Crafts
by Teegar Taylor
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by Teegar Taylor |
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Knowing Jack's fondness for Callisto, I decided that a Cally doll would make a fun and appropriate Christmas gift. I was able to find the doll at a local toy store without too much trouble. However, I noticed immediately that there was a problem. The doll had a nicely sculpted body, a reasonably accurate costume, and well chosen accessories. If one ignored the fact that it had a face that could scare young children and make brave adults gasp in horror, it was a fine toy. I try to avoid making judgements based on appearance, but the fact that the doll's face kept stopping clocks in the house began to bother me. Not only did it not look like Hudson Leik, it curdled milk. |
| Since one of my hobbies is doing custom make-overs on fashion dolls, I decided a new head was in order. I chose a "Belle" doll from Mattel's Disney line. I felt her big brown eyes gave her a suitably Callisto-like appearance. The doll comes with un-Callisto-ish brown hair, however, so a re-root was in order. |  |
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To re-root a fashion doll, you first cut the original hair down to the scalp. Save this hair for future re-roots. Carefully remove the doll's head from its body. Warming the head with a blow-dryer makes the plastic expand and come off more easily. Take a pair of needle-nose pliers and remove the remaining plugs of hair from inside the head. You will be left with a bald head like the one pictured. |
| For Callisto's blonde tresses, I took hair I'd previously removed from a Barbie doll. Wet the hair so it will clump together more easily. Take a long, large-eyed needle and thread the hair through the existing holes. Knot the hair at the bottom and pull it tight against the scalp. Repeat the process ad naseum for about eight hours or so until you have a beautiful blonde. Usually I use this same process to add rooted eyelashes. However, I thought that eyelashes would look too frivolous on Callisto and did not add them. |
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After all this work, I was less than pleased to find that the re-rooted "Belle" head did not look right on the original Callisto body. The hands and feet were disproportionately large. Sighing heavily and thinking that I should have just made a Callisto costume myself, I put my "Belle/Callisto" head on a fully jointed "Hula Barbie" body. The results are quite were quite satisfactory, I think. Jack's lovely Callisto doll seems equally at home on the battlefield or in the ballroom. Here comes trouble, Ken! |
"The dream is over, Barbie." |
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