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.

Denika has the "generic" My Twinn skin tone--hints of yellow, but not Oompa Loompa magnitude.  I found her on eBay a while ago and figured she would be the Denika I kept in my collection forever. When Monika came along, though, I started to think about selling this girl.  I really don't need duplicates of any single face mold, as much as I might love it.

Denika came to me with an icky wig and faded eyes.  Her wig had been over-conditioned to the point that it was stiff and a little sticky.

I didn't do much with her.  I gave her a new wig, painted some freckles on her face, and swapped out her faded eyes with the closest color I could find to the original brown.  I don't have any pictures of how she looked on my shelf, but I initially used a thin (shedding) wig on her, and there was a ton of glue residue around the hairline.

So, the other day I took off her old wig, cleaned away the glue residue, gave her a new wig from my bag of second-tier wigs, and dressed her in Julie's charming outfit:

I love this particular outfit because of the peasant-style blouse.  The blouse looks loose and romantic, but yet it covers the cloth torso pretty well:

There's no closure in the back of this blouse (it fits over the head because of the elastic neckline) so it's a little hard to get on and off, but it looks really nice when it's finally on!

The fabric of the blouse has a very intricate woven pattern:

And the ultra-mini skirt has two tiers of super-soft floral print:

The outfit also includes a matching flower headband that I absolutely love!

The wig I chose for Denika is a Dollmore synthetic mohair wig in a gorgeous golden brown. It has beautiful soft curls at the bottom:

Here's what the wig looks like when it's freshly brushed:

I actually prefer the wig when it hasn't been brushed for a while, though, and the curls look a bit more natural.

It a lovely wig, but the problem is that the wig cap does not cover the glue stains from the old wig--nor was I able to wash or sand these stains away:

The glue stains are covered well by the bangs, but depending on how the hair is styled, it is definitely possible to see a hint of yellow here and there.

Another flaw of Denika's is that I was not able to fix a shiny/rubbed spot on her upper lip:

I tried to paint over this area, but the vinyl resisted my paint.  It's pretty subtle (I actually never noticed it until I was photographing Denika for this post) but it's definitely there if you look for it:

Denika's third big flaw is that her neck joint is loose.  When I first got her off of my shelf, her head was actually falling off of the armature.  The glue I'd placed during my previous makeover had failed.  I guess this must have been because I didn't get a tight enough seal between the head and neck while the glue was drying.

I'm obsessively careful about this now, and I've also purchased new "extra strength" glue for my hot glue gun.  Still, a note to anyone who has ever purchased a doll from me: if the head of your doll ever comes unglued from the armature, send her back to me and I will fix it!

Anyway--Denika's head is glued securely to her armature now (I've forcefully tried to pull it off many times):

But the actual armature in her neck is wobbly, so her head often feels like it's coming loose.  Here's a little video:

Other than those flaws, Denika is in great shape.  Her 1999 body does not squeak much,

And her fabric torso has only a few tiny picks:

Here are some pictures of Denika in her new outfit!

I asked Denika to take her headband off for a bit, just so you can see the style of the wig clearly:

Here's the headband on its own:

And here's Denika without the headband:

The wig has long bangs and a side part along the top of the head:

I love how this face mold looks with bangs:

Denika's eyes are Secrist acrylic "Tiger Brown" eyes.  She's one of a very few dolls who actually look great in these eyes.  I think they suit her very well and don't give her the spaced-out appearance that they produce in some face molds:

I gave Denika some white tights from Doll Secrets (on eBay) because her skirt is really short.  These are the tights I use for all of my dolls, and I probably should give Wendy more recognition!  They are the best tights I've found for My Twinn dolls.  I think they're perfect.

Here are a few more pictures of Denika posing for the camera.  Some of the shots are with my iPhone, like this:

And a few with the Canon:

I think she's lovely, but--like Platinum Kate--she's saddled with her fair share of imperfections.

I think this might be the first synthetic mohair wig I've ever used, so it's probably worth an extra comment or two.  It doesn't feel like a regular My Twinn wig--it's softer, lighter, and thinner, although it puffs out to fill volume really well.  It also tangles a bit quicker than regular wigs, but is easy to brush out.  I think the curls are especially realistic and the color is lovely.

At the end of the photo session, I gave Denika a few of the fairies' flowers to look at.  She adores flowers!

I'll admit that I rushed through this post a bit (I'm anxious to get back to the fairies!) but Denika really is a sweet Denver girl in great shape, with just a few flaws holding her back.

Here are the modifications that have been made to Denika:

-her vinyl parts were cleaned

-her faded eyes were replaced with Secrist Tiger Brown acrylic eyes

-her face paint was enhanced with light freckles.  Her lip paint and eyebrows are original

-she was given new eyelashes

-her old wig was replaced with a Dollmore soft brown synthetic mohair wig

-she's wearing an outfit by Fairy Tale Blessings, including a peasant blouse, a tiered skirt, a headband, and some tights and foam shoes that I added myself

The main flaws to be aware of with Denika are that her neck joint is wobbly (the wobble is in the armature, not the connection between head and armature), she has a bit of missing paint on her upper lip, and stains from the old wig glue are visible underneath the bangs of her new wig.  Other than that, her body is in good shape and just has the random mark or snag from being an old doll.

Denika has sold.  Thank you very much!