing but knots.
I washed her hair so many times for so long and still couldn’t get a comb through it. Eventually, I got frustrated and just poured the fabric softener right on it and used it as a detangling cream. It took a while, but it worked! I changed her part best I could, then I wrapped the wet hair around straws and pinned it with Bobby pins.
Her hair still had a lot of the fabric softener in it, so more than once I re-rinsed in hot water with the “curlers” in. It sat like this for a total of a couple of weeks. Towards the end, I did also spray her with a heavy hairspray for good measure. The end result was EXACTLY what I was hoping for! She definitely still smells like fabric softener, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
I am still in learning mode, so I’m not 100% happy with her carving work. Despite that, I am proud of how she turned out. I attempted my first slightly open mouth. I’m confused on how artists do a wide open mouth, as the large plastic pieces built into the inside of her faceplate would have prevented me from carving it any more open. The carving of her mouth took many, many hours.
Since she had a slightly open mouth, I thought I might as well make a couple of teeth for her to give that a go for the first time too! You can see her teeth in person, but not in her photographs, so I’ll share these photos I took while Still working on her.
This was also my first time giving a Blythe doll eyebrows. I was so intimidated by the thought of this, but they turned out halfway decent. I cut the shape out on cardstock first, and used that as a template for the shading with chalk pastel. That way I could flip the cardstock for the other side so they matched in shape and size. Then I went over them with a colored pencil to add “hairs”.
The photo above shows my hand painted eye chips. Another first! They sparkle a lot in real life.
I also used a pair of purchased eye chips (green) and then two Blythe stock eye chips. The yellow you’ll see in photos were originally hers, I didn’t mess with those at all. Then the peach ones, which you won’t see, I screwed up. They were from another stock doll (Story’s Emily) and I accidently used too much glue so they are spotted and cloudy. Bummer. But hey- three out of four sets look great! Did I mention I’m still learning? Trial and error!
All in all, I am happy with Olive. Here are some photos from her photoshoot! I only used filters on a couple of them, and it’s obvious which ones. Otherwise here she is in all her true glory. Enjoy!
Together we Blythe 