Elaine

The Astronomer's Daughter

Once upon a time, in the southern desert of a vast empire, lay a beautiful big city. It was inhabited by warm, colorful, lively, people, who lived life to their fullest, despite constant danger from the cruel, barbaric people to their south.

One person in the city stood out as being the warmest and liveliest of them all. Her name was Elaine, and she was the beautiful daughter of the city's royal astronomer.

Lady Elaine had many friends, and loved to attend all the grand social affairs in the kingdom. She rarely slept; instead she spent her nights dancing, talking, laughing, and dining. When she wasn't at some gala or another she would spend hours writing to friends in foreign kingdoms even though she hated writing (her spelling was atrocious, and in any case, writing gave her a bad hand cramp). When she wasn't writing to friends, she would spend long hours making gorgeous, colorful mosaics with shimmering pieces of glass. These were often replicas of her father's star maps, and revealed a serene artistic side in her character (which often amazed her friends, since she seemed exceedingly hyper to work the tedious, long, lonely hours needed to produce as many masterpieces as she did). When she wasn't working on her mosaics, she took to spoiling her fancy little purebred desert mare, Nitro.

But the thing she loved doing most of all was... shopping!

She would spend hours at the marketplace, looking for the perfect pieces for her mosaics, or tack for Nitro, and especially clothes for herself (she loved buying shoes, and owned more pairs than she'd ever bothered to count). In fact, it was safe to say she had quite a serious obsession, which needed to be reckoned with. Or at least that's what her friends and family would often say.

Who would have ever guessed that her passion for shopping would someday save them all from certain demise?

It happened one night when two moons were shining brightly upon the desert, illuminating the road to a neighboring city.

Elaine, desperately wanting a new choli top for a wedding the following day, looked wistfully out to the gleaming road. Traveling the road at this hour would dangerous. Robbers... or worse... lurked outside the city walls. But, bloody scorpions... she just knew the perfect top was in that other city! (The dress she'd planned on wearing at the wedding had a hot beverage stain on it and simply wouldn't do!)

Ah what the heck! She could just sneak there and sneak back quickly ... couldn't she? How hard could it be?

Without further ado, she crept down to the stables, saddled up Nitro, and then rode out of the city, full of determination.

But when she got onto the dusty road, she suddenly felt nervous. She hated being alone in these kinds of places. Nevertheless, she continued onward. She would get her top if it was the very last thing she did alive!

After being out on the road for awhile longer, she began to have second thoughts. How could she be so stupid? Why couldn't she have just gone first thing in the morning? Every shadow in the desert was beginning to send her heart up into her throat.

Without warning, Nitro violently spooked. Elaine became instantly hysterical. "Oh Divine!" she said in her extremely thick desert accent, before realizing her mare was just spooking at a stupid rock in the middle of the road. Shaking like a leaf, Elaine tried to make her horse stand still for a minute (because she was terrified to proceed). But sensing anxiety, Nitro grew antsy, and wouldn't hold still for two seconds. The little mare shook her head violently, and then did a little half rear, acting like she was about to charge into battle.

Elaine could suddenly envision her darling horse tossing her and hoofing it back to the city without her. And then she could envision a pack of thugs attacking her while she was still down. This was madness! She wasn't going to engage in this silly "quest" anymore!

She pulled a rein around.

Nitro was more than happy to oblige and immediately took to prancing against the reins, dramatically arching her neck. This quickly tired Elaine's arms - ay, why couldn't Nitro be happy just trotting?

A deep rumble resonated across the night desert. It didn't sound like thunder.

Nitro whinnied an excited response to the rumble, and became so restless Elaine had to make her do several tight circles, pulling her nose to her shoulder in a desperate attempt to gain any semblance of control over her. As she wrestled with her horse, she looked up and saw something terrifying.

An army was moving through the a dark rocky part of the desert, heading towards her city from the south.

Barbaric Heridions!

"OOOOOOOOOOH DIVINE!" Elaine said, letting Nitro move into a tense collected canter. "OOOOOOOOOOH DIVINE"! she said again, and then added a frantic, "SACRED MANURE!" just for good measure.

Scared beyond any reason, she urged Nitro to go faster. The mare did two shallow bucks before breaking into an unnervingly fast gallop. Elaine's eyes teared up from the speed, making the black kohl around her eyes run. By the time she got back to the city, she could barely see.

When she finally made it it in, she frantically told her father and cousins about what she saw. They then told the right city officials, who then closed the city gates and prepared for a siege.

The city was saved from brutal invasion. Indeed: all because of Lady Elaine's silly little addiction to shopping ... the invading army was spotted moving through those dark rocks, where no one in the city could have seen until it was too late.

Her family didn't act so grateful, however. After the siege was over, they forced her to go to a marketplace addiction seminar up in the Imperial capital. Sadly, she was found to be completely incurable, and brought home 32 pairs of new shoes, 5 barrels of sea glass, 21 dresses, 15 tops, 14 pairs of harem pants, and two saddles, among many, many other things. It took a large camel caravan to get all her purchases back home.

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The Doll

Elaine was made using an Integrity Janey doll head on an articulated Barbie body, and stood approximately 11 and 1/2 inches tall.

She had been "trolled" with fine mohair.

All of her original factory paint was removed before she was repainted using suitable acrylics, and then finished up using appropriate varnishes. The paint was applied in very transparent washes, and as you can see, it appeared natural and even. Because of the quality and detail level of her repaint, she was fun to take pictures of, and looked spectacular up close. The amount of detail on such a small canvas was amazing!

Her brown and blue irises had no shine marks painted onto them; they had been capped with gloss to create a life-like lens, and all the reflection marks on her "eyeballs" came from the gloss. Her eyes could have just about be mistaken for being itty-bitty glass eyes. Fine streaks of color were layered on top of each other to give the irises a degree of realism; it took several "barely breathing hours" to complete them. I'm sorry to say my wonky camera didn't do them the justice like I'd had hoped for. Those irises had sharp detail!

Highlights and shadows were used to used to "sculpt" and bring life and warmth to Elaine's face, including around her lovely eyes and on her nude-toned lips.

Most of her face was lightly freckled, with some small beauty marks and skin variations, just like a real person's skin.

Her hair line had been feathered with wispy little "hairs", giving her face a nice frame.

Overall, she was a fun doll to work on, and a fun doll to take pictures of.

The Costume

Here is a confession of mine: Bride and Prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai was watched during the design of this doll's costume. Can you tell? Indian influences were too tantalizing to resist after seeing that film! However, there were other influences in the costume, giving it its own unique fantasy appearance. Perhaps you can see a little "night sky" theme in the costume, true to her father's profession?

Her choli top was fully lined, and secured via lacing in the back. The pants secured this way as well.

Meticulous attention was paid to the detail and sturdiness of this costume. To keep it strong, all beadwork was done using multiple threads. The costume was removable, and easily able to withstand years of collector's play. All in all, it was made to be a nice little collectible in its own right, apart from the doll.

I confess that the color scheme had started "mellow", and then all these fiery little beads started showing up everywhere! A happy little accident!

The beautiful jewelry was made of tarnish resistant wires.

Last but not least, the shoes. Now, what kind of silly woman would ride a horse in cute shoes like these? Elaine of course! They were crafted from leather, and then embellished with beads and a rhinestone.

Click HERE for a free Elaine and Nitro desktop wallpaper!
(Simply right-click the image and select "Set as background" to install it.)

Auction

Elaine was sold on eBay in October of 2007.
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~ Click HERE to see Nitro's page ~