Lovely Autumn Day

Introducing Sep!

Some shots of the boys outside today. It was a little overcast, but still a pretty fall day.

And! I won a contest that the illustrious charlietheskonk had put on to create some kind of art about the legendary Charlie. I wrote a little song, and she liked it so much I won!  She made these amazing cake necklaces and tiny cakes for me, and they are adorable!

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!

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

All in the Eyes

I keep changing Emmanuel's (Ghost) eyes out to these red/orange ones, despite them not fitting his character at all. Technically he should have blue eyes, kind of icy blue ones. But I haven't seen a pair of blue eyes I like for him, and the ones I have don't work.

He is an old F-10 head (SD13 four sisters) and he's got a lot of "character." Aka his eye wells are uneven, and beveled strangely. So his right eye always sits wrong. The only way to remedy this is by having eyes without defined pupils, such as these. Not to mention you have to move the eyes up considerably to get them to not look shocked, which isn't a look I love.

So we'll see, Ill keep an eye out for better blue eyes, but til then these will do.

Repetitive, be warned...

New body!

Sorry for the spamming, but I am in love. <3  I'm so very glad I went with a Volks body for Ghost, it's just perfect.  I'm sure you can tell how much I love the hands alone.  But he looks great, definitely a better fit character and posing wise than the older SD10 body.

There are two drawbacks however: resin match and head fit.  The resin match isn't a big thing.  I don't mind that he's different shades in person, and you can't see it as much in photos.  The difference is almost non-existent in interior lighting, but definitely apparent outside.  But like I said, resin match isn't a big thing.  Uri's head is a different color than his body, and I don't even notice it anymore.

Head fit on the other hand is a bigger issue.  Technically it "fits," if you define fitting as "it doesn't fall off."  But the neck is large and the neck hole is small/shallow.  So it's not an ideal fit by any means.  My options are to either mod the body or the head, either of which will remedy the situation.  So I'm just trying to decide which I'd like to do.  I'm off to pick up a respirator tonight so I can do the work once I decide.

But overall, I love the body.  It is the one I've always wanted.  The SD10 body was too...simple.  And the SD16/17's and up I've seen are just too much.  Too many muscles, and too tiny of a waist for Emmanuel.  

It is funny though, because the story I'm writing about him for Nano deals with his youth, when he was 16 and still living at home.  The SD10 body was perfect for that.  Just the right amount of baby fat and child-like lines.  But now that I'm almost finished that part of his story, I've transitioned him to his older body, where he's at for most of the rest of the story (23-24ish).  Funny how things happen. :)