Saturday 26 April 2014

The latest incarnation of Bellosse: Sigrid

I am trying to do something with my DIM Bellosse. I put her on the 'good' SD13 body* yesterday and although the resin match was atrocious, it was nice to dress her up and do something with her.

I decided that a change of name and identity might help me move along with her better. She is now Sigrid Blodhäxa, a very sweet and colourful vampire. I really like the name Sigrid (I gave that name to a NP character in my brother's Game of Thrones RPG, Sigrid of House Greyjoy, the great aunt of Theon and Asha and Water Witch of Pyke,) and the more I think about the name in association with my Bellosse the more it is working out for me, which is a good sign. Her other name, Blodhäxa, just means 'bloodwitch' in Swedish. I chose it because it worked well with Sigrid and she's a vampire and she can have magical powers if she wants to...

So that's where I am with her at the moment. I'm working on her face-up and hopefully I'll have something to show for that soon. Then I will have to think about a body for her (even though I said I didn't want to have too many bodies around!) I am considering a Zaoll body. The resin won't be a perfect match but it will be a lot closer than the NS-yellow tone of the Volks dolls I have here, and it will be a different body shape and size because Zaolls are midi-larger dolls, so it'll be nice to have a range of heights.

*i.e. the one that is really well strung and KIPS'ed and will stand and pose well, even though it is yellowed and I haven't been fussed enough to give it a good clean. As opposed to the 'bad' SD13 body which is actually not yellowed, but is floppily strung, has no KIPS and won't pose worth a damn.

Incomings


I have some fun incomings for Melangell and my other SD girls!

Melangell and Poppy are getting some new Leekeworld wigs to share. I have bought them an LR-020_E in Natural Black from eBay, so that arrived very quickly. The other two are LR-102_E (blonde bob) and W074_E (pink with braid) and both are Natural Black too. These wigs are part of a Leeke GO I joined, so it will take a while for those to arrive.

The strawberry camera and crown headband are by Kuloft from Etsy. I bought a pair of antlers from Kuloft for Gwenllian and they fit her very well so I thought it was a safe bet to go again, but my parcel from Kuloft arrived this morning and the strawberry camera was missing and the headband is a little large for my mostly 8-9 headed SD girls, but I think with a thicker wig it will fit better. My parcel contained a Lati Yellow-sized antler headband which is very cute, but won't fit anyone here. I've messaged Kuloft about the mix up and hopefully it'll be sorted soon.

Melangell is half-Welsh and half-Japanese so I bought this little lapel pin to put on her jacket. The Dr Marten style boots are for Meli as well. The Volks sailor set (yes, I know, another sailor set...) is for everyone to share.

Monday 7 April 2014

Melangell's Return

Well, my dreams of a Crobidoll Thor Flamingo Girl were not (yet) to be and I got a refund from the seller. While I was moping a bit, I decided not to give up and to keep trying to find another head that would fit my criteria (matches Volks NS, is gorgeous...) and found a head by an artist completely unknown to me before now.
 
The seller was in the UK, so that was an extra fabulous bonus, and I had the funds all there ready after getting my refund, so the sale was concluded in just a couple of days. The new head arrived on Saturday morning, but with work and stuff I hadn't had chance to take pictures of her until today.
 
I proudly introduce... Oopnix Zid!
 
Not the head you or I was expecting but a very gorgeous and happy arrival!
 
Oopnix is the studio name of a Korean doll artist and the Zid sculpt was made in 2011 in very small quantities and was only available to Korean buyers, which makes her a very special, rare head. The collector I bought her from was her first owner too.
 
I am thrilled with this head!
 
However... when I unwrapped her and put in her blue eyes and pink wig, she didn't feel like Flamingo Girl to me. The longer I see her with the eyes and wig the better it looks IMO, but it still isn't 'perfect'...and that's because this doll has decided she isn't going to be Flamingo Girl, but instead she is Melangell Shigeta returned!
 
Melangell Shigeta is a Welsh/Japanese character I had a few years ago and this head is perfect for her. So, she's not who I bought her to be, but she's going to be awesome anyway! I am determined to have my Flamingo Girl one day, but for now I'm going to send Melangell off to Viridian House for a custom face-up and arrange for a dark wig for her to look truly like herself again :)


Saturday 22 March 2014

Gwenllian!

My Volks Rose, Gwenllian, is usually the most consistent with her appearance of all my BJDs. She has brown hair and grey-blue eyes and pretty much always dresses in clothes her character would wear.
 
As this doll is based on one of my original characters and was made to be a doll of the character, I've always been quite protective of her image and wanting to keep her looking the way she does in my head, whereas my other dolls wear in character and out of character clothes all the time as and when I feel like it.
 

The other day, for some fun, I dressed Gwenllian in a more modern outfit than she would normally be dressed in and I thought she looked really nice. (see above!) She's wearing a different wig to her usual brown bob style and she's wearing the gorgeous teal cardi with fox print I got from Dorset Clothing on Etsy. She's wearing a Nepali turquoise around her neck as well. I think this combination of colours really suit her and I'm more relaxed about what she wears now.

