I wasn't 100% satisfied with the faceup of some of the guys, so I checked all the available internet resources and found out I had just what I needed:
Caran D'Ache Prismalo Aquarelle Pencils! In fact I have a huge box I used for coloring some of my drawings some time ago.
By the way a sample of my drawings (these are illustrations for a short novel I wrote a couple of years ago for my nephews):
so, I picked the colours I needed, sharpened the pencils and with patience started working on the guys.
I damped the tip of the pencil with mi tongue, ok, this is not ladylike, but I did it anyway and these are the results:
Goffredo has got his new mustaches
Enrico had such a bland coloring, now with his new lips I think he's really handsome
Armando got mustaches and lip enhancement
Giacomo has got freckles!!!
As with hair styling I limit myself to little touches, just to have the dolls look exactly how I envisioned them when I bought them.
I've been working on this "collection" for a while, almost six monthts, now the guys are proud to present the Urban Safari Collection for Hommes:
Of course you have seen some of these dresses and you shall see them in the next adventures of the guys, expecially Carlo shall use them in the next travelling dolly posts, but I thought the collection deserved a post of his own!
The guys look pretty handsome, perhaps these colours aren't really befitting for the pale ones, with the noticeable exeption of Carlo, he looks wonderful whatever the colour of the clothes is!
Carlo
Vittorio
Enrico
Orso Maria
Alessandro
Now you know what I've been up to in the last months!
I've been thinking a lot about showing some love to my MM girls, expecially to Carla and Valeria, who are simply beautiful. At first I simply thought of finding inspiration in some of Robert Best's fashions for silkstone, in particular I adore Market Day Barbie
Then I decided that sewing some floral dresses and photoghraph them wouldn't do them justice. Ok, they are not poseable but they sure can strike that ONE pose....again Silkstone was a great source. As Mattel's latest campaing for silkstone is set in Rome, and I love Rome, I decided to make an exercise in photomontages.
But, at least in my mind, Rome+lovely girls=Roman Holidays!!!!
I must add that sometime ago I found on e-bay a wonderful blue Barbie Vespa for a nice price.
Mix everything together with my Redheaded Dolls Obsession, and you have "The Redhead Connection"!!!
I've been in Rome several times, in fact I have to go there due to work duties several times each year, but I never had any time to take pictures, so the photomontages are on stock images.
But I can tell you Rome is a very special place. Each time I go there, even for a few hours for a meeting I feel elated, there's something in the air.
These are the dresses I sew for Valeria and Carla, they are now ready to see some wonderful places and meet interesting people......
Let me introduce you to Orso Maria. He and Carla are in front of the Coloseum, Orso Maria is one of the new guys and soon you shall see him in all his glory, all the girls here are crazy about him. He's wearing a black tailored suit (D&G style, at least that's what I was trying to do) and a piquet white shirt
Borgo Pio is a lovely neighborood on the outskirts of Vatican City
Beautiful redheads posing in front of Fontana di Trevi:
Valeria and Giacomo visiting the Caracalla's Thermae. Giacomo is wearing a nice blue sweater I made out of a sock, and a pair of simple jeans. So far I can tell you he is Samuele little brother. More about him soon!
And before leaving Giacomo shows Valeria around Rome by night. This is Piazza di Spagna, the atmosphere is pure magic!
Don't know yet if this is going to be the first of a series, but it was real fun!!! Possibly the Redhead Connection should present the "grand tour of Italy": Cinqueterre, Florence, Rome and Venice, let's see if I can keep up with my sewing and photomontages and all the projects around here!!! Maybe a "yearly instalment" LOL....hope you'll be patient enough....
As it took me ages to prepare this, our soundtrack shall be: Morcheeba "Rome wasn't built in a Day"
I wasn't planning a Halloween post, but given the subject I believe that the story of Sunset Blvd and her star Norma is creepy enough to be fitting!
A few weeks ago, I suddenly realized that Tecla (Daria in her James Bond incarnation) looks a LOT like a young Gloria Swanson
same (bitchy) blue eyes, pointy chin, the same "morsus inversus", and big teeth! LOL
Don't misunderstand me, I love Gloria Swanson, and the fact she became such a huge star and sex symbol in spite her being anything but perfect and barely 5 feet tall!!!
She had a magnetic presence on screen and she had a great sense of humor.
So, getting back to Lucrezia, I decided to dress her up as "the greatest of them all": Norma Desmond,
from Billy Wilder's maserpiece Sunset Blvd.
I tried to update a bit the outifit, as in the movie Norma wears in fact a day Pijama complete with a long Dressing Gown (by Edith Head), I made a shorter gown and added a pair of stretch pants. On ebay I found this leopard cotton fabric, which had these very small spots. Being cotton it wasn't easy to accomodate with the black jersey, but Disegual taught us that no fabric mixing is tecnically impossible, so here she is:
. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.
There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!
I'll be up there again, so help me!
But of course, Norma cannot exist (in my mind) without Joe, so Enrico got a new outfit, and he really looks the part. He looks it perfecty, as my doll came with a head constantly turned upward so he seems to be avoiding Norma on purpose.
I did my best to recreate the atmosphere of the movie, well the director of photography was a genius called John Seitz (the guy who "invented" the noir cinematography) ..... but I really did my best to recreate the darknes and grain of the picture
Joe: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.
The stars are ageless, aren't they?
no male doll with the gorgeus Bill Holden's face?
Joe: There's nothing tragic about being fifty. Not unless you're trying to be twenty-five.
As you guessed Sunset Blvd is my all time favourite movie, and the Norma Desmonds are going to be a fixture around here, as soon as I have time to sew them some more appropriate fashions!
