Back to Basics

I figured it's about time for my once in a blue moon, is this really a post, oh my gosh it is update.

I took a bit of a loose hiatus from dolls for a while, primarily because I wasn't feeling that spark like I used to. That's never good when you try to force it, so I focused on other things for a while. After a few months I started to tentatively get back into the hobby, and brought home a few new friends to help the transition. I'll have some more detailed posts up on them eventually, but here's a snapshot.

Grail doll achieved. Seriously, she is so pretty it hurts. Say hello to Aubrey, my Volks SD Megu. I think she will soon be the one and only (and last) girl doll in my collection, because I've realized I just don't bond well with the ladies. Such is the hobby, but at least I have her.

This fellow is a custom Resinsoul Gang with Mei ears in green. He is actually my second Gang, and the love is strong with this one. He's been so fun to sew for and to photograph. He's actually based on a Vulcan from Star Trek, with the green color thrown in because 1. Resinsoul's green is glorious. 2. Because many of the comics I read about Star Trek often portray Spock as green even though it's just his blood. I like this more cartoonish presentation, and thus he was born. Say hello to Soval.

The final new doll isn't here yet, but he should be sometime next week. He is a WS Minifee VE (vampire elf) Woosoo. It's been about seven years since I've had a minifee, and I've been in the hobby for eight years so... I'll admit outright that I'm not a huge fan of most minifees. They're definitely adorable and there's some great creativity going on for many of them, but I find the majority to be a little too cookie cutter looking for my taste. Again no judgement on others, just not my personal style. Previously I had a MNF Seorin and a MNF VE Shiwoo, the latter of which I liked more than the former. I will say though that they pose fantastically, and everything fits them. EVERYTHING. I mean obviously there are clothes made for other bjds, more so than they used to be. However, minifees by far have the most easily accessible clothing I've seen, which is a huge perk. I already have a pretty substantial collection of MSD sized clothing, but I am going to add to it a bit for this guy. He may already have a few outfits on the way...  In any event, say hello to the tentatively named Auren. 

Doll News

This week I'm waiting for some new parts for St. Christopher to come in, specifically a chest/abdomen piece for the Obitsu body. The character of St. Christopher in the original form is meant to have a specific physique, and is meant to be agender. I often use "she/her" as it's applicable to the character's story, but "they/them" is also correct. In particular I wanted their body to look a certain way, but that's not always easy to find. I considered modifying the RS body, but I don't really have the space or the materials needed to do that, so I'm going a slightly different route. The pieces should arrive Thursday of this week, so hopefully I'll be able to put them together and find a workable solution.

Obitsu 55cm "boy" chest piece.

Obitsu 55cm "boy" body.

I'm curious to see if I like the Obitsu Gretel head still, or if I'll want to switch back to the RS Mi head on the Obitsu body (RS and Obitsu match). I'm going to try the Obitsu first as I already have it screwed on to the mechanisms and it's a pain to put back on. Pictures will follow once the package arrives.

Doll Stuff and Nanowrimo

Still working on a catch as catch can type of posting schedule as I deal with the continued health issues, but I do have some updates for today!

As we head into the end of October I've been starting to prepare for National Writers Month, or Nanowrimo. I've written about this here before, but for anyone new it's essentially a challenge to write a novel (50,000 words) in the month of November. This will be my sixth year participating, and I'm actually looking to do something completely different this time.  Normally I work on Emmanuel's story as it needs editing, re-writing, and of course continuing. However, this time I've decided to write about St. Christopher instead. So I've been doing my basic prep which includes getting my storyline and character notes together. As I've been doing that I've been looking to the doll for inspiration, and I've come to realize that the RS Mi just isn't jiving with my concept for St. Christopher.

It's not that she's not a beautiful doll because she is, but I think she might be too beautiful? The more I've been working with her, the more I've realized that she is a little too perfect for this character. St. Christopher is supposed to be a little odd in a few different ways, and the stunning beauty of the RS Mi sculpt just doesn't quite express that. I'm certainly going to keep her, but I think I will be shifting things a bit.

One consideration is modding her, which I may look into if the other plans don't work out. I've seen quite a few modded Mis (almost all of them really), and they look lovely. That though is a pretty big undertaking, so I will have to see if I really want to do that and how my health is overall.

I did do some browsing for a possible head sculpt, but initially I didn't find anything through the normal channels. I would almost prefer having a male head sculpt for her on the female body, but I didn't even see any male sculpts that spoke to me. Then I decided to explore another alternative that I've looked at before, but never had a particular character for.

