Accessories

I’ve been working along making accessories the pilot/attorney. I poke along like a turtle, but I do eventually get where I’m going. This is what happened on my worktable this past week or so.

First these are the shoes I made for him. They are a medium weight leather, embroidery floss for the laces and narrow elastic around the bottom. The base he’ll stand on, is a piece of hardwood left over from our floors, it has pilot wings on the front, as well as the trim you see. In between the wings is a metal button with a coat of arms on it, no telling where it is meant to identify. The bottom is covered with black felt.

The next part is three necessary items for flying and dealing with legal issues. He now has a silk scarf, boarding passes I miniaturized to tuck into his jacket pocket, and look at his cool briefcase.

I love to experiment making things for my dolls, it just seems to be what I end up doing. I’m not happy unless I can somehow really personalize them, especially when they are commissioned dolls.

For the briefcase front and back, I used two  2 x 2 mini framed canvases. I covered them with a vinyl fabric that looks like leather. The briefcase does not open. I did think about doing that, but decided that it was best kept closed. The hinges on the bottom are from $ store boxes and because the canvases are framed, that gave me a good base for attaching the hinges with the screws.

On the top, I added 2 mini belt buckles to resemble the latches to open the briefcase, they are hand sewn on. To finish off, I used a piece of 1/16th size wire, covered it with the vinyl and hand stitched the underside of the handle. Extra length of the wire is tucked in between the two layers and glued in. This was so much fun to make.

The final two accessories were also an experiment and challenge at the same time, but so happy with the end result. To tie in the attorney theme, my customer asked me to make one of those wigs they wear in the higher courts and to exaggerate it somewhat. So my character will be holding his wig in one hand, the briefcase in the other. The wig is made with a fibre called Tencel. I just rolled up a bunch of curls, joined them together and then lined part of the wig with some gauze.

The second part of the lawyer theme, are the scales of justice. This was an interesting challenge and now I know what to do to keep metal parts together, at least things that won’t be moved and handled.

I used one of those mini candlesticks I showed you a while ago. I attached some watch parts, a little cabochon at the top, brass filigrees and chain for the scales, and finished with small cap ends for the scale bowls? Wonder if that’s the right term… The parts at the top are connected with apoxie sculpt, and painted gold.

So check them out, aren’t they fun. The last two parts will be a leather helmet (I’m not sure if that’s the right name for it) and then his goggles. Right now I’m working on his head and hands, then I can put this all together. Back soon with the final look… ;o)