Cyber Goth For Dolls???

So for a while now I have been trying to create an original character named Leia, and she would be into cyber goth fashion. But the doll I always had picked out for her was a Resinsoul Bei in tan, which makes her the height of roughly a regular fashion doll, but she’s thicker. I thought of making her a cyber goth fairy kind of, but I am wondering how much detail I can get in that size, should I try to get a bigger body, would a bigger body change her character, or am I being a wimp by not at least trying to make her clothing first.

I’ve know I’ve wanted one or two cyber goth characters in my collection for a while now, and I’ve been looking up cyber goth pictures and tutorials on how to make clothing and accessories for humans and planning on how to make them doll size. I am not sure where I want to start with my girl, and I am also going to come into a problem when it comes to shoes. But I’ve had her for a while now and haven’t done anything with her, much like my two other Bobobie/Resinsoul girls. I have decided it’s time to take them out and enjoy them. I mean I always get the white skin resin for dolls and by the time I play with them they have buttered. So from now on I am refusing to do that. I am going to pull them out and tinker and see how they work. I still have a goal of making my own dolls one day, it might help me some to know how dolls work in general. So Bei will be my first attempt.

I think I want to make her, I believe they are called waterfalls for her hair, fuzzy leggings for sure, and maybe even a tail? But I am not sure on her actual clothing yet. I know I will go for a skirt, short and slightly poofy, but I’m not sure on the top yet. I just love the bright colors of cyber goth fashions and I think they will look awesome against her tan resin. I just really want to try to get some detail in her clothing that will stand out some.

Also, the shoe issue, I don’t want to spend a lot on shoes, but I kind of want her to have several pairs she can switch between. I wonder if there are any dolls with feet her size. I’ll have to look through my collection of shoes and see if I came across any dolls that had bigger feet. I guess I need to head back to Den of Angels and other doll forums to see if others have found inexpensive ways to put shoes on the feet of their dolls. I just don’t want to spend more on her shoes than mine, especially since I’ve got several dolls that need shoes here that aren’t easy to come by. I might also have to look into making my own shoes as well. That will be interesting. I wonder if I can make the soles with 3D printing and then work around that? Hummmmm???

And to top things off I am also curious about including a little Japanese Punk Fashion into her wardrobe. It can also tend to be bright and funky, but maybe I will stick with just one fashion style per doll. I kind of like the idea of giving each one a unique style. Well not each one, just my special ones…I’ve got a lot of dolls and there isn’t enough time in the world to sew unique wardrobes for all of them. But some of them will definitely be getting the clothing treatment.

I guess I am just in thinking mode lately. I need to go through my fabrics and see what I’ve got and come up with some clothing ideas. I guess what is scarring my off is that fact that I have to come up with patterns for some of the items I want to make. I am not sure how to go about that, but I am willing to try and error to find what works for me. I hope to have something to share here soon, even if it’s just color swatches I am thinking of using. Stay tuned for that. And I will close on that note. Until next time lovelies, take care. Bye for now.

A Quick Box Opening

Hey guys, I have a few old reviews/box openings that I wanted to do, and just never got around to it. So I figured I’d get started with them so I can empty my computer of the pictures so I can take more pictures. Logical, right?

So, ever since my sister got a Resinsoul Bei, I’ve wanted one to make into a mini cyber-goth. However, I’m wondering if she is just a bit to small to do that. I want to go into full detail with her, but in 1/6th scale it may just be to small. I’m going to try it though and see how it turns out.

So I ordered my girl, whom I’ve named Leia, during Junkyspot’s 2013 Black Friday event. I got her on the last day when everything on the site was, I believe, 20% off. Good price, so I snatched her up, and I was able to get her in tan. 

I think it’s so sweet how there are always extra little goodies included in your package from Junkyspot. When I finally open my shop I am so going to take a leaf out of their book and pop some goodies in all the packages I send out. Everyone loves a little something extra in their package.

What??? No bubble wrap? Where is my mummy?!? Well I guess a plastic mummy will have to do. I love how she looks purple. I took the pictures as a rainstorm was coming in and it was starting to get dark outside.

