I have been toying with the idea of making a necklace full of doll-beads since I made the first few of them.
I finally started working on it! I might add the picture of the finished necklace when I’m done making it.
I had said I would post pictures of how I paint these beads when I blogged about shaping them.
<- These are the shaped beads, all boys.
So, here’s how I go about painting them :)
First of all I do the skin, if I’m working on more than one bead for the same project I do all of them at once:
Then I give them big rosy cheeks!
And for the hair over their heads, I used 4 different solid colors as the background, then mixed some of those colors between them to get more shades,
and to finish it I added darker colored thin lines over the background, to resemble single hair strands :)
Then I painted their eyes and mouth, just a thin line, between the cheeks, to make a smile.
I don’t always use color for their eyes, I usually just do a tiny black dot with a tinier white dot on top and off-center to give them a light.
With these I started with a big dot of color for the iris, added a smaller black dot for the pupil and a tiny white dot for the light.
Then came the shirts. Since this are all meant for one same big project I tried to start with basic colors to give them a sense of cohesion.
OK, I said tried! I had to add more colors later on! He he he :D
Next came the pants. I start with just one solid color. It will not always show by the time I’m done with each doll-bead.
Here’s my first almost-dressed boy! All he needs now are shoes.
Here are all of them with their shoes on. One of them actually got away with wearing white shoes.
Many, many times, they seem to be telling me how they want to be dressed. I usually listen and follow their hints.
Finally, here are my first 3 finished dolls. Finished painting that is, because they wont be ready for use until I coat them with a glossy polychrome mixture that makes them shine and feel SO soft!
I don’t think that water-proofs them. So I would never advise to take them swimming or even inside a sauna room.
I might dip one in a glass of water someday to see how that goes. If I do I’ll add more to this post then and let you know what happened. In the meantime I’ll tell you a short story at the bottom :)
I painted soles on their shoes! They all seem to want some sort of gummy bouncy sole! :) <3
“The short story”
Which is actually an anecdote:
A few years ago I made my daughter a pair of earrings with these type of beads.
We moved houses and they ended up inside a fish bowl, which we had thought empty, but had a little water at the bottom. And we didn’t see them until the next morning!
They sure were soaked by the time we found them, so we carefully left them on a window sill where the sun would kiss them and they were as good as new once they were dry!
I started using varnish back then after this incident. But the polychrome finish I use now is certainly much better! :)
Why did I switch from varnish to polychrome? I will tell if you are interested :)
2 responses to “Painting doll beads”
This was sweet! Love the colorful patterned clothing.
Aaw Thanks! ^u^