And So it Begins...

I am moving along with babies number 1 and 2 in my "Jordan" edition. Tonight, I am doing the finishing touches on the painting of these two. Once I am finished that, they will be sealed and ready for hair. Their bodies are ready and waiting for them, as are their outfits. Not much longer with these two before they will be off amongst all the Christmas packages out there in the post. Hopefully the mail won't be too slow and they will arrive home in time for Christmas.

I will post pictures of them when they are ready.

Jordan Proofs

Today ended up being another long day... 12 more hours spent on these guys and their pictures. I decided to leave one of them bald as a choice for the new mommies. I don't normally like to leave my babies bald, but I thought it looked kind of cute. My keeper is the one with the thick head of hair! :)

Proof Day

I am calling today "Proof Day" because my goal is to have my three Artist Proofs for the Jordan edition finished. I have been working all day since I got up on these and this will be another all nighter for me to get them finished. I have one finished and hope to finish the last two by later in the morning sometime. It's in the middle of the night now. :)

My mom is working hard on outfits for their first pictures, so hopefully after I have a bit of a sleep later in the day, I will be able to take pictures to share.

I had no idea it had been so long since I last posted on here! For those of you who read regularly, sorry for neglecting my blog! I have been so engrossed in these resins that I've lost track of all else.

I will write more later today.

Quick Update

Just thought I would stop in to give a quick update. I have been trying painting techniques on my Artist Proofs... trying to find something that I like just as well as for my ooaks. I am making progress and hopefully will finish one soon and be able to post pictures. Then I will need to figure out a good way to glue hair on and make it look nice. These are so much different to do than the ooaks. It is difficult to do something where everything that you do to finish a doll is a whole new process. It is good to learn new things though, and I'm sure soon I will be moving right along on these. :)

Resins

In some ways, it seems like only yesterday I sent little Jordan off to be molded and cast in resin, and now, two months later... I have received the first 5. I was originally hoping I would receive all 23 at once so I could get to work on them. When I took all the pieces out of the box today and placed them on my desk, I thought to myself, "What was I thinking!?" and was glad I only had 5 to begin with. They fill the whole desk as it is. With 5 pieces for each doll, I realized in the end I will have painted 115 pieces to complete the edition. I'm sure I would have been overwhelmed having them all at once!! I am anxious to get these five finished and get a picture of them together. I am really happy with the colour of the resin. I think it is a great base colour to work with.

I have also finished my crib, but I still need to make the bedding for it. It turned out great, and I'm very pleased with it. Hopefully shortly I will have some pictures of the resins and the crib complete with bedding! :)

Multi-tasking

I realized today that it has been awhile since I've last posted, so thought I'd write.

I worked quite hard on a new head for my preemie, but it just wasn't turning out the way I was seeing it in my head... so I had to put it down for awhile. I will come back to it with a fresh look and hopefully it will progress better. In the meantime, I have started work on another 9 inch... something I'm more familiar with and something I can finish faster than the other. I have been taking my time with it as well however. :)

I have been busy trying to get everything I'll need for my resins. I need different paint, among other things, that I don't use on my ooaks. I've been researching on what paints are best to use, paint sealers, etc. I heard last week that my first shipment of resins will arrive in the next week or so. It won't be long now that I'll be totally immersed in those. I will post pictures as I finish them. The first three will be the Artist Proofs.

Anyways, soon I should have pictures of something to share, (whether it be of an ooak, resin, or a wooden crib I've been working on to display my babies in).

Bad News

After countless hours spent on this preemie baby, I have sad news to report. I found a couple of moonies in one leg, so decided I needed to resculpt that.... which was disheartening enough. To add to that now, I found that I sculpted in the corner of the eye and let the clay get too thin there, and there are some hairline cracks there. So now I am left with sculpting another head and a leg. I was very upset to find these after all the time invested in this baby, but, time to move on.

The first of my resins are due to arrive here soon, so I had toyed with the idea of giving up on this preemie for a little while and go back to a smaller, more familiar size with the little time I have left before I get inundated with the resin work. The preemie however, calls out to be finished... so I am going to be working hard in the next number of days trying to replace what I have lost. Hopefully I can do just as good a job on this next head, or even better would always be acceptable too! :)

Pampers Ad

Today I finished the arms for this little one and when they had cooled, I set all the pieces in a stuffed diaper and shirt to see how it looked all together. I took a few pictures and this one was my favourite of the lot... a preemie Pampers ad. :)

The limbs are not sanded or painted yet, so they look rather "flat" still. Soon they will come to life.

