Inside My World

Time flies, like the whooshing sound of a bullet train as it passes. Now that I am feeling well enough to return to doing school drop-offs and after school activities - life has been busy. However that doesn't mean I haven't had time to dip into my hobbies. 

Let's start with the photoshoots. I recently joined a Barbie Collector's group that has a new theme each week and I've been finding it quite inspiring. For this week, it was 'Weddings'. Not owning any wedding dolls or gowns, I found a pattern and tutorial at Galaxia Dolls and decided to make a Maxi dress and give my doll wedding a boho vibe. 

The Advisor's Robes

It took me two days and one false start but I was able to finally complete Amaryll's outfit. I went into it with a specific idea of what I wanted and ended up with something that was completely different but I like way better. I learned so much about sewing with this outfit. It's not perfect and there is a lot of room for improvement but I'm happy with my end result. I will try and make this again with better finishes at some stage. I also made her necklace and head piece. Her bracelets are actually fashion rings meant for humans but works perfectly for doll scale.

I'm just so happy that I was able to make something myself. I used no pattern for this but was inspired by the blue outfit worn by Guinevere in the 2004 movie 'King Arthur'.

Music Playlist: Song of the North (Alt. Version) ~ BrunuhVille

Madam Marah - The Oracle of District 17

My second finished custom doll. She was originally a Monster High Spectra Vondergeist from Ghouls' Night Out edition. Sadly, she had the dreaded glue leakage problem which not only ruined her hair but also caused yellow staining around her face.

I removed her hair and face and started over with a blank slate.

Madam Marah used to be an ordinary young woman with an ordinary life. She used to be Mary Smith, the PA to GeneTech's dashing young director and she was very good at her job. She was always mindful of her appearance and always dressed smart. She prided herself on her looks. 

Cold as Ice - Snow Queen

It's been a bit longer than expected but she's finally finished. The crown had caused me a little delay. If you follow my IG, you'll  have seen my first attempt (a quasi-ice crown made from hot glue and silver glitter). It turned out okay but I wasn't feeling it so I had to wait to buy supplies for the second crown idea made from wire and glass beads. Finally though, she is complete and I'm quite pleased with how she turned out given she is my first full custom doll. (Except for shoes as I tried and failed so I ended up using some MH shoes I had instead).

Music Theme:  The Snow Queen's Palace

Legend say that the Snow Queen was born in the heart of Winter on the day she breathed her last breath, buried beneath the unforgiving snow and forgotten. Abandoned by her lover, she cursed his name as she lay dying feeling her warm heart grow cold with every moment. Her desire for revenge was so great that her spirit resisted the call of the afterlife instead drifting into a darkness that offered her salvation in exchange for the souls of those whose lives she would end. So great was her pain and suffering that she accepted without hesitation. And so the darkness  gave her the spark that would bring her body back to life. Yet her body would be forever changed, pale and seeped of any human warmth. Her kiss could freeze from within and her touch could kill and shatter. Cursed to never know love again or be loved, she wandered alone in the deep of winter.

Stories have told of her beauty that enthralls any who look upon it and that her voice can entrap those who hear it. They warn of the weeping woman for it is how she lures the unwary. Beware, the stories say, for once she has you in her sight, you will not escape the wrath of the Snow Queen.

My First Fashion ...Frankendoll?

I really need to stay off E-Bay! One of the regular sellers I buy from had a neat little head for sale that I had been curious about. It was a rather realistic looking head meant for an action body, kind of similar to those Hot Toys bodies. I wasn't too fussed on the original body these heads are meant for. So I did a bit of research and found that a fashion doll collector had tried one of these heads on a Integrity body.

The head is made by a company called Superduck. I couldn't really find much information on them as they don't seem that popular. The heads are smaller than Barbie heads and are very realistically painted. I think some are based on actual celebrities but I believe this head is a standard "European" sculpt. Hobbysearch and Amiami sell these heads. (They usually retail for $80 AUD approx. I got it for $25AUD!) 

The heads remind me of how Dollshe heads are in that their face juts out a bit. I had to kind of wriggle her head as far back as I could to make her match with the neck. It did come with a neck plug thing that I had to remove in order to be able to fit this on an IT body.

The body I am using for her is a Poppy Parker body in FR White. (aka the IT Airways Poppy that I never really got along with is now a floating head! I may put her on a Nu Face body once IT get more in stock and hopefully in FR White!)

On to the eye candy goodness ...