So purple. LOL! I am kind of bummed that they don’t come in baggies any more. They come with this big pillow now. I guess for when they are in their boxes or bags? *sigh* Oh well. I guess I should take her out more and then I won’t have to worry about where I store her. Just don’t know where to store her because sun peeks into my house at all angles even with the blinds closed. *sigh* I lead such a hard life.

I decided to use the flash on my camera and it actually caught her in her right color. Maybe a little tiny bit washed out, but she’s so beautiful. I am not sure what direction I am going to go with her. I bought different eyes for her, not a fan of her default eyes. In the picture above with her wrapped in her pillows and surrounded by goodies, you can see a zip-lock baggie and that holds a wig cap for her and her new eyes. I got her some green eyes, but I am not sure if I will keep them. I may have to get her new eyes. I keep buying so much stuff for my dolls that don’t work out, but I just can’t get rid of them, always thinking I will eventually have a doll that can use them. LOL! But can’t wait to share her transformation here.

So my initial thoughts on her? I love her. She’s super cute, and has adorable elf ears. I am slightly bugged by how her mouth is done because one side kind of hitches up where they other side doesn’t. So not a fan of that, but I will get used to it. Also, her stringing is horrendous. I want to try to find some stronger elastic and restring her, along with Mori…I changed Midori’s name, and along with Christmas Noel. Their stringing is just too loose, and when I pull up on the strings they become kicky. I want to make them a little more fun to pose and play with. I know, first world doll owner problems.

I need to make a master to-do list and post it here on my blog, and that way I can knock them off here as I do them all. Super excited to jump back into dolls, toys, crafting, and more. I am going to also tinker with the blog some to make it a little more fun as well and perhaps get it ready to become my focus point. I’ve got plans and hope to reach most of them this year.

Ok, and that’s all for now guys. I hope all of you are doing well, and another review/box opening is coming soon. Take care until next time.  Bye for now lovelies.

Youtube Doll Peeps

So if you didn't know, there is a slowly thriving doll community on Youtube. Doll folks like you and me are making videos sharing their new purchases, doll plans, doll woes, and just their lives in general. I'm slowly growing my collection of must watch people on there. There are so many great people who have a variety of dolls to share. So I thought I'd share some of the fun doll peeps I follow on Youtube. For this entry I'd like to introduce you to Malvagitabella. She's a lover of many dolls, but her main love is for ball-joint dolls. She is slowly growing her collection of beautiful dolls. She shares with us about how she is growing her crew, her work on her face-ups, her attempts at sewing, and more. She's a super sweet gal and fun to watch. Her laugh is infectious and she's fun to watch. Take a look at her most recent video here. And be sure to subscribe to get new doll hobby updates from her. 

I hope you found a new person to add to your Youtube subscriptions. I'll be bringing you another fun dollie peep to meet soon. Bye for now. :-)

Michelle

Pick A Side Lady!!!

Image By Ggmossgirl

Warning, this is going to mostly be a sounding board post to get my thoughts out, so please don't mind my mindless chatter. LOL! So I was thinking about my doll collection and the many dolls in my collection, and something hit me. I've got a lot of dolls. LOL! More than when I was a child, which I think is the norm for most doll collectors. But when I look at other doll collectors I see they all have a preference of doll they stay around. If you like fashion dolls, you tend to have a lot of fashion dolls. If you like bjds, you tend to have a lot of bjds. I don't tend to see many people with a ton of different types of dolls in their collection. It's usually one type, or one scale size. Now that's not to say no one has varying dolls, but it just seems to me that most collectors “pick a side”. Me, on the other hand, I just can't seem to “pick one”. I like so many types of dolls and I just want to own as many as I can.

