Y’all, I don’t know what happened. But I baked her too long or too hot or my oven malfunctioned. I was distracted doing homework. I could smell it so I should have known. I keep it under my vent hood when I’m baking and I never smell it so I should have known something was up. I’m going to test it again with my oven thermometer before I use it again.
I know I can fix her but what do I do? Her head was a puddle so I pulled her right out and filled her head with cold water to cool her down and that helped a ton. The limbs are fine, just shiny. I can fix that with varnish. But what do I do to get the head back in the right shape?
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Heat the head again, stuff it tightly back into shape and let it cool completely before removing the stuffing. It should hold the shape then.
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Do I just use regular poly fill once she’s done reheating?
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Poor baby has increased ICP and periorbital edema
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Yay! I’m so glad you could fix her! I think she looks sweet! Also as an adult who’s had real high ICP this looks how it feels lol.
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She doesn’t look the same as before. I think the vinyl getting so hot compromised it and I’m not sure how to get it back to normal. Between her eyes is protruding more that it was and her left eye looks swollen. I was hoping to finish her tonight and put the varnish on her so I could put her together tomorrow. I don’t know if I should keep trying or let it be what it will be. Trying to just stay calm and realize it could be a lot worse. I’m going to buy a new oven first thing in the morning.
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What an awesome boo boo baby! Someone would be excited to have her.
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I’m so sorry that happened after you put so much time into her and she was turning out so good. Sometimes you can never get the vinyl back to normal shape if it was melted too much. I usually put stuffing in my heads the whole time I’m painting so that if the vinyl starts to collapse the stuffing helps keep the shape.
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I will start doing that. I’m going to work on her shape in the morning and do the best I can and then finish her. She’s my first and a keeper so she’ll be my own boo boo baby. I’ll love her even more for all the lessons she’s taught me.
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She’s doing better this morning after some TLC. What a relief.
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For her varnish, I’m going to use the Americana recipe by @anjsmiles but I feel like I may need some extra matting effort due to the shine. This is what I can get today from Michaels:
Americana DuraClear Ultra Matte Varnish
Liquitex Matte Varnish
Golden Soft Gel Matte
I also have some genesis matte varnish but I really don’t want to put her back in the oven again.
Any suggestions on which would be best? I have Golden Matte Polymer Varnish with UVLs coming in the mail but I want to get something to use today.
Thanks!
Oh my, I am so sorry to hear this happened to your first baby 
She is still beautiful and very impressive as a first.
I would not bake her more, as you said her vinyl is compromised already.
Looking forward to see more of you beautiful creations!
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Wow! This is a good trip. I know that people stuff heads with very soft non-BB vinyl, but I never though of doing it for BB kits. Do you remove stuffing (I assume you use polyfill) while you paint a head? Polyfill usually has some separate tiny fibers - how do you deal with that to make sure that they are not stick to the paint?
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I use the DuraClear because It’s UV protective. I brush it on thinly and pounce (or kind of swish in a circular motion) with a Kabuki brush to matte it. This baby (WIP) was matted with DuraClear.
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Great, it’s the cheapest one anyway. Do you only use this varnish or do you do coats of others as well?
Sometimes I do a final coat of diluted Americana Soft Touch Varnish mixed with a little cornstarch. It gives a very slight, natural sheen to the skin and I like the way it feels.
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No I put it in at the beginning and I leave it there right until I’m ready to put eyelashes in my baby. I take it out for eyelashes because in the mohair sort of gets tangled into it and then when I take the poly fill out to glue them they sort of get pulled more.
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Is there so such a thing as too many layers? I had to put several on to tone down the shine from melting her. Also, how do you salvage brushes after using this stuff? Rubbing alcohol seems to be doing the best job so far. I think I’m going to stick to cosmetic wedges then throw them away once I’m done with them.
