Initial customizing process

Thumbelina arrived as a blank BJD directly from CP/ Fairyland. On her first days with me she looked like a little alien in too big clothes. Then, besides getting her clothes and shoes right, there were three major things I needed to worry about; faceup, eyes and wig.

Eyes

I ordered the wrong size eyes at first, but now she wears oval 6mm glass, grey- green like mine own. She is loosely based on myself as a kid.

Faceup

Faceup took a little studying since I had to know which mediums that I could use without damaging her resin. Also, I think it took me a while to find the right varnish. The first faceup flaked so I had to touch her up quite soon. She wore that faceup for a long while before finally I felt confident to paint her again and get her closer to her original faceup. She had a total redo of her faceup in 2020 when she had gotten shiny and yellowed.

Wig

Finding the right wig was hard. After buying five different ones and not really liking one, I decided to try making one. The first one was made very carefully. Wig making takes a lot of patience as it is rather messy. Still, the result, pherhaps understandably, was not perfect. I wanted to try again with some finer hair in a slightly more natural color. The one she is wearing now was made the summer of 2019, three years after she arrived.

Finally Thumbelina is much like I ment for her to be, although there is always room for improvement!

Warning 

BJDs can be very addictive. Offcourse, like many before me, I had decided this was supposed to be my only BJD. I was successful at that for almost a year. 

If someone feels like diving further into the early days of my collecting, here are some useful links.