Aesthetics Amadis: all the things for 27 cm elf

This is Amadis:
philadelphus day 1 by helgie, on Flickr
She is a Thel v.2 by Bardo research / Oxana and Alexei Geets, from the April 2024 preorder, 27 cm tall.
While waiting for her arrival I came up with a lot of ideas. This journal is to take notes and keep track of what I manage to realize. Below is a summary, I will add links and posts with details and pictures.

Faceup:
v.1 done in July 2024.
v.2 done in May 2025.

Wig:
June'24: bought 4-5' silicon cap. July'24: adjusted silicon cap for ears, cut too much away, need to buy another cap.
July'24: wig v.A1 made of acrilic yarn with braids, glued directly onto the cap, with criss-cross parting.
September'24: wig v.V1 - purple viscose without parting.
January'25: wig v.V2 - purple viscose with cut parting.
May'25: wig v.M1 - gray natural mohair with parting (needs correction).
To do: try dying the mohair. Purple viscose with full parting and 2 braids.

Outfit:

Spoiler: Clothes

Done: June '24 - red and purple triangular shawl.
July 2024 Sewing Project - remade some LittleFee clothes, with added new elements - yellow-white robe with white under dress , maroon bermudas and gray-violet shirt. + Underwear - pink top and panties. Pair of gray socks.
August 2024 Sewing Project - 1980s style batwing dress.
September'24 sewing project - purple lounging outfit.
October'24 sewing project - Stargazer outfit for Halloween.
January'25 sewing project - purple-orange winter outfit, with warm jacket.
March'25 sewing project - purple tudor-style dress.
May'25 sewing project - comfy outfit with "samurai" trousers in pink, light green and white.
June'25 - arabian inspired green-white-light violet-beige outfit.
September'25 - mushroomer outfit.
To do: outdoors adventuring outfit. Thinner underwear. Socks. More socks! And stockings. Also, shawls.

Spoiler: shoes

Shoes:
August'24: Gray suede sandals.
December'24: bought 3D printed shoe lasts.
May'25: adjusted shoe lasts, made gray and black boots. Also made gray suede shoes directly on feet.
June'24: violet shoes with straps, to go with the violet tudor dress.
September'25: black leather boots with polimer clay soles for the mushroomer outfit.
To do: sandals; work boots; felted winter boots.

Accessories:
Done: August'24: black leather belt.
September'24: bead necklaces.
September'25: basket for mushroomer outfit.
To do: necklaces, tool belt, bags. Ear decorations!

Roombox:
2024: bought LED tree. Bought roombox.
To do: assemble roombox, paint, decorate. Buy moss imitation for garden.

Furniture:
2024: Bought japanese-style furniture.
2025: painted and assembled chest of drawers, folding table, boxes, screen, lantern.
To do: make chair, shelf with suspended vases. Woven chair / hammock?

Decor and props:
June'24: made raw silk coverlet. Bought 1/6 guquin.
July'24: patchwork floor cushions.
2025: assembled and painted circle swing (bought in 2024).
To do: make woven floor cushions. Change tassels on guqin.

+ to do: ambitious wood work project to be disclosed if I ever get to working on it.

Notes:
2024: As a sort of Mid-year resolution, I would like to promise myself (and Amadis) to do at least one photo shoot with finished faceup, wig, outfit and some props before the end of 2024. UPD Done September'24: September flowers.

 

Wig v.A1:
Wig v.A1 finished by helgie, on Flickr
For a first attempt at a wig for Amadis I used tissues, waterproof PVAC glue (marketed for woodwork) and acrilic yarn. The wig cap is made out of 2 layers of tissues saturated with glue. I tied the first layer onto the head with string on top of film wrap, applied glue, let it dry for about an hour, removed the string, tied on the second layer, applied glue and let it dry for a night. The cap is relatively flexible, I could fold it in two. It got a bit messed up around the ears - I plan to just cut it next time to make it lie smoother. And I cut too much from behind the ears.
Thel head is 12 cm in circumference, somewhat flat and of course there are the ears to work around. The wig does not stay on the head on its own, but holds ok with a silicon cap underneath, which I count as a win. I've recently read about making an inner layer on the cap out of silicon glue and plan to try it out.
For the hair, I cut dark blue acrilic thread in 30 cm pieces, tied them onto a pen, brushed them out with my cat's brush, straightened them as much as possible with an iron for human hair, cut and glued strands directly onto the cap in rows without making wefts. Tutorials say it is important to avoid putting on too much hair in the rows at the back and sides of the head, I think I did fine with that. I tried to glue some hairs onto the edge of the cap to better hide it. The top rows are thicker. The parting is done out of criss crossing strands that were glued on individually, one after another with intervals of 5-10 minutes to let the glue dry a bit (I was alternating between sewing and working on the wig).
The braids are made of unraveled but unbrushed yarn: the length of fibers was shorter than I wanted the braids to be. I also think of adding a long braid at the back by braiding the brushed hair together with longer unbrushed strands.
Wig v.A1 progress by helgie, on Flickr
(Amadis is sitting on the skein of yarn. I will not run out of material for trial wigs anytime soon )

I'm content with the result. It is not the color or style I want for Amadis long term, but it works for now. I learned to work with a glue and methodes of gluing the hair on the cap and making the parting that were new for me and all worked well.
Next I'd like to improve the around-the-ears situation of the cap and try mohair and also viscose for hair.

