Friday, April 27, 2012

On the Horizon

Today I put the Doll Chateau Youth Boy body on layaway. It will be a million years before it gets home but I can wait (I know it won't be more than a year, so it'll never get close to Dollshe :|). This will be Alex 2.5's body...assuming the hybrid works out and I like it. I compared measurements and I think it'll be ok. But I do have 4 full Kara Klums at home already and I am really used to the way he looks lol so it might be too weird for me. I'm hoping not. Small hands and small shoulders will be an issue...the hands I can fix (I have spare DM hands if they'll fit, and if not, Dollzone jointy hands will be on order). 2.5 will be thrilled to have his own body finally. I've had his head sitting around for almost 2 years now, and he only got a body twice, once right after I gave him a faceup and then again when I was making III's wig. Since his head is the same as II's, having a different body will be a nice difference between them.

Before the body gets here I just have to modhis  head...I'm going to attempt to open his mouth, something I've never come close to doing. I have two practice heads to do first, but I've got to get a respirator before doing all these mods I have planned.

I also bought a Migidoll Owen head. In the near future I have to get it an AOD girl body...It's exactly the right build I want for this girl, but I'm a little afraid it's going to be too small. I don't want to go bigger...I wanted her at least the same height as Alex (who's so freaking short) if not shorter. I'm excited for this girl, she's a relatively new character, but one I felt I needed, if only to explain Isis. Then I thought of her as a doll and of course became obsessed for weeks until I knew exactly what I wanted...and since I have to buy her in pieces it's easier than getting that Supia Rosy I still need for Theresa, who was supposed to be the first (full) character I shelled this year. OOPS!!
Parts are so much easier to get a hold of sometimes.

Speaking of parts, the new Kimi head arrived last night, making four days from order to arrival from Dollmore my shortest wait for a new doll EVER. I'm sure it might have broken some record somewhere lol. Miso is an older DM head, so her headback hooks on, there's no magnets. It's also HUGE. I mean GIANT. I have five Adam heads (though since they're all the same I guess it only counts as one) and now three Eves (all of which are larger than Kara Klum - poor tiny thing) and Miso is larger than all of them. It's something I have to get used too, but because I was going for a certain look it actually works out. The only problem is she doesn't fit in any of her wigs XD I ordered her a new one last night, right now she's got one of them stretched over her giant noggin only staying on because of the wig cap. The resin color is also different...very very pale. My Liebe head doesn't match his Zaoll body either, but it's much less a difference than this one. A little blushing took care of that however! Now she matches perfectly! It's actually kind of fabulous...She looks better than Tween does XD
Looking at her I think I need to bevel out her eyes some, they sit very far back, there's lots of resin there. I've got some bevelers so that shouldn't be a huge issue. I've never done it before though....

All in all she's a huge improvement over the Zaoll. Much better features, I was able to give her a faceup that I want for Kimi instead of what works better for the doll, she's cute and girly looking and so expressive - exactly what I wanted!! I'm hoping to grab a camera and get some pics of her today. As usual when I get a new Kimi (this is #4!!) I want to draw her, I have two sketches of her I like so maybe I'll get some art out soon...woo!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Kimi is such a pain

Bleh. Why are some characters so damn hard to doll?? Kimi was difficult from day one, and even though I thought I was good with her current version, I'm really not. It took me a while to admit it, becasue I really like Zaolls and I really really like Ramie....but even though she's gorgeous, and a realistic representation of how the character would look IRL....it's not right.

The Kimi in my head will always be a tad more stylized than everyone else, and even more important, she's expressive. Ramie along with the rest of the Zaolls, is gorgeous, but not the most expressive doll out there. I thought it was her faceup that was bugging me, but I don't think a new faceup will do much to help, sooo yesterday I bought her a new head.

Dollmore Miso was actually a doll/head I was considering before I saw Ramie, I thought I'd get her along with a Luv or Muse, slap the head on the smaller body and either sell the Zaoll head, or keep it in case I wanted a Zaoll (which I did). Then I saw some owner pics of Ramie and decided just to go with that...and she's so pretty >.<

smKIMI2

 I love the doll, which is why she's lasted a year, but there's something not right about her...She should really be more versatile, and for me, she's just not.