I ended up on Junky Spot's page looking through their Obitsu heads, as I do have an Obitsu body, and RS NS is a good match for WS Obitsu. So I could keep Mi whole, or I could put the vinyl head on the resin body. I purchased a Gretel head and a pair of pixie ears as St. Christopher is supposed to have some distant elf lineage, and they were pretty cute. Overall the head and ears weren't horribly expensive either, so if I find that it doesn't work for St. Christopher, it's not as if it would be a great deal of money. I've also been toying with the idea of an elf character, and/or a character named October or something Halloween related. So she could do that as well. I'm still not sure if I'm going to use the Obitsu body or the Mi one, though I'm leaning towards the former because it's spectacularly poseable. Although if so, I will need to get some new hands as hers are a bit stained. The package should be arriving tomorrow, so I will have in-person pictures soon. For now though, these are the stock pictures of the head and the ears.

Still alive!

I'm alive, just still working to get back to some semblance of normal. I am going to attempt to follow the regular posting schedule, but I'm not positive if I will be able to do it each week. Aside from the health issues, I'm also dealing with what I like to call "peripheral" internet. As in you can see it out of the corner of your eye, but if you try to outright do anything...forget it. However, I at least have some posts set up for this week, so enjoy!

To make this more than text, here is a snapshot of St. Christopher from before the ren faire.

Wig Making

I did purchase a wig for St. Christopher while I was waiting for her to arrive, but I also started making a wig. It was done with a self-made hard cap base, and brushed out yarn. I'm not always a huge fan of yarn wigs, depending upon how they look. However, this was a great way to make a wig, and it came out even better than I thought for my first time attempting it.

Essentially what you do is cover the doll in plastic to protect them, and then stretch a thin fabric over the head and rubber band it down. You add layers of glue (I used modge podge) over this to harden the cap, and can eventually cut away the excess. From there you would add your yarn wefts (made by brushing out and sometimes flatironing the yarn) with the same glue. There are some great tutorials out there including this one on Youtube.

Here is my finished product!

I will definitely be doing this again as I'm really pleased with how this came out. Even more so because her head seems to be an odd size, and the wig I purchased (and literally every wig in the house) is too big. She is just over the 8inch size, but an 8-9 wig is much too big for her while 7-8 may be too small. This is a much better, if time consuming, solution to the problem.

Introducing St. Christopher!

So I will admit that I kind of cheated when it came to a box opening, as I did it very quickly in my car. On one hand I was impatient, but on the other I wanted to make sure she arrived safely. There were a lot of horror stories of Mis arriving with broken fingers or other parts, and I was hoping to not fall in that category. Thankfully she arrived safe and sound, and I did take some blank doll photos after the fact.

I'm putting this beneath a cut because of dolly nudity.

A sneak preview!

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #25: Style!

I'm probably going to end up doing these individually for my dolls as they all have quite unique styles. However, for the first one I will discuss the new doll's style since she's the newest addition. 

I'm still figuring out all of her "likes" and "dislikes," but overall I'd say that her normal style falls between mori girl and grunge.

Yeah.

So on one hand, the style is very earthy. She wears a lot of browns, greens, and some blues. Mori girl style (translated it essentially means "forest girl") is what I think of as fairy tale forest wear. It's often not really practical for traipsing about in the woods, but it looks like what a fairy tale character would wear. It often involves multiple layers, loose fitting elements, lace, and patterns. There is also a form called dark mori that has a more gothic sense to it, and mori boy which features more masculine elements. I think that the doll/character would comfortably fit into all of these, although her dark mori definitely has more traditional mori roots.

I've included some examples of my own interpretation of the fashion here for reference. For the most part I tend to see the character in a lot of skirts and dresses with leggings, much like what I tend to wear. Her fashion sense at least is somewhat based on me, so I've tried to incorporate some of the reality of mori girl in to her wardrobe as much as possible.                                                                                                     At the same time, SC also wears a lot of what I like to call 90's grunge teenage boy fashion. This is again taken from my personal style as I favor this look on my dressed down days. It can be described as if Xander and Oz from Buffy had a baby who liked Nirvana. This includes more t-shirts, jeans (more baggy than fitted, but both will do), sneakers, and plaid shirts. 

In regards to whether she will change style much, that's something only time will tell. I know that there are certain things she wouldn't wear, aside from me putting her in them because I like the look. That includes the lolita style dress and even the blue star dress I created for her. She's not so much a flashy, frilly individual. Rather her style involves more earthy, practical clothes with a smattering of dresses.

Doll Sewing: Starry Night Dress

I just finished making this dress for the incoming girl, and while it's not exactly her style, I'm quite happy with it.

Back of the dress with the cape/train detail.

Incoming Items

Here are a few things in the mail  for the new girl.

