Le contemporain, la fantaisie, les reracines et le flamenco prennent le stade de centre!

Contemporary, whimsy, reroots, and flamenco take center stage!

JACQUELINE PATRICIO


Jacqueline, Confection Dolls, is mainly just a reroot artist, but decided to push herself a little bit and do a little more. Natalia has received a full reroot in auburn chatty saran doll hair. Her eyeshadow has been removed and eyebrows repainted, her eyelashes have also been removed for a much more subtle look. The dress was made of silk dupioni, and then the outfit was paired with some red and gold jewelery and a pair of red slingbacks. Jacqueline is no longer making ooaks but was able to make this one for the convention.  If by chance anyone is interested in reroots, they can email Jacqueline.  

                                                                                 

MICHELE STEWART

My best friend in the whole world (my wife Michele) started out this long journey of Fashion Doll collecting and remakes way back when we lived in Tucson, Arizona. Let me go back just a little further… Michele actually started making clothes for her Barbie’s when she was a little girl. Now, back to Tucson… She belonged to a Barbie Club with Dorothy Fannin. In 2001, at the Barbie Convention in Denver, Dorothy introduced Michele to a gentleman named Jim Faraone. Michele has attended and participated in the IFDC every year since the first one in Texas. She has so much love for the Convention and the things she’s gotten involved with, that she convinced me to start participating the second year. She enjoys remaking dolls, and was the first artist that I noticed with the IFDC that used animals with her dolls in a scene.  If you are interested in Michele's work, contact her.

DEBBIE DIAZ & ROSALIE SCHWARTZ

Natalia Fatale is dressed by Rosalie Schwartz in "Flamenco", an evening gown of coral silk chiffon with full circle skirt and asymmetrical hemline. It has been embellished with black French lace, and she is wearing jewelry also made by Rosalie consisting of a necklace, earrings and bracelet of black Swarovski beads, freshwater pearls, and tiny gold filled flowers. Natalia's lips and nails have been enhanced by Debbie Diaz to match Rosalie's ensemble, and Debbie also straightened and restyled Natalia's hair in an elaborate braided hairdo with long ponytail to reflect the Spanish style.

Although Rosalie has created jewelry in this scale, this is the first time she has created an outfit for the 11 1/2" size, and this is also Debbie's first experience working in this scale. The shoes accompanying the outfit are modified Jennifer Sue shoes that are available, along with other styles for all sizes, at Jennifer Dolls. Debbie and Rosalie are both graduates of the Fashion Institute of Technology, having majored in Illustration and Fashion Design. This is their first collaboration. Examples of Rosalie's jewelry for all sizes can be seen at Chicdoll.  Debbie has written articles for Haute Doll and Doll News magazines. They both live and work in New York City.                                                                                                  

                                                                                                     

CAROLYN DEAN

Meet VALENCIA!  Valencia is a dream inspired beauty that reflects a sense of whimsy with the sexiness of a spanish senorita!  When the opportunity came for me to redo Natalia, I couldn't be more excited! Here was a new aspect of the doll art path .. a way of creating an ENTIRE doll art instead of just the hair! I realize that I am at the beginning of this journey in the doll world and so look forward to seeing where it leads. It is my hope and goal that the small contributions that I make to the art aspect of the dolls will be a blessing to the receiver and a reflection of the joy I feel in doing it.

The reroot came first. I LOVED the color black on this doll but wanted her to have the soft curls of mohair so dyed and rerooted her in premium mohair. Then came the outfit.  My love of fiber and sense of whimsy.. well.. as you can see overruled my original thought of doing her elegant! I was reading Corrie Ten Boom one afternoon and got the urge to draw "Valencia".. starting with the base dress of felted wool, I suddenly sketched in the mohair locks and added the natural flowers/vines beading.. I feel that God led this and so I followed!  Valencias dress is felted wool with custom dyed mohair locks adding flair to the hemline. I then hand beaded glass and crystal beads throughout the dress using the thread to add random patterning to add a bit of unexpected. Finding shoes was the hardest. I couldn't find any FR or silkstone shoes in the colors I wanted. So tiny kitty lost a pair of hers. I filed the heel off to shorten the shoes, added beads and thread and "voila" .. cute shoes to match were created!

Last to be addressed was the face. All the handling of the head during the mohair reroot had warped her eyelashes so off they came! I then decided to enhance her face adding new eyelashes, deepening her eye color, painting eye liner and feathering her eyebrows. Finally, I repainted her lips in a mauve that would tie her face to the purple in her outfit.. lightening the color a touch, I redid her nails. Lastly, I sealed all of the repainted areas with a matte sealer and reattached her head. FINISHED!  Working on Natalia/Valencia has been a throughly enjoyable experience for me and I thank you for the opportunity! Through this, I have taken the next step on the journey of the art dolls and look forward to creating more OOAK dolls in the years ahead.

For most of my adult life, I ran a daycare/preschool for 12 hours a day out of our home to support my son and I. All those years of bright colors and imagination influenced my future as a fiber artist! The last year of my child business, my body started shutting down with heavy fatigue and pain. God is good and during that time introduced me to the world of textile fiber so that I would have a new way of making income and enjoying life.  Originally starting out in felting wool, I soon received requests to make mohair for reborn dolls. Soon I was dyeing and combing mohair not only for the reborn artists.. but also for the fashion doll. When I was first approached to do a reroot for a collector, I was intimidated but I now am blessed with being able to make mohair wigs, dredlocks, and do reroots.  To see what Carolyn has to offer, visit The Flying Ewe or contact her via email.