Piercings

Somewhat inspired by the Lisbeth Salander comparison, I decided new dude/lady/person needed some piercings. I completely forgot to work on that yesterday after work, but then as I was going to bed it suddenly occurred to me.

My initial thought was "okay keep this in mind and definitely work on it tomorrow" but my then my second thought was "you'll forget about it tomorrow." So I jumped out of bed and grabbed my tiny drill and some jump rings and set to work.

 Here is a side shot to show the ear piercings. I need to get out the x-acto knife and neaten up the hot glue near the ear. It looks a little yucky.

And in this one you can see the lip and eyebrow piercings. If I was to do it over again I'd probably make the eyebrows piercings look less like they are going DIRECTLY INTO THE SKULL but oh well. I regret nothing. Might add more later. Not sure yet. For now I am pleased. I didn't bother with the other ear because even trying to find it underneath the mass of hair was a challenge.

I had another post started...

And then a package arrived and I ran off to get it and then I spent something like six hours rearranging furniture and troubleshooting my computer and I lost my progress. Not that I'd made much.

I've been sort of re-evaluating things (that seems to be the case a lot lately) and I'm thinking of selling a lot of dolls. There are several I just never do anything with and whose characters aren't really essential to their group. I'm debating on some but others I'm fairly certain I just won't really do much with.

I was actually debating a bit whether I still had any interest in the SD size over the past few days. I've just been enjoying the smaller ones a lot more lately.

This morning I actually went and took pictures of a lot of my larger dolls and was contemplating setting up sales on DoA, but then I decided I wanted to attempt to make a weird sort of wig for head2 that got a face up yesterday so I figured I could put off sales threads for a while.

Well, wig making kind of turned things around for me and reminded me that I do enjoy my larger dolls. I haven't had any real direction or inspired ideas for them in a while and this was the first time I had something in mind that I really wanted to see realized. And while the results aren't perfect, I enjoyed the process and I think the result is kind of neat!

I probably just need to buckle down and design some clothes or hairstyles for a few of those awaiting such things. It would probably up my enjoyment factor significantly.

It's uh... something like a scene mullet crossbred with a faux hawk. I'm not really sure. It's probably the most unconventional hairstyle I have ever given to a doll. I kind of hated it at first just because it wasn't quite lining up with my mental vision, but it's grown on me. I'm now debating whether this is going to be a boy or a girl. Or maybe some sort of androgynous being. I don't know. I haven't made up my mind yet.

I really need to stop being lazy about setting up the tripod

I decided I wanted to work on some face ups today. Not really for anything in particular but just for practice.

Was trying to decide who I wanted to practice on when I happened upon my L-bi, who has never actually had a proper face up since I got him. He came from Yahoo!Japan with a partially done face up and all I ever did was give him eyebrows in the right color for the characters I used him for.

So I decided I wanted to do his face. And then I also decided while I was at it I would screw around with my modded Iplehouse Jessica head that used to be Orkas.

He came out a little more sunburnt looking than I wanted, but I'll redo it another time. For now it is at least semi functional. I had him in this blonde wig I made when his new body arrived but I just didn't ever really like it. It was a bit too fluffy for his head.

I was pondering making something else when I remembered that I had planned to make him my new Nazoe. So I dug out Nazoe's wig (which has transitioned multiple times in size, starting as a size 9/10, then modded down to a 7/8, and now down to a 6/7) and took that in to fit his little head. I'm much happier with this than I was with the blonde.

It looks a bit like one of the default L-bi wigs if I recall correctly. XD

And next up I was just screwing around. No idea what on earth I wanted to do with the other head cuz it's pretty much a spare and I did all these mods to it and also crushed part of it between a desk and a wall so I don't think it really has any resale value to speak of. But I don't know what I want to do with it. So I guess it's a practice head now. I dont' know. Might go back to my old old plan of making it into Layne.

But that is neither here nor there.

I was mostly just messing around with blushing and shading. And then I decided I wanted to go for the no eyebrows look like Lisbeth Salander or something. I dunno. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Not sure what sort of wig I want to use though so for now there's some baldness action going down.

Possibly something white or black and very spikey. I dunno.

tiny clothing

At some point I just need to buckle down and sew more often because I never let myself get comfortable enough with it to really improve much. But it's intimidating--especially in doll size. People clothes are easy. There's so much room for error. 1/6 size clothes... well, you mess up a tiny bit and the whole thing is completely non-functional.

I was going to just buy something for little Vaith, but I couldn't find anything in his style. I was really tempted to just get something cute and generic, but I finally decided to look at patterns and tutorials online to give making something myself a go before investing in something that wouldn't quite work for him (but would be darn cute).

Found a few patterns for hoodies (cuz I had it in my head that he needed a hoodie) and set about attempting to make one. It was supposed to be some easy tutorial for making one and I thought it'd be a great way to sort of wade back into sewing. Well, I messed up at pretty much every turn and ended up having to make it the normal way you'd make a shirt instead of the easy way.

