Crafts N Things

Still kicking (sort of), still working on doll stuff. Lately I've been following a lot of collectors on Instagram and Flickr and marveling at their creativity. I might not be there yet, but to quote another BJD owner, someday I'd like to be able to point to one of my dolls and say "I made this!"

So I'm learning to sew.

Continuing to practice faceups.

Trying my hand at accessories.

And my current project, working on a wig!

Not going to pretend it doesn't get frustrating, or that the process hasn't been painful, but I'm finally learning how to do things for my dolls and that makes me feel pretty great about them. With luck I'll be able to finish the wig this weekend and post another update then!

Where'd I put that gas mask?

I've been having a pretty dire writing dry spell lately, so I'm trying to channel energy into my dolls instead. Mostly this has meant some pretty pathetic attempts at teach myself to sew (How do you sleeves?!), but I've also been trying my hand at customizing again with mixed results.

Recently another local collector came by for a BJD spa day. Restringing, cleaning, body blushing, and faceups kept us busy. She brought her Minifee Chloe girl, Mimi, who I had fun restringing and repainting.

Here's Mimi before:

...and Mimi after:

Can you tell I had fun with the freckles? Because they were SO much fun. I'm mostly satisfied with how she turned out. Clearly I'm in dire need of practice, but her owner was happy, which makes me happy!

There are a few local girls with blank dolls, so I may get some more practice sooner rather than later. I'm (mostly) looking forward to it. Sunday it was a little too damp for spraying sealant, so I had some fun with the big kids instead.

D's already in serious need of being re-blushed -_-; She could probably use a new faceup, too. But that'll have to wait! I've got a hybrid in the works for later this year, and I'm desperately hoping that Unoalchemy doesn't go and do anything crazy, like a tan run of the Unoa Elder boys.

Still kicking

Well, hello there.

It's only been over a year, has it? Closer to two, more like. I could talk about everything that's happened since my last post, or explain why most of the pictures I've posted seem to have disappeared, but to be honest I'm still trying to understand exactly what happened, myself. Suffice to say that I took a bit of a hiatus from the hobby, but I'm back!

To be honest, I thought I might be done with collecting altogether. Enjoying the dolls I had left, sure, but done. Then I came across news of an Unoa lottery. Now, I should say that I've never won anything before. But Unoa's been on and off my wishlist since I joined the hobby ten years ago (!!!) now. I say on and off because, as previously mentioned, I seriously never win ANYTHING. I might have gotten a t-shirt once. And I could never find a doll I was really happy with on the secondhand market - something was broken, or there was significant yellowing, or the markup was crazy. I resigned myself to admiring Unoa from afar. I entered the lottery with a "might as well" and forgot about it.

Then I got the email.

Go figure, the one time I won something was when I had to pay for it. But no complaining here! I happily forked over for my prize, and prepared to sit twiddling my thumbs for months to come. Only months turned out to be more like a week, because the 13 tan girls offered up in the lottery were packed and ready to go.

And go she did, flying across the Pacific, breezing through customs, hitting my local PO just in time...for me to go on vacation.

I did say I never had much luck with these things, didn't I?

It was the Monday after I got back in town that I was finally able to pick my girl(s) up, and man was it worth the wait of 10 years (and then some).

"Paradise Skin" wasn't a term used anywhere in the lottery, but no complaints here. This would be my first Unoa AND my first tan doll, though I've wanted one for ages. And the term is accurate enough - her tan is a beautiful warm tone, like she's been hanging out somewhere warm and bright.

I quickly decided that the honkers on the large chest piece were a little excessive and swapped her out for the smaller boobs, going from one extreme to the other.

I'm really impressed with all the extras Unoalchemy included! I got Lusis and Sist default faceplates, the second chest piece, chibi feet, the clasped hands, elf ears, two wigs, and a nice set of gray eyes. I'm actually kicking myself for placing my order with Mako Eyes before receiving this girl...I rather like her defaults.

Sadly I haven't had much time to enjoy her, with work and errands. I've already packed the faceplates up to be sent off for their faceups. When they come back I'll take advantage of the nice lighting in my new place to get some decent shots (I hope). Will I say this is it for me as a collector? Who knows. But I can't remember the last time I was this over the moon with a new doll! I can't thank the folks at Unoalchemy enough for giving me a chance to acquire this beautiful girl, and I'm looking forward to watching her come together.

Doll Meet - The Enchanted Doll Mansion

I haven't had much time of energy for hobby stuff since starting my new job, unfortunately, but recently I met up with some other collectors at a local doll museum. I'd never been before, though it's only about 10 minutes away.

It turns out they had a whole little tea party event! The tea was delicious. Sadly, I didn't get many pictures of the spread before hungry doll owners descended on it. 

The exhibits themselves were pretty neat. I didn't know where to begin. There were so many dolls! Barbies, American Girls, artist sculpts - everywhere you looked, there were dolls. 

The costumes!

The President and our First Lady look quite fancy

BEHOLD THE EXIT SIGN FAIRY

It was nice seeing the other collectors again. I need to make a point to get to BJD events more often. There was talk of a Halloween gathering, so hopefully that'll take place.