So I'm giving Miso a try. I'm going to put it on the Zaoll body, because she's supposed to be short (which has killed my options XP), I think it'll work as I already have an Eve/Zaoll hybrid. On the off chance I end up hating it, I'm giving the Ramie a new faceup anyway, and then putting her in the head-box. I do not want to sell it...I learned the hard way with Uriel. Selling heads I still like: bad.

Miso will be Kimi's fourth doll. I really hope it's the last!! THe first was a Dollzone Shoyo, a doll I liked (and owed again later only to sell. No more Shoyo's.) but just didn't look right. I tried again with a Minifee Ryeon/AOD hybrid. She worked great until I realized hated her small size next to my SDs. That was the end of me trying to make an MSD work as an adult next to my SDs. Never again. The scale is just way too off.

Ramie was next, after a long search for 50cm girls and me giving up and going with Dollmore (which is what I always do) and since she's so Asian looking she's really perfect, if it wasn't for my inability to see my character as anything other than totally stylized XD Which I can do just fine with the rest of them!! Just not her.

Dollmore's older heads are a good mix of stylized and realistic that most of my dolls are, so here's hoping this really is the last Kimi I have to buy. At least she's going on this body...I don't have to redo her damn tattoo, or get her new clothes. Everything she owns was made for her!!




Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Bizarre Spectrum

I snapped a few pics for a request on DOA and thought it interesting...So I wanted to share.

The request was Zaoll Luv vs CP dolls, but I only have Ramie...Luckily it was enough XD
Kimiko (Zaoll Ramie)
Aisheka (CP Sleeping Vampire Breakaway 08)
James/Hanael (CP Delf Elf Chiwoo kinda modded)

kimi aishe Aishe and Kimi


  kimi james James and Kimi


  all3 Everyone! Yay!!

Kimi is probably my most realistic doll...Her faceup is not my fav, I need to redo it. Possibly goth it up, or at least make it better. Aishe and James are not my most stylized (that would be Wyn btw) but they're damn close. Zaolls are known for their tiny heads. I mean TINY. She barely fits a 7/8...most of them are large on her.

But really, I don't think it's awful. Which is funny, because the reason I sold my Delf El is I bought Kimi. Ryuji (who was formerly an El and is now a Little Monica Kliff) and Kimi are two characters who would actually interact, and I couldn't see the new, realistic Kimi with the old giant-headed, tiny-faced Ryuji. Truthfully, El doesn't do it for me. He never did, but at the time, the mold (dreaming version at least) was the best Ryuji. When I found LM, I saw Dysuke and said, "hey, if Ryuji was real, that's what he'd look like!"


:B


Yeah. ALL my dolls are supposed to be "if they were real" for my characters. That was the beginning, Kimi was the straw. So I kicked out the El, and went to buy Dysuke...but Kliff had just come out...and I changed my mind when I when I went to hit check out.

Yet, here I am, thinking they don't look that bad together XD
I guess it's all in perspective. I would NEVER get rid of Aishe and I adore the hell out of James. I didn't feel that way about my El. Especially when I stopped calling him Ry and started calling him "my El".

Yeah. Anyway, James is a spoiled cutie....I bought him a boyfriend, and now he gets a cool (pricey) coat.


smjames coat

Oh I loves him. I actually bought that coat for Pilot, but there's no way it would fit him >.< So James swiped it. No harm in taking your boyfriends castoffs :D

Monday, April 16, 2012

30 Days of BJDs 28, 29, 30!

Yay I'm done!! *ded*


28) Post a crazy/silly pose!
LtlAlex14
Sweep the leg!! (from a really long photoshoot on why you should wire DMK legs... He's not wired or sueded anywhere else.)
Alex: am I done yet?

29) Show us where your dolls live!
I can't. It's too messy >.<
Basically they sit on shelves in my room....the MSDs have a shelf, the Bunnies (tinies) have a shelf, the three tinies that aren't bunnies have a shelf, the SD Alexes have a shelf, my smaller SDs (I call it the girl shelf even though Aishe and Wyn sit on it too. Still works.) sit together, my larger SDs sit together, Thomas takes a shelf on his own because he has to lay down since Iplehouse made the most non-functional body on the planet, and my Chiwoo, AiL Elijah and Saint have to sit on a table until I find them room, because I'm out. I need more shelves.


