sueding and wiring fun

after watching approximately 1.2 videos about sueding and wiring your dolls, i became intensely convinced that this was something in needed to do before my girls arrived back home. so, armed with a hot glue gun, a spool of 14 gauge wire and wire cutters, i set to work.

i took out finny and sable from their loving curated home of bubble wrap and cardboard and tested their joints. as i remembered, finny is incredibly kicky and tight as well as loosely strung at the same time. sable is a bit more resilient but that's probably in part due to her double jointing.

exhibit a: their fearful and bug-like positions if you shimmy and jostle them when posing. i don't know why they do this. too much tension in their stringing? regardless, if you jostle them too much, they curl up into little positions that are frustrating to fix.

finny was my first victim. i brought her over to my incredibly standardized and professional setup of a kitchen towel and jewelry pliers.

here, the suede allows for finny to maintain her arm position without it curling in like the unsueded side. once i was finished seuding the joints that made sense to me, i moved onto wiring.

i didn't get any photos of the hot glue suedeing process (i was too busy burning my fingertips off and rethinking my life choices) but i did take a few pictures of the wiring process because it was more forgiving.

for the wiring, i snipped wires to their correct length and gently fed them in through the joints while i pulled them apart.

to my pleasant surprise, the wiring made a world of a difference! finny was too wobbly to stand, was unable to keep a pose, and had trouble lifting her arms. after the wiring and sueding it was like she was a double jointed doll! she's now able to easily fold her arms toward her face and maintain the pose!

embolded by my success with finny, i brought her to my workstation.

after sueding her joints, i had the idea that i might be able to improve her shoulder posing by threading the wire through her arm, through her shoulder, and back down her other arm for one continous wire.

and it worked! she has incredibly robust and responsive posing now!

once i cleaned up and was sure everything had dried and set, i tested them together by standing them unsupported on a hard surface. to my shock, they both firmly stood and feel sturdy! the sueding process was more difficult than the wiring but after seeing the difference it made, i think i would do this for any dolls in the future. now, we wait for finny and sable to arrive home.

also, i have it in my head that i want to do a body blushing now. 🤷🏽‍♀️