Even nicer, of course, was seeing everyone's dolls looking good for the meet. I haven't gotten any pictures of the boys together since Ashe's default eyes came in. I'm such a shitty doll owner. I guess I'll have to work on that in the future!

work in progress

I have no excuse for not posting in so long, except that I'm not very good at keeping any kind of schedule. I was adjusting to a new job, then I was traveling for a bit with family, then I was readjusting to my new job...and I didn't have as much time for the dolls as I would have liked.

Before I left town I got tired of having the resin crew all sitting on top of a shelf boring-like. I mean it worked, as a setup, but I've been wanting to find a more interesting way to display my dolls for a while. I'm insanely jealous of those collectors with the skill and patience to put together unique and creative spaces for their BJDs. I'd like to think I'll get there eventually, but for now I settled for some cheap shelving from Target.

I was a little worried leaving my Lishe standing up there for so long, but so far so good. She hasn't taken a tumble. I think restringing her really helped. She's definitely not a solid poser and probably never will be, but this is better than nothing.

Creepy dolls watch you while you sleep...

Mel, Mo, and Vicky are still on the shelf and will remain there until I can think of anything better. I might end up buying yet another freestanding shelf to put over my desk, but I'm a little uneasy putting so many holes in the walls. Recently my roommate decided to try making mini books for a program she's planning for her library. She made Vicky a composition notebook as practice, then she asked me what I wanted for Mel. I asked her for a Necronomicon. I got a Necronomicon.

I think we'll be okay as long as no one reads from it out loud

My roommate is awesome.

Not much going on in terms of hobby plans right now...I'm still waiting on Ashe's body, which is a bummer. I'm dying to get pictures of him and Mel together. I'm also waiting on an impulse-purchase head which may or may not mean reshelling D. I'll be keeping my Lishe, since I love her as a sculpt, but I'll have to rethink what to do with her. She needs a new faceup anyway. Keeping my fingers crossed for a local meet in the near future, so I can see some cool new dolls!

Happy Homecomings

Have not been able to do much with the dolls these days, sadly. I'd hoped to take them out at some point during my first three-day weekend, but I decided to celebrate by lazing about instead. I do, however, have good news - Ashe's head is back!

Itty bitty freckles! I'm melting.

Ashe is an NS Switch Rusi, purchased through DoA's marketplace. He's my second Switch head, and definitely not my last. I'm so happy with the work sleep_pattern of Eating Dust Aesthetics over at Bird & Lace did. He did a great job of keeping me posted with progress shots, and I felt that he worked very quickly and efficiently. I'll definitely be sending him more work in the future, and I can't recommend him enough.

Ashe is still far from complete. I have a wig for him, but his body hasn't yet shipped to Mint on Card to the best of my knowledge and I still need to order him eyes. I've got a trip coming up, which means penny-pinching, so it's going to be slow progress.

I'm hoping to update the main blog later this week. There's a meet later this month which I'm hoping to make it to, so with luck I'll have more to post here sooner rather than later!

There is life outside my apartment...but I'm just fine inside, thanks

I'd planned on taking Mel out for some pictures this weekend, but...it's summer. In Louisiana. Which means it's hot, muggy, and the air is filled with bloodthirsty insects and the screams of unattended children. So I made do with some lazy indoor shots of Mel and D instead.

Do I look like a fucking French girl?

They both got some "defaults" in recently - Mel's Vings eyes, and D's Leekeworld wig.

I feel like Mel looks a little high here. Not exactly out of character, I guess. 

Once upon a time D had some very nice Dandy Gray (I think?) Mystics. Then I lost them. In my defense, I was moving home from South Korea after a death in the family and was not in the best state. But I figured I was ready to invest in some urethanes again, and I ordered Mel some Vings eyes in N13. I was expecting them to be just a little more green than they actually are, but I still like the color a lot. They're 16mm, and the iris is a little bigger than I'd liked. I didn't order 14mm because I'd read that Vings irises ran small, and I was afraid of gapping. I do wish I'd gone a little smaller. I purchased them through jeeryama on eBay and they were projected to arrive within two months of order. In reality, the wait was closer to 3 months. Jeeryama did respond to messages promptly, and notified me once the eyes shipped as requested, so I can't fault them in any way. I was aware that Vings was getting caught up with a DoA group order gone wrong and the delay wasn't a surprise. While the wait time was longer than expected it was still shorter than the wait for Eyecandies or Mystics. I'm going to try Mako eyes in the next boy, but if I'm unsatisfied with those I might be ordering with Vings again in the future.

My name is D, and I'm difficult to pose!

I joined a Leekeworld GO on DoA for a W124-E in Goldenrod. I can't remember exactly how long the wait was, but it wasn't any longer than expected, so no complaints there. The quality left a little to be desired. I know Leeke wigs are pretty popular, but I had such a difficult time positioning the fringe on this wig so it was neither in D's eyes nor showing the wig cap. You have to style it just so. It's still shedding loose fibers here and there, and in some places it almost looks like D has split ends. I was considering dyeing this wig to get it closer to the color I wanted, but I'm not sure it will survive the washes. I'll have to think it over. I was planning on practicing with an older Leeke wig first, so I'll see how that one holds up. Will post results once that's done, though there's no telling when that will be.

I start a new job on Monday (YAY!) and I'll probably be needing a while to adjust, but hopefully I'll be able to post again in the next couple weeks!