Ebay suggested to me that I buy a lot of second hand Spice Girls dolls. After initially snorting and moving on, my hand clicked the auction and there they were. Five Barbie sized dolls, all looking pretty, well. Lame. However I did notice the faces DID actually look like the women in the band.
I bought them. Of course I did.
I am not what you would call a fan – but I do own their hits album (op shop find) and I enjoy it when they pop up on my shuffle.
The problem with factory painted dolls is the generic nature of them. Their face sculpts had actual care gone into them – they were actually really impressive; their hair and clothing was ok, but their makeup was bland and their eyes were dead. I really hated Baby’s outfit and then there was the problem of Scary.
Scary Spice in the lot I bought was advertised as ‘I don’t think she’s original’.
Um, no shit. She was actually a dark skinned barbie with a leopard skin outfit on. So I had to buy Scary separately and she came a bit later so she’s missing from the earlier photos.
However I managed to find consolation for fake-Scary.
I stripped their faces with acetone and then cleaned them up in a Spa bath (aka my sink).
Faceless spice girls jacuzzi
I wrapped their hair and bodies to protect them, did the first coat of Mr Superclear (UV cut) and then started layering pastels and watercolour pencil and acrylic paints down on them. A doll will usually take 5-7 layers, each with a spray of Mr Superclear, to fix the last coat.
Many many layers later, faces done
It was insanely hard to do faces that small, I must say. TINY. I spent a lot of time with my tiny detail brush, lifting paint from the tips of watercolour pencils and using that. I’d also never done open mouths before, that was also difficult to not get paint in the wrong bits.
I then Mr Supercleared their bodies and gave them a light layer of pastel – red/pink on palms, elbows,etc, and paler on other areas, so that the whole body actually looks a bit like skin.
Then I painted their eyes/mouths with 2 coats of gloss – it is the thing that ‘pops’ a finished doll and brightens them, and styled them.
I gave Scary the outfit that fake-Scary had as I thought it was more her than the one she came in. She also didn’t have shoes but I had a pair of monster-high shoes that just needed some bronze highlights. I did her hair into the little cat-ear cones she wore in the early days.
Pretty much none of them wears jewellery except Baby, and she came with her necklace and a bracelet. I hated the dress so I made her a little white baby doll dress. I also made her socks, repainted the shoes that were originally Sporty’s, and voila! Her hair is the messiest – it came styled and i didn’t want to ruin what was already sort of right. So it’s right, if messy.
Ginger was from a different release or range – she has non bendable arms and a very different body. The rest of them are more articulated. She also had the least like face sculpt but she is so supremely recognisable. I touched up her boots with red paint, bronze paint, and some highlights – the originals looked too plastic.
Posh had a little chunk out of one cheek, rather than patch it I left it. I wish i’d patched it. Oh well. She was the easiest to scupt – she has an incredibly distinctive face and also no open mouth to get lipstick on her teeth! She needed no change of clothes, elegant in black.
Sporty has a very oval smooth face, she was the only one I was super confused on eyebrow placement. The others were obvious from either the markings on the sculpts or very distinctive looks. She got repainted Baby shoes and that was it for costume.
So there they are. That was fun!
so this
to this