Overdue

I have been moving along so slowly with this little preemie due to being extremely fussy with details and being unable to sculpt for a few days. I had anticipated this one being finished by now, so we will call this one... overdue. :)

I have completed the legs for this one and am working on finishing up the arms now. What a fragile being this little one is.

Sorry for the delay.

Preemie

I am slowly progressing with the limbs for my preemie baby. It is completely different trying to sculpt this little one... everything has to be so fragile and delicate looking. I am having fun working on something so different, but it definitely is a learning curve for me! I have all four limbs started now. Normally I will finish a limb before starting another, but this time I am laying everything out in a stuffed body to be sure it suits this little one, (both proportion wise and style). Hopefully soon I will be putting this little one together.

I can't help but look at this baby and think how incredible it is that babies are born this small and survive. So amazing.

Miracle Baby

Tonight I finally finished the head I've been working on for the last while. I worked so hard on it and changed it around so much, that I think I compressed the foil armature smaller than it originally was because this baby will be the size of a 2-3 lb preemie I think. Definitely not 40 weeks. So while I worked on it, I researched for hours on end, preemies of around this size. Their features are so difficult to replicate! I think this baby is maybe a bit of a mix of preemie and newborn features. I found a little guy online that I modelled it by, and he didn't have the regular micro-preemie characteristics... what a beautiful little boy he was. I only wish I could sculpt this one as beautiful as he was at that size. Anyways, I titled this post "Miracle Baby" because it kind of seemed fitting. Preemies of this size really are miracles. For this sculpt, it's a miracle it even is here! I changed the face completely more times than I can even remember and at one point I was ready to give up. But, here it is... all snuggled up in a blanket on my desk patiently waiting for some arms and legs.

:)

Jordan

My first resin edition, "Jordan", is sold out and now begins the wait for the resin pieces to be molded and cast. Seems strange to wait so long now with nothing to do for them until they arrive when I know how busy I will be painting them and getting them all ready once they are here. In the meantime, I have decided to start working on a larger sized baby. I have replicated a 40 week skull using foil and will begin sculpting on that tonight. I have no idea how large the head will end up being once it is all sculpted, but I would guess this baby will be preemie or newborn size when finished. I was anxious to try something different after all the 9 inch ones I have just done in a row. I will post as I make progress on it.

New Look

I have been wanting to redevelop my website for the last few months to give it a simpler and cleaner look, and to have it match the style of my blog. Finally, it is now finished. Please check out my new website...

http://www.nataliescholl.com

I would also like to announce that I only have 1 spot left now in my first resin edition. If you are interested in reserving that spot, please contact me through my webpage.

Limited Edition Resin

I am happy to announce that I now have pre-ordering set up for my latest baby... baby Jordan. This baby will be a Limited Edition of 20, with 3 artist proofs. This is my first resin edition to be produced. If you are interested in knowing more about this baby, or would like to pre-order, please click on the following link:

http://nataliescholl.com/Jordan.html

Home

I am home from my vacation now. My days were spent viewing beautiful scenery and wildlife that I had never seen before. It refreshed my mind and with that, I have jumped into getting my announcement ready. I will be posting it later today.

New Arrival

This baby does not have a name yet, but here she/he is...

Sorry the pictures are a bit delayed, I've been trying to get ready to go on vacation and it slipped my mind. I do have special plans for this baby, which I will announce when I return from my trip... so if you are interested, please check back later this month.

Coming Soon...

I have finished this baby and am waiting for my wonderful seamstress, (my mom), to come up with an outfit for it. She was hoping to finish something today, so once I get it back, I'll post some pictures. Please check back soon!

Pictures to Come

I began another baby recently. I cannot remember now when I started the head, but I finally finished it this past weekend. It took me awhile to finish because I fussed over the face for hours as usual. Yesterday I finished up the legs, so this little one sits on my desk all positioned in a stuffed outfit with no arms yet. Poor thing. :)

Hopefully today I will manage to get some arms made. I will post pictures as soon as I can. I am finally able to do that now... back up and running with my Photoshop program.

Computer Issues

I have not been able to post any photos of what I have been doing lately because the computer with all my photos has been freezing up on me. Luckily, I have two hard drives and had everything backed up on there. Yesterday I was forced to wipe the main drive and reinstall windows. I am still trying to get all the Windows updates on there and then all the software. Hopefully I'll be able to share some photos soon.

I did sculpt a new head which I thought I was going to use for a mini resin reproduction, but decided in the end that it just wasn't what I was looking for. Inbetween that, I've been working on a course that I have been taking. It is a forensic facial reconstruction class. We each had to get a lifesize human skull, (reproduction of one), to work on. It has been very interesting and quite amazing to do. I will share pictures of that as well once I get back to the computer with all the photos.