Difficulty Bonding

I know this happens in the doll community, but how much so? So recently I received a Resinsoul Rong as a very special Christmas gift. I didn't pick her based on a character I already had in mind because those characters I wanted to pay for on my own. I guess it's the whole fully owning the character that causes me to think this way. So with this doll I invented a new character that was a relative of one my characters. The storyline is great, and I love the character, but the doll is something else. Now I picked out the doll, so this isn't a slam on the gift giver. I just loved that Rong had mouse ears and that was one of the reasons I wanted her, but she just doesn't seem “right”. At first she was going to be the older sister of the character I had already come up with, and that she'd be the more calm and level-headed while her sister was more wild. We'll they've since switched stories the longer I own my doll.

Midori, my doll, is now the younger sister, born on Christmas day while her twin sister was born on Christmas Eve. She was into Mori Girl clothing, but that fit her sister better, so Midori is now into either FRUiTS style of fashion, punk fashion, or Korean fashions but I am not really sure what that would be. I love Korean dramas and K-pop, so I thought doing Korean fashion would be fun. Only thing is, from what I've observed, regular on the street Korean fashion is similar to what can be seen in high fashion districts of the U.S. or on many U.S. fashion blogs, and I was looking for something a little more unique. From what I've seen of Korean clothing, they like to layer their clothing, they like to pull a little from different genres like R&B, pop, and even punk, but still very similar to what you can find in the U.S., so I am not sure it's right for Midori. I really wanted bright colors for her, but I also like the idea of distressed clothing as well. Maybe of mix of punk and FRUiTS, but even some FRUiTS fashion are slowly becoming anything you can find on U.S. streets so it's becoming frustrating. Maybe I need to make up a new fashion all Midori's. I just want her fashion to be weird and funky and wild. I want it to look like she just didn't give a care, yet when you stop to look at it, she thought out every piece and how it all fit together. Ughhhh!!!

So it's with frustration that I feel I am just not bonding with my doll. I don't think it's the doll herself, though I do wish I could have given her a face-up, that may have helped me bond with her more. I really think it was me just not being prepared for what owning a bjd would be like. It's different than a ready made doll from Toys R Us, it's a constant work of art. You are constantly working on the doll's character, even with you think they are done, there is always something more you can do. And there is a lot of waiting to get things right. I tend to be a patient person, but I'm frustrated that I don't even have a concrete idea for her. I have some of her story done, but I haven't been able to decide on what the rest of her character is. I want to work on clothing for her and see if that will build her character, but even that I can't do because I don't know her style. I would like to buy her some clothes in hopes of that bonding me with her more, but that will take a while because of funds.

Another reason this girl is frustrating me is because of her elastic. I read somewhere that Resinsoul/Bobobie use a very springy elastic and most people change the elastic so the body can be strong tighter. I have pulled her elastics tighter as is the norm with Resinsoul and Bobobie dolls, and still the girl is kicky and won't sit on her own. And she's not strung tight because I can still easily pull her arms and legs apart, but I have pulled on the elastic as hard as I could. So I just don't get it. I really think it is the elastic. My Bobobie Lucky doll Christmas Noel is also very loose even though I have pulled her strings tight twice. So I am thinking she needs new elastic too. I have heard you can get tiny doll elastic at JoAnn Fabrics and for bigger dolls you can look at Lowes or Home Depot. So I will have to head out to both to look. I would just like a resource here for elastic so I can have easy access to it, and so it will hopefully be cheaper to purchase. But if I can't find anything then elastic goes on the list of items I must buy online.

One last thing that irritates me about this girl is her ears. The ears I coveted are becoming a problem when it comes to wigs. The wigs wont fit right on her head because of her cute little ears. I got her a silicone dome cap, which btw those things are awesome, and they hold the wig ok, but still there is a bump in it because it can't fit flat against her head. It puts to much on the bangs up front because of the it not being able to sit right on her head, so she looks funky with bangs covering most of her face. I'm going to try a wig without bangs and see how that works. For now I am still working on the yarn wig, which has a bump because of the ears. I should have stopped a row before I did. Live and learn and then try again. I'll be making her another wig after I finish this one.

