Friday, August 17, 2012

Jo Sonjas with Liquitex UMG testing SEALING

Today I sealed my limb that has been painted with Jo Sonjas Paint mixed with Liquitex Ultra Matte Gel.  I used Genesis Heat Set Matte Varnish straight out of the jar.  I worked the matte varnish on my pallet until it became more pliable, spread it out very thin on my pallet with my pallet knife and then pounced a dry cosmetic wedge in the matte varnish.  From there I pounced the matte varnish onto my limb and pounced it out to a thin layer.  I heat set the limb at 265 degrees for 8 mins on one side, flipped it over and heat set for 5 minutes more.  Once the limb had cooled off I took these photos with a flash.

Keep in mind this limb only has some mottling and a few flesh layers on it.  It is now nicely matte and has good subtle coloring.  The paints did not go orange or suffer any visible damage from the heat setting process.  I have laid the limb aside to watch it over time. 



Thursday, August 16, 2012

Jo Sonjas with Liquitex UMG testing (cont.)

Not much to report today.  Touched up the blushing a bit more today and paints are curing.  Will be sealing the vinyl  tomorrow perhaps.  I have decided to seal the vinyl with Genesis heat set matte varnish to see how things hold up under heat.  I know they will do fine with air dry sealers if those are used straight out of the bottle. 

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Jo Sonjas with Liquitex UMG testing day 2

This is a quick post today.  I tried mixing the Liquitex UMG with some Jo Sonjas matte sealer to see if I could make an air dry matte sealer that is really matte.  Pounced it on the piece.  Piece still has a sheen so no go on that.   Next I tried pouncing straight UMG on top of that and it is matte looking but sticky.  I think that is a no go too.  So I washed it all off and the sealers took some of the paint off with them in the washing off.   Will have to paint limb again. 

Monday, August 13, 2012

Testing Jo Sonjas paints mixed with Liquitex Ultra Matte Gel

Although I have settled upon Genesis Heat Paints being my paint of choice for reborning I often get emails and questions about the Jo Sonjas requesting more information and an updated tutorial.  There are times when I still will pick up my Jo Sonjas and use them so I wanted to come up with some current information for those who have been asking. 

I have been hearing good reviews from my friend Debbie about the Liquitex Ultra Matte Gel.  She has been using it in with her LDC paints with satisfaction.  I finally got my order in to Dickblick for the Liquitex Ultra Matte Gel, that I will refer to here on out as UMG.  It came Saturday and tonight I finally sat down and played with it a little.

Basically what the gels are is the base product that is in acrylic paints without any added pigment and matting agent added to increase matte texture and appearance.  The use of these gels increase the binders in your paint mix thus making the paints adhere better and the matting agents help control sheen.  Anything that increases the ability of air dry paints to bind to vinyl is a good thing and so that is why I wanted to try this product.  

I have this test arm here that has been through it all. It has been painted and stripped, varnished and stripped, rooted on and who knows what else.  It was the only test piece I had on hand so once again I stripped it down and pulled all the hair out to use for this test.

I mixed some Jo Sonjas Plum Pink paint with the UMG at about 50/50 ratio.  I would say about a butter pea sized glob of each.  To that I just added some water, enough to bring the paint down to a liquid state that could be stirred around in the bottom of a stryrofoam bowl. Once I get all this down I will come up with measurements and such for you all but this is the truly experimental stage for now that you will get to witness.  I plucked and wet my cosmetic wedge then applied the plum pink mix to the sponge with a paint brush, blotted it and then pounced it all over the limb.  The first thing I noticed immediately was the paint color is very true and the paint does indeed stick much better to the vinyl than when not using the UMG.  I then mixed up some flesh colored JS with the UMG and water the same way.  This time I did not pluck my wedge, just wet and squeezed it out and applied the paint to it.  This I pounced over the top of the mottling.  I did not take care to paint all down in the creases, palms, fingers etc.  I just wanted to get a decent overall coverage to the largest surface area of the limb.  I let this sit for about 20 mins air dry time then applied a 2nd layer, let set 20 mins and applied a 3rd layer.  The subsequent layers of paint went on well and the layers already on seemed not to lift off while applying the newest layer.   The paint looks nicely matte.  The limb itself was very shiny from having had so much done to it prior to this so it is not totally matte looking but nice enough considering.  Keep in mind this overall paint application has not been with great care, just a test. 

I have taken 2 photos with flash and the flash does bounce off the piece giving it more shine.  Here is what the limb looks like as I leave it lay for the evening.  I will give you more updates as I play with this.




Saturday, August 11, 2012

Reborn Baby Boy Nelson

 This is a new baby boy I named Nelson.  I am so in love with him!  I seem to be on a boy craze lately!  I tried a new painting technique on him, using the Secrist Authentic Reborn Paints strawberries and cream blushing colors.  I really like the outcome.  He has nice distinct mottling but is not overly red. 

Nelson is scheduled for Ebay and I hope he finds a new Mommy who is as taken with him as I am!

Nelson's link won't be active until 6pm PDT tonight (8/11/12)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290759459017






Sunday, August 5, 2012

Our Visit to Babyland General Hospital

For those who might not know, Babyland General is the origin of Cabbage Patch kids in Cleveland, GA. It is about an hour away from us. We have visited a couple times over the years but it has been a long time ago. We had not been back since they had moved to their new larger facility.

The camp meeting revival for our church denomination started this weekend at the campground up in Cleveland, GA and my father was to receive an award pin for 25 years of service as a minister at last night's service. We decided to go up early and visit Babyland and then went over to the camp ground and had dinner with my father and attended services. Such memories as this is the camp ground that I attended so many youth camps as a kid. The visit to Babyland was lots of fun as well being that I love all kinds of dolls and Marissa has always been my biggest supporter in my reborning babies.

The new facility is just fabulous and I took lots of photos to share with those of you who have never been there. Since there are so many photos, I loaded them up at pbase and you can view them at this link: http://www.pbase.com/mox/visit_to_babyland_general

One of the things that is new since my kids were little and last there is that they now have 3 levels of dolls. They have the original all hand made babies/kids that start at $199 for a bald preemie and go up to $300 for a toddler kid. Then they have the boxed dolls that you see in all the toy stores and can buy most any place. The new to us thing is they have the Babyland Exclusive dolls now. These dolls are the more economical version of being able to adopt a baby. They have the cloth sculpted bodies and plastic heads that take a pacifier. They come in a nice baby outfit. These dolls are somewhat like the boxed dolls in the way they are made and are mass produced with the Xavier Roberts signature stamp on the tushy. However, you can not buy them any place other than Babyland General. Also, when you adopt one, you get to go register your baby's name with them and they give you a birth certificate and put your baby's registry in their book. These dolls were $49.99 and just adorable. Marissa decided she wanted to get one. They have these babies placed throughout one side of the store in little cabbage heads where you can "pick your baby from the cabble" and they also have them in cribs if you see one in a crib you would rather have. These are a great doll for kids and adults alike who want an affordable CP doll. If I had not just spent out all my PP monies I would have gotten one for myself! There was an original CP bald baby in the nursery for $225 that would have been my take home pick had I had that money too!

Here is Marissa with her new baby, which can also been seen with the many other photos at the link above.

Here she is picking her baby from the cabbage.
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In the lobby there is a large cabbage chair where you can take a photo with your baby.
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