The Dynamic Duo Behind Lou Creations!

Sisters, Louisa Widyanta (22) and Laura (25), the owners of Lou Creations, are from Bali, Indonesia.  "Our parents still live there with 15 dogs!" Louisa states, "Mom said they are easier to cope with than the two of us together! Mom is handling the family business while Dad's pretty much retired.  He spends his time riding his Harley Davidson around trying to look really cool!"  Now, the sisters share a flat together, with the Persian cat Joshua, in Cardiff, UK???"

The sisters have moved around alot since they were young. At age 12, They moved from Bali to Singapore for four years, then to the UK.  Louisa has been in Cardiff wince 1997.  Laura has lived in Cambridge, Paris and Italy, and is now back in Cardiff with her sister.  The fate of Lou Creations is uncertain at the moment because Laura is planning to move to Nottingham.  "Living away from out parents has taught us to be quite independent and has definitely brought us closer together.  We used to bicker all the time when we were younger. Now, we can't imagine living apart.  It has also made us realize how much our parents trust and love us - to be able to let us go at such a young age for the sake of our educations."

The sisters attended primary school in Bali then moved to Singapore for their "O Levels".  Louisa did her "A Levels" in Cardiff while Laura did hers in Cambridge.  Louisa has a BA in Graphics for the University of Wales College of Newport and is currently working on her MA in Multimedia and Information Design.  Laura has a BSc in Applied Psychology from Cardiff University and is currently struggling with her Ph.D. in Internet addiction!

The sisters spend most of their time with college work and dolls.  They tried waitressing but both quit when they realized having constant smiles on their faces was doing funny things to their jaws!

Louisa's first doll was a repainted Hello Hollywood Hello Gene® that she purchased from CJ Collectibles in March 2001.  "I immediately found out how addictive it is! She states, "I’m not sure of the exact number of dolls in my collection but they’re starting to take over the flat. I have various LE Barbies,® Genes and Tylers®. I also own repaints by Laurie Leigh, Adrian Wright, Kim Yuen, and Carol Jones. Recently, I bought a Super Dollfie® Megu."

Lousia had admired repaints for a while, but once she got her Hello Hollywood from CJ, she was hooked!  "I was fascinated by how such a tiny face like Gene's could be so alive and real." Louisa states, "Finally, during my Christmas Holidays in December 2001, I bought a how-to book by Sabrina Guidice.  On one particularly rainy and dreary day (nothing unusual in Wales), I decided to sacrifice one of my Malibu Barbies.  Both Laura and I had lots of fun with her and we decided to try a bigger canvas.  We bought an April Showers Gene and never looked back!"

Charlize, the first doll they put on Ebay was Louisa's second attempt to repaint a Gene.  "We put her up for auction just for fun." Louisa states, " We didn't actually think that anyone would bid on her but thought it'd be great to get some feedback. (At this point, we hadn't yet discovered the doll boards.)  We were both surprised and flattered when Charlize received a number of bids.  Knowing that someone actually wanted to own a doll that we had so much fun creating was just too good to be true!  It was very sad though when we sent Charlize to her new owner.  We had grown quite attached to her.  It still happens once in awhile.  We get overly attached to our dolls but it's getting easier to let them go, knowing that they'll go to loving homes."

In their collaborations, Louisa does all the repainting and Laura styles the hair.  "We throw ideas back and forth between us; some of which are too ridiculous to even mention! Louisa states, "Once we have a vague idea of a concept, I'll get to work on the repaint.  Laura will be constantly looking over my shoulders, criticizing things she doesn't like.  For my sanity, I ignore her most of the time!  Once the basic repaint is done, Laura takes over with the hair and it's my turn to drive her around the bend!  When the hair is completed, I'll put finishing touches on the repaint.  Sometimes this involves changing a certain feature to get the right look."

Louisa feels that Gene's face has the most versatile mold for repainting.  But, she does love to experiment with any dolls she can get her hands on, including Tonner® dolls, Living Dead Dolls® (from Laura's personal collection), Eves® and Franklin Mint® dolls.

 

 The sisters take repaint commissions from their website  http://www.geocities.com/loucreations when they are sure they can complete them.  However, they only make outfits for their fantasy dolls. "Neither of us are any good at sewing."  Louisa states, "We don't have the patience.  When we do create costumes, we share the burden of making them from scratch.  After all, misery loves company!"