 Ersa Flora Sienna Gradient Eyes

Not actually purchased off Ebay (DoA instead), but I saved this photo of them. I want the new girl to have brown eyes, but I always struggle finding the right kind of brown eyes. More often than not brown eyes are too dark, and end up looking more like black. They can also be very dark in the eye wells, giving more of the "doll" look rather than something slightly more realistic. So these seem to be a good approximation, with sort of built-in highlights.

Beach Brown wig from Funnylori

I am in the midst of making a wig for the new girl as well (more on that later), but I wanted to have something on hand and also for variety. I picture her with a brown/white wig, which is what I am also crafting. I love Funnylori's wigs, and I could own at least one for every doll I have. This one may be a bit challenging due to the fur style, though I have owned similar furs from her in the past. So I think it will work out.

 Yellow Flats from Mint on Card Inc

I have the lovely yellow dress from anekochansdollies, and it seems to require yellow shoes. Plus, I have pretty much nothing the new girl can share shoe-wise with the boys, so I will be getting her several pairs as time goes on. 

Pink Dollzone Shoes from Mint on Card Inc

These were also from MoC, though they are now sold out. I wanted to have some shoes that would match the pink lolita dress from anekochansdollies, and also the mori set. These probably work better for the former, but the latter does have some pink as well.

Dolly Haul Part 1

In preparation for the new girl's arrival, I've been working to collect and make some items so that she has all sorts of goodies waiting for her. This is the first time I've done this since my very first bjd, and it's kind of exciting to have a project like this to work on. This is the first haul of items I've had arrive, with more to come.

Underwear-handmade
My dolls rarely wear underwear, though that's mostly because they tend to wear pants primarily. However, this girl is going to wear a lot of dresses, and I wanted to make sure she had something to wear under them. So I made her a set of white lace undergarments from some stretchy lace.

Mori girl set-purchased

This set caught my eye the first time I saw it, but I didn't buy it right away. I kept coming back to it in my browser though, which made me rethink that decision. It's quite lovely, and will suit ghsi girl well I think.

Dresses- Anekochansdollies
I had stumbled upon Anekochansdollies' work on several occasions, and always admired her dresses. She also owns a RS doll, and the dresses fit so nicely, and appeared to be very well-made. So when o saw both this lolita-esque set and the yellow dress, I couldn't resist picking them up for my girl. She was wonderful to deal with, and her work is quite spectacular. I would recommend her to anyone looking for dresses! (She even included a little flower crown too, how sweet!)

This final image is just of the wooden box

I've put together for her so far with the smaller of the clothing items. Still to come this week/next: her eyes, wig, two pairs of shoes, an outd restringing items. Then hopefully after that...her!

Still alive!

Long time (really long time) no see! It's been quite a while since I updated this blog, mostly due to life going crazy and the doll hobby taking a back seat for some time. But, I'm back! Just probably in a more relaxed fashion.

However, I am expecting a new doll to arrive in the next month or so. She is a Resinsoul Mi, and I fell in love with her the minute I saw her. She looks like a Sailor Moon character with her lovely long limbs and lithe body. So pretty. And, her face is quite nice as well. I do find that as much as I love Resinsoul, sometimes their sculpts can be very hit or miss for me, but she was a pleasant surprise. I like everything about her, and there just happened to be one in stock at DDE so...layaway ho!

I'm starting to collect items for her arrival, so I will probably post about that as well. And of course I will post her once she arrives in all her blank-faced glory. I do have a name and story in mind, but I'm waiting to see if it fits her in the way I hope it does. So for now she will just be Mi.

The good, the bad, and the dolls.

Things have been relatively quiet on the doll front for me lately, with the exception of me finally getting the tan RS Song I've drooled over for forever.  Which was admittedly the product of a small "fun fund," a very stressful week, and a 1AM visit to Denver Doll's website...

Which means I now have two Songs, just in different colors. I was looking to trade my WS Song, however it appears he has some damage I was unaware of when I initially looked at trading him.  He looks fine in artificial light, but in daylight there are some scratches on his legs that are fairly visible. I think they're fixible if I wanted to sand him (though I'm not sure I want to find out how yellowed he is), but they're definitely not something I feel comfortable trading with.  I like to make sure dolls are in tip-top shape when I trade them, which usually involves a few different evaluations and a bath before I let them go. And unfortunately he doesn't pas muster. :(

So I have two Songs and a little inspiration of what to do with them, so we'll see if that pans out.  It's unfortunate I can't trade him, but I suppose if I'm going to keep him, I should do something with him.  Potentially pictures to come!

Song has leveled up!  Or at least he's on his way there.  He still doesn't have a name alas, but he does have new better fitting eyes (just need white putty!), wigs, and some fantastic new stringing.  I am a firm believer in the fact that if all BBB/RS dolls were restrung and maybe sueded a bit, people would see a whole other side of them.  They really are well made dolls, but the perfect storm of poor stringing, terrible official photos, and ill fitting eyes/clothes (because of their petite size) really does them in.  This guy can now pose like a champ now, and I'm dying to get some good photos of him.  

