archie, craft, Doll, sewing, Uncategorized

Terror’s make-over is complete.

What have I learned?

Carefully layer the fixative spray, let it fully dry, and paint up the eyes and whites first.

Also, you can’t make the Archie doll look trustworthy. You can only raise his craftsmanship. He’ll always be eldritch. He might slice you where you sleep but he’ll do it with a better quality of shank.

He no longer stares straight at you.

Archie before…not my Archie. Mine had a better shirt.

But he now looks like he’s spotted the two Archies standing just outside of your view. And that’s when the attack comes. Not from the front, but from the side, from the other two Archies you didn’t even know were there. Because Archie is a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today…

I finished his shirt yesterday. I do wish I’d actually focused and drafted his sleeves/shirt. I really just winged the whole shirt and had regrets later. I am happy that I had the leftover fabric for his bow tie.

I made him a whole new sweater as well, but that’s mostly because Snow looks so good in his original. I might make her an Archie homage outfit.

It occurs to me that now I have dolls in different sizes this can be my crash course in how to adjust pattern sizes for different shaped people. I do get asked about if i can be commissioned to make dresses and costumes for people other than my self but I’ve stuck to costumes for people around my size who live locally (so I can do fittings) instead of learning more about adjusting and scaling patterns.

…who knows. Maybe I’ll tackle Reggie later with the repaint skills I’m gaining.

Or maybe I’ll throw him in a box, tie it with chains, and hope I never hear any strange noises coming from it.

Who am I kidding…I’ll hear those noises…those low, dull, quick sounds, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I know the sound well, too. The beating of the old doll’s rage…Reggie…the other terror.

archie, craft, Doll, sewing, Uncategorized

Terror Gets a New Pair of Pants.

Well, I couldn’t very well leave Archie pants-less. He’s scary enough. Even with the make-over an apartment guest recoiled slightly at his visage.

After the ass-reduction Archie couldn’t very well wear his old pants.

Also…Archie has some ugly pants.

Comics are a hellofa drug.

Trust me, they are a repulsive fabric to behold.

Fuck the Patriarchy! Not worth fighting over.

But, accurate to the classic look.

This is just included because I saw it and now want a world where Betty seduces Veronica in Sexy Archie Drag….because that’s EXACTLY what she’s wearing.

There’s NO WAY I was ever going to find orange fabric with a black grid in the right scale. I didn’t like the original fabric enough to alter it either. So what I needed was to find a real-world interpretation of what those pants might be.

I used a Harris tweed with a subtle plaid pattern including flecks of orange. Then I altered the original pants and used them as a pattern. The original pants had pockets but two layers of tweed gets bulky.

I also repainted and scuffed up the shoes..and gave them dark soles.

Cuffs! That inseam could use a pressing.

When the stores reopened here I also hit a “Hobby-off”. Book-Off/ Hard-Off/Hobby-Off are a chain of resale shops selling books & Manga, furniture and home stuff, and geek stuff.

I am now off the Kinder-Egg grid for a Maz Kanata.

There are now Maz busts available online but I don’t want Maz or toys to totally takeover my apt…so I set out to upgrade Maz.

Before

After (Her base is somewhere, will find when tidying up later)

It’s mostly just messy washes but it gives her a bit more depth. She’s really tiny. I will need even smaller brushes and magnifying visor if I do things on this scale.

archie, Doll, Uncategorized

Oh good, terror gets a makeover.

The title of this entry once more comes from Randy, who has slept under the same roof of the cursed Archie and Reggie dolls. He’s still alive.

Death from Above.

Before I get any further I’d like to point you the people who now have my old Archies, Stupid Comics.

How Archie started (and how I wish I’d taken more photos but this was an impulsive thing).

The truth is that the shape of the face itself isn’t that bad but the paint job fails in the way so many Archie dolls fail.

THOSE EYES.

Archie’s way of asking for consent is awkward.

Classic Archie and the gang have eyes that work great for comics. They are simple and expressive… yet they are black dots. Big black irises.

Some updates have failed by trying to give them more realistic eyes. BEGONE DEMONS!

Yet the biggest issue with the dolls is how the classic eyes can be TERRIFYING when they look straight at you. The Effanbee Betty and Veronica dolls show how these eyes should NOT look directly out.

Ronnie looks cute in her intervention gown. Betty has NO idea what’s coming next.

The Hamilton series dolls (like the Archie I’m working on) fail in the same way.

Meanwhile at the Riverdale Chok’lit Shoppe, Playing Mantis is all “Hold my shake, I got this…”

Playing Mantis Betty will bite your head off during a make-out session.

And suddenly “realistic” eyes are looking SO much better.

Thank you, Mattel.

I knew I wanted Archie to be looking to the side AND to have colored irises.

This is my first “repaint” ever. I use quotes because the medium used is mostly dry (pastels, water color pencils) with just a tiny bit of water and a touch of acrylics. My BFA is in drawing, not painting, so the distinction matters to me in a way. It’s been drilled into me, actually.

The first layers of color were chalk pastels with a little bit of color pencil for the first layer of freckles.

I’m going to admit this got frustrating pretty quickly. I’m used to new crafts coming easy for me.

It eventually boiled down to me needing to learn a LOT more about properly priming the surface with fixative so that it would have enough tooth to take the pigments.

