I hope people living in the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
My next doll, Mulatto Bru’s head, is completed. Painting mocha color skin tone is always a challenge. I fired four times with this head and finally achieved the right color ( I hope).
I added more matt agent in paint this time so that the head doesn’t have that shiny eyebrows or forehead. I am using high dome spiral threaded antique brown eyes that look very close to eyes from an antique Bru doll, perfect fit for this head.
I made this EJ head back in 2016. The head was forgotten inside the box without eyes, just laying around till now. I found this head today and set antique eyes, attached to an antique body, dresses her with an extra costume I have purchased long time ago…. Look, I’ve got a new Jumeau doll to display! 😍
I just casted a mold for my next doll as a 19″ Mulatto Bru Jne. She will have mocha-like brown complexion.
Unfortunately I have developed an allergy to plaster dust and dust from dried porcelain slip since we had a wildfire in September.
Prolonged smoke inhalation pushed my asthma to another level this year, I became extremely ill when I was exposed to this dust when I was handling mold and greenware. It took me more than one month to recover and I finally feel my asthma is under control so I tried to cast mold with extra caution. I wear a respirator when I handle plaster mold and wipe down any residual slip so that I will not have dried slip dust inside the house.
Because of this extra work, It now takes much longer to create one doll but this is the best I can do in order to continue making dolls.
I didn’t think seriously that doll making could harm my health when I started doing it more than 20 years ago. But doll artists should not forget that we are dealing with chemicals that could harm our bodies if we don’t handle them correctly. We may not notice any health problems when we are young but over the years, symptoms become more evident. I strongly recommend wearing masks when you are cleaning dried greenware or mixing dried paint. It’s better to be safe than sorry and I wish I was more careful.