30) Have you ever been to a doll meetup, did you enjoy it?
In my area the group I am friends with has a meet every second Sunday of the month. I have been trying to go to them every month since July 2008. I love them. The people are awesome, there's always tons of dolls and usually new ones and dolls I've never seen. We generally have a good time and it's lots of fun. Plus it's great to have a group of people who actually like to discuss dolls to talk to!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

30 Days of BJDs 26 and 27

26) Have you ever painted a dolls faceup?
LOL of the dolls/heads I own right now, 42 of them have my faceups. Most of them are not on their first faceup by me. I've painted most of the dolls I've sold, and most of my Roommates dolls. I've also done some dolls for friends. So, yes! :D



hmmm...it's doing the weird gappy thing again...
because that was short....



27) Out of the dolls you own, who is your favourite?
Totally thought I'd done this already...but oh well.
I know this will be a huge shock to everyone but

  smALEX3 I know. SHOCK!!! This is why he gets all the clothes and everyone makes do with his cast-offs.

Followed very closely by (almost tied with) smBBalex2
and
 smALEXIIIwig 2

Followed by smmini garden1 Then all the other Alex's and then probably David. No piccies of him though...I need to get his updated look set, then photos.
Then maybe Wyn(s) then everyone else. I really love my current group. I hope that doesn't change...I'd hate to part with any of them! But I'm a character hoor. I love my boys (and girls) according to how much I love and how well they fit their character, and Alex is hands down win <3

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

30 Days of BJDs 23, 24 and 25

23) Is there a part of the BJD hobby that you dislike?
24) What about your favorite part of the hobby?
I don't have the strength to elaborate on this one, but in both cases? The people/community. It's both my favorite thing about BJDs and the part that makes me want to scream an throw things at my monitor.

and because I didn't want to answer those:


25) Have you ever modded a doll or had a doll modded by someone else?
Yes! I've modded lots of dolls! Some got minimal mods, some a little more drastic....I've done permanent and non-permanent mods.
I've also bought four modded dolls...sorta

Aishe (CP Delf Sleeping Vampire Breakaway - head only):
Modded to have scars over his closed eyes. I'm 99% sure it's removable...but I'll never do it!




Whoa. Where did this gap come from?? I don't remember it being here yesterday?! D:






HopScotch (Soom Tan Human Afi - Head only): modded his eyes open more. I normally prefer not to buy permanently modded dolls, but this was done well and it made him so cute X3
Plus the head was really cheap! :D


James/Hanael (CP Delf Elf Chiwoo): oh was he a disaster...I didn't really buy him. It was a trade for an outfit I had for sale at a meet. I'd had the outfit up for awhile so I didn't feel like I really lost anything. In my head, he was free XD
He was broken, modded to have his twisty head back magnet on, and his neck hole modded to fit on any body with an shook (it's a mess in his poor head but you can't see from the outside and it actually works really well so I don't care). He had been sanded on his cheeks, forehead and nose at least, there were sandpaper scratches all over him that I had to get rid of. His nose is a totally different shape (I bet he had faceplanted) and he had pierced ears. And something is wrong with his mouth...it looked flattened on one side, like a miss with sandpaper had happened. I would have tried harder to fix that, but I didn't have anything to do it with...I do now though, so if I ever redo his faceup (barring damage, probably not gonna happen) I'll work on it.


Corpse (Unoa Sist sleeping FP): Corpse had issues. This FP was given to a friend of mine as payment for a faceup...it had a crazy faceup on it which we both knew I wouldn't want, so she went to wipe it for me...and found the poor thing horribly stained. HORRIBLY. I didn't think dolls could be that stained. It was awful...whoever did the faceup must not have sealed it at all before applying said faceup...and we found it was actually WS blushed to be NS XD
She sanded all over the FP to get the stain off, so I consider it modded. You can't tell at all, she did a great job! Corpse looks odd now though being WS on a NS body (hence the name XD)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

30 Days of BJDs 21 and 22

21) A doll sculpt you love, but will probably never purchase?

