Renaissance costume - Crafting fail 2; Megan 0.

Well here we are again. Another project in the "fail" stage on the long process of learning and achieving goals. Good grief! So, as mentioned in the previous post I had decided to revamp an old Renfaire costume within a very short deadline. I thought it would be easy enough, but I ran into problems that cost the whole project. This biggest factor I suppose was time and money. So instead of trying to create a whole new bodice, chemise, and use new extravagant fabrics that would cost tons, I decided I would use the dying process as a way to be more cost saving savvy. Well! I wasn't expecting things to not dye black! My costume ended up looking like a Joker/Renaissance crossover! I was not happy, and I'm not a huge Joker fan at all...




By the time I was done dying my things, trying to get them black, it was already 4am on the Saturday I was to wake up early and go to Renfaire. I also had a crown of black twigs and crystals that I thought was turning out ok, but just did not belong with this costume at all. I gave up the fight and just went in a lovely lace dress (as seen on my Instagram). I also really needed to sleep! It was disheartening and I felt like I wasted so much time and money. However, on a high note, Renfaire was amazing and so much fun. It was also great to see and be inspired by everyone's great costumes. It motivated me to keep working on my witchy Renaissance costume for next year. With more time I really want to have at it and create exactly what I'm envisioning. Even if it means with won't be done until two years from now! I just have a plan and I must follow through! Back to the drawing board!

Failures and lessons.

Everyone fails at something, sometime in their life. Maybe even a million time before a breakthrough occurs! There's one thing I struggle with and that is facing failure. Sometimes the thought of failing at something will stop me from even attempting it! That's why I haven't even tried working on the tons of Monster High and EverAfter High dolls I have! Other times I will have this delusional idea that I will be pretty good at something right off the bat, and start a project full force to later realize it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. And actually, I kind of suck!

Working on the Souldoll Asiter has proved to be that type of journey. I've carved Blythe before, I've done a tiny bit of apoxie modifications. I thought this would work out just fine! I was wrong! Over-carving, asymmetry, and ignorance have gotten the best of me. I cannot for the life of my get both sides of the face to match up (the liquid eyeliner curse!), and that's caused me to over-carve to where I can poke my x-acto right through the crease of the eyelid to the inside! I also thought that I didn't really need to look at references, I could just use my own mind and eyes. PSSSHAW! What do they know!?! So it looks like I must move back to adding more apoxie to build back up what I took away.

The lesson of this is that I must not give up! I am determined to make a beautiful and unique doll! I really want to get better at this because I enjoy the idea of creating something (character, creature, prop etc.) from an idea with my own two hands! I will take a break to look up more infomation about sculpture and in the meanwhile work on completing Evey, my Blythe doll. Which reminds me! I also have a 17" Monster High Clawdeen doll now! Maybe I can practice working on vinyl doll faceups with her first since she's so large! Wish me luck!