It's looking like progress

I decided to work on the Snow Queen's face today. I really wasn't sure what I was going to do so I was mostly just inspired by the face shape and her hair and outfit. I knew I wanted her to have a very 'cold' look to her. Here is the preliminary sketch with watercolour pencils and pastels for subtle blushing. I will be going over a lot of this with acrylic later.

 I actually don't mind how it's turning out. I will be adding some gems to the face after everything is done to give it more sparkle and "ice".

I'm also working to give this girl some braids. It's slow going but I only have a small section left now. I've been working on this off and on for most of the day taking a break only to do the Snow Queen's face for a bit.

I'm quite happy with how she is looking.

Changing Faces

Recently, I've been really focusing on practicing face ups on the EAH and MH girls. I'll tackle resin soon but for now, it's vinyl.

I was hoping to show the progress I had made on my Shiva but I decided I didn't much like the outfit or the painting I did on her leg so I decided to go back to square one. Hopefully I will have some progress to show next week. I went and purchased a better brush that can make much thinner lines so I think that will help particularly with the tattoo work on her legs.

I actually do have a few projects on the go right now but more on that later.

These are my first attempts at pure acrylic face ups for the girls. I had a lot of fun doing these. I made a ton of mistakes but I also learned a lot.  In these first attempts, I didn't bother with any guideline or preliminary sketches. I just put paint on the brush and went for it.

My very first full acrylic face. This was an Apple White sculpt. Her hair was too gooey and glue infested to keep sadly. I wanted to take this photo for posterity. I was going to keep it as I love the colours however, I ended up wiping it. (More on that later.)

Of Fashion and Floral Shirts

I wanted to post up some pages from "The Dress - 100 Iconic Moments in Fashion" and "Iconic - The Masters of Italian Fashion" - both by Megan Hess. for Xanadu.

You can click on the image to view a larger version than the one that shows on my blog page.

I don't think I've mentioned before that I'm a huge fan of fashion illustrations and even dabbled in it for a little while.

Tutorial: Glue Sueding

It's taken a while but someone had requested a tutorial on how I glue suede my dolls. So here it is.

What you will need:

Low Temp Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
Cardboard cut into small squares or rectangles
Your resin doll

A Christmas Surprise

A big thank you goes out to Fantasywoods for the lovely surprise gift I received recently.

The pink haired Curvy Barbie that I've been looking for. She's very adorable. I really love that shade of pink too. I also love the shade of pink on her lips which is the same as her hair. I haven't posted about it but I did manage to find the first Made to Move Curvy body. She also has pink hair but hers was more electric pink!!

Disney MTM Anna and Merida

I've had these two girls for a while but between work, sick cats and my own health troubles, I haven't been able to get to my hobbies at all lately. So I was happy to steal an hour to take some quick snaps to introduce them on the blog today.

I purchased Hasbro Anna and Disney Store Merida with the intention of giving them Made to Move bodies. Their default bodies weren't really to my liking.

First up is Anna from Frozen.

I really loved how MyFroggyStuff turned Anna into Dizzy from Descendants and was inspired to  make a version of Anna with that cute little hairstyle which I adore. I had been eyeballing the Hasbro Anna doll for a while (red hair and freckles - how could I resist) and knew I would put her on a Made to Move body that I had as a spare (one of the hands is broken but I managed to glue it back although posing is limited now in that hand). However, although I loved her default eye colour, I wanted something green and I wanted the pupil to be smaller and the light spot to be bigger. I ended up repainting the whole iris. The bun hairstyle took a few tries to get right and I just left it a bit messy because my version of Anna (yes, I am keeping her default name) is a bit slapdash at times with things. Plus she only puts her hair up because she wants it out of the way and not for any stylish reasons. I was tempted to keep the plaits because she looked cute with them but I think the bun does make her look a bit older.

Polka Dots and Partial Repaints

My first Poppy Parker girl from the Swinging London series has arrived but I will post about her separately next week. Today's post is about the new diorama I made yesterday which I like to call "The Polka Dots Room".

I've made it so it's easy to store with the wall and floor able to fold down and pack away when not in use. I made it with a more retro feel in mind.

Conceptualising a Dark Goddess

Finally a post about something other than a new doll. It feels like it's been a while!

I've been getting really inspired of late to turn my Monster High dolls into the fantasy characters I've always wanted given how hard it is for me to achieve this through the resin dolls. Plus clothing for these dolls is a lot easier to make than the larger resin scale. I already have a few designs in mind.

I'm going to be starting up a book where I put fabric off cuts and fashion designs for my characters and any inspirations I find around the net.

