Doll Selfies

I spy with my little eye...

Ghost coming for a ride to work today!

We're all just taller children.

I've often toyed with the idea of having multiple dolls of the same character.  Whether if it was different versions of the same, or perhaps at different ages/stages of life.  I love what VampireAngel_13 for example has done with all her Alexes, or yldenfrei with pretty much her (his?) whole crew.  However my attempts have largely failed to come to fruition.  I tried with Uri, but it just didn't end up working out.  The versions never ended up connecting well enough to the original, and I eventually sold the doll.  

But I've been thinking of doing this for a while with Emmanuel (Ghost), as he seems to be a character that is really alive for me.  Even more than Uri is, which is saying something.  I think in part it's because of how much work I've done on his story/character for my Nanowrimo work, but he's also just a very interesting individual.  

So I put out a bit of a feeler to see if anyone had a Shulze/Maria head, which is the msd version of School A.  No bites thus far, but I'll see what happens.  Then I had a random idea about a doll I haven't looked at in forever.  She is a Luts KDF Aru I purchased from the company a few years ago.  She was going to be the "last doll" (a la The Little Princess), but obviously that didn't happen.  I loved her dreaming face and beautiful face up, and thought I'd take her out to look at. Unfortunately when I went to my storage unit I realized a large, dirty box had been placed on top of where she was being stored.  I'd had her unstrung and wrapped up on top of a box so I could come grab her, and unfortunately her face up got damaged.  

But I grabbed the head anyway and put it on my Volks SDC body for kicks.  No color match and the proportions weren't quite right, but she did make a good boy.  On a whim I tried it on Nowell's body and...it's an amazingly good match.  Which is seriously weird.  The msd body is an old, yellowed white skin body, and the head is normal skin.  Yet somehow, it actually works.  So I wiped the face up, and put his head on the body.  Poof, mini Ghost.

I'm going to keep my WTB up for a Shulze/Maria as I wouldn't mind having a middle version on the SDC body.  But I think Aru makes a really good boy, and a perfect mini Ghost.  I did also dig out my pastels, so I might actually be able to do face ups for everyone this weekend.  Now to find my brushes...

Quick lunchtime snapshots!

I played around with some wigs this morning on Ghost, just seeing what he looked like in Uri's red wig.  Not my favorite, but it's got a certain draw to it.  Reminds me of a My Chemical Romance Killjoy look. :)  But I still prefer him in more natural colors

Sneaky, sneaky dolly!

I went out and bought a new, large purse for the sole purpose of sneaking Ghost in to work with me (and given it was only $7 I think I did pretty well!).  It's nothing too spectacular, but it works.  I may end up adding some pizazz to it eventually, but for now it's okay.

Things are really stressful at work right now, and while I generally never bring my big dolls to work, I made an exception for Ghost.  He is tucked away, but it's just nice having him with me. :)

Ghost in the Sun

Super Secret Doll Project Revealed!

So right after I decided I would do some modding to Ghost, I peeked in the marketplace on DoA as I do occasionally and...well...  I came across a Volks School A Head for an insanely reasonably price (like..it was crazy).  He was old and modded and needed some TLC, but he was beautiful and well within my price range.  So rather than mod Ghost's head, I decided to get him a new (to me) one!  

The pretty head itself, gosh he is so lovely! Perfect for my frowny boy.

And the head on the body! Funny story, as I was trying to remove his old head the elastic slipped and I ended up having to restring his legs/torso.  On my lunch break. Boo! But he's whole, and Ghost's eyes fit him perfectly.  I cannot even express how wonderful it is to be able to just pop the eyes in and go (though they do need a little tweaking here). Old!Ghost's head had weird eye wells that were uneven and made adjusting eyes a huge pain.  But not this boy.

Repetitive pictures ho!

 The head needs to be cleaned, which I'll be doing tonight.  Painting will have to wait until I can get back into my storage unit (long story, lost my keys :/).  But even blank he's really lovely!

Let's get to work!

