Covering and Naming My Mannequin

For far too long, I've had a naked mannequin torso. I picked her up at a jewelry mall. You may have seen glimpses of her with clothes on in some of my jewelry listings like this Rose Fringe Necklace.

And, she's popped up in reveals like for the latest issue of Creative Spark. 

She really does work well for showcasing my necklaces without the awkwardness of trying to take a selfie with my good but heavy camera. 

However, in all cases, I've had her clothed for good reason. Here's what she really looked like. 

Yes, she was a little obscene, but only in a naked-barbie-doll-way. That nakedness, and the shine on her plastic skin, made me keep a shirt on her for pictures and even while she just sat in the craft room. 

Oh, and here's her backside.

 I think that's where a pole of some kind would be inserted to make her stand up.

Ever since I bought her, I've wanted to cover her somehow to make her less obscene. Pat was the one who suggested book pages. I do love to cover most everything with them, like the displays in my booth at the antique store.

And, that would be a simple solution to her blatant nakedness. 

I used pages from an old dictionary (using only the same book so there was some consistency in the color of them) and gel medium.

Some of the pages were torn into smaller bits while others were used whole. I had to learn as I went to see what worked. Angles and curves were hard. However, I discovered that snipping the pages and wetting the tops of them (with the gel medium) made them conform to the mannequin better.

I let her dry for about 24 hours before handling her. Here's a picture I took with a necklace on her at this stage.

While this is much better, the glossy nature of that particular gel medium made her far too shiny for my tastes and photographs. I already knew I wanted to whitewash her anyway.

This was done by simply mixing white acrylic craft paint with a little water and painting all the paper covering her with the mixture. 

The white paint  took away both the shine and the distraction of the words being so prominent. 

Here's a look with another necklace.

Better, right?

Oh, and she does have a name - Amanda. Well, actually she's Amadaquin.

What do you think? Is she better this way or do I still need to clothe her?