I intended to post over the weekend, while these events were happening; however, the hotel’s internet and my computer did not seem to get along. But, let me share everything that happened anyway!
To begin, I attended the Atlanta Ball Jointed Doll Convention the weekend! My impressions of the convention as a whole was pretty good. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and wonderfully polite. I was surprised at just how small it was, but that was perfect for me since it was my first doll convention. Because my mom and I pre-registered, we were given goody bags that contained the program book, a doll clothing item, a mirror, and a ton of candy. I personally don’t eat candy but it was a nice surprise.
In this post, I’ll explain the different classes. In a future post, I’ll review all the items and what I liked the designs and the other panels we attended.
The Workshops:
SilverBeam Tiny BJD
The first class we attended was about how to paint a 3D printed doll. The class was lead by Eileen Bowen, of SilverBeam Magic. She was wonderful to talk with about how 3D printing worked and the differences between the resin dolls versus her printed dolls. She walked us through using pan pastels to color the doll, to using a pearl powder to add finishing touches. All of this on a doll that’s barely three inches tall!
Face-up Class
Another class we took was how to paint doll faces so that they look more natural! The Instructor for this class explained the dangers of working with resin and sealants. Regretfully, she didn’t make it too far into the class before falling ill in a slightly unprofessional manner. But she did explain how to paint the eye area to add the illusion of depth of the face! My mother’s head, on the left, looks much better than mine!
Blushing an Anthro Class
This class was lead by Sarah B. Seiter, The Mushroom Peddler. She showed us how the pastels work differently on the resin compared to the 3D prints. While I painted this (technically) fox, my mother painted her Nano Freya from Hujoo, although, I was unable to grab a photo of her doll. But during this class, Seiter explained her artistic process and the choices she makes about her finished products. Her dolls have a more marble-like texture than normal dolls because she chooses to not have them polished! I loved seeing her different dolls.
We also attended a class on making eyes with Eileen Bowen, but I appear to be missing those photos. Regardless, she had cast eye blanks and showed us how to create our own unique eyes! This involved tons of glitter on my part. Then she showed us how to make the dome on the eyes. Mom’s eyes came out much prettier than mine and I’ll definitely post photos asap!
Charity Auction:
Charity Auction
This year, the convention was donating to a no kill animal shelter, that specializes in older cats that are harder to find homes, called Goods Mews. So to support the shelter, we adopted this resin cat sculpted by the Mushroom Peddler!
After a long weekend, it’s nice to relax with tea and new friends
There were several artists that were selling doll clothing. I was impressed with the selection of things! And even more impressive to me was that vendors would allow me to try things on my doll. That was so much fun!
So the weekend was quite lovely and I can’t wait to do it again!
Here are the different companies that I was impressed with and what I got from them:
- The Mushroom Peddler (Dolls)
- Affordable Designs (Clothing)
- Silverbeam Magic (Super Tiny Doll)
- Teacup Dreams (Clothing and shoes)
And in anyone is interested, my human doll is from Raurencio Studios, now RSDolls. Although, she’s no longer available on their site, they do have other beautiful sculpts!
Color Haunt 