On the one hand, this proves that I actually can sew (which I always doubt when making doll size things) but on the other hand he now doesn't have a hood because I botched that part so badly I ended up just going with a collar. I messed up a bit there too and it's huge and he looks like the love child of Sith and Akatsuki fashion design.

Running out the door to visit my mom for mother's day before work so I didn't have much time to take better pictures!

proper photos (among other things)

For a while now I have wanted to collect more tinies. I didn't really realize how fun they could be until I got my Sollux put together. I was very drawn to them initially and got Id (a Volks SwD Piccolo) very early on in my collection. However, I was going through a weird phase at the time where I felt the need to mod everything I got. I would do things like sand noses for no reason. I have no idea what I was thinking. But I opened his eyes even though I actually REALLY WANTED the sleepy version. I was dumb.

Of course, I was new and had no idea what I was doing, so I did the eye opening very poorly and for many years I just wasn't that attached to him. Then I opened his eyes more properly and was slightly happier but not a lot. And for another couple years I still felt only vaguely satisfied with him.

And then when I learned how to properly do additive mods I finally managed to get him to a point where I was actually happy with him. But by that point it had taken so long to get him where I wanted that I already had it in my mind that I didn't like the size and he was going to be my ONLY TINY.

A while later while doing Homestuck RP with my best friend, I decided I wanted dolls to represent the characters we were playing but I didn't want to shell out a fortune. So I got a tiny version of my character. This finally made me realize that tinies are adorable and I love them. XD

Long backstory is long. But anyway. for various reasons I've had it in my head that I want this group of Selly's and my characters from WoW as tinies. I was going to get ones for Aura and Cail first (because they're my babies) but then while browsing the marketplace I saw this picture of a Soom tiny with white hair. And I decided I NEEDED one to be Vaith.

So of course I couldn't resist temptation for long and I got one. He arrived today and I was able to utilize Statik's old wig for him but he was naked and I felt bad so I went out and got him some cheap Ken clothes. Sadly the selection is very lacking these days but for now he isn't naked and I will get him something better or make something or.. something.

Also I had better lighting so I can show Kael pics.

face ups

Today I did the first face up I have done in months. Fiiiiinally gave Kael's new head a face up and I went into it with NO idea what I was aiming for and that almost always leads to disaster. I just had this weird mish-mash of traits I liked in other face ups I'd seen recently and then of course since I"m out of practice I fell back on certain things I'm just very used to doing. So... um. stuff.

I really have no idea where I was going with this and I'm tired so ... here's a picture. It's bad because I'd lost the light and the room I was using has inadequate lighting but it'll do for now.

--okay nevermind

It was even worse than I remembered

Pictures tomorrow.

temporary fixes

I always kind of marvel at the number of things I seem to have neglected to mention on here. A lot of things from last year, really. I was not in the best place emotionally and sometimes I just didn't feel like talking about stuff as it happened I guess.

But I'm feeling chatty again so have some information on something I neglected to talk about before.

Sometime last year (I cannot for the life of me remember exactly when) I acquired a Blossom Doll Molly head in a trade (at least I'm fairly certain it was a trade? I could be mis-remembering) and I briefly tried to put it on my white skin Impldoll body but I didn't like the proportions so much and I also had already made clothes for that body that I didn't feel suited the head. So I put the original head back on that body (which is also too large for it) and Molly ended up in the head cabinet.

I spent most of the pursuing months on and off looking for a cheap body for the head. I strongly considered one from Mirodoll because they're just so darned affordable, but ultimately I decided the amount of work I'd have to put into it to make it work the way I wanted it to would not be worth it.

Then April Story had their closing sale and I was very very tempted because I felt like their bodies were far more elegant and well sculpted and the price was really good. But ultimately I decided to be financially responsible and I passed on it.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I had enough spare money to afford something relatively inexpensive (as I had not yet gathered the motivation to start selling things) so I put up a WTB thread and set a maximum I was willing to pay and within a day three people had gotten back to me. One of the three had an April Story body up for offer and I jumped on that offer.

Because of the seller's class schedule they were not able to ship until last week, and yesterday the body arrived.

Sadly, it is still too small for the head but it will do for now. Initially it really bothered me but it doesn't so much now.

I couldn't find a wig I liked on the head until I tried on Aura's old fiber wig. I was about to get set up the boiling water to make it lay flat again (because I'd boiled the back to make it capable of being in a high ponytail) but then I got this idea to try to style it.

I initially wanted some sort of bun, but I was having a great deal of difficulty getting it to stay in place as the hair was just a little bit too short to wrap around itself enough.