So that brings me back to being on the fence about my girl. I love her, and I want to make her work. She is a cherished gift, and that makes her even more special. I just don't know how to make myself bond with her. Maybe that's just a thing with bjds. Maybe it takes a while to bond because they aren't complete and you can't see the full character yet. Who knows. I hope I am not alone in this feeling. I will keep working on ideas for her and see what I can come up with. I'll get her a box so I can start filling it with stuff for her and see if I can't build her character. Once I do and I feel I understand bjds a bit better, I'll work on either getting her mini me Leia or getting her sister Brigsby. We'll see. All I know is I don't want three unfinished bjds sitting around her. Christmas Noel has buttered in complexion and I've barely used her. I just need to spend more time working on them I guess. These dolls will be a part of my “The Manor” photostories. I need to return to those this year. This story is just so I can play more with my dolls that don't really fit in my other doll stories due to size or what have you.

So thus ends my vent. I really wish I was bonded with her, but I guess it's going to take some time. I hate that. I'll figure it out, just hate that I don't have a general idea about her right now. I guess it will all come in time. I'll keep you updated on our status. :-) I'll talk to you lovely peeps in the next post. Be good until then. Bye for now.

On the hunt for Korean fashion styles,
Michelle

The first and last images are mine, if you use them please link back to my blog. All other pictures are from The Junkyspot Denver Doll Emporium, and ResinSoul.

Yarn Wigs For Dolls

So I've been wanting to try to make doll wig way before I had any bjds in my life. I thought they looked interesting and fun to try, and they forced me to practice my crochet more, so it's good all around. It's been a while since I've picked up a hook, but I still love the calming act of doing it. That is if I have an aluminum hook, I was using a cheap wooden hook in the size suggested and it was stress beyond stress. I don't know why I picked up those crap hooks and knitting needs when I did. I guess because they were cheap and I wanted to build up my collection. I may be donating them or just tossing them, I'd hate to pass on my stress to someone else. But someone might have a looser stitching pattern and might find them enjoyable. I tend to stitch tight and so it makes the wooden hook hard to use. So I don't know yet. I would rather be rid of them and get a metal hook instead so that's something to consider. Anyway, on with the post. Oh and please excuse the poor picture quality. I was using my cellphone camera in a dark corner at night. I used an online program to brighten the pictures which worked, but it bleached out my doll. But I will introduce her in another post so you will be able to see what she looks like clearly.

Ok, so this wig can really be made for any size doll. You just have to alter the pattern to make it smaller or bigger. I'm still a newbie at crochet, so I was happy the pattern was for the size doll I needed it for, but even then I messed up some, I'll explain later on that. But if you are semi-good at crochet, you can easily whip up this wig in a day. The wig cap is fairly easy, I had some issues because I wasn't sure on how to end the rows, but once I figured it out I was fine and had it done in a few minutes. Now I am working through the filling in the hair part. I kind of wish I'd done it a little more looser but I want to finish and see how it turns out. I believe I have enough yarn to do a second one, and I kind of want to because of how my wig ended up.

So as you can see, my yarn is a variety of red, white, and blue. It's not really a yarn I'd use for anything in particular, and I consider it a “practice” yarn, so I thought it would be perfect for a practice yarn wig. So, the wig cap ended up being an odd mix of red, white, and blue. I then was trying to figure out how to put the “hair” into the wig. At first I thought put red in the red parts, blue in the blue parts, and white in the white parts. But I didn't think that would end up looking nice, and the way I'd cut the yarn ended up with some white pieces with blue on the end and some red pieces with some red on the end.

So after some thought, I decided to put all red pieces on one side of the wig and all the blue pieces on the other side. And since I barely had white, I would place them in the front and on the bottom, which helped me decide if the solid colors would go in on the bottom or the white with color pieces. White with color pieces went on the bottom and solid parts will fill the top of the wig. I am still working on it and will update later when it is more done. Just wanted to show you what I've been up to. If this works out I may try to make some more in the near future and try to make some dreadlocks too. Yay for craftiness! Ok, talk to you lovely people later. Bye for now.

Crafting away,
Michelle

All images in this post are mine. If you use them please link back to my blog. Thanks!