While Louisa and Laura create their dolls mostly for fun, the money that they make is put toward their hefty colleges fees.  They pay three times the normal fees since they are "overseas" students. "Our main jobs are still to finish our degrees; it takes up alot of time." Even while working on advanced degrees and supplementing their tuition payments with their repaints, when they can, the sisters still occasionally create dolls for charities.

The sisters have no immediate plans to take their doll painting to a higher commercial level.  "For us, some of the fun in doll repainting is when we get to know our customers.  We have made some really good friends through out dolls!  We like each of our dolls to be special and personal.  That aspect can get lost in a large production.

Also, Louisa doesn't believe that she and Laura could have others repaint dolls using the sisters' concepts. "We do have a brilliant time coming up with concepts but what's pictured in our minds might not really translate to other people." She states, "The result might be completely different from our initial idea if it's done by anyone else.  Laura and I have this strange connection.  We always know what the other means, even if we only communicate in grunts!"

While Louisa learned to repaint from Sabrina's book and the tips of other expert repaint artists, she says it's mostly experimenting by trial and error.  "Many victims have fallen from my deadly brush strokes," she laughs, "May they rest in peace!"

Both sisters are movie buffs and big fans of fantasy books.  They get their inspiration from these sources as well as from magazines.  Sometimes they even watch E! and modify outfits they see a celebrity wearing.

Creating a costume can take them as long as a month, as they both try to wait for the other one to do the job!  Some of their costumes are not removable.

When they get commissions for repaint with a basic guideline of what the buyer wants, the process can take them up to a week to complete.  They usually check with the customer after each stage of the process to see if any alterations are needed.  When they are creating their own dolls, however, particularly their fantasy dolls, it takes them up to two weeks to complete the dolls.  "The concept may keep changing," Louisa states, "and Laura and I will bicker about it!  Sometimes, the doll will actually 'tell' me what she wants to look like and the whole thing can be done in 2-3 days!"  Apparently, the doll's requests outweigh the sisters' opinions, thus negating the need to bicker!

In repainting a doll, Louisa begins by removing all of the original face paint with a non-acetone remover.  She then makes the outline for the eyes, a thin lips base for a guideline.  This is followed by eyebrows, eye details, then lip colour.  At this stage, Laura takes over and creates a hairdo.  Hairstyling takes her anywhere from fifteen minutes to four hours.  Then, Louisa puts the finishing touches on the doll, including lashes and sealer.  At that point, the doll is ready for her 15 minutes of fame!

The sisters have done celebrity repaints, including Tuesday Weld (in several haircolors!), Catherine Zeta Jones, Angelina Jolie, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner.  Both are huge Lord of the Rings fans and are creating a series of the three LOTR ladies, Eowyn, Galadriel and Arwen.  While the first two are currently in progress... the sisters are gravitating toward keeping the dolls for their personal collections!

Laura has been bugging Louisa to do an Orlando Bloom repaint on a Vin Diesel body for Laura's personal collection.  But they've be unable to find a suitable male doll to repaint.

While they love coming up with the repaint concepts, Louisa fears they've made spectacles of themselves in public during these discussions! "Our discussions would sometimes be so absurd," Louisa states, "that we'd be crying with mirth!  NOT a good idea when we're in public - people think we're a couple of loonies!"

Louisa does NOT enjoy putting on the eyelashes. "The tiny things just stick to my hands instead of the doll!" She notes, "By the end of the day, I have very hairy hands!"

Asked if their dolls come with Certificates of Authenticity, Louisa responds, "Our ladies do come with certificates, a picture of the doll and our autographs (the last one is for our benefit really... it's the only time where we can pretend to be celebrities!  How sad is THAT???)."

As to their future plans, Louisa seems skeptical.  "We've had a number of conversations about this and they keep changing." She states, "Current consensus between us is that I'll be working from home on some sort of a design job, trying to make enough of a living for both of us.  Laura will be living in my garage, writing her boring psychology reports and obsessing about Orlando Bloom."  20 years later?  "I will be retired and take up something like fishing or gardening." Louisa states, "I will age gracefully and settle down somewhere nice.  Meanwhile, Laura will be locked up in an institution!  Otherwise, she'll spend her days stalking Orlando Bloom while wearing a garish combination of blue eyes shadow, purple lipstick and leotards to disguise her age!  I'll still visit her once a year though!"