When I took Ghost out for photos yesterday I realized that he is in serious need of some work.  Somehow during the move, despite being carefully wrapped up and hand carried, he got scratches on his face. :(  He also has a small chip on one of his eyes which has been there since I got him, and of course his head is a different color than his body.  Given all of that, I think some sanding is in order.  I'd like to do a little more work to his head/neck as well to make it fit a little bit better.  I'm going to stop after work today and get some sandpaper of varying grains so I can hopefully take advantage of the nice weather and work outside.  And maybe an apron too for the resin dust. :)

Ghost came to Easter dinner with me. :)

Happy Easter!

Easter of 2009 was the first time I ever made anything for my dolls.  I had just gotten my big boy (BBB Apollo) and he had nothing to wear. We were having friends over, and I didn't want him to be indecent for company, so I made him a simple shirt and pair of pants.  This Easter I didn't do any sewing, but I did want to snap a few pictures of some of my crew.  

Emmanuel grew up in a large family, a middle child among nine children.  They were extremely religious (his father was a religious leader), which caused a lot of problems for him. However, Easter was one holiday he enjoyed, with its focus on new life and light out of darkness.  He fled his family as a teenager, and while he doesn't really miss them, he does always get a little wistful around Easter.  Luna doesn't like to see people sad, so she keeps him company.  The two have a brother-sister relationship which Emmanuel really appreciates.

Body Stuff

Creative title is creative.

So I mentioned a few posts ago how I had sort of make a Frankenstein body for Ghost out of his SD10 torso (one piece), and arms/legs of the SD13 body.  It actually worked pretty well aside from some wonkiness in the legs, but he could stand and sit and pose.  However it wasn't really ideal as it was, and I wasn't sure I wanted to take on the daunting task of modding his torso to accept those SD13 legs.  So...back to the drawing board.  Or rather the sand paper.

Armed with more sandpaper and an iPod full of "move" music (aka Dropkick Murphys!), I attacked the neck of the SD13 body again.  I had sanded it before, but I hadn't really taken enough off to make it look quite right.  Not this time though, this time I defeated the thick-necked enemy!

It still needs some finishing work, to smooth the resin out a bit.  But overall I'm pretty satisfied with the fit.  He still retains a good range of motion, and the head sits much better than it did before.

Random photos...

I've been so busy with moving lately that I really haven't had a chance to do anything doll related.  Hopefully once things are settled I get get my butt back into gear, Ghost could use some love!  I did take some photos of him this weekend in the fuzzy morning light.  Hence why he's glowing in the first. :)

New Eyes Preview

Nothing fancy, but I wanted to get a few shots of Emmanuel's new eyes.  They look awesome! :D

New Eyes

"Purple haze," by MoC

I decided to purchase Ghost some new eyes, as the blue pupil-less pair just didn't fit right.  It's amazing how bjd eyes can be like jeans...all the same size and yet they all fit differently!  The blue were also 18mm, but they have a very high dome.  Consequently they can't really be positioned up at all, at least not without causing weird gaps.  Over the past week I've tried at least ten pairs of eyes on him (in him?), and all but one pair have similar problems.

Ghosts eye wells are strange, as I've mentioned before.  He's an older sculpt, and so some of his features are uneven or sized strangely.  His eyes are definitely two different shapes, and the insides even more so.  As such I find it hard to put him in eyes with a sold black pupil, because one always looks the wrong way.  I really like the red/orange eyes I've shown here before, as they fit him perfectly and look good.  But he's really not a red/orange kind of guy.  Blue, pink, purple, grey...definitely.  Red, yellow, orange...not so much.  So I picked up another pair of Mint on Card Inc eyes with same-colored pupils.  I've found that MoC eyes seem to fit his eye wells just right, so all I needed was the right color.  I hemmed and hawed between the purple and the pink, but the ones I chose were a little more neutral so they can work on a few different levels.

New Goodies!

The eyes still need to be tweaked a bit, but the domes are so high that I'm not sure how much they can be. Either way they are stunning, very bright and ghostly.

The necklace is a tiny bit of drusy quartz, and was purchased from Scorpioh on Etsy.  I'm always looking for neat in-scale jewelry, and this Etsy store is full of some really awesome pieces. I will definitely be buying from them again!