Acrylic BJD Eyes On Amazon???

Ok, so in all fairness, these eyes are for dolls in general. Dollmaking to be percise. However, I was curious if these eyes could be used in my bjds, and decided to order some in a size 14mm for my Resinsoul doll. You get 4 random colors in the size you pick. Once I got them, I popped open my girl's head and put the new ones in. I am not sure if it's because I am fairly new to bjd ownership or if it truly was the eyes, but they can be a bit fiddly to put in, but once they are in they look awesome.

Now, please excuse my dry looking hands, the

awesomeness of thyroid issues and no amount of lotion helps (sigh), but these are the four colors I got. The send you four random colors. Mine are, I believe, light blue, blue (but they call it purple but me and my sister both say it's just blue), green, and grey. That light brown/tan one is the default eye that came in my Resinsoul, I just wanted to compare it to these new eyes. Very beautiful colors that just stand out when the light hits it just right. I thought, for a couple of bucks, and a little bit of a wait for it to ship from China, why not try them out. Here they all are so you can kind of see their color.

And here is my girl Mori, who happens to be a Mori Girl (so original, I know), with her new light blue eyes next to her default light brown/tan eyes. Sorry for the wonky eye, I thought it was in straight, but it wasn't. I swear it's an art to get those things looking straight. Big props to those of you who can manage that without issues.

I love the eyes in her, but it takes some work to get the eyes in. I think I'm not using enough eye putty and need to stop being afraid of using too much. Her eyes are currently sitting in her storage box with her, so I need to try getting them back in again...and try to see how to get the yellow off of her, that's another future post in the making.

So last year, when I took advantage of the Black Friday Sale at The Junky Spot, I got my cute and adorable

Hujoo Mouse. I decided to get her in white, and this year I plan to get one in Grey because I have plans for them to be sisters, one dark and one light. But that is a couple of months off, sadly. But that's ok, because I've yet to paint this beauty, but I loved the blue (purple...but really it's blue) eyes in her eyes, and I believe her sister will get either the grey or the light brown/tan default eyes from Mori. Not sure yet. But as you can see, the eyes fit in the Hujoo animal heads very nicely. I love how they fill up the eyes, because she is a mouse, so it's fitting. You may want a smaller iris, so go to a 12mm if these are just too big for your liking. Oh and if anyone one is wondering, my little mouse is wearing the Licca doll blue kimono. I bought it not really knowing who could wear it, and I had it for several years and then when I got my girl I tried it on her on a whim. Perfection. I think the color and the strawberries fits her perfectly. I think I want to stick to the fruit them for her, and maybe go in a sweet lolita and fairy kei fashion for her. So adorbs. I think when it comes to shoes I am not getting her any because she is a mouse, but clothes are ok with her. Don't ask me to explain my odd reasoning, I kind of see her like the mice from The Secret of NIMH movie, they wore clothes but not shoes. Which works for me because would you just look at those feet! Those are not going to be easy to find shoes for. LOL! But I'll be open to trying shoes on her just to see, but only if I find a good pair. So I look forward to making some cutesy fashions for her. Wait! How did this become a post about her fashion sense, especially since I haven't even introduced her to you yet. That's a post to come very soon. :-) For now, witness the awesomeness of the eyes. LOL!

So I have 2 pairs left from the set I got, which I plan to put one pair in my second Hujoo mouse I get, and the other in the second Resinsoul girl I get. Then I will be left with two default pair of eyes from the Bobobie girls, which means...well I'll just have to get two more dolls to use them. I am thinking a Hujoo cat, maybe two. I wish there was a male Hujoo mouse, I'm hoping that is coming down the pipeline soon. Fingers crossed. :-)

And that's about it for this post. I just wanted to share another option for those of you looking for eyes for your dolls. If you are on a budget or just getting into the hobby, you may want to consider checking out Amazon for eyes. You get 4 pairs for a decent price and they come in a variety of sizes on Amazon. I know I will buy again if I get another doll with an eye size I don't have. And of course I'll be sure to share those with you if that happens. :-) And on that note, I will talk to you lovely people later. Be good until next time we meet. Bye for now. :-)

Love always,
Mickey ♥

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!