Alexander

After a few unforseen unrelated delays, I now can finally present Alexander...

He is 9 inches long with 1/2 arms and full legs. He has newborn grey/blue glass eyes. After studying little Sam for hours, I sculpted this face to give that kind of expression a newborn has when studying his surroundings.

He is now available for sale on my website at: http://www.nataliescholl.com/Alexander2.html

I had planned on getting him up earlier, but my computer is being a little defiant and did not want to move at the pace I was wanting to. ;o)

Clothing Time for the New Baby

I finally finished putting together my new little one last night... LATE last night. I always seem to be most creative at night. I don't know why that is. Of course I also had to make a diaper right away... necessities first. ;o) Today is clothing day and then I will be able to do his/her first photo shoot. I am leaning towards boy on this baby, but I am still not 100% convinced. I need to lay some fabrics on it to decide.

I had been wanting to sculpt more today on another baby, but it is very hot and humid today and the clay just melts in my hands. I had the air conditioner off, but it is on now and hopefully later it will be cool enough to get back to the clay. That is, if I'm not too busy posing the new baby and photographing. ;o)

Almost Finished

Another night spent sculpting into the wee hours of the morning. I did manage to finish a set of legs for this open eyed baby though, so now I just need to finish the arms and it will be ready for sanding/painting and then assembly. I used little Sam's legs as a guide for these and will do the same for the arms. It really does help to have a real baby around to "inspect". ;o)

Hopefully soon I will be posting with some pictures of my newest little one.

One Head Down, One to Go!

I have just put my head with open eyes in the oven. That took a lot more time to complete than I thought it would. I changed the face more times than I can even count because I was just not satisfied with it. I am also trying to get another head done at the moment... and of course, I will need 8 limbs to go along with them. So lots more work ahead of me in the next few days. At least with one head done, I finally feel like I'm making progress.

As of late, my days here have been filled with holding and playing with a 7 week old and sculpting by night. I'm trying to memorize every crease on his body, every curve of his head for my sculpting before he gets too big to use as a guide for my newborns. I marvel at every tiny feature on this little guy, and wish I could "sculpt" like that. =)

Stranger

I feel like a stranger at this point on my own blog. I have been away for so long. It has been a busy spring to say the least. Spring seemed to take awhile to settle in and then when it finally did warm up, it was all entirely too fast with hot, sticky days. The temperatures have been up to 40 degrees celcius with the humidity, (104 fahrenheit); which is extremely warm for here, especially this time of year. It makes it difficult to work with my clay when it is so warm because the clay just seems to melt to the touch and doesn't hold the finer details as much as I would like. I have been working slowly on a new head during the times when it is cooler. Hopefully I will be able to finish it soon so that I'll have some news to report and some pictures to share.

Welcome Little Leah

I decided to make a new pair of jeans for this little one. I didn't like the white thread and I found some cute pink fabric to use on the edges of the legs instead of the denim. Now that her outfit is finally finished, she is available for sale. If you interested in purchasing her, or would like to see more pictures of her, please click this link... http://www.nataliescholl.com/Leah.html

It's a Girl!

After I put the paint on this little one, all I could see was girl. I spent two days painting her... one day just getting the light skintone that I wanted and another day to do all the detailing. I am pleased with how she turned out. My mom is going away and was too busy getting ready to sew, so I got creative last night and spent 4-5 hours creating some mini jeans. They make me laugh, but I think they suit her. I'd still like to either make a hat or a little hooded jacket to go with her and then she will be ready to go up for sale. I took this picture of her last night sporting her new jeans.

Update

I have finished the arms for this latest little one and am happy with the positioning of all the fingers. Now to sand all the pieces down to get them as smooth as possible. Then they can begin to come to life with a little colouring. Though I am contemplating sculpting a little belly plate for this one. I have not quite decided yet. Hopefully I will have pictures to post in the next couple of days to give a sneak peek.

"Catch-Up"

With all that has been going on here, I have been trying to play "catch-up" in order to finish a little one that I started a little while ago. I spent what seemed like forever working on the legs for this little one before I was finally happy with them. I just have the arms left to do now. Hopefully I can finish up with those soon here. I had run out of eyes and was waiting on those to arrive while I started this one, so it is another sleeper. The eyes have since arrived and they are beautiful solid glass eyes. Hopefully I can make some beautiful babies to put them in.

Sam I am

Little Sam arrived into our growing family Saturday night. This sweet little boy should give me great inspiration for my sculpting.

It's a Boy!