The first of these concepts is my Dark Goddess, Neviah. She is a bringer of death and destruction. She is also known as, "The Dark Lady", "The Shadow" and "Deathbringer".

I've done some light blushing already (doesn't show up on the photo) around her cheeks and chin and nose but I have to deepen that a little tomorrow. I still have to paint her lips and because I actually like her default eye shape, I am keeping it however I am going to go in and paint her eyes black and go in with a darker pastel around the eyes. I also need to darken her eyebrows a bit more with acrylic paint.

I found some neat little black dots which I have already attached to her head. She was actually photographed naked but with some photoshop brushes and manipulation magic, I made a quick "dress" for her. This is not her outfit concept although the sheer fabric look is.

A little splash of black

I've been wanting to make a diorama from a cereal box like in MyFroggyStuff's tutorials on youtube. I like the idea of recycling things you have on hand.

My enhanced girl, Zoe models a portion of the styled room.

Almost New Face

I was checking out MyFroggyStuff's Youtube channel like I do every week and saw there was a spanking new tutorial that I wanted to try out. I've already been doing some default enhancements on the Barbie faces already but this was a neat and interesting method to do it.

One of my spare Purple top heads was the victim. I followed the tutorial step by step. Except I also repainted her eyebrows to match her hair.

I thought she turned out not bad. I'm still not really confident with "drawing" with acrylic paint (at this scale) but I think that's something I'll become more comfortable with the more I do it (I hope!). I have a few more heads I want to practice on with this method tomorrow.

Happy New Year ~ 2017 Plans ~ Experiments

It's New Year's Eve and I still can't wrap my head around the fact tomorrow will be the first day of a brand new year. 2016 has been such a whirlwind of activity for me. I had a long lull then after I got the new job, I got suddenly busy. It's almost as if my motivation came back and I went into full gear again. Which is nice. Instead of 'goals', I opted to go with plans for the coming year.

In no particular order;
* More customisation, practice, practice practice
* Finish Shiva and Lara Croft
* Create more dioramas
* Start learning how to sew medieval dresses for the dolls
* Try to use acrylic more in my face ups
* Attempt to paint Barbie faces (Yikes, so small!)
* Paint the DF practice head I still have blank
* Paint the extra Obitsu head I have
* Try and upgrade my camera

HAPPY NEW YEAR! BEST WISHES FOR 2017! 

Thank you everyone for all your support, encouragement and kindness throughout 2016. 

The Postman Knocks ...

Came home from work today to a lovely surprise from Fantasywoods.

A gorgeous wrapped parcel with so many pretty things in it. (Thank you!) I plan to do a photoshoot later in the week to showcase some of the clothing (models featuring Josef and Eve).

It's hip to be blue

I finally got a chance to make some slight changes to one of the Pureneemo girls (and finish a re-root on another doll).

I don't know if I ever had a name for this one. Probably not and still don't. She used to have a small side fringe which I never really liked too much because it looked kind of strange so I ended up pulling that section out and re-rooting with some blue streaks.

An Abundance of Purple

There should be a nacramo (National craft month). Every year, I have good intentions of doing Nanowrimo but when November comes around, I just struggle to commit. There's always something else I need to do instead, like craft stuff!

Anyone doing Nanowrimo this year and how's your progress coming along?

Today, I wanted to post about Purple Top (I think her official name is Lea). I have quite a few of this particular face sculpt and I've been slowly tweaking their appearances so they look slightly different from each other. Right now, the count is at six with a spare head (in case something happens to one of the current heads). Only three of these have Made to Move bodies. Two have fashionista bodies and one has a partly articulated body (her arms are articulated but her legs are not).

I've been thinking about their story and I decided they are all alternate versions of the same person, the original being Zoe ( I posted about her last week). The rest of them are what she would have become due to circumstances and decisions she's made along the way. In other words, they are shadows of the original.

We'll start with Cleo. I haven't done her outfit yet but expect a lot of black, brown and greys. She's from a world where science and magic exist side by side. She's also the only one of the shadows who is able to shift between the different realities.

New Faces in the doll house

I had some new arrivals that I hadn't posted about. One arrived a few weeks ago and the other I got today.

On the playlist for this photoshoot: Green Day ~ Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Both girls are the same face sculpts and both are Fashionista dolls that have been transplanted onto a MTM body. The girl in the pink and white and black glasses is my new "Zoe", the other girl in the white glasses is Sabine. She's going to be a very sixties orientated girl so I'm hoping to sew some clothes for her in that style.