Did this earlier, but here it is again


Volks Michele - Not sure why exactly I love this doll so much =_= I'll never get one, head is too big, features too big, looks like an overgrown child next to my pinheaded adults. I still want him...if I won the lottery...XD

Soom Heliot (LE fullset) - Don't want him enough to pay insane markup but srsly regret not getting one when I could

Volks School C and A - Same as Michele, head and features too big for my crew

Delf Woosoo - Don't need him enough to pay insane markup but LOVE. He's a big maybe. If I could come up with a character...but now that I have an Elf Chiwoo I am not sure I could ever own Woosoo.

Sleeping Elf Shiwoo - If I had a chance to grab this one I probably would, but I'm not going out of my way...no character and no reason to own him :\

Luts Delf Breakaway 05 (open mouth and fangs if they have them) - I would love to get this guy as an extra head for my Breakaway 08 but, I love my BA as is and I know the extra head would just sit in a box...so, like some of the other ones, why bother XD

Another Secret Mr. Wolf - Would be the same character as the Heliot would be so I'd need to get him hooves of some sort, but I only want WS and have yet to see one second hand

Dollzone flower fairy tinies - never find the really small ones, haven't grabbed the slightly larger one second hand...yet. REALLY WANT though. If you know anyone selling them let me know! XD

Dollzone Raphael - no character.

Dollmore Dollpire - 3 Eyes : Victor Lou - Creepiest most fantastic doll ever and I have no character or reason to get him and he's too big to randomly buy D: Even though his price is fabulous and he's still available >.<

Mature minis I have no room/character or use for but still love: Narae, Narin, Unoa Lusis and L-Bi, MNF girl
I actually plan on owning the Unoa FPs. I have a hybrid, and I want the FPs for expression/character changes...



22) What's your favorite doll scale prop?
Cigarettes and Coffee cups. Sadly I still don't own a really good 1/3 scale to-go coffee cup for Alex. I bought the Crobi ones when they came out but they must be in scale for 70cm dolls, because they're huge. Coffee cups are tall, not wide like drinks from the freaking gas station. So they look ridiculous. It depresses me to no end because Alex is drawn 90-95% of the time with coffee and cigs. No wonder the doll looks pissed all the time :\

Monday, April 9, 2012

30 Days of BJD 18, 19, 20

18) Do you have a favorite company?
Dollmore, both because my favorite dolls are from there, and because they have always treated me fabulously! I also like Iplehouse, Peakswoods and Luts for similar reasons. I figure if a company can make mistakes, and go out of their way to fix those mistakes and make things better, they're pretty much win.

I don't really have a company that makes dolls where I OMG NEED!! every one they put out, so I tend to go by how they treat their customers. Which is why...  

19) A least favorite company?
Leekeworld and Fairyland. Every time I buy directly from them they SUCK. They have no problems handing out inferior products and stating that that's what their standards are. I do like their dolls, more or less though, so I try to buy through dealers or second hand from these places now (though with recent recast problems that may be changing....), longer wait be damned. I can wait. I did with

Dollshe is up there too atm. 14 months of lies gets too you after awhile...and my Saint has a screwed up knee. Yeah. Not buying from them again.  

20) What is your dream doll, do you already own them?
I did and I do.
Alex III was my dream doll, and I guess he still is since I never had another one after him. I wanted a WS Kara Klum since before I ordered my NS one (who was my first doll) but since Dollmore only puts out WS dolls in LE fullsets, there was no option. A year later they released two different versions (thinking and OE) calling them the Cold Heartbroken series....and I was able to get my dream doll! A year after that I bought the other one, so technically I have two XD

Friday, April 6, 2012

Lucifer's new face

So I did it. I had four other heads to do (not mine) and I tossed him in on the pile...His default took forever to get off >.<

Lucifer is a B&G Ymir, my second doll and first real impulse buy. I got him a month after Alex and I only bought him because I really wanted a B&G Sapphira, but didn't have elf characters (I ended up with Sapphira anyway several months later XD).

