Memery with an E

With con season upon us, time for some more sf characters. These two are Karen Memery and Priya Swati from Elizabeth Bear’s books Karen Memory and its sequel, Stone Mad. Nice to have this adorable couple as my first post of Pride month!

One of the things I did new this time was using magnets so they could hold hands! Their arms are wired as well – if I had decided that earlier I probably would have gone for a full skeleton, but they are meant to travel. (Once again, these are a gift to the author!)

Karen’s not described in a ton of detail since she’s our first person narrator, so I went with a blue dress a bit like she wears on the covers and a darker blue vest to add some visual interest. The dress is a bit stiff, but she can sit. I did want to add a scar on her cheek since she gains one near the end of the first book, but I of course picked the best yarn for it as her main skin color and the others look particularly odd on it. Might still before I’m done. We’ll see.

Priya, mad scientist in training and Karen’s love interest, is described in more detail. I went with her shorter hair from Stone Mad for ease of tinkering and a shirt and boots (though they’re hard to see in pictures) from the shopping trip in Karen Memory – a yellow and black checked fabric they pick up and dark blue boots. For the pants I figured a simple black was best – I haven’t done much complicated colorwork like this before and wanted to have them both ready in time for the next convention. Additionally, Priya’s hair was done with two yarns at the same time to add chestnut highlights to it.

The one thing I really wish I had done differently is put the safety eyes on the other side of the doll – the color change was in front and that means the cleanest check pattern is in the back! Whoops.