Author Archives: Cindy Rice

About Cindy Rice

My wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter, and I live in northeastern Illinois with our two sweet chihuahua boys. For as long as I can remember I have loved dolls and making things. I got my first Barbie when I was only three years old! My mom sewed for my Barbie dolls and taught me how to use her sewing machine when I was only seven. I cannot believe she let me near that needle, but she did. Not having enough money for my clothes habit in high school and college led me to start sewing all of my own clothes. There were so many fabric stores around back then and fabric was so inexpensive. I would wait for the 99 cent pattern sale and go crazy. Sewing for myself continued well into my 30’s. (I even made my wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses.) Shortly after I got married I left my full time graphic design position and started designing cross stitch patterns. I called my company “The Lilac Studio” and sold my botanical patterns at trade shows, through distributors which sold to retail shops, and mail order. My most popular pattern, “A Bouquet of Pansies” sold 5000 copies and won a J&P Coats Golden Needle Award! I was also featured in various cross stitch magazines and designed special projects for the magazines. When my daughter was born I didn’t have the time needed to cross stitch and design patterns all day long so I let my pattern design business slip away. And then I started discovering dolls again and I now had an excuse to start buying them. The only problem was that they were for my daughter and not for me. I soon discovered all of the adult collectors out there and decided I would be one of them. I started small at first, collecting Mattel Kelly dolls. Soon I collected over 100 Kelly dolls! After Kelly, I discovered Helen Kish’s Riley and Tonner’s Ann Estelle. I have since learned to knit doll sweaters and love an excuse to knit so most of my doll outfits include a sweater and/or hat. I love creating miniature outfits for dolls and enjoy sharing them with others. Currently I create doll ensembles for Ruby Red Fashion Friends, Kish Bethany, Dianna Effner's Little Darlings, Wilde Imagination's teeny tiny Amelia, Kaye Wiggs BJD, Boneka 10", Linda Macario's Penny.

In Progress and Special Days

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It’s been a strange month, or it feels that way, as far as my makings go. I haven’t had one new thing to show you all month, and we are 3/4 of the way through! I’ve not been idle, however. I’ve been working away on Christmas/holiday ensembles. So far, I have two for the Little Darlings completed with another two in the works for them. My 11″ Kaye Wiggs Millie is getting something, and of course, my new 10″ Boneka Rose will get a holiday dress too. After that, I am planning on making something for Patience, Puki Puki, Patsy, and Gracie. Fingers crossed that I don’t run out of time.

09-24-17 595 Here is my pile of Christmas/holiday fabric and holiday colored yarn. I am NOT! buying any more fabric this year since I bought more than I could use last year.

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In progress . . .

I desperately wanted to add these bright foil lined red beads to the white lace; they picked up the bright red edge in the ribbon perfectly. The only problem was that all of the seams on the dress were sewn up, and I didn’t want stitching to show through to the lining. With care, I was able to keep the hand stitching thread between the lace and lining. I am knitting a fuzzy mohair/silk sweater for this dress in pure white.

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I finished the hand sewing on Millie’s dress this morning. Do you also feel like you get bonus time when you get up in darkness and get right to work? I got Millie’s dress 100% done early this morning: hand sewing, snaps, buttons, and belt loops. Yay! This dress is made out of a tiny snowman print, and Millie would love one of those needle felted snowmen that I made last year. I actually want to take a day next week and make a “bunch” of them.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA My hubby and I celebrated our 25th anniversary on Monday. We spent the day in downtown Chicago at the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Any works of art with sewing catches my eye. This painting from around the year 1900 depicts Renoir’s 4-5 year old son sewing. I guess it was the fashion for young boys to have long hair. It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?

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Afterwards, we stopped at a restaurant called Cindy’s. The balcony overlooks Millenium Park, Lake Michigan, and parts of the city. You can see “the bean”, entitled Cloud Gate, above my head. (Everyone here calls it “the bean”.) You can also see some of the trees with their leaves changing color. Everything still looks (and feels) pretty summery.

