Silicone Doll Chat
Welcome and Hello
Welcome to the Brand New Website and Blog Spot hosted by MacPherson Arts and Crafts.
My name is Kristie Carwithen. Better known as KrisC, the artist from The Dainty Loft. I am first and foremost a collector. I love everything there is about dolls and the art behind making them. I appreciate all the hard work and heart-motivated efforts it takes to be a creator and seller and always keep this in mind when I am a buyer.
Next, I am an artist and have been working with vinyl reborns since 2004 and then silicone dolls since 2005. In a world where there were no tutorials, blogs or YouTube videos to teach me how silicone works and paints, I learned by trial and error. A lot of trial and error. I am still learning. But I am extremely dedicated to the learning process and ultimately achieving the very best art I can offer. Just this summer, with MacPherson’s, I launched my own artist line of silicone paints called SiliconeFX to help others to learn as well. Now, we have this blog!
I am very excited about the opportunity to write here. The making and collecting of silicone dolls have soared in recent years and with great interest over the realism in both visual detail and incredible feel, we still need to learn more about them. This will be the place to do that! I hope for it to be dedicated to educating collectors and artists alike on all the ins and out of silicone.
To all readers, please feel free to write to us with your questions and we will try to answer them in a post. We also welcome all helpful comments and advice and will add them to the post, giving you credit, so as to help our community learn and have varying views and opinions. Please, just remember to be respectful and kind to all in your participation.
Our goal is to encourage one another to grow and create in the journey of silicone. There is so much fun to be had!!! We all can have a share in making our doll community successful and a beautiful place to share in!
So lets begin……
Kris, love your work and hope I get to meet you one day. I do have a question for you. On partial silicones I find the arms are often heavy it seems for the body. Do you have any suggestions for a specific body?
Hi Susan,
Someday I hope to meet you as well. Thank you for your sweet words. Yes, you are right, the arms on a silicone doll always seem a little heavy and pull at the sockets on a cloth body. For myself, if the doll is a bigger newborn, I like to make sure the body is made of the tighter knit doe-suede material. It feels almost like the suede you make couches out of. Using the factory-made ones is fine and will hold up beautifully but if you want a little extra, extra goodness find a seamstress that will use that suede material. Or if you don’t want that material for your bodies (the factory fabric is fine), make sure to pack or build fiberfill under the flange (armpit area) in the inside of the body. This will act as a base for the flange and take some of the weight of the arm from the inside of the body. I hope that makes sense. Thank you so much for the question!!!! Can’t wait to hear from you again. KrisC
Thanks Kris. Appreciate the hints.
Hello! I was wondering if you sold full body silicone dolls that are already painted and the body built not cloth body’s and they have moving limbs?
Hello! Thank you for your question! At this time, we do not sell full-body silicone babies already painted. KrisC
Dear Kristie,
I’m tempted to buy Jayden in silicone but hesitant to paint him. The thought of ruining that perfect doll along with wasting that much money is intimidating. I recently saw a beautiful Jayden on YouTube that you painted but not sure when it was posted. Do you provide a painting service? Thanks
Hi!
I highly recommend getting some practice pieces of silicone before painting an actual doll kit. MacPherson’s sell practice faces. You can paint them and then practice again on the back of their flat spots. However, once you get comfortable with them, there will be no stopping you! It is SO MUCH fun!!!! You can do it! Thank you for your compliments on my Jayden! He ended up being so wonderful! However, at this time, I don’t offer custom work. But thank you for asking.
KrisC
I have a full body silicone baby and there’s is a small spot under her arm where the paint has peeled off about the size of the tip of your little finger. How do I repair this?
Sorry to hear that… but it does happen sometimes. There is a number of things you can do. First, clean the spot very well.. little soap and water. Rinse well and let dry… then wipe down with 99% isopropyl alcohol. The area must be very clean.
Now you can either just secure the spot using a thin thin layer of Silpoxy (a one-part silicone adhesive that is very strong) but it will dry a harder texture than your doll and can be felt. Or you can use Psycho Paint silicone (a two-part silicone used for painting) that cures as a softer silicone and cannot be felt but isn’t as strong of a bond as the Silpoxy.
Also, Silpoxy cannot be painted on top of. Psycho paint can have many layers added on top of it and then matted afterward.
If you want to paint the spot you can add a little color pigment to either silicone.
Then matte if you don’t want the spot to be shiny.
Waa la!
I didn’t know that you helped launch RebornFX! So cool!