New Pugdog for Marie Antoinette & Louis

Usually I plan my holiday pictures in advance. As usual, I wanted to do a romantic series of photos and one of those sets included my historical Louis and Marie Antoinette with her pugdog. 

An international doll crisis occurred. Mops was missing! So were the poodles. They could not be found anywhere in Barbietown. It was thought the nefarious Fashion Royalty dolls had made off with them. Or maybe the snobby Silkstone Barbie dolls had taken them out shopping and let Mops and the poodles wander around the boutiques, eating- gasp! dog food instead of their usual French tarts and pastries on the sidewalk instead of on silken cushions and china plates. 

When I looked in all doll containers, and hiding places, and even asked the Big dolls- The Tonners, The French fashion dolls- who had taken a liking to Mops and the poodles at several photo ops- they were eyeing him for their own- Annabelle and Marie Terese wanted their own pugdogs and poodles- no Mops and poodles were to be found. So on to Ebay to look again for another Mops. 

I found this little darling. He is a Birthstone Beauties Barbie dog, that is why they are so hard to find. 
I have another matching one to this little darling coming, so he will have a twin. If you want to know which Birthstone Beauty Barbie- it is July /Ruby who has the black pugdog.  Our previous Mops pugdog which was a fair pugdog came with October /Opal Barbie or Aquamarine /March Barbie. 

I remember having a few of these dolls, not many when they came out in 2007 or 2006. I saved the dogs , gave them as gifts to my daughter and mother. I never purchased one for myself. Now the Steffie face I really find cute. 

Pugdog's collar is silk ribbon glued around his neck with Swarvorski crystals glued onto the ribbon. When my Ruby Birthstone beauty doll comes I will do the other pugdog to match. I might find blue ribbon so I have a girl and boy dog. They will look so adorable sitting on cushions. I am hoping to find Mops and the Poodles as I thought I had put them in a safe place when I was moving items around, they are some of my most precious props for the dolls. I will probably find them in the least expected place when I am not looking for them. 

Enjoy the preview of the Valentine's day photos! Pugdog is so cute. 

~Lisa

The Chateau Project ..continued.

The Chateau project as I refer to it is a group of dollies that I began three or four years ago , the main two beginning with my Marie Antoinette (Lilac Frost Poppy Parker) restyled by me, and Louis XVl, (rerooted and re-painted by Dawn of One Sixth Sense One Sixth Sense ) Louis XVl is a Mattel Twilight Emmett on a Dynamite Integrity toys Kyu body.  

Well, I had only got as far as doing Marie Antoinette's costume a few years ago, and Louis' pants and shirt, stockings and shoes, after Dawn finished his hair, and repaint. You can see Louis on her website, when you click on 1/6 males. 

BUT....I got a kick in the pants this month when my Va. fashion doll club decided to do as their theme 'real' families. I decided at first to do my Laura Ingalls family since their costumes were mostly already done and I just needed to gather together some props, right? But checking our Facebook group page, TV families were out and I realized alot of the ladies would consider this a 'TV' family even though Laura and Almanzo, and her parents and sister 'really' lived. 

So ....that brought me back to Louis and Marie Antoinette and their children. I already had Marie Therese, their daughter, who was a mini American Girl doll , mini-Caroline, and wore a perfect dress, so she was ready. I had purchased a Tommy doll with blonde hair that would do for the Dauphin, Louis Charles. I very quickly made his outfit from the few portraits I could find of the children on the internet from historical websites....that just left...........Louis himself. 

I have not been able to finish his frockcoat or hat. But I figured, I want to do those correctly. And tomorrow is the meeting. I did, however, finish his ruffled collar, his shoes, his sash, and his waistcoat. He looks pretty stunning. 

Swarvorski rhinestones were used for his waistcoat buttons and to embellish the rosette, made of real silk, and on his shoes, and on the ruffle at his throat, to resemble diamonds. 

This is Louis finished so far...Here are some photos before I did the rhinestone buttons embellishments, and the sash. 

With Marie Antoinette...

Before the finished work...

Marie Therese, Madame Royale & the Dauphin, Louis Charles...