Happy New Year My Lovelies!!!

I trust that you celebrated in fine fashion last night. Me? I celebrated with family and on the phone with my nearest and dearest. Next New Year's Eve I plan to do something a little more fun, but I got to have another New Year's Eve with my family, and to me that was enough. I could have had a much different night. So now that we are past that milestone, we have several more things to look forward to here. In four days my mom celebrates her...21st birthday...yeah her 21st. :-D Then exactly a month later my celebrates his 27th birthday. ;-) Two months later it's my sister's turn. So we have a lot to look forward to during the beginning of this year.

On top of all that, I will be focusing on my health again, seems I may seriously have an issue with gluten after some testing I've done, fine when I eat oatmeal sick as a dog when I eat bread, so I am attempting to go zero gluten again starting tomorrow. Wish me luck. I'll be getting back into sewing and crafting for dolls again after a few years of doing nothing. I need to take pictures of what I sewed a few years back. Oh yeah, and umm Christmas presents, yeah that didn't happen...yes again. But I didn't give up on it. Just the room I sew in is a complete mess. But I am going to hop in there tomorrow and start working on it. I have so much stuff to sort through.  I may need to cut some of my yardage fabric in half and see about selling some so I can get new fabric and free up space for new fabric.

I also want see about selling certain doll things I no longer need. Do any of you think there is a market for old Barbie Bazaar magazines? I have a good stack of them, and I thought about selling them for  a few bucks. I don't know. I'll have to think about it. I also have old Haute Doll magazines, but I will be taking the patterns out of them so I don't see the point of selling those then. Someone still might want them but who knows.

What else? Oh yeah, a friend of mine did the sweetest thing and bought me a ball-joint doll. A Resinsoul Rong in white skin. She's super pretty and she is my learning curve on bjds. So far I am pleasantly confused, frustrated, and intrigued. I'll be introducing her here soon. I have to get her some things and sew her an outfit, but she is coming.

Speaking of sewing, I've been collecting ideas of what I'd like to attempt to sew. I also still want to open a shop, I already have the shop registered with a new name and all it needs now is inventory. I had two shops before, but something about them just didn't feel right. Then the other day I saw someone's shop name it just clicked for me why my shop name wasn't working for me. Now it's perfect for me and I just love it.

Also, I have been trying to find my niche and I finally found it. Now I just have to work on sewing some items for it. Shop will be coming very soon. I never opened it before because of the need to go ship items on time and with my stomach I've barely been able to leave the house. I'm hoping gluten free will help it feel better and allow me to leave more often so I can get a shipping schedule. But I will tell you more about the shop as I get closer to opening. I will be sewing for all kinds of dolls.  One item I would love to sew is a pretty and fancy coat that fits into my nice. I think Midori, my Rong, will be guinea pig for that. To see the coat I am interested in sewing, look at 3:37 of the new music video (I Got A Boy) by Girl's Generation.



I love the look of this coat. I love the double row of buttons and high-waist belt. I love the colors picked out but I think mine might have to be more pastel for my niche. Not sure. Still researching that. But I think this would work better on a bigger doll, when speaking of details, but if I work out a pattern I will make them for all sizes.

I really doubted my ability to sew and well do much of anything until recently after seeing my sewing after not looking at it for years and seeing my article writing getting recognition when I was just doing it for fun really. So I have a new sense of belief in myself and can't wait to start attacking projects I only thought were a dream. I can't wait to share them all here, on my craft blog, and on my Tumblr blog. Still trying to decide what blogs I need to close. One I will be closing is my writing blog as I have a Tumblr blog for writing that I think will be more fun for me. I am debating on my craft blog as I may start sharing crafts here instead. I have a doll/craft blog Tumblr, I've set up a doll/craft Youtube channel, so I think I should just close the other blog and put it all here. Still deciding, but I will make a final decision in the coming days. This year is all about organizing and cutting back some. I can't have fun if I am all over the place trying to build an audience. I should have taken notes by the greats like Smidge, Dorrie, Aubrey, CorsetKitten...speaking of which.