So I decided to try a braid. But the high braid look wasn't working quite as well as it did in my head, so I ended up wrapping the braid into a sort of bun type deal and holding it in place with toothpicks. But then she had hair still hanging down in the back (cuz that was part of how Aura's hair was styled) and too much visible wig cap, so I was messing with ways to pull the rest of the hair back and ended up doing yet another braid along the base of her neck. It looked fairly ridiculous so I looped it around and pinned it onto the braid bun and it still looks fairly ridiculous but oh well. It'll do for now!

Have some pictures.

 I could not get the side shot to come out clearly for some reason.

And here she is from the front. There are an absurd amount of flyaways because the wig was boiled to lay in a very specific position. At some point I may boil it again in its current position to calm that down, but for now it doesn't bother me much.

 My other temporary fix was to give little Sollux one of Id's spare shirts that he never uses.

This is a truly horrendous picture but for some reason he would not cooperate. The shirt is ridiculously out of character for him but at least he's not half naked like he was before. I need to make so many clothes and I'm having such a hard time motivating myself to sew. I suppose I could do something crazy like buy clothes but finding the right sorts of things is so hard...

Lyse Photos

Okay so here are the promised pictures of my Cerisedolls Lyse! Yesterday it was very dark and rainy and I could not get anything that looked even half good enough to be photoshopped into something other than an abomination.

Today the lighting is better so I was able to use photoshop to make something SLIGHTLY less abominable. When I get more money I'm getting something better than a point an shoot that might as well be "baby's first camera". It's the worst. XD

I am adding a cut since there will be some NSFW pics. I tried to get some of her clothed but since she wears an enormous shirt half the time (because I've been too lazy to sew. Also I don't know what I want her to wear yet) it hides her figure and makes her arms look awkward.

selling things

I've been considering selling some things for a while but I get unreasonably attached even to things I don't plan to use.

I recently pulled out the sleeping Vivien head I modded and decided I liked it a lot better than I originally thought. Probably even better than the default head. I am very reluctant to sell either (despite having no need for TWO Vivien heads) because I know it is very unlikely that I will ever get a chance to own this head again.

After agonizing over it for a few days I put the default Vivien head up for sale on DoA. I love the head and it works really well for the character, arguably better than the one I modded, but I just don't feel that... pull. There's no sense of attachment. But there is with the one I modded, so I've decided I'm going to keep that one.

I also decided I'm really never going to make use of my Sist Bully face again or the Impldoll Charles head that came with the body I got for my L-bi.

And after holding onto it for a bazillion years after I wasn't using it anymore, I also listed my Latidoll Chaim head. This is another one I know I will never get back if I let it go and I'm not sure if anyone will even be interested in it so many years after its release but it's just sitting around doing nothing in the head cabinet so I might as well see if someone else wants it.

I did not list my Soom Sphaler even though I probably should have. I completely forgot I even had the head (which is never a good sign) but I'm going to give it more time to think about whether or not I want to pursue the project I had in mind for the head.

In other news, some other sales went through and I was able to gather enough funds to acquire a secondhand Lillycat/Cerisedolls Lyse. She'd been on my wishlist for a while and even when I wasn't sure when/if I would ever find time and motivation for the hobby again, I still wanted her.

She's in cream skin instead of caramel like I originally wanted, but she's absolutely lovely and I'm completely smitten. I don't own anything that fits her so she's been sitting around in a massively oversized plaid shirt I got at one point when my friend was considering making a Marshall Lee doll.

Her posing is FANTASTIC and so natural. She makes almost everyone else look so stiff and lifeless by comparison.

I will have to try to get pictures later! For now I must be off to work!

finally

I finished off my 6 month layaway back in September and then waited another two months for Dollzone to finally complete my order. But now, at long last, I have my DZ Raymond head that I ordered to replace my previous Kael.

And adhflijwrkewjrkwejifdsujfiosdjwerjakjdskj I love it so much. I think the blank head looks way too young to be Kael but it's fantastic and I am so smitten and I have not felt this way in so long. It's so cold out I'm not sure how well face ups will work out but perhaps I'll attempt to give that a go later. Or just wait and see if we get a random warm day. It is Texas. It will likely happen. And I can live with him blank. His face has wonderful structure.

I really didn't expect to be excited. I've been on sort of a semi hiatus from actively doing anything with my dolls for a while now and I thought it would be such bad timing on this head arriving. I thought I'd look at it and think "well this is nice" and then put it on the body and forget about it for a while. But noooo he is so fantastic.

His poor hair is a mess after spending 8 months in a box. I'm going to have to try to figure out how to fix that because this will not do. For now I'll let it slide and he can be disheveled and blank and sit on my desk next to me and watch me play WoD (or wait in the queue to). But we'll get this wig issue sorted and spend some time giving him a proper face and he will be perfect and wonderful!

I'd take pictures but he's such a mess it wouldn't do him justice. Maybe later.