Monthly AG Mini: January Kaya

 

For christmas, I received some American Girl 25th Anniversary Mini dolls.  These are meant as collector's edition dolls with special outfits that were only available during AG's anniversary calendar year.  The dolls themselves are constructed exactly like their bigger counterparts -- cloth body, drawstring neck and jointed shoulders and hips -- but are only 6 or so inches tall, just slightly larger than standard 1:12 doll house scale.

As these are officially my dolls and not the Loo's, I've decided to highlight one character each month as my way of play. In other words, make a few things, buy a few miniature props and photograph them as a macro portrait challenge.  Making tiny inanimate dolls look personable and in scale with their surroundings is not easy so it's certainly an out of the ordinary 'still life' photo challenge in the true sense of the word, at least for me.

Then, I'll give the kit and kaboodle to the kid to play with, for reals.  Let's start with Kaya, the earliest and first american girl in my collection.

   

 Faux rabbit fur cape, beaded ultrasuede tunic and fringed leggings based on a free Hitty Yahoo Group pattern. I figured Kaya needed a winter weather outfit, something to cover her legs and a coat-like covering, as she would have spent a great deal of time outdoors in all sorts of weather. The inspiration for the cape was from the full size Kaya AG winter accessories but I wasn't about to tackle teeny tiny gloves. The cape is a simple rectangle with rounded corners with a faux rawhide cord sewn to each side.

Of course, I couldn't have a Kaya without a horse.  I found this vintage Classic sized Breyer horse on ebay.  He's an Appaloosa stud named Spider (#66) who's a dead ringer otherwise for Steps High.

 

  

 Newspaper print and daylily stalk teepee, constructed from a basic tutorial. 

I wanted something quick and painless to recycle if the Loo didn't play with it, it didn't work for size, or we found it too annoying to store, but actually, this teepee has turned out to be quite sturdy and elegantly simple. In a perfect world, I'd have found some woven reed placemats to use for a more practical and authentic look but this works just fine for now. Not shown is her faux rabbit fur bedroll, ultrasuede 'skins' blanket and twiggy fire...

 

 Thanks for playing, Mini Kaya.