When he came to me he looked like this

cutie loo
D: scary bad photography, no style, a wig I grew to hate that actually stained him and his pretty default faceup I kept for almost four years. He got a new wig eventually smLUCIFER1
And when I finally couldn't stand him on his body anymore (this time last year) an old yellowed DZ single jointed body (to match his old yellowed head XD), and this fancy new wig smLUCIFERbday3

As you may have guessed by the name, Lucifer's character is an angel, fallen on god's request to stay in hell and make sure it didn't get too out of hand. He did good for thousands of years, but was eventually overthrown by demons and other fallen angels, and imprisoned in hell, where he's been for 10,000 years (at least). In Forgotten Children, I will probably be dead of old age before I finally make it to the point where he even shows up. But he was my second doll! :D

I wanted to go with something darker and more indicative of someone who's been imprisoned in hell for centuries...this is what I got. smLucifers new face2 I also took the ribbons out of his wig and cut it so it's not so insanely long... smLucifers new face3
Here it is with no wig
 smLucifers new face1
His eyes are new too, got them the day after I did his faceup. They're glass (his old ones are glib acrylics) and have a larger pupil than his old ones, so he's kinda lost a little of his psychotic look. Just a little. I keep them positioned in the middle like that so he looks crazy...XD

The symbol on his head is his Angelic Mark...my other angels will all have them eventually (only James/Hanael has one now), but I wanted him a little...scarier? So it's on his forehead. It's not satanic. It's...made up. The only symbols for Lucifer I could find are satanic, which is bullshit because he was a freaking angel before he became associated with satan. :\ So I found out that Lucifer is associated with the phoenix, and thinking that he's the Light Giver...I came up with this.

I was going for sickly but I think I got demon possessed. Or possibly about-to-become-a-zombie.

Either way, I think I like it. His new eyes match his hair better (the matchy matchy thing is indicative of most of my Fire-Angels...and accident at first but I go with it now), he's got black eyebrows (another thing with me, blonds with black eyebrows >.<) and he goes with my dolls better now. AND somehow still looks like himself! :D

30 Days of BJDs 17

17) What is your favourite item of clothing in your dolls wardrobe?

:D I have two! My first is kinda lame, but it's the Dollheart black Fer...I have the SD girl version, YO version and the Homme Fer from DOAs anniversary a few years ago, and I would love to get my hands on the MSD version.

The Homme is actually my favorite of the favorites...I have the green too, and it counts as well, cause it's gorgeous, but I only have (old) pics of the black...

smmanFER1
LOL Alex's old wig X3

My other favorite is this jacket from 4D I literally have wanted for years and only just got.
Alex I is wearing it now, as he seems to be the only one small enough to fit in it (as if it wouldn't have eventually been his anyway).

is1

I have other stuff I really like too, mostly dresses for Anna (PW Goldie) but that Homme Fer is my go-to outfit for when Alex needs to be all fancifuls. I adore it.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Character Woes. Isis...

Mostly a character thing, but since she's a doll (technically two dolls) it's relevant. Especially since it's the doll that got me going on this in the fist place....

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to Isis’s character. She’s had issues ever since I did my huge rewrite (kicked off by There’s No Such Thing). Before I changed my own universe completely, I knew who she was, what her motivations were and why she was the way she was. Now I don’t have a clue. She’s lost pretty much all her development and gone from being almost over-developed (like Alex) to…kinda flat and cardboardy. Her “OMG SO TRAGIC” past got lost, and in her current form it makes no sense at all, doesn’t fit with her character and personality. Not to mention, there’s enough tragic backstory in my comic already, someone should have less complicated issues. Once that was gone, she had nothing. All her “things” had to go because without her backstory they made no sense, and to be honest, the character she was doesn’t fit in with what I’m doing now.

The problem is I can’t get rid of her…she needs to be there, her character has a niche carved out in the story that would be a hole if she was gone, I need more females in my story and I LIKE her….she just has to be better.

I’ve thought about it before (this isn’t the first time), and I’ve gotten nowhere. NOwhere at all. She’s been in limbo for years and it’s horrible because – not to beat a dead horse to death again – I don’t want her to be the Bella in my story. She needs her own life so she could potentially stand on her own, like she used too. Only this time make sense and work in the story.

Well now I might have gotten it. Last night I remembered something I had completely forgotten.

At one point I had wanted her to involved in magic in some way…I’d been leaning toward Taro cards or something similar, but never got it ironed out….then Aishe and Anna came along and I didn’t need anyone else doing readings. However, I figure I can always have another witch.