I am so behind on blog reading. Like really behind. And I want to catch up on all of you. So I will be taking a person or two a month to catch up on. By the end of the year I should be caught up with a lot of you. :-) I don't want to just pick up where you are now, I want to see how you've been doing in the past months/year. I haven't forgotten about you lovelies, just haven't felt much like I was a part of the community with nothing to share. Now I feel I can share again, so woot, and can't wait to see what you have all been up to. I am starting my first person of the year tonight and I believe I will be caught up on them in a few days. So thankful some of you are like me and blog sporadically. But I love those of you who blog every day as well, makes me feel like I know you even better. :-)

Ok, long post is longgggggg. I am going to close for now. I need to go exercise and start my first article of the year and start working on my shop layout, and deciding on my which blogs to close, and...well you get the point. I will talk to you lovelies later. Be good until then. Bye for now. :-)

Hopeful for the new year,
Michelle

Image From Free Digital Photos

Time To Think About Christmas!

Hey guys! Oh my goodness, you won't believe how much I've missed posting here. It's always been in the back of my mind to post, but then I just didn't know what to post. I am completely out of the loop of what anyone is doing in the hobby and have only been keeping connected to dolls through some bjd videos on Youtube. It's not the same as reading blogs guys, it's just not the same. So I decided, yes I am super behind on reading blogs, yes I have no idea what's going on in the hobby, and yes I have no earthly idea what I am going to blog about really, but I'm back.

I guess the thing keeping me away really is that last one. What do I blog about? What do I have to say that is impressive? I mean I can show you guys my ill attempts at sewing, but I'd be so shy about what you guys would think of it. But then again I could ask for advice on how to improve. I read an article today about asking for help from your peers, and I realized I didn't do that because I don't want to be a bother. So I've decided to ask for help when I need it and give it when I can. So that leads me on to my title. Christmas is coming!!! Yes, I know it isn't even Halloween, but I have come to realize time is passing quickly.

I came to this realization about time while writing on Squidoo. Fair warning, that link is my referral link, if you decide to write there and use my link, when you make your first 15 dollars we both get a nice extra money perk. Now, about Squidoo, I've been writing there for almost 4 months. I have a little over 50 lenses now, lenses are what they call articles there. A lot of them not so good, but they got me writing, a lot. And hey, I even got paid this month. Ladies and gents, you are looking at a gal who has made $6.08 from her writing. Actually $6.20, but Paypal deducts it's fee. No, no, don't get jealous. I worked hard for that $6.08, and it's all mine! Now what shall I spend it on?  Hummm...oh sorry, got sidetracked. So anyway, with Squidoo, if you want to get your articles viewed you need to get them being picked up by Google months in advance. Those of you who do Etsy can kind of relate to this getting things, like inventory, done way in advance. Well I started strong there at Squidoo, doing Halloween articles in July, but now I am still slowly chugging along with Halloween articles knowing they won't be picked up by Google but I have to finish them for a quest there, and Christmas is quickly approaching and I have no niche topics to write about. Ahhh!!! Well this lead me to thinking about Christmas in general.

As some of you may remember, I start out a tiny bit before Christmas sewing wardrobes for two dolls. One being my sister's and one being my mom's. Yeah, I never finished them. They are still as I left them last year. Heck, I haven't sewn a thing since then. So my goal this year is to not only finish that wardrobe, but to create a second wardrobe for them. Too much? Maybe not if I start now. Keep in mind, though, that I will also be writing for Squidoo, also trying to get my foot in at two other websites, and writing an article can take me a few hours to a few days. *faints* But I love these deadlines and the forced writing. Oh that reminds me, I forgot to mention, I'm doing Nanowrimo this year as well. *gulp* So, can I do it folks? Can I manage to achieve all these goals...plus work on losing weight? Yep, another goal I am working on, along with trying to learn how to draw.  Ahhhh!!! This post is starting to make me doubt myself. LOL! But yeah, these are the goals I have for the rest of the year. And since I am getting better at putting myself out there, I have decided to show you the pieces of the wardrobes I make as I make them. Some are already made but I think they will be getting remade as some are just not right in size or look. I'll show you those so when I correct them you can hopefully see the improvement.

