August 1, 2011

Red Riding Hood finally gets some hair

This is the moment... When Red finally gets her hair. Will she look anything like what I envisioned?
 I start with some Tibetan Lamb in a lovely auburn colour. When I look back and think this must have been the plan in my mind because I actually already coloured her brows and bought brown organza ribbon for her eyelashes. Scroll down to see how I did the lashes. But first her hair!

I use either griip glue or contact cement. This time I'm using contact cement as it seems all my Griip is gone. Must order some more! I coat the head first and set it aside to dry. Then I cut tufts of the lamb, pull out any stray hairs and trim the ends so they're all the same on the glue side. While I pinch this in my fingers I add a bit of contact cement to both sides.
I used more tufts of hair than actually shown here.
I took a pic before I got my fingers too messy.
Once the glue has dried, I start applying to the head in small pieces, starting from the back.
The last bunch of hair is placed with the hairs standing straight up. Before I press into place, I gently separate the strands so they go in different directions, then gently press them into place. You don't want your glue to seep through so do this carefully and set aside. Once it's set up a bit more you can press again and then style.

 
Ta-da!
Not sure if I want to put it in a pony or not. But the Tibetan Lamb can be kind of flyaway, and it isn't quite long enough to braid. I've just tied it back in a ribbon for now.

Now onto to how I did the lashes.
Here's the ribbon and how I use it. I cut the side of of the ribbon  and gently pull the threads away that run lengthwise with a pin. then gently pull them out of the cut piece. I trim the ribbon closer to the edge actually so I'm only working with will actually be the lashes. I think you can get the idea from this demo pic.



Then I add a thin line of glue to the lash line and gently coax into place with tweezers and a pin. In this pic the lash just needs another little nudge.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is amazing how much hair & costume make the doll come to life! I love the hair color choice!

Mary Ann Tate said...

Great idea to use ribbon for eyelashes :) As you add each element she starts becoming "alive".

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