It’s a little cliché, but it gives me something to build on. I’ve already decided that she’s a “closet” witch. Not non-practicing (though she’s claiming that) but one that is completely off the grid, so no one knows. Her specialty will be in potions and charms, and she has a natural ability to sense black/dark magic use, practices and items, which gives her an edge in defense magic. But she’s lame and doesn’t use any of it, and she’s not even registered as a witch.

It might not seem like much, but this is a huge relief to me, because it gives me the perfect reason for her reaction to meeting Alex and David for the first time, which I had planned out, but it didn’t really make sense the way she was (with no real character or point :P ). Now it makes perfect sense. A lot makes perfect sense. I had had her friends with Uriel, who she would have met through Aishe, but never knew how she would know Aishe…as a witch it’s an obvious tie. I have some other “fabulous” ideas for her character now too, which is such a relief for me. Having someone in the story line with no real direction but ws supposed to be a “main” character is scary. Especially since she’s close to showing up in FC! She’ll be in ch2, along with Jacob (aka Uriel) and I can't even write a character description for her. Well, I can now, but three days ago it would have been hard.

Now I have to start drawing her again. I've forgotten how D:

What’s funny about this is that even though it’s been bothering me for a while and Isis is close to appearing in the comic, it was the doll that really made me start thinking more seriously about it. I am selling off most of her wardrobe because it’s not what I want for her anymore. But what bothered me is that I still didn’t really know what I did want for her! She mostly just dresses like me. This got me wondering about her character…and realizing that she needed help before she became a full mary sue. I have enough problems with my other characters lol

My chibis (five pukis and a brownie) will make more sense now too, which is awesome! They were supposed to be in a coffee shop 24/7 but now I want to make ChibiAishe a Magic shop as well…gotta think of a name now…

And, you know, get started on that coffee shop D:

30 Days of BJD 15 + 16

15) What do your family think of your dolls?
LOL my Dad and his wife think it's just one more weird thing I'm into (though my Dad loves that it's got me into photography more, and Pam likes antique dolls so she does enjoy a doll discussion sometimes)...but my mom....
She started out hating them. She hated that I spent so much money on them, that they all looked like girls (to her), especially hated Alex with his scars and tattoos, and his hair. Pretty much everything about them. Then she saw Baby Alex. It was a bizarre 180° turn. Suddenly she didn't hate them anymore...she LOVED bb Alex and wanted to see him all the time, get him clothes and other toys and stuff...she was interested in all the dolls all of a sudden and kept hinting that she wanted some kind of hobby but didn't know what...

So for her birthday/Xmas gift one year I bought her a YO sized girl from B&G. Two more dolls later she's totally into them XD









16) Can any of your dolls stand on their heads?
I'm sure they could, but it's not something I ever cared about...so I've never bothered to try....

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Wig attempt 2 - WIN!

Ok, so by now you may have seen my first fail attempt at making Alex's wig. If not, it's here.

Now we can get to the good part.

So I abandoned the crappy wig the day after I started it. The more I had thought about it the more I knew it would never work. The materials were just too crappy. A friend reminded me that we have a...hair store (?) literally right around the corner that sells extensions and wigs to humans, so we went there to have a look around. I had a mini-fail there as well lol. I first bought some hair that was (badly) dyed and in a package so it was impossible to tell what I was buying. I opened it in the car and found it to be short (like really short)...so back to the hair store we went. As soon as I freaking walked in the door I found the perfect bright green color in a nice long length and got mildly excited...mildly because they didn't have purple...just blue. Lots of blue. So much blue that I became suspicious and moved one to find purple underneath!! YAY!

So with hair in hand I went home to (re)start the wig.

wig progress 9

You can see where I drew on the cap so I would know where the wefts should go. I also drew on his head by accident...but it was only pencil XD

wig progress 10

 Some similar progress pics. I made sure to sew this one better. It fits him perfectly and is not deformed this time. Because of the way his hair is styled I did have to start curving the hair line in an odd way, and had to use little pieces to fill in the gaps... wig progress 11
So it looks horrible here XD But then I covered it up. wig progress 12

Next time I do something like this (*ded*) I'm using my actual camera, instead of my phone :\

wig progress 13

Ok, here's the part that gave me the most stress...the part. On the first version, I did it wrong...I started with the part part (omg) and worked out...that didn't work. I also did the purple first. Also a bad idea. This was much easier.
 wig progress 14

The part is where I had to use the tutorial on DOA LINK
I still had to amend because it's two colors, parted on the side (ugh) and not handmade wefts, but without this I might have been completely lost.

