This is little Frida for the past month she's been in the process of being customized. Frida is originally a Cousin Olivia Blythe, but I was not bonding with her so I felt like she she'd be given a full beauty treatment. Here's what I did to Frida:
*Eyechip removal and changed to cool cat chips, by glued stick method
*Lip and nostril carving
*sand matting
*eyelash replacement
*lid lift
*gaze correction
*painted freckles and lips with acrylics
*flushed blush with pastels
To do the gaze correction and lid lift I had to open her head up, which almost gave me a stroke but once it was done it was like oh yeah that wasn't so bad. The trick is to really have the water as hot from the tap as your hands can tolerate without getting burned, DO NOT BOIL THE WATER!!!!!
To remove her head:
First using a crochet hook release the spring from the back head plate then unscrew the screws on the back of her head (put them in a safe place), then gently work your xacto knife in the back part of her scalp to detached it from the back head plate. Once you can peel her scalp halfway forward you are ready to remove her body. Gently pry her head apart with your hands as much as you can to get the body out, you may have to use a phillips screwdriver to open it just a bit more to remove the body, be careful since her head is not warm yet the plastic isn't as pliable.
Opening her head:
Once the body is removed, fill a large bowl with very hot tap water (not scalding, you don't want to hurt yourself)then dunk her head for about 3-5 mins, then pull her out and using the phillips screwdriver pry a little more, keep repeating this process until you have the head pretty opened then you will notice if you look inside that there's a channel that the head dome fits into the face and back plates, so now you know you have to start prying the back plate out and DOWN. Dunk her head as much as you need to her head should be really warm so the plastic is pliable, you be surprised when it pops free, you think you've broken her but then you look and she's totally fine.
Eyechip removal:
Using glue sticks for a hot glue gun, heat it up over the stove top or with a lighter (please be careful, do this at your own risk). Let the smoke clear off the end a bit then stick it on her eyechip, hold it still until it's holding on it's own. You may want to prop her feet up so her eyes stay still and forward. It will take a few tries for some, I've had some really stubborn chips. If you don't plan on removing her eyelashes, take some magic clear tap and tape her eyelashes to her forehead so they are out of the way of the glue stick. If you plan to dunk her head in the hot water if may be easier to remove the eyechips after because the glue will soften, but you also may lose the eyelashes.
Eyelash removal: either soaking her head or soaking her eyes with wet cotton balls first, then with tweezers hold her head down hard and yank those suckers out, sometimes it helps to take a straight pin and digging the glue out with the eyelash from the little eyelash crevice. Once all the lashes are out just take a straight pin and clean out the glue. Replacing them is a little tricky but easy. Use eyelashes that already have glue on them, cut them to size so they'll fit the width of the crevice then taking the pin again push in the glue end into the crevice, it will take a couple of tries. That's it.
Gaze correction:
Remove the T Bar, unscrew the screw holding it, put the screw in a safe place, then take a nail clipper and cut off about 1-2mm. If you cut too much off, which I did the mechanism will not work to turn the eyes, but luckily if you that you can get them from Cool Cat, I had to do that :(. If you aren't planing to do a lid lift you can reattach the T Bar.
Will post a link for lid lift, I can't find it now of course.
Lip and nostril carving it's kinda just a slow process that you have to learn by trial, and hopefully no errors, if you go slow you'll be fine. Just get a jewelers needle file set, Amazon sells them for about $12-$17. Also hobby stores carry them.
Your best bet is to draw in pencil first where you want to start.
Sandmatting:
works best with a sanding sponge, I use two one is fine and the other is extra fine. first remove the shine and makeup with e fine, then remove the scratchy look from the sanding with the extra fine, both should be used wet. Most decent hardware stores carry them, 3M is one brand.
Sleep eyes:
Once the head is open, remove the spring and replace it with another pull string, when you but her head back together just thread this thread through the hole the string was attached.
Here are some pics of the process. And what the parts look like.
