Painting doll beads

 I have been toying with the idea of making a necklace full of doll-beads since I made the first few of them.

I finally started working on it! I might add the picture of the finished necklace when I'm done making it.

I had said I would post pictures of how I paint these beads when I blogged about shaping them.

<- These are the shaped beads, all boys.

So, here's how I go about painting them  :)

First of all I do the skin, if I'm working on more than one bead for the same project  I do all of them at once:

 Then I give them big rosy cheeks!

And for the hair over their heads, I used 4 different solid colors as the background, then mixed some of those colors between them to get more shades,

and  to finish it I added darker colored thin lines over the background, to resemble single hair strands :)

Then I painted their eyes and mouth, just a thin line, between the cheeks, to make a smile.

I don't always use color for their eyes, I usually just do a tiny black dot with a tinier white dot on top and off-center to give them a light.

With these I started with a big dot of color for the iris, added a smaller black dot for the pupil and a tiny white dot for the light.

Then came the shirts. Since this are all meant for one same big project I tried to start with basic colors to give them a sense of cohesion.

OK, I said tried! I had to add more colors later on! He he he :D

Next came the pants. I start with just one solid color. It will not always show by the time I'm done with each doll-bead.

Here's my first almost-dressed boy! All he needs now are shoes.

Here are all of them with their shoes on. One of them actually got away with wearing white shoes.

Many, many times, they seem to be telling me how they want to be dressed. I usually listen and follow their hints.

Finally, here are my first 3 finished dolls. Finished painting that is, because they wont be ready for use until I coat them with a glossy polychrome mixture that makes them shine and feel SO soft!

I don't think that water-proofs them. So I would never advise to take them swimming or even inside a sauna room.

I might deep one in a glass of water someday to see how that goes. If I do I'll add more to this post then and let you know what happened. In the meantime I'll tell you a short story at the bottom :)

I painted soles on their shoes! They all seem to want some sort of gummy bouncy sole! :) <3

 "The short story"

Which is actually an anecdote:

A few years ago I made my daughter a pair of earrings with this type of beads.

We moved houses and they ended up inside a fish bowl, which we had thought empty, but had a little water at the bottom. And we didn't see them until the next morning!

They sure were soaked by the time we found them, so we carefully left them on a window sill where the sun would kiss them and they were as good as new once they were dry!

I started using varnish back then after this incident. But the polychrome finish I use now is certainly much better! :)  

Why did I switch from varnish to polychrome? I will tell if you are interested :)

Update: I have some doll beads available as supplies at my etsy shop <3

Hand Made Beads

In my humble opinion beads are a big part of what makes the difference between good or great accessories.
I always come across wonderful shapes, colors and material and come home with a bundle of inspiring material that makes me feel enthusiastic about creating new designs every time I start a project.

However, even though there's such a wide range of beads to choose from and even more available than I can bring home with me, I still need to create my own (although seriously, I bring kilos worth of beads when I do restock) , it's some sort of compulsion in my case, to make something "unique" that can't be found elsewhere.

Now, talking about originality, I've heard the saying:

There's nothing new under the sun

That still doesn't mean there can't be something specially made for someone or with a particular idea in mind.

I thought of sharing how I make the little doll beads I use. In this case it's inspired on a Mexican clay angel figure I saw on an "Árbol de la vida" (tree of life). Although I've only gotten the molding part done. I'll do the painting later and will probably add those pictures under these as well.


Here you can see I have the little heads set on silver plated wire and I'm getting ready to make the body part. I keep the rest of the paste I'll be using later under a wet napkin.


I need both bodies to be equal in length and width


Tiny strips to make 4 arms


Folded in half and cut. I find that working in pairs is easier when making 2 similar items.


And attached to the body and smoothed over to make the joint invisible.


Now, this angel was wearing a roman warrior-like outfit, so I need to make skirts for them.


The first skirt I made by folding the already thinned layer and cutting the shape out, then splitting it back open to separate the 2 "skirts".


Here they are apart.


Then I attached it to one of the bodies.


Bottom view, you can see how it goes all around the figure.


For the second angel I thought of getting the measure from the figure.


Both of them got skirts now.


Now I shaped one of the wings and placed it on top of another layer to cut out the other one following the first one's shape.


Made sure they were the right size for the angel's body.


Attached them on the back.


Did the same for the other angel and started making a helmet. The one I saw was wearing one. So I made a very thin strip with paste.


Attached it around the head.


For both of them.


Then cut a tiny ball of paste in half. I'm sorry for the blurry picture.


And attached it on top to make the front of the helmets.

That's how far they have gone for now :)

If you would like to read about how I paint them I've just published a blog post about it! 

Update: I have some doll beads available as supplies at my etsy shop <3