Not long after discovering properly articulated and curvier dolls existed, I decided I wanted to make a mini version of me so I could photograph myself in doll form doing fun things and exploring alongside my real self.
My lovely friend Lu listened very patiently to this plan, surprised my on my birthday with some fabulous clothes she’d made for the curvy Barbie body I intended to use, and then I hatched a plan to make a mini her too. And maybe eventually do some stop motion silliness.
It turns out it is really REALLY hard to find a Barbie with my teal & pink hair, who also has brown eyes – almost every colourful hair Barbie has blue eyes – and I had to try and match skin colour to both my own, and one of the curvy Made to Move bodies. After a few false starts I eventually settled on a 65th anniversary unicorn edition with long straight blue hair – close enough!
At the same time I found a Barbie with pink & blue hair and blue eyes, which I figured would work for one of us and matched an existing made to move body I had, so threw her in the mix too. Then came the actual head swap process – I have a few photos but think the video probably gives a better idea of it!
Some of the in progress photos – I can kind of see why people tell me this part is creepy, if I’m honest!
I did run into a few issues with the neck pegs and holes being different sizes, and fixed this on mini-me by wrapping clingfilm round the existing neck peg before re-attaching the new head. This meant she was less bobble headed, still had a neck, and had some movement in the neck too, which is important given these are primarily photography models not collector dolls.
Here they both are in the tiny apartment I built on my desk at home:
I am ridiculously pleased with mini me, especially once I added the glasses and dressed her in the pinafore Lu made me. I can see me having lots of fun adventures with my tiny self.
The other one went well as head swaps go:
but her hair isn’t right for mini-Lu so am on the hunt for a new head for that body. Which is much less weird than it sounds I promise!