Seriously, this thing was gorgeous before I cut it...I kept petting it >.< wig progress 15 wig progress 16 wig progress 17

 Purple!!
 wig progress 18 wig progress 19
To get the purple in there, I sew the wefts over the green, that way it looks like the hair is seamless, even though it's kind of a mess.


LOL Alex hiding from the world on my desk in between working on him. The bright light is my computer, not a window, but there was enough natural light that I still covered him up...and thought it was funny enough to take a pic XD
 wig progress 20
 I kinda failed in taking pictures during the purple...I was excited and in a hurry to finish at that point...^^; BUT here it is finished!
 wig progress 21
 The part was a weft folded in half, sewn, the hair separated then because it's heat resistant, I stuck in a curling iron for a few seconds to fold it down into a head shape. I really wish the hair had been a little different...the wefts were made not by folding the hair in half but just the ends over, so little pieces were still there. Plus the purple was thinner than the green. It still worked well (especially for my first wig) but I do wish it was a little more perfect.
 wig progress 23

It was so pretty X3
 wig progress 22
 I put it on Alex III and took a lot of shots of him outside in it before cutting it...that's what I lost. So they're gone forever, as I cut the thing to shreds the next morning.... and it looked like this (on my wig boiling rig - a wine bottle with a wooden ball on a chopstick XD). wig progress 24
NO amount of styling would get it to lay down. He sat for three days with a ribbon on his head until I figured I would have to do something drastic like pull out a lot of the middle wefts...instead I boiled it. I've boiled wigs many times before but I didn't really know how boiling would work on natural fibers, however, that did it!

 This, which you may have seen already, was the first pic after it dried from the boiling.
 MUCH better.
 smALEXIII new wig1

 After a little more cutting and styling
smALEXIIIwig 2
 I would consider it still not 100% finished. I would still like to see if I can get a little wave in it, get some of the shorter longer pieces to curl out some, and probably trim the stuff I missed because I SWEAR no matter how many wigs I've cut, there's always something I missed >.<

I'm also still trying to decide if I want to remove some of the purple under the green on the side....it's more purple than I meant to have. It's not horrible, but I am trying to stick as close to this
smalex HOLIDAY2011

as is possible and the purple is only in the front. BUT it's a doll wig vs actual hair (albeit drawn hair) so I don't expect it to be totally accurate. It would be nice! But realistically...not gonna happen.

Anyway, there it is. My first hand-made fiber wig (probably my last). I am sorry I didn't make it more like a tutorial, but I'm not good at those, and with a lack of decent progress photos...well, it would have sucked anyway XD

Thank you <33

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Wig Attempt 1 - Failed

Well, I filtered through the few piccies I took of the making of Alex's wig. I'm still depressed as hell for losing some of them, but, whatever. Here's what I do have! Please ignore the background. I have no excuse...it's just a mess.

I actually started one wig before I made the one that worked out. This would be the fail.

I had bought two human wigs off ebay with the plan of taking them apart and using the wefts to make the doll sized one. It seemed like a good idea, but since I don't cosplay I'm not familiar with wigs.

First, the model: Alex 2.5 on IIs body. I used him because his faceup will be wiped soon as I plan to attempt to mod his mouth open, so I didn't really care if his faceup got messed up. Which it did. He had 4 piercings....now he has none XD

All adult Alexes are Dollmore Kara Klums. They have tiny heads that can fit a 7/8 but they look much better in an 8/9. Alex 2.5 is a Thinking head I bought off the MP. He will hopefully get his own body someday....The actual wig is intended for Alex III who is the LE WS OE version. Oh yeah.

wig progress 1 wig progress 2
 He's not so thrilled.

The wig! It looked really nice...til I started taking it apart..

wig progress 4

The wefts
 wig progress 5 wig progress 3

They're very thin. Thinner than I was expecting...

