Ione, the Spring Fairy

At long last, here is the second fairy!  This one had quite a few unexpected delays in her makeover, so I'm especially happy to finally be able to share her with you.

I decided to name this fairy Ione because it means "violet" or "violet flower."  As you'll see, this ends up being a really good way to describe her final look.

However, when I first got this doll--a pale-skinned Denika from 2002--there wasn't much about her that conjured violets or spring:

2002 My Twinn Denika.

My Brown-Eyed Girl

Well, I finally have a wig for the spring fairy (yay!) so I'm hoping I can finish her and get her photographed over the weekend.  I tell you, that pixie is a feisty one!

Today I'll show you the second Grab Bag Girl who gets to model a Fairy Tale Blessings outfit.  This is a Denver-era Denika who I've had for about a year:

My Twinn Denika from 1999.

Platinum Kate

When I'm putting together a group of dolls, there's always this complicated matchmaking game that occurs with wigs, eyes, outfits, and face molds.  If a certain pair of eyes or a certain wig doesn't work the way I think it will, I often have to scramble around and change everything to find a new cohesive vision.

Unfortunately, the spring fairy is having a hard time finding the perfect wig.  She's already rejected two really nice wigs (one didn't match her dress and the other didn't work with her eyes) and now I'm waiting for the third wig to arrive from Korea.  It should be here tomorrow, so until then I just have to cross my fingers and hope that the third time will be a charm!

In the meantime, I'll share two of the Grab Bag Girl dolls that I'm selling, each of them modeling an outfit from Julie Kelly's Fairy Tale Blessings Etsy shop.  The first doll is a Kate from 2002:

My Twinn Kate from 2002.

Orla, the Autumn Fairy

It doesn't feel much like fall here in Maine yet (it must've been 80 degrees over the weekend!) but I still figured that the autumn fairy would be a good way to kick off this collection.

I decided to name this magical girl Orla because it means "golden princess."  Autumn looks different all over the world, but where I live the colors of the changing leaves and the low burn of the sun in the sky both make me think of the color gold.

I was fortunate enough to find Orla on eBay a few months ago.  She was a quintessential diamond in the rough--basically a dream come true for any vintage My Twinn hunter.  She was covered from head to toe with more dirt and stains than I've ever seen on a My Twinn (with the possible exception of one Tasha doll I worked on), but shining out from under all of that grime was a gorgeous, dark-skinned, Denver-era Kelsey.  It's rare to find a doll like this on the secondary market:

My Twinn Kelsey from 1997.

The Fairies are Coming

My next collection of dolls is coming together, and I wanted to post a brief introduction to this group before I start sharing individual dolls.

The focus of this collection is a group of four fairies.  Each fairy will represent a different season of the year, and each will be wearing a glorious custom-made outfit by the talented Julie Kelly of Fairy Tale Blessings.  I've had so much fun collaborating with Julie over the last few months, and I hope you'll take a moment to check out her beautiful Etsy shop.

The idea for these dolls was inspired by Maggie, a friend from the blog who manages to see a little bit of fairy magic in every doll I work on.  Thank you for the inspiration and support, Maggie!

In addition to the four main dolls, there will also be a duo of fairies wearing dresses by a different artist, and three Grab Bag Girls wearing some of the lovely non-custom outfits that I bought from the Fairy Tale Blessings Etsy store.

While you're waiting for the first fairy to land, I thought I'd show you how the four season fairies looked before I started working on them.  They're a pretty rag-tag bunch, I'll admit, but I see great potential in those pixie faces!

From left, in back: a 2001 Ariel and a 1997 Kelsey
From left, in front: a 2003 Danielle and a 2002 Denika