Barbies, Barbies everywhere!

Ken dolls have arrived. I’ve been too lazy to open the box. I’d be more excited but the reroot tool I ordered hasn’t arrived yet. Ugh. I have subscribed to a fantastic magazine, however. It’s called Doll Customizer and has fantastic tutorials and patterns to make your barbie/bjd absolutely perfect. I can’t recommend it enough, especially since all of the proceeds are going to building an animal sanctuary. Take a look and get a subscription. You won’t regret it.

I’ve also gotten Sansa, Arya, Jeyne, Myrcella and Daenerys. No, you can’t see them yet. I have, however, found the hair I’m going to use for Dany. You can’t see that either yet. I’m evil, I know.

So I’ve put a disclaimer down at the bottom to show I didn’t create the A Song of Ice and Fire books/setting/anything. These dolls are my artistic interpretation and should be considered as such.

Don’t know how you got here or what I’m talking about? Feel free to check out the link to George R. R. Martin on my links page. Yes, I am making 200-300 dolls based on his books. Yes, my sanity did leave a long time ago. My husband would be more annoyed but he just bought himself a batting helmet clock from etsy. Yay for gift money.

Now that all the disclaimers are out of the way, I am looking at heads. Yep, that’s right, just heads. Did you know that people make insanely cool heads for ken dolls? I need to win Publisher’s Clearing House so I can afford all this. In the meantime, I’ll be doing everything piecemeal.

Regarding my previous post: I will, from time to time, be doing normal (non Game of Thrones) blog posting on here. You’re going to have to play the TL;DR game when you’re too bored. 

You might even do that for this post.

A Song of Ice and Fire goes Barbie

I’m going to start documenting a project I’m taking on. I’ve decided to recreate the characters from A Song of Ice and Fire from Barbies and similar sized dolls. This project is huge. It’s not just buying some dolls and saying: “Here’s Daenerys!” This is seriously going to be much more involved. It’ll include the repainting of eyes/lips/nails/etc. on dolls, designing/making/commissioning clothing for important moments, and alterations of hair/head/body so as to reflect the person that is being portrayed.

I was going to start with the Lannisters. I have the perfectly colored hair on a doll for Cersei. I do not, however, have anyone for Tyrion. That one is going to take some work. Do I make a Tyrion from before or after a huge event (not trying to do spoilers for those of you who are too lazy to read the books and are waiting on the tv show to catch up) and how to I size him so that his legs and arms are proportionate? Again, this is why I’m waiting.

I am starting with the Stark Family. You’d be surprised how many redheads are NOT going to work for Catelyn and Sansa. I’m surprised. I’ve got to find boys of varying heights/features/etc. for Bran, Rickon (remember him?), Jon, and Robb. They can’t look too similar for reasons spelled out in the book. And Arya, what age should she be? What hair should she have? How the heck am I supposed to find clothes that are just the right mix of dirty, hand-me-downs, and boyish that will fit the appropriately sized doll?

You see where I’m going with all this right?

This is going to be extremely detailed. I’ll be making iconic pieces of jewelry (from occasions in the book) as well. This is going to be the most accurate portrayal of the characters I can possibly accomplish. I will not be using the tv show to base my characters off of as I believe that it would be a disservice to the project. The actors are very well cast, but if I have to vary at all from accuracy I’d rather do it from the accuracy of the book, not the show.

I’m super excited to take this project on. I’ve been mulling it over for at least twelve years and I’m finally ready to open those NRFB collector’s barbies and get to work. 

I’ll be posting pictures as characters develop and hope you enjoy watching the process. If all goes according to plan, I should be done with at least four families by June. This will include all characters associated with the family as well. I expect there to be about sixty barbies/dolls that will be completed by then.

For those interested:

Once families are finished I may (or may not, depending on interest) put them up for sale. If you can’t afford a whole family (realize I’m going to be paying about 50-300 per doll to create) I will start doing specific members of said family at request. This is all WAY down the road, however, so for now just sit back, relax, and get ready to watch me document losing my mind.