So yeah, that's about it guys and dolls. I've been keeping myself busy just writing articles, hoping to make this a thing that gets me income while I continue to work on some other stuff behind the scenes here. I want to help my mom finally set up her Flickr account. I'd forgotten until the other day I set one up for her so she can set up dioramas, take pictures of them, and post them. I want to customize some Liv dolls to get back into that again. I want to sew more. Oh and I think I've decided on what my niche in doll clothing will be. That was part of the reason I never opened my shop. Everybody and their mama was making doll clothing, I wanted to make something that set me apart. I have decided on what, now I have to figure out how. LOL! Oh the joys of learning. And well, on that note, I am off! I need to go update some lenses, yeah it's not like blogging you have to keep updating the lenses. Oh, also I will be doing a layout change here, doing a layout change at my cross post blog after learning more about SEO, and I am just working on getting completely caught up and organized so next year will be a more productive year. I hope everyone is doing great, and I will talk to you soon!

Ready to fall asleep,
Chelle

Image From Free Digital Photos

I shall deal with the dill weed for now…

Only because now I can’t get my computer to act like it did before. I don’t know what they did there, but they have changed my computer some how. It gets hot now where before it was always cold to the touch. Its not Hades hot like it was before, but it does it a balmy hot. I’m worried about the heat ruining my dvds since it does heat up that side of my computer now. I have since found the fan and I will retract what I said before, they put that back together right, but there is something wrong. My computer is vibrating and getting hot. Something is not right. There are two other computers in the house just like mine so I will try them out and see how they do before I settle on calling foul. I just wanted to do it before tomorrow because tomorrow will be a week and I don’t know if they have a time limit on when you can return stuff to be fix or heck if they even have that. I’ll look into it today, and maybe think of investing in a cooling pad. Its already starting to get warm and its only been on for maybe half and hour and this part never got warm even when my fan stopped working. They did something wrong to my computer and I’m not sure if I should take it back and complain for just get a cooling pad.  I’ll check the other computers first I guess.  *sigh* But on a cute note, is that not the cutest dill weed container you’ve seen today. I’m sure there are much cuter ones out there, but let’s focus on today shall we?   Thanks for putting up with my ranting as I figure this out. Its frustrating but life is too short to let it keep me down for too long. So as a thank you for putting up with my non-doll rant I shall leave you with these interesting doll links.

So while I do prefer my doll world to be 1/6th I can’t ignore the beauty of ball joint dolls.  They are just so pretty and I would love to own several of them. As I’ve always said, I’m a doll collector and I like dolls of all kinds. So I’ve been looking at ball joint doll sites, forums, and videos lately.  Through my doll and craft Tumblr blog I found my way to some interesting blogs, namely bjd confession sites.  On these blogs people can secretly, or not so secretly, leave thoughts they have on bjds and the community. I find this to be refreshing but also insulting at the same time. People freely post their thoughts on dolls, doll molds, face ups, and the type of people in the community (i.e. people who buy cheaper dolls like Bobobie compared to people who buy Soom dolls).  So if you don’t have a thick skin these confessions may rub you the wrong way. I just take them with a grain of salt and realize everyone has their own opinion and while I may not agree with it I’ll fight for their right to have it. So with that said, here are the three confession sites I’ve found.

(source)

First up is BJD Confessions/Resin Confessions. Now from what I’ve gathered, this blog went through three ownerships. For those of you aren’t on Tumblr, if you close your blog your blog name goes back “into the pot” for others to use. The first owner of the blog closed it because of negative feedback they were getting about the blog, so someone else took the name. I believe this next person gave it up because things got busy for them and they couldn’t update the blog like they wanted to and so someone else took it. Then the recent owner took it and changed the name of the blog to Resin Confessions while keeping the original blog name. Why? You’ll find out in a moment.

