Posts

Final

Image
Feedback: create more depth with darker foliage on the second layer. Add critters, bugs etc. around the box to give it more colour and interest. Think about mechanisms eg. wings moving. Good to encourage kids with a call to action  Rationale: I chose Fern Gully or it's conservationist message as I wanted to make a doll that both inspired children to play outside and encouraged them to take care of the environment. The shape design was a re-work from the previous iteration which fit fit into the Fern Gully world but was a bit boring and generic. I really enjoyed making her little tummy and bigger thighs, gave her a much more interesting shape. I deliberately made her hair solid to move away from the fashion and hair styling dolls that currently run the market. Her wings are shapable and really fun to play with, I remember having toys with wings that wouldn't move and they were always a bit boring. I took inspiration from the My Little Pony characters for the shape of her fa...

Colouring

Image
Used a undercoat primer for plastics on most her body and a metal primer for her ball bearing eyes. Covered her joints so not to glue them shut then went back in with a brush to touch up those little bits Repurposed a coat hanger as a stand and got to work with a mirror so I didn't miss and bits at the back. Did many coats using a hair dryer in between to speed things up then attached the wings with Knead-it. Used a dry brush to highlight her tummy and feet and give her some freckles on her cheeks. The eyes were fiddly and nerve racking but between a tiny brush and a brush pen I did them alright. In future I'll be sure to make the undercoats on her eyes as smooth as possible, it's too small a space to sand and once you're doing details it's too late to fix the lumpy bits.

Refining

Image
Ears are back on and reinforced, I've been through four different sand paper grades and used an electric sander for the bigger parts and a dremel to polish her up. Had several occasions where I've sanded back too much, the Knead-it has crumbled in places and lost both her feet but with several attempts we're getting there and she's all smooth and lump free ready for primer.

Hair

Image
It's been tricky trying to make her hair look good. It's easy on a drawing where you can just draw a block and it looks good but it doesn't quite translate to 3D. Eventually I went with a flat style to mimic the drawing as much as possible 

Packaging

Image
I've been trying to develop this dispenser box to allow the packaging to be reused as a bird feeder once the toy has left the box. Initially I wanted this design where it tapers at the top but quickly found the wings wouldn't fit in the top half and making a top heavy box seemed impractical. One of the Monster High dolls had a top heavy box but it required extra plastic footing to keep it up on the shelf and even then it would topple over at the slightest nudge.  Started prototyping a box shaped dispenser package, kept making silly mistakes like making the tabs way too short or the troth way too big. Math is not my strong suit.  Tweaked it to a functional box with an inside sleeve for Tika to attach to.

Wings

Image
Got some material to stiffen, some to fill out and various colours and textures to play with. For the wire skeleton I just hooked the little wires together and secured with Knead-it upon Gary's advice. This works pretty well but the Knead-it makes it pretty chunky and not very skeletal Tanya suggested vacuum forming foam over the skeletons then using fabric glue to shape the fabric to the foam model. This had a nice feel to it but it was a little clunky bulky for bat wings. Plus the fabric gluing was so fiddly!! Took a good five attempts to try make it smooth without glue showing through the fabric before I settled with the best version. Eventually I went back to making them out of fabric and batting with wire skeletons. This didn't prove much easier as I'm pretty rusty with a sewing machine but after many attempts I came out with a satisfactory result. This time to avoid using lumps of Knead-it I twisted the wires together to attach them. ...

Further development

Image
Remembering to cut out this part of the neck and attach it to my little bat face so her neck joint can function.  Felt somewhat barbaric defacing her breasts but people go through worse in the name of cosmetics.  Once I'd stripped back parts of her body and bulked up other parts with tin foil I started with the Knead-it. I only had these loose fitting obtuse gloves to work with plus I was super scared it would all dry out before I could apply it so the result was pretty unrefined and rushed. But that's what sanding's for right? Her little ears are pretty delicate, I've already had to glue them back on, twice, but I've reinforced them with Knead-it now so they will hopefully last a little longer.