So, in the spirit of that relaxedness I decided to try my Crobidoll Thor girl's clothes out on Gwenllian! She looks so different!


She's wearing a pink ForMyDoll wig, blue acrylic eyes with butterfly shaped pupils, a grey cardi from a Volks set, a black Dollheart skirt as a top and a River Island bracelet as a necklace. I think she looks fabulously different, but it also makes me a bit sad because I really want this Crobidoll head to come so I can put my ideas together into this new doll. :( Hopefully the seller will have more news for me soon.

Monday 17 March 2014

Crobidoll Thor Girl: Part II


Photograph by Tatiana Adamenko
 
A picture of a sprawling flamingo because it looks like my plans for a colourful flamingo BJD girl are also sprawling :(

I paid off my layaway for the Crobidoll Thor head on Friday and the head was supposed to be posted today, but I got a message from the seller saying that they couldn’t find the head and asking whether I would like a refund :( I’m really disappointed, because obviously I was super excited about getting her, and I said I would rather hang on for a week for them to find the head rather than have a refund straight away. This head is no longer being sold by the company and I thought I’d really lucked out by finding it on the MP.

I really hope and pray the head is found super quickly. I really want to put my doll together :(

Exciting things!

I've got some very exciting things coming up!
 
Firstly, in early May I'm going to Manchester to join in with their monthly doll meets at the Rosylee Tear Rooms.
 
Next, I have my cousin's wedding at the end of May in a real live castle!
 
Then I have another wedding in early June, my friend is getting married at Bangor University.
 
Then in August I have the amazingly exciting Nine Worlds Geek Fest to go to!
 
So, I'm in a flurry of excitement because I want to pick which doll I'm bringing with me to Manchester, I'm planning my wedding outfit(s) and I'm planning who to cosplay as for Nine Worlds!
 
This is a picture of Deryn from our photowalk last week!
 
With the doll meet, I'm leaning towards bringing Deryn. She's probably my most recognisable doll (because I take pictures mostly of her,) and her body is the most stable in terms of posing ability. If I stand her up I can be reasonably confident she'll stay standing up, whereas Gwenllian does her own thing. I'm also thinking that because Deryn is an SD, she'll be that damn big that I won't lose sight of her!
 
I'm still gathering inspiration for my wedding outfit, but I'm pretty sure now that it's going to be the Hell Bunny 'Sassy' dress in blue (it has a design of parrots and pineapples on it,) I think blue will be best because my best net underskirt is pale blue and will work with it straight away, so I don't have to buy anything beyond the dress. I also have a little parrot brooch which will look cute with perhaps a white cardi or blazer. The rest is to be decided.
 
Today I kind of upset my own applecart for Nine Worlds, because I thought I was set on my two cosplays for the weekend (it's a three day event and I only want to cosplay for two days. I'm planning to bring a BJD, so I would rather not cosplay every single day and just focus one day on carrying my doll around,) I've found I have pretty much everything I would need for a third cosplay right here without having to buy anything.
 
I was originally planning to cosplay as Cheery Littlebottom, the dwarf sergeant of the Ankh Morpork City Watch and Captain Kirk, legendary Star Trek captain, but I still have plenty to get for those costumes whereas I could just put on this baggy red dress, tie a pink ribbon around my neck, wear black tights and boots and put my hair in a top knot and...instant Little My from the Moomintroll books! So that one will save me money and time that I could put towards another cosplay. Both Cheery and Kirk will need work on my part and I think I'm more attached to the idea of playing Cheery than I am Kirk, but we shall see. 


Monday 3 March 2014

Crobidoll Thor Girl


So... I kind of actually bought a new doll head... and changed some plans!

I had so much fun putting Tommeliesl together when her head came back from Viridian House that it inspired me to try and get things done with my DIM Bellosse head, but irritatingly, DIM's NS is no where near a match for Volks' NS and I don't really want to buy any new bodies right now, especially since all my other heads can use the bodies I have, I wouldn't want to limit myself by having a body that I couldn't use for any other head, as cool as the Doll Chateau body is. However, I still liked the plan I had for my Bellosse and didn't want to abandon that.

Enter Crobidoll Thor. This head has a young look, as DIM Bellosse does, but is lacking the vampire fangs and pointy ears Bellosse has. I've decided to hold off on creating my alien character, Ziylora, for now and I'll use that inspiration and colourway for the Crobi Thor head I've found on DoA. I paid the first instalment this morning and the balance is due on March 14th, so I don't really have long to wait to get her. In the meantime, since Thor isn't going to be Ziylora the alien,
who is she?

The two human girls in the inspiration collage, Emma Hellier (hairstylist on a Rebel & Romance photography shoot and owner of Emma Hellier Salon in Bexhill) and popstar Katy Perry, are gorgeous and I especially want to channel some of Emma's cheery awesomeness and Katy's attitude and cartoony style into whoever my Thor girl is going to eventually be.
 
I'm going through names and having fun again :)