In keeping with my original thoughts, it is a he. Little Jacob is now listed on Ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190218740814

My Latest

Well, here is the finished piece. I'm thinking this one looks more boy to me than girl. This baby is off to my mom's tomorrow so she can make some clothing to fit. I will probably wait to see what she imagines on this little one and see if it comes back to me as a girl or a boy.

In this picture, the arms still need to be filled a bit and sewn at the top. Other than that and the outfit, this baby is done.

The Last Long Night

I am now finished with my last night of long hours working on this baby. Last night I finished up the arms and sculpted a set of legs for him as well. I was going to take pictures when I finished, but I was too exhausted after working for 12 hours straight. In the back of my mind, I had thoughts of reproducing this little one... which is why I wanted to do an open hand. In the end, I decided not to reproduce him, so I closed up his open hand. I am always afraid of doing hands like that for the ooaks because the fingers are so tiny that they can break easily. I wish I did not have to worry so much about the fragility of small pieces so I could pose them any way that I wanted.

Tonight I sanded all the pieces twice. Then I washed them all down to get rid of the fine residue left behind. Then I reconditioned the clay and prepared it for painting. I then spent the last 4-5 hours painting the pieces and am waiting for them to finish baking now to seal the paint on. Later today I will put him all together and he will be ready to be fitted for clothing. I now do not need to spend anymore long nights working on this little one and am looking forward to relaxing for two days!

I will take pictures later today to post when I get him all together.

A Night of Indecision

I spent the whole night making these arms, then positioning and repositioning the fingers on them. Flexing the hand backwards, then forwards. Just how do I want these hands to be posed? I still have no idea and I have run out of steam and need to go to bed. Here is a picture of the final placement of the night. I'm not so sure they won't change once again when I return. Such a fragile looking little one.

The Last Stages

Another long night tonight finishing up this head. I softened some of the features, corrected some of the unequal spots in the head and matched the ear sizes. Then I spent quite some time placing the hair on the head. I used very fine, soft mohair and made it sparse. The hair was placed bit by bit to create the appearance of a growth pattern on the head which is particularly important when there is not so much hair on the head as it is more noticeable. Here the head is before it was baked.

And the end product....

Now on to the arms and legs... this poor little baby needs some limbs! :)

In the Making...

I began a head and forgot to take pictures along the way, so I began anew tonight with another 9 incher. After several hours through the night, I have progress pictures to share.

First I made a foil armature for the head giving it the general shape that I wanted.

Next, I covered the armature with a layer of clay and started to shape the head, nose, chin, and neck.Then I shaped in all the features... eyes, nose, mouth, browline, added ears, shaped the jawline and the temples. I have not done any smoothing yet, just a rough "sketch" of the head using my clay.

I have now begun to really "personalize" this baby by detailing the facial features. I have shaped the creases on the eyelids and under the eyes to how I would like them to look. I have also reshaped the mouth and detailed it more. The temples have been more defined. It still needs more smoothing at this point and the ears and head shape need to be more even, but it is "roughed" in and well on the way and will soon be ready for hair.

Spring has Sprung

It has been awhile since I have dropped in here. Spring has sprung here finally, after a very long winter. We had an abnormally large amount of snow nearing the end of winter which allowed for spring skiing and then flooding waters. I have been out developing my photography skills, (or so I hope), while looking at the vast amounts of flooding in and around our city in the past week. The air is increasingly warmer, bringing buds on the trees with it. As new life develops outside, I begin to create a new "little one" inside.

I did finish a little open eyed head this past week, but it is put aside for now until I know where it will be going. While it waits, I start to dream up my new one. For this one, I have decided to let readers follow along as I work. I will be taking photos of my progress so that you can see step-by-step how this new one comes to be.

Then There Was Halle

A few days ago, I finished another 9 inch baby... Halle. She has such petite features compared to Alex. I am doing a photo shoot of the two of them together and will post some of the pictures soon here.

I am anxious to get myself started on another one. I wonder what will come out of that clay this time around. I hope to post progress soon.

Full House

Aside from all the partly finished heads I have lying about, I have been mad at work on a little girl, (or so it seems like a girl so far). Later today I am hoping to finish some arms for her and then all the pieces for her will be ready for sanding and painting. Her head and legs are posed beside Alex and I have to laugh each time I look at them because it looks like these two little ones are fighting for space. This new little one has her left leg sprawled across Alex's right leg as if she is trying to kick his out of the way to make space for herself. I can imagine a personality for this baby already just looking at the two of them together. She's a fighter, Alex is more on the timid side. Hopefully I will be able to finish up my little fighter in the next couple of days.