I invested in a mask. This shit is toxic. I have asthma. I probably took years off my lungs in college with a variety of pigments, chemicals, and cloves.

Because of issues with priming I don’t LOVE the final face..the eyes got away from me…but I do love the hair. I love drawing hair. I always have. I figured it would be better to accept an imperfect but much better face and move on to hands/shoes/ and a new wardrobe.

Midway

You see what I mean about the eyes? One side properly fixed and the other..well.

I know now how much to prime and when NOT to add acrylics.

Messy ears. Look, I’m used to aceing this kinda thing. I’m learning to be humble with tiny dolls.

It’s been a reminder that I worked drawings that were LARGE and hard to afford frames for…not small. I probably need to invest in a magnifying visor if I do much more of this.

Figuring out how to handle Archie’s hair lumps.

Archie still has hands, shoes, and tailoring for his new body to tackle…but until then I suggest you go enjoy the photos here (click the photo ).

archie, craft, Doll, sewing, Uncategorized

Archie, Whatcha gonna do with all that junk?

Archie comics introduce me to the word jalopy as if it were normal 80’s slang. In fact, I’m pretty sure I owned a copy of Archie’s Mechanics #2. In retrospect Archie teaching us about mechanics was absurd because it was Betty who knew how to fix his car much of the time. Patriarchy!

archiekink

New Car Kinks you say? Are you talking about… Archie’s TRUNK?

Damn, Archie Andrews! We didn’t even celebrate Thanksgiving but here you are FULL OF STUFFING!

Now, I don’t want to booty shame, I’m just saying I don’t remember Archie backing THAT ass up. Maybe that’s a failure of my imagination. Maybe the artists deliberately hid Archie’s Badonkadonk the way TV shows expect that pregnant actresses will carry boxes and wear hoodies and no one will notice CHANGES.

Deliberate Couch Placement

It was also my theory that the doll butt served to help this 18-inch Archie (not a euphemism) sit if you didn’t want to pay for a stand. My friend Randy had another theory.

“That butt was probably an evolutionary adaptation that allowed him to hang off of even the smallest of outcroppings to murder-leer.”

Spoken like a true house guest who has encountered Reggie and Archie in my delightful apartment.

Randy knows about the make-over because I sent him photos… because that’s what I do when a friend is having too-few spoons to go do something social and comes to me for a “get out there and do that thing” pep talk. I send creepy doll photos annotated with the demands the dolls have. I’m a…friend. I’m not always the friend you want and rarely the friend you deserve but I am a friend with a LOT of photos on her phone.

The Good Lord didn’t split you, Archie, so I shall.

Bend over, let me see whatcha working with.

Bend over let me see it boy
Make you wait on the pole when you hit the floor
Make it go boom boom boom boom boom boom

Will you use your BFA after graduating? EVERYDAY.

I’ll really take it outa you.

Now…I’m not calling Archie a bitch, because I don’t support gendered slurs, but he getting stitches.

Welcome to your new ass, Mr. Andrews…or should I call you Mr. 18-inch Andrews?

archie01be023dc09a73b4c3fc93e3a11092dca7ee5ad9_hq

archie, craft, Doll, Uncategorized

The Doll Makeover No One Wanted.

Once I learned you could use watercolor pencils to do doll repaints…I had to.

It is time for the Doll Makeover No One Wanted!

You see, my early comics life started with Scrooge McDuck. My father and I would go buy those comics together. When I started buying comics solo (well, spending my allowance down at Mallot’s drug store) I turned to Archies. I know a great deal about Archie. I had QUITE the collection, including vintage Archies and a plastic record of Sugar Sugar.

And, a few years ago, my father and step-mother found Archie and Reggie dolls at St. Vinnies and sent them to me.

Archie and the boys…well..they don’t doll well. They just don’t make the transition smoothly. I don’t have a Jughead…and that might be ok because he is terrifying.

archies

The girls look pretty…coked up.
dolls-archieset

So my challenge to myself is to try and make Reggie and Archie look less terrifying…even though I DO love to set them up around the apartment to scare people spending the night.

archie1

Acetone.

But before the repainting starts I think we have to address what’s going on in Archie’s Trunk. I get that the butt is there for sitting but. Nope. First things first we need dat ass to match the rest of that body. Only then will I start the repainting.

archie, craft, Mary Frances sewing

Me and The Thimble People

I started this blog last year to have a place to work on my struggles to be a more intersectional feminist. Trump had just been elected.

I came to realize that I have no desire to write about that. Read, Google, do the work, shut up and listen, make mistakes…I am willing to do that. Write about it? no. My story of needing to be more intersectional is EVERY DAMNED WHERE.

So it’s time to be low stakes with my writing. Time to center something on myself that isn’t going to affect anyone…anyone except Those Damned Thimble People.

On October 3rd, 2017, my father sent me this cryptic message.

A package is coming to you….The thimble people CAN be your friends

I replied:

WHAT ARE THIMBLE PEOPLE?!

Continue reading →

Do It Yourself: WFU

The dolls and art of a woman in Japan trying to be better.

Category Archives: archie

Terror’s make-over is complete.

Terror Gets a New Pair of Pants.

Oh good, terror gets a makeover.

Archie, Whatcha gonna do with all that junk?

The Doll Makeover No One Wanted.

Me and The Thimble People