 

Faceup v.1:
Faceup v1 by helgie, on Flickr
This is my second-ever faceup, and I'm not happy with it. It went like this: sealant (Mr. super clear) - pastels applied with small brush for blush on lips, cheeks, nose and ears and shading around the eyes - sealant - a bit more pastels - sealant - aquarelle paint mixed with acrilic gel for eyebrows, eyelashes and lips - sealant ... realization that I messed up the color on the mouth, wiping only the mouth and redoing it with acrilic mix in another color, this time messing up the shape, but not so badly that I needed to wipe it at once. That last part with the mouth included all stages of grief , I am now at acceptance of the need to redo the faceup completely at a later date. For now I tell myself that Amadis is wearing an unfortunate amount of lip gloss. It is not sealed and has already started to wear off.
The problem is that I live in a flat on the first floor that has trees outside all windows and gets very little daylight in summer. I was basically working half blind. My work lamp has yellowish light, the white light ring lamp I use for photos also didn't work well. After reconciling myself with the mouth situation I noticed that red blush on the right cheek is way brighter that on the left. Oh well. I will just wait till the leaves fall off the trees and it is sunny outside.
I do like how the eyebrows turned out. I expected trouble with them, kept telling myself about sisters not twins and practiced drawing them with a pencil on paper until I had the shape down. The acrilic aquarelle mix allows some margin of error - it can be wiped with wet cotton within about 15-20 seconds without damaging the sealant underneath. So I kept painting and wiping parts of eyebrows and eyelashes until I liked the result. Hope I can repeat it.
I'm also considering doing a body blushing of chest, hands and feet. The ears definitely look more interesting with some added color.

 

Bead necklaces:
bead necklaces by helgie, on Flickr
I made them in September out of glass beads and a couple natural semi-precious stones I had at home. The smallest beads are 15/0. I found the process of choosing and stringing beads very relaxing. 10 minutes and Amadis has another shiny They are all made to go over the back part of her head with the faceplate off. The violet and orange one is for a winter outfit I plan to sew soon.

 

Wig v.V1:
Wig v.V1 by helgie, on Flickr
Made of purple viscose marketed for felting. I bought it for the color - that changes a lot depending on lighting - and found it nice to work with. The wig cap is made of the same materials as in the previous blue acrilic wig. Cutting the tissues around the ears helped the fit, though it will also not stay on without a silicon cap underneath. No parting, and a couple rows in the back, at the neck, are facing up, in the opposite direction to the rest, so that the hair can be gathered in a ponytail or a knot at the back of the head.
The viscose 'hair' are thin but work surprisingly well at this scale, creating a wispy, moderately shiny look. There is a lot of it left, and I plan to make more wigs out of it. They are not long - 6-7 cm on average - so it will have to be braids and hairdos.

 

Faceup V2
Amadis' faceup from last summer started to chip around the eyes, and I wanted to redo it anyway. Unfortunately I waited till May, when there once again was too little daylight because of trees, which also affected the pictures:
Faceup V2 by helgie, on Flickr
But all in all it turned out fine, definitely better than my first attempt. The main improvement is the shape of the mouth, also the darker color around the eyes looks better with Amadis' very pale irises, and I like the overall pink - violet - gray - brown - black palette, excluding any blue shades that were used in V1.
The faceup is in 3 color layers, with layers Mr Super Clear UV cut Flat under, between and on top. The first 2 color layers are in pastel chalk. I bought two additional shades of violet/purple in preparation. I made lines with the chalk sticks on office paper, mixed, gathered and applied the color with thin brushes. Pink on lips, cheeks, ears, very lightly - on forehead and tip of the nose. Violet - purple - gray - brown around eyes. Gray - brown - cream mix to add just a little relief around nose, ear lobes, above upper lip and inside nostrils, also the crease of upper eyelids.
The 2nd layer adds more color and eyebrow placement in brown - black. I also used light pink aquarelle-acrylic mix on the edges of eyelids, so that I could add and remove eyelashes in the next layer without wiping away this color.
Layer 3 is done in aquarelle-acrylic mix (aquarelle paint mixed with water and just a bit of acrylic varnish so it doesn't form drops) with the thinnest brushes I could find. Pink on lips, a variety of violet - gray - brown - black mixes in eye-liner, -lashes and -brows. Dark purple for the dots under eyes. I drew, wiped and redrew parts of eyebrows and eyelashes until the result looked ok.
There is a layer of slightly glossy translucent acrylic varnish on top of the last layer of sealant on lips and edges of eyelids.
I mostly like how this faceup came out. If I redo it in the future the points I'd like to change are: correct eyeliner, which got smudged around the outer corners of both eyes, though it is not very visible; experiment with shape of eyebrows; change lip color to a slightly colder shade of pink to better coordinate with the other colors.

 

Several days short of a year after her arrival I finally made Amadis a profile.
/doll-profiles/amadis.26311/

 

Thank you!
He-he, I will take the blame gladly, if only there will be more of these beautiful girls out in the world