To make the wig, I kind of used this tutorial on DOA
 But only kind of because I didn't really have the style or materials they were using. I didn't make my own wefts. I actually tried, and failed...plus I don't really have the patience to do that >.<

here we go...
wig progress 6


wig progress 7

Right away things were bad. First, the cap is way too big for him, so being stupid, I tried to make it smaller and fit better while I sewed on the wefts. DO NOT DO THIS. It just kept getting smaller and smaller....and finally it was so bad it didn't fit at all.

wig progress 8

That was the last pic I took, though I got much further. I probably got the green halfway up, then started the purple (another mistake). The purple was where everything went bad. First, most of the purple wig was unusable. It had these short little pieces that stuck up everywhere and they were on most of the longer wefts, which is what I needed. The top was all rooted hair, so I couldn't use that either. PLUS I should have waited to sew the purple on until after I was done with the green, and I did it terribly. The wig didn't even fit him. It was deformed and bad. I ended up getting really upset over it, taking most of it apart and attempting to start over before realizing it was pointless because I couldn't get enough of usable material off the wigs to finish it anyway.

So, first wig: BIG FAIL.

Shall be continued with a non-fail wig....

30 Days of BJDs 14

14) Have you ever had a floating head or a headless body?

Oh yes. I had my first floating head months after I officially joined the hobby, and I've had them ever since! Right now I think I have one official floating head, a bunch of extra heads and two heads I will be using just for modding purposes...though I would like to get both of them bodies if I don't wreck them with mods >.< I am hoping to grab another head this weekend, but we'll see.

I've also owned floating bodies. The first was Wyn's original body (B&G type 2 boy WS) that Uriel took over....Uriel had three heads on that thing before I had to make him NS (no one would sell me a WS Miho >:( ), leaving me with a floating body. I put it up for sale, but I didn't really want to sell it. Oddly enough it's a great poser, and looks fantastic with certain heads. It also had Delf hands and I didn't really want to lose those either. I finally ended up with an Elf Chiwoo head that became James.

My second floating body was the body that David came with, a Volks SD13 long leg body...Not a fan of how that thing poses. It was so stiff and David needed to be more...graceful. He looked so bad next to Alex, who's an extremely graceful poser. Practically since owning David I wanted a Dollstown body for him, but it was so freaking expensive I never got one. He had two other bodies before ending up back on the SD13 one for a second time....during that time the SD13 housed a B&G head until I decided it didn't suit the character and sold it...I tried selling the Volks body twice but no one wanted it, and I couldn't bare to sell it for 250 since I paid way more than that and if I had it, David would at least have a body. Then I finally broke down and bought the DT one, leaving me with an unsellable body that would be worth more to me as a new doll than it would if I took the super low price that the market was setting for SD13s (seriously, there were so many up for sale and some were so cheap! I would have never sold mine). It sat around for a week while I waited for a head and then one popped up in a coincidental trade/purchase (AiL Elijah). And now I have Pilot! :D


Oh, I also have a floating Dollmore Kid boy to girl mod body...right now it's a sleeping Unoa Sist, but I plan on getting other heads/FPs for it too.


I find Floating Bodies don't stay floating too long. It's much easier to get a head for a body than it is a body for a head XD

Monday, April 2, 2012

30 Days of BJDs 13

13) Dollie shoes - Show us how many you have!

shoes

uh, this isn't nearly all my shoes. Almost all of my dolls have shoes on, so it's about twice this...or more than that XDI have a lot of shoes.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

30 Days of BJD 12

12) What do your friends think of your doll/dolls in general? Have you met any friends through owning your dolls?


I have a lot of doll-friends, met through the dolls, so they like them! I hope lol
That was one thing I really love about the dolls, the friends I met because of them. It amazes me that I've gone so long not really knowing people I share interests with, and finally, because I bought a uber-expensvie toy, I have that opportunity! <3

As for my non-doll friends, they just chalk it up to one more thing I do...I am also the only person most of them know who not only read comics but write and draw them as well...so the doll thing isn't all that weird to them. As weird as it could be anyway. Not too many of them actually like the dolls, but that's not something I worry about.