Today is my hubby’s birthday. We’re hoping to include our daughter in “present opening” via FaceTime.

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I hope you have a nice weekend! Thanks for visiting with me today.

A New Arrival This Evening

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It’s been 16 months since a new doll has come to live in my studio. It wasn’t intentional, I simply wasn’t tempted by any dolls. That is, until September 25, when I got an email from Happily Ever After. What a surprise! They were now selling Dianna Effner sculpted 10″ Boneka dolls. It took me about 15 minutes to choose one, and get mine ordered!

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Rose arrived today, much sooner than expected, and I must say that there’s nothing like a new doll to bring a smile to my face.

She was snuggled in this padded cotton bag with an appliquéd heart and metal eyelets for the ribbon drawstring.

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Although not hand painted, Rose is as cute as the Little Darlings, but smaller. She’s such a tiny, petite thing, simply adorable.

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I introduced Rose to Ivy, a gift from Carolyn at Warm Heart Bears. Since they are both the new kids, they have something in common, and have become fast friends.

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Rose has yet to meet her Little Darling cousins. She’s a little worn out from her travels. I’ll save those introductions for another day.

Bye for now!

Photography Backgrounds Matter More Than You Might Think

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Happy new week to you all! The weeks are simply flying by; two and a half months til Christmas?! What? I’ve started making my Christmas ensembles, and thought it was too early. Not really, is it?

Making things for Christmas means using lots of red. My biggest gripe about red is that I will need to photograph it, and it’s hard to make red look nice. Red looks nice against the Christmas tree, but that isn’t up yet. The tree farm isn’t even open yet, and even if it were it is a little early! But, anyway, this got me thinking, how can I simulate a Christmas tree background so that my photographs with red things look nice.

Here’s my basic backdrop setup. I’ve been taking photos in my daughter’s room for the past couple of months. There are two sets of windows facing south and east, so it is bright in the morning. Before that, I was taking photos in our family room which is darker. It didn’t seem to matter much which room I used. (I use a tripod, so the shutter speed can be slow to adapt to changing light conditions, and I use the timer on my camera which eliminates any movement from my hand.) The photos were dark even though the room was not.

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I got this backdrop support last Christmas. I’ve been using it with a white sheet and have noticed that usually my doll ends up too dark for my liking. My husband told me that the camera tries to average everything in the frame to an 18% grey. Since the huge amount of white is so light, the camera wants to darken it, and so the doll gets darker too. So, if the outfit is dark, it’s not good at all. If the outfit is light, it isn’t too bad, but still a little dark. Afterwards, I always have to lighten up my photos.

I decided to darken the background. After pinning bright green napkins together and then using a piece of army green knit, both of which didn’t do much for me, I decided to order some one-yard pieces of green fabric to try and mimic a Christmas tree.

I ordered various shades and values of green. I have tried four of them for this ensemble, photos below.

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You can see how the background changes how Gina and her red jumper look. I like some fabric better than others, but they are ALL a major improvement. I also think that different dolls/outfits will look better with different fabrics. I’ll need to experiment for each one.

Fabric #1

Fabric #2

Fabric #3

Fabric #5

The lens I use is a 14-42 lens. I know there are other lenses to get the job done better, but this is what I have for now. This lens allows me to zoom in on the doll to get a narrower shot, otherwise I would need a much larger piece of fabric. My f-stop is open as much as the lens allows (5.6) so that the background will blur. If my lens opened up more (a smaller numbered f-stop) there would be even more blur happening. The doll is usually about 4-5 feet away from the fabric, but this can change.

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The photo above is fabric #1, but the doll is closer than in the one above, so the background is less blurry.

I am constantly learning new things about photographing my dolls. I am no expert… at all!!! I just wanted to share with you what I’ve figured out about photographing reds. For me, it’s mind blowing; all these years I’ve struggled. Now, I am happily pulling out all of my red yarn and fabric. Woo hoo!

If you have any questions, please ask away. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll ask the resident photography expert (to me, anyway), my husband. He knows so much more than I do.

Wishing you all a great Monday and a great week ahead! Bye for now!

❤