Junky Spot Black Xmas Sale

Hey guys, just thought I'd mention this for those who might not have heard. Junky Spot is having a "Black Xmas" sale this weekend. Starting today, on special sale pages on the website, you can get some nice deals on some dolls you my have been coveting. Right now on sale are various Hujoo dolls. If I had the funds, I would be so broke right now. LOL!

There will be more sales tomorrow and Saturday. I believe they will be different items because he said they couldn't combine shipping for multiple orders. I'm assuming people would buy all they wanted in their first order and would only buy more if there are new items for sale. So be sure to check back the rest of this weekend. He may put Obitsu dolls up for sale, and you 1/6th peeps can snag some dolls for a little bit cheaper. So fingers crossed on that.

Ok, just wanted to pop back on to mention that. I will talk to you lovelies later. Bye for now.

Still feeling sleepy after eating turkey,
Michelle

Image From The Junky Spot Website

Stuff Doll Owners Say

Hey guys!  So there is this new craze on YouTube where people make videos with "Things ___ say..." that is basically a video about, well, things certain people say.  The awesome AsenvaBJD has just uploaded a super cool, funny, and factual video called "Stuff BJD Owners Say", but trust me this will go for ANY doll collector.  I laughed my butt off at a lot of the things she said because they are so true.  So I had to pop on real quick and share the funny with you guys.




I hope you enjoyed that little laugh.  And I a off again. Still dealing with some nastiness health-wise, but trying to get better.  Also my computer is still messed up, but hopefully next week I will get it back to running without overheating.  Fingers crossed tight.  Until then I will be sparse with updates, but I will post when I can.  Talk to you lovely people really soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now.  :-)

Yawning and ready for sleep,
Michelle

3D Crafting?

So late last year I started contemplating making my own doll.  I have been looking at resin dolls ever since I took on the task of making my sister’s doll a wardrobe, and no it’s not done and yes I feel horrible about it.  Well I started looking at the mechanics of her doll and decided to research it some, my favorite online hobby.  Through my searching about how to make toys in general I came across 3D imaging and machines that can make 3D items right before your eyes.  It’s pretty damn amazing.  Here, have a look.

Now this machine is more of a personal one you can have at home, for a hefty price, and you can design and make your own toys.  But they have other machines that will design your items whole without splitting them up.  There are also services that you can have your item made in 3D, but that can also be pricey.

Further looking into these machines I began to wonder if it was possible to make a ball joint doll with these machines. I mean sure the material was strong enough to handle elastic going through it and being moved and rubbed against itself.  So I went to trusty old YouTube and searched for someone who may have done it.  My first several searches came up empty-handed.  It wasn’t until this month that I started looking at videos of people customizing dolls and making their own ball joint dolls that I finally found the video I’d been looking for.

Isn’t that neat?!?  I don’t know if she’s super delicate, but she is very nicely done.  I think I still prefer resin or abs or something a little more norm in the ball joint doll world, but this is a cool concept.  But then again if it is strong material, which I really do think it is, then this is just another cool option for making ball joint dolls.  I wonder how the material stands up over the years?  I wonder if you’d use the same customizing techniques on the dolls made from it as we do on resin or abs ball joint dolls?  Would we have to change the chemicals and items we use?  Does it absorb color like crazy?  How small of a doll could we crate without losing detail?  Could you imagine a 1/6th world we could completely create from just our own mind, some software, and a 3D printer?  Pretty cool huh?  I wonder where technology will take us next.    Speaking of technology, if you want to really create your perfect ideal 1/6th world, you could also look into this as well.

Technology, making it fun to be a doll collector.    And on that note I am off.  This was another old post I had waiting around.  Glad I finally got to it.  Really wanted to share it.  It’s amazing what computer issues can make you do.  I’ve been more active offline, I started exercise again, started reading again, and I’m going to try to do some writing before I pop off.  I’m feeling happily productive.  Oh and totally off topic, did you all know this year was a leap year?  I had no idea until I saw someone mention it on a weight loss board I am a member of.  Doing a February weight loss challenge, and WOOT, I’ve got one extra day next month to work it out.    Ok, I’m off.  Talk to you all soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Feeling productive,
Michelle