Signing My Work

The other day a friend from Etsy mentioned that I should think about signing my dolls.  I was so flattered by this comment, but I'd never really thought much about it.  Maybe that's because most of the hard work and artistry on a My Twinn doll was done 20 years ago--and not by me!

But I love the idea of giving each doll I work on a little token to document their time here.  Maybe even something that could travel with the doll to future owners and point them back to all of the information in this blog.

Here's what I came up with:

My Twinn Project Shop necklace!

Elegant Elsie

I'm always on the lookout for a new source of wigs, since fun hair is a great way to add diversity to the dolls I restore.  A few months ago, I was admiring the 11" American Girl wigs at ZaZou Custom Dolls and decided to ask if they could make some 13" wigs for My Twinns.  To my delight, ZaZou's owner, Danielle, was happy to special order this size of wig for me!  She took a ton of time and effort to make sure the fit was exactly right, too.  I ordered five different styles of wig and they arrived just a few weeks ago.

Because Danielle had to order each wig in batches of 10, and because I only needed a few of each style, there are still some 13" wigs for sale over at ZaZou if you're interested!  The wigs are beautiful, and I highly recommend the shop.  One note: the 13" Merina wig is not as red as it looks in the photo.  It's the same color as the 11" Bohemian Gingersnap wig.

As you can imagine, I was eager to work on a few dolls who could model these new wigs!  One of the girls is a very special doll who needs a lot of work, so I wanted to select a second doll who could be completed fairly quickly.  This is where my elegant Elsie--who looks like she barely needs any work at all--came into the picture:

1997 My Twinn doll with the Kelsey face.

Aurelia, the Gold Fairy

I'm sharing the last fairy with you today!  I'm a little sad that this foray into the fantasy realm is coming to an end, but I'm also really excited about the girls that I'll be working on next.  Among other things, I have some beautiful new wigs to show you, some glorious dresses, a few familiar faces from a popular story, and more unicorn fun!

But I'm getting way ahead of myself.  For today, let's focus on the gold fairy, Aurelia.  I chose this name because it means "the golden one," but also because Mr Darcy Colin Firth's character in Love, Actually falls for a beautiful woman named Aurelia and I adore their awkward, epically romantic story.

This is how Aurelia looked when I first got her:

2002 My Twinn doll with the Michelle face.

Sterling, the Silver Fairy

My efforts to share this doll with you yesterday were thwarted somewhat by the escape of my little mouse guest, Paddington.  Paddington came to me as a very dehydrated tiny baby who was trying to die in our downstairs bathroom, and I've been taking care of him while we wait for a warm spring release date.  Sadly, during our weekly cage change, Paddington ran up my arm and escaped into the kitchen!  I spent most of yesterday searching for him, but to no avail.  I'm pretty sad--he was a really fun little friend to have around.

In any case, I'm here to show you the silver fairy a day late.  I searched high and low for a good name that means silver, but it was much harder than I thought!  There are a million names that mean gold, but silvery names are more elusive.  I finally settled on the name Sterling, which doesn't mean silver, but is associated with silver of excellent quality.  Here is Miss Sterling:

2003 My Twinn doll with the Audrey face.

Gold and Silver

One of the final two fairies is complete, so I thought I'd give a little introduction here before she makes her debut!

These two fairies represent silver and gold.  I originally planned to have their outfits designed and made by a new artist, but that artist sews for human babies, and unfortunately her dresses didn't work for My Twinn dolls very well.  Still, there's a happy ending because Julie from Fairy Tale Blessings stepped in, worked her magic, and made these two sprites some absolutely lovely dresses!

The idea with these fairies is that they will deliver some of the charm of the seasonal fairies, but for about half the cost.  The silver fairy is a 2003 Audrey and the gold fairy is a 2002 Michelle.  Here's a "before" shot of the two of them together:

A 2003 pale My Twinn Audrey and a 2002 My Twinn Michelle.