The power of sueding...(NSFW)

Busy, busy, busy!

I'm sorry for the lax updates, things have been so crazy for me lately.  Between work stuff and personal stuff, I haven't found enough time to do all the things I want. Especially take some good shots of my new guy!  But in some ways that's good because he seriously need a lot of work.

I've got some wigs coming in probably on Friday for him, from FunnyLori's Etsy shop.  Those I'm excited about because they're made to fit Songs specifically.  You can sort of maneuver wigs over those big ears of his, but it isn't the best.  I also ordered some eyes and new elastic for him from JunkySpot which might be here for this weekend.  I have no eyes that fit him correctly as his eye wells are really, really tiny.  I can get 14mm eyes in, but they don't look quite right. So I ordered some 12mm ones, which was suggested by others on the BBB/RS discussion thread on DoA.  He also really needs to be restrung and sueded which will help his posing immensely.  And maybe a little modding to his hips, but I don't want to get too crazy right off the bat.

So the "to do" list goes something like this:

• Finish removing the original face up. (I got most of it off last night, but just couldn't scrub any more. I'm going to soak it again today and go at it. I think there might be a little staining unfortunately, but we'll see what we can do.)
• Suede the heck out of him!
• Restring him once the new elastic comes in.
• Try on wigs and his eyes and see what combos we like.
• Do some character work. Who is he? What's his name (not sure if Ace will stick)? 
• Faceup!

And in the future:

• Do a little sewing and/or see which doll shops are open and have clothes that fit him.
• Get him/custom order him a flower crown from the awesome beansproutmomo.
• Start looking into jointed hands (I think it will be Dikadoll female msd hands).

Ace has been paid off!

Ace (still a tentative name) is now paid off and may be on his way to me this weekend, I'm so psyched!  I also took advantage of FunnyLori's wig sale (go now and get some if you haven't!), which she even extended for me a little just so I wouldn't miss it.  Have I mentioned that she's awesome?  Well she is. I purchased another of her surprise bags, specially fitted for Songs and Minifees, so that will be on its way as well.  I have yet to buy any eyes as I'm really not sure what color I want for him, or what size.  I definitely have some 14 and 16mm at home (Songs take 14mm generally), but 12mm gives them a more realistic look.  So I'm waiting until he gets here to try some things on him to decide.

I'm going to dig out my MSD-sized clothes this weekend to see what fits and what doesn't, and maybe make an order for some new pieces.  I'm still exploring his style as well, which I'm sure will change a little when I actually have him here.

Yay for dolly arrivals, and new photos to come!

Dolly Plans

When I started this hobby, the first doll I ever purchased was a Resinsoul Ju.  I eventually sold her, along with my other RS dolls, because I just couldn't get them to look like I wanted.  As the years have gone on though, I've been dying to have some RS dolls again.  I now have the experience and confidence in modding and face ups that I didn't have back then, which was a large part of the problem.

Photo courtesy of the seller.

Quick face up mock up.

Of the RS/BBB sculpts, I have always liked Song, Gang, and Apollo.  I've owned the latter two, but not the former.  Eventually I'd like to get an Apollo to remake one of my first and most beloved dolls (Daemon for any of you who have stuck around since the BJDBaby days).  However I'm going to start with a slightly smaller project, a RS Song.

I stumbled upon a white skin RS Song in the DoA marketplace, and I fell in love.  I had initially planned to order one through Denverdoll, but this one was both already made (casting/delivery can take quite some time) and less expensive.  Plus I could get a longer layaway with an individual than with DDE.  So I put a down payment on him, and within a month or so he will be home.

I've already started doing some mock-ups of the doll as I will definitely be giving him a new face or at least enhancing his current face up.  He also needs new eyes (color thus far not determined), a wig, and clothes.  I've got some fashions that will fit him, but most of my MSD wardrobe is for larger dolls.

Right now I'm thinking of getting him a wig/wigs from FunnyLori, wigs and clothes from LaEsperanza Doll Shop *(they have awesome wigs and pastel goth clothes!), and a flower crown from Insideouthose (run by the lovely beansproutmomo of Tumblr).  I think I will be doing a lot of themed posts and inspiration posts for this new boy as I try to figure out who he is and what he looks like. I think I have a character down for him,but I will wait and see if it still fits when he gets here.

*Small disclaimer regarding Etsy stores and other online shops...  I often mention shops I'm looking at that I haven't bought from yet. This isn't an endorsement of the shops' service, just a not of my own interest. So please don't take this as me saying these shops are good to buy from unless I specifically review them. That being said I will definitely try to review my purchases from now on so that I can spread the good word!