(source)

BJD Confessions 2 has no real relation to BJD Confessions/Resin Confessions, except for the fact that a previous owner of BJD Confessions, I believe it was the second owner, used to own BJD Confessions.  There was a debate on why the two blogs couldn’t merge together, it seems the owners aren’t really fond of each other.  I kind of wonder if the blog name is really meant as BJD Confessions 2 or meant subtly as BJD Confessions “Too”. Either way, both blogs are interesting to read and see the thoughts of fellow doll collectors. Warning, some of the pictures on the blogs have doll nudity and strong language.

(source)

Then last, but far from least, is BJD Text Confessions. Now the story on this site is kind of foggy for me. I believe they came to be after the earlier formations of BJD Confessions or perhaps before any bjd confession blog at all. All I know is that it was around before BJD Confessions 2. Its just a to the point confession site of people just telling it how it is, how they wish it was, or how it used to be. Pretty interesting read. Some confessions get lengthy replies and really get into the topic being discussed. I tend to like those because it really gets the discussion going and let’s us see how people really feel. For example, this post got this response:

Re: confession 224

That right there is the kind of thing that really bugs me about the whole recast debate. Citation please? Numbers? Proof? Broad sweeping statements like this are what make the whole thing so damn ridiculous.

Personally speaking (and I AM adamantly anti-recast) I’m perfectly willing to pay the asking price for well made doll clothes, be that from someone on Etsy, DoA or a doll company and I sure as hell don’t haggle because I value the time and skill that’s been put into something and I know that’s what I’m paying for. Providing the product lives up to that asking price. For example I wouldn’t pay $40 for a basic tshirt just because it’s handmade or $100 for a dress that’s so simple even I could knock one together with my very limited sewing skills. When we’re dealing with handmade items you can’t only charge based on time, someone could take 5 hours to make that tshirt but that doesn’t mean it’s worth $40, it means they need to learn how to make it more efficiently to make sure they’re earning a decent profit margin or hourly wage on it because items like that have a perceived value and when there’s similar things (that are just as legit) available for half the price then it’s not exactly competitive to over-price them just because you take five times longer than someone else to produce an equivalent product.

Recasts aren’t /equivalent/ products though, because BJDs are priced, like products generally are, to cover time, overheads (rent, wages, etc) and what ever profit margin they’d deemed to put on it to make it worth the time and energy to produce (for all we know that profit margin could be tiny or it could be huge, but we don’t know without numbers from the companies but I can’t exactly see them giving them). Recasts are someone’s way of cheaply making a quick buck, they don’t have to put the time and resources into developing and designing the dolls, that work’s done for them and they make a profit off someone else’s work but that’s beside the point.

The point is, not everyone behaves the same way, not everyone values things the same way so tarring everyone who dislikes recasts with the same brush is not only ridiculously unfair and uninformed but it goes to show how quick people are to point fingers in an attempt to discredit the people who disagree with them. It only makes your own arguments and justifications for your own actions look weaker when you rely on smearing the people you’re debating against, and that applies to both sides.

I just really love how people can talk it out without worrying about backlash or being frozen out of the community. Once again, beware of strong language in these confessions.

And that is all I have for you today ladies and gents. I’m off now to see if I can figure out this heated situation with my laptop and hopefully manage to return to you all again really soon. Be good until then. Talk to you later. Bye for now.

ETA: Even before signing off I have found out that I won’t be returning the computer to get fixed. Remember that “act of a high power” I mentioned before, well yeah it didn’t work in my favor. So now I will be shopping for a cooling pad. *sigh* Oh well, tis life I suppose. If anything this means a cool thing, later on this year I’ll be in the market for a new computer. My attempt at a at the end of a mentality.    Ok now I will seriously talk to you all later. Be good until then. Bye for now.

Noticing her lap getting rather warm,
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