Gabriel

Of the five Ariel dolls that I have left to work on, two of them came with bad staining on their limbs.  The stains are nothing like what I found on Cassiel, but the marks will still take a while to fade.  While the Remove-Zit is working its magic on those limbs, I've been focused on one of the un-stained dolls.

Despite the relatively good condition of this girl's body, for some reason I found her uninspiring.  Sometimes a doll's original appearance--no matter how beat-up or dirty--will speak to me in some way and give me ideas about what her makeover should entail.  With this girl, something about her heavy, blonde bob and pale, generic face paint left me feeling neutral.

To make matters worse, her fair coloring and heavy bangs made it really hard to take well-lit, clear pictures of her.  She was always trying to fade away into the shadows:

2001 My Twinn doll with the Ariel face.

I decided to try and pull this girl out of her shell and give her a bright new look.

All of the Ariel-faced dolls are going to have names with an -iel ending, and so I started this doll's transformation by giving her what I think is the strongest name in the group: Gabriel.

I've known a few Gabriels and Gabrielles in my time, and because of those associations, this name conjures the idea of an intelligent, strong-minded, dark-haired girl.

While she didn't look much like a Gabriel to me at first, I think she grew into her name.

Gabriel came with a nice 2001 body in good (slightly dirty) condition.  She has a bit of squeaking in her right shoulder and some picks on her torso, but I didn't have to contend with any glaring stains or scuffs:

As you can see, there's one long snagged bit of fabric on her back.  I didn't want to cut this, but I did thread it on a needle and tuck it back into her cloth body.

Here's a look at one of the dirtier limbs:

Fortunately, all of the dirt and most of the scuffing on her vinyl limbs was easily washed away with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

The only other work I did on the body was to unstitch the back seam, peel away some of the foam body, and lubricate the stiff armature in her right shoulder.  Unfortunately, this didn't fix the squeaking very well.  Perhaps it will loosen a bit more over time.

Because the connection between Gabriel's head and body looked a little precarious, I removed the head completely from the body.

Here's the head on its own:

Underneath those heavy bangs, Gabriel had faint, generic eyebrows and worried-looking eyes:

She also had a dirty face and a scuff on the tip of her nose:

I scrubbed the head with Mr. Clean and then stripped away whatever was left of the factory paint:

I also got rid of the old (slightly wonky) eyes:

And I sanded down the scratch on her nose:

I wanted to stick with Gabriel's original eye color, but I swapped to something a bit more rich and vibrant: my new favorite blue eyes, A223 by Eyeco.

I think she already looks less worried, although the Ariel face mold is prone to this expression for some reason.

To replace her faint, blocky eyebrows, I painted some new black brows that are a little bit scruffy around the edges:

For Gabriel's lip paint, I painted to the very edges of the mold, creating wide, thick lips:

And then I gave her some rosy blushing with no freckles whatsoever (gasp!):

After the blushing was done, I went back and deepened the color of the lips a little bit more:

I had intended for Gaby to have a jet-black wig with bangs, but the bangs didn't suit her new eyebrows, so I ditched that wig and gave her a dark brown (nearly-black) Monique Timarie wig instead...with black lashes to match:

She definitely has a Snow White vibe going on with this coloring...although I guess Disney's Snow White has brown eyes.  I don't know why I always picture the character as blue-eyed.

Like Cassiel, Gabriel is dressed in a plain white peasant dress with a simple ribbon sash.  This time I chose a blue sash.  Whenever I get the crystal charms in the mail, Gabriel will have a fake sapphire necklace (the September birthstone).

Here she is!

Gabriel's wig has lovely curls, and so I have only finger-combed the hair at this point.  I'll leave it up to her new owner to decide whether or not to take a brush to this wig.

Here's the wig from the back:

I know I've said this a zillion times before, but I love how dark hair looks with blue eyes!  

This wig is only glued at the front and at the back.  Monique wigs do not fit as tightly as the custom wigs, so there's a temptation to glue the sides.  I've never had much luck with this, though; I always seem to get some glue residue showing along the hairline or through the wig cap.

Here are a few of my better shots of Gabriel:

I had the wig parted down the middle when I was gluing it on Gabriel's head (this helps me keep it centered), so you can still see a bit of a part along the top of her head.

The hair on this wig can also be flipped around any which way, though, since the part is not stitched into the cap:

I tried clipping Gaby's hair back, but my usual style didn't look great on her:

I looked better from the sides than from the front, though:

I actually like her hair with the clips placed just an inch or so back from the hairline, like this:

I think Gaby liked this style, too, because she didn't want me to take the clips out!

Incidentally, all of the Ariel dolls will come with these silver rhinestone hair clips.

I managed to persuade Gabriel to take the clips out for her official portrait:

Here's her comparison GIF:

And here's a still version of the after shot:

This is not really a fair comparison since the before picture is so poorly-lit, but even considering that, I think Gabriel looks better now.

I zoomed out for one last portrait so that you can see her full wig:

I took Gaby outside on an especially sunny, hot, and humid day (this is becoming the norm here in Maine, which is very odd...and kind-of yucky).

At first, I posed her in a partly-sunny patch of the yard.  I like how this setting highlights sections of her hair!

The direct sunlight was not quite as flattering...although it shows off Gabriel's bright eyes nicely!

I took most of my photos in the shady protection of our woods. These pictures probably show off Gabriel's coloring the best.

She's extremely photogenic:

Gabriel seemed completely unfazed by the heat and humidity, and was intent on watching everything that was going on in the backyard, from the birds flitting between trees...

...and the squirrels chasing each other across the lawn...

...to my pack of four dogs, trapped on the back deck, losing their tiny minds because they weren't allowed to join us:

Through it all, Gabriel stayed calm and collected.

She might not resemble Snow White perfectly, but Gabriel definitely feels to me like some kind of wood-dwelling princess:

The big question is, though, did I make her look different enough from Cassiel?  Let's take a look.  First, here's a reminder of what our redheaded girl looked like outdoors:

And here's Gabriel:

I think these two are fairly different, although I'll keep pushing myself to do more.  The third Ariel's face is mostly painted at this point, and I think she looks even more distinct--like a distant cousin, perhaps.  We'll see if you agree!

In the meantime, I think Gabriel lived up to her strong name.  She shed her muted paint and stepped out from under those thick bangs to embrace a brighter, bolder new future.

Here's a summary of all the work that was done on Gabriel:

-her head was removed from her body and all of her vinyl parts were cleaned

-lubrication was placed on the armature of her right should to try and reduce the squeaking

-a scuff on the tip of her nose was sanded down

-her head was coated with Mr. Super Clear sealant

-her old eyes were replaced with Eyeco acrylic A223 eyes

-she was given new face paint, including lips, blush, and eyebrows

-her head was re-attached to her body and the back seam was re-sewn

-she's wearing a very dark brown Monique Timarie wig that has only been finger-combed

-she was given new black eyelashes

-she is wearing a white peasant dress made by Carole from Doll Clothes by Carole.  The dress is accented with a blue satin ribbon and will include a matching pendant necklace

Gabriel still has some squeaking in her right shoulder.  She also has some pilling on her cloth torso.  There's an area of mild discoloration on her right forearm.  Otherwise, she only has minor scuffs and shiny marks from being 19 years old.  One thing worth noting is that because her wig has only been finger-combed, using a brush on this hair will change its appearance somewhat.  For reference, please see the brushed-out Timarie wigs on Poppy or Valerie.

Gabriel has sold.  Thank you!