Louis Charles' outfit is made all in one piece of white muslin with a gauze ruffle to resemble how male children had lace collars and cuffs around on their little sailor suits. It appears in the portraits his clothing was made of satin but in real historical pictures of textiles that his clothing did not look like it was made of satin or silk. I am going on what matches the illusion here. I used the same kind of ribbon on his sash as I used on the King's. 

This was the royal family a few days ago. Today was the last day I had to finish any of their last finishing touches. I might still add some diamond bracelets to Marie Antoinette's wrists to make her sparkle a little more. I have also made my foamcore backdrop , and have a few props that will go with that. We are allowed a setup that can only be 18 inches wide. I will have loads of pictures so it should be a fun meeting. Stay tuned. I wanted to get my photos in of all the work I had done sewing. I would love to do more of this type of 18th century gowns on dolls later. 

new miniature food- St. Honore pastry

Have been missing in action but have been working on some new miniature food, and experimenting with different clays. Some have worked, some haven't. I have also been working on my doll room /collection goal list for 2015 and one of the items I listed was - create more of the pastries and cakes for my doll food- not just 1:6 scale, but all scales. Especially the bigger ones- 1:4 and 1:3. Why? I don't quite know except the challenge and feeling of satisfaction that I perfectly replicated something in large, big and small. That is what I did this weekend with the St. Honore pastry.

Here is a pic of the real thing off of google-

And below is the four St. Honore raspberry pastries I created in 1:3, 1:4 and two in 1:6 scale...

Marie Antoinette is holding the one in 1:6 scale....

There has always been one scene in this movie I have wanted to replicate- that is when Marie Antoinette and her friends are eating delectable pastries, strawberries, champagne, on gorgeous priceless china and crystal and 'shopping' for cloth for new dresses- the pug dogs carelessly eat the cake left on the divan. I adored her Mops, and created my own.

Not exactly the same, but you get the picture, lol.

Here are some more photos of Louis, Marie Antoinette and their daughter Marie Therese enjoying a decadent tea with these pastries. I promise to have more photos up with the appropriate sized dolls for the 1:3 and 1:4 scales, but I have to set that photo shoot up. 

Here is a hand size comparison-

That pic above is Louis' hand next to the 1:4 scale St. Honore.

Enjoy- and Bon Soir!~Lisa

Almost done- Doll Room organization progress!

I have had a great morning, no, a GREAT DAY today.I have accomplished so much in my doll room. Much better pictures- not complete, but the massive work of moving items side to side is almost over with. 

This morning I went and purchased a 6 ft folding table for the dioramas that were on the floor. Now they will be on the wall as you enter the room, with the plastic bins of extra dolls underneath, the dollhouse in the middle, another table for temp dioramas and photo ops and my two sets of plastic crayola shelves - one in front of each other for deeper shelf space for dolls and props. The room is coming along. I also went and stopped by Michael's and purchased a roll of that blue sky cloud paper. It is 4 ft wide by 8 ft long, and that is applied to the wall with packing tape. Here are some photos so far of my progress. 

I have one little corner without cloud paper, this is extremely hard to unroll and tape at the same time. I may hide that part with trees and foliage. So far I have the bakery/patissiere on the table along with my contractor tiles and cobblestone sheeting for the sidewalks. I straightened up LaBelle's and took all of the old displays out which were done way early in this year. I am really hyped about this and hope to have more progress photos for you by this evening or tomorrow!

More incoming props in the collection for the Chateau Project. I sold many of these 1:6 sets of Bespaq bedroom furniture long ago, in 2008 when I first began selling.Unfortunately, I sold the walnut and mahogany. Recently I was able to snag four pieces from a private collector- a mahogany armoire, night table, chair and vanity table! Thank you Twisty! 

As you can see, Louis is quite happy! For storage purposes, I may keep these pieces in LaBelle's when not in use and that can be a large salon for the two of them. Now that we have Marie Therese, and the Princesse de Lamballe, it will look normal for them to be in a room together. 

More dolls are incoming- I am literally being pelted with dolls! I have ordered Mistress of the Manor from Barbie Collector and she is backordered until October 1st. Today I am expecting two club dolls from the W club- Victoire and the online Event doll Agnes! Convention will be here next month and then- more dolls! 

I haven't been adding many items to the Etsy store as I have been so busy with working on the doll room. I still have way more work to do, but it's such a feeling of accomplishment after so much clutter. Feel like I have made headway so I can enjoy my dioramas now.