Welcome Baby Alex

I finally went to pick up my baby boy from my mom's house. She made the sweetest little outfit for him... a puppy paw printed shirt with matching shoes and blue shorts and bib. He also has a floppy puppy eared hat. What a sweet little man. Last night I decided to name him Alex. I still have not done his true photo shoot, but I did manage to get this picture of him last night to post.



On another note, after spending hours working on my lifesize head, I awoke the next day and decided I did not like what I had made. So I then went to work destroying it. It seems I go through many cycles of sculpting, reworking, sculpting, destroying. I wish it did not take me so long to be satisfied with each piece... it takes me so long to complete them this way. I still have a dream that one day, with more practice, I'll become faster.

Quilter Bees

I sit here in the wee hours of the morning feeling some creativity flowing again. It always seems to appear in the middle of the night for me. I have been absent for what must be days now because I have been busy trying to get a quilt ready for the new "real" baby coming into our family here. I am nearly finished with that now, so I am getting back to my sculpting. My "little one" is still at my mom's place waiting to get an outfit. She too has been quilting as of late. Hopefully soon she will have time to use her creativity to finish him off beautifully.

As for tonight, I have begun work on a lifesize that has been waiting for some time now. I have so many creation ideas floating around in my head that I am having trouble focusing on one at a time. I think I am needing to get away from the tiny ones for a bit, so this baby will be a good one to set my hands on. My hope for now is that all will go smoothly with this one.

A New Baby in the House

Two nights ago I was finally able to complete my little guy. He still needs some clothing, so he will be going over to “grandma’s” soon for his fitting. I have been fortunate enough to have my talented mom sew the clothing for my little babies. I remember when I was growing up she always said how she wanted to sew baby clothing for a living. She probably did not ever imagine she would end up making outfits for babies this small. It has been wonderful working with her to create each piece. I sculpt what comes from my mind and my heart, and her beautiful outfits complete each little one.

I do have one sad report. I noticed some fine cracks on my “From Santa, with Love” baby head when I looked very closely. So now I cannot even salvage the head. Between that and the leg that I dropped, it was a rough week! Nothing to do from here but move on to create new little ones.

I leave you with a preview of my latest…

Finally, Some Progress!

I was finally able to finish sculpting a replacement leg for my little guy. It is now cooling and tomorrow I will sand and paint it. In the last few days I also disassembled my "To Santa, with Love" piece. This little baby was done for the Jack Johnston contest in which we had to use Jack's armatures for the limbs. I usually make my own with foil. I do not think I know how to use them properly, as both arms and legs cracked. That was very disappointing. This is how the baby looked in his contest photos.



When I took the baby apart, I decided that I didn't quite like the paint job on him and wasn't sure I'd be able to match paint for his new limbs when they are ready. So tonight I stripped the paint and he now is ready and waiting for new limbs. Once they are ready, he will get a fresh coat of paint.

Like a Snail

I guess snails do not really have hands, but if they did and they could sculpt, that is how I have been sculpting. Things here are progressing VERY slowly! So much so, that I would almost say they are not progressing at all. I must have put toes on my new leg a million times the other night and they just were not good enough. So then I tried working on a new head and could not satisfy myself with that either. I resorted to taking a two day break to clear my mind. Hopefully that helped so that I will have some good news to report soon.

Back to the Drawing Board

To my dismay tonight, I broke one of the legs for my little guy. I had just finished waiting for the pieces to cool after baking the last layer of paint and was carrying the stand to my workspace when a leg fell to the ground. I hoped and prayed that it was not damaged, but it was cracked. After spending 5 hours painting tonight, I could hardly believe what I had done. I guess it is back to the drawing board tomorrow for another leg. This poor little boy has been waiting so long to be brought to life. Hopefully soon!

Fist Fight

Not in the traditional sense, but there was a fist fight here this evening. I cannot recall the last time I positioned and repositioned fists as much as I did with these two tonight. I seem to be very fastidious with this little guy and I am still not even convinced that I will be entirely satisfied with these when I see them with fresh eyes tomorrow. I did end up going with the 3/4 arms for him. When I lay out all the pieces for this tiny little fellow, he looks so cold with no clothing here in the “Great White North”. Perhaps tomorrow I will come up with a nice outfit for my little man.

Creation of a Newborn

As I type this, I sit here with a tiny little head and two legs wrapped up in blue. I see this one is going to be a boy already. I don't even need to be deciding that right now. What I need to decide is if he should have 3/4 arms or 1/2 arms. I love the posability of the 1/2 arms, but I think people like to dress babies with the 3/4 arms more. I usually do the 1/2 arms these days, so perhaps I should do the 3/4 ones this time. Slowly, this little guy is coming to life right before my eyes. What will make all the difference is when that paintbrush touches his skin. I myself can't wait for that part.