I haven't forgotten!

I haven't forgotten my blog!

I've been having computer problems and it's been disheartening to take doll pics and not be able to process them or anything, so I've just stopped taking them :(

I'm using a temporary computer to keep up to date with DoA and emails and things, but most hobby things are passing me by.

I successfully traded my Saintbloom for a gorgeous Soom Appini/Nobledolls hybrid who still needs a face-up, but my plans for her are coming along really nicely (she really suits the Leekeworld limited wigs in Bright Lime, so although I intended them for Mojito, they've gone to Lily (or to give her her full name, Lilithencadonatravitanenda!)

Lily is an alien, a bipedal carnivorous plant, and I'm styling her with some inspiration from art deco and art nouveau prints, (think extra-terrestrial Gatsby.)

I've also got two new heads to practice face-ups on. I have an Elfdoll Hazy and a Doll in Mind (DIM) Bellosse, who Lily has claimed as part of her universe, and are now named Elapeluea and L.S. Ziylora Ghosad. So I have two doll universes going on now, one sci-fi and the other one steam-fantasy!

One of the best things about these two heads is that I'm actually using eyes and wigs that I've had in storage and never used! I've not had to buy anything new for them!

In super amazing fantastic news, DoA is going to be part of a convention!

Dollism Plus US 2014, presented by Dollheart, Den of Angels, and Mint on Card

We are excited to announce that DoA will be partnering with Dollheart and Mint on Card to present the largest ball-jointed doll convention ever in the United States - Dollism Plus US in September of 2014!

Dollism Plus is a ball-jointed doll convention hosted by DollHeart in Hong Kong since 2006 (Dollism Plus - Tokyo was hosted in 2012). We are inviting doll makers and artists from all over the world to attend this event. While we have not yet invited vendors, past events have had many of the most popular Asian companies, including Luts, LeekeWorld, DoD, LatiDoll, Peakswoods, Crobidoll, Switch, BlueFairy, Nine9 Style, Another Space, RosenLied, IOS, Sadol, Pipos, DollZone, and AngelStudio. We will be bringing many talented companies to join us, as well as offering the opportunity to our some of our Western BJD retailers and artisans. If you're interested in seeing photos from some of the past Dollism Plus conventions, please check out the Meetups Gallery (HK Dollism Plus 2, HK Dollism Plus 3, HK Dollism Plus 4, HK Dollism Plus 5, HK Dollism Plus 6, HK Dollism Plus 7, and Dollism Plus Tokyo) and Dollheart's galleries on Facebook (Dollism Plus 7 Day 1 and Day 2)

This convention will also celebrate DoA's 10th anniversary. In addition to Dollism Plus's usual events, there will be a number of special DoA anniversary events and items.

The location of the convention has tentatively been set as Niagara Falls, NY. This is a great location, only a short distance from the world-famous Falls, and proximity to the Canadian border and a major airline hub will allow easier travel for both US and international visitors. Western New York has great food and scenic attractions while being gentler on the wallet than many larger cities.

At this point, we are looking to tentatively see how many people would plan to attend this event so we can secure a venue of the appropriate size. We are also asking a few questions about which vendors and events would interest you most!

Survey link!

Dahlia

Pretty close to an agreement now, so I can start being a bit excited!

It always seems to be the way that the dolls I have first-hand never seem to stay. The only first-hand BJD who is still with me is Prince Rupert. My Soom Glot was sold pretty quickly after she arrived and I traded my MiniFee Rheia for a Volks Yuh (since rehomed.)

 Picture from inkwear.co.uk

Looking forward to painting a new calavera!

¡Hola! Me llamo Marigold

This is my Monster High Skelita Calaveras' debut!

My amazing boyfriend bought me Skelita for Valentine's day - it wasn't an intentional gift, I bought him a present and he was just going to make dinner for us (which he did, and it was incredible!) but when we were walking through work (we work in Tesco) I saw a Scaris City of Frights Skelita on the shelf and got all excited because she's been so hard to find, and she was the first Skelita I'd actually seen in person.

B asked me if I'd like her as a Valentine's present and I got a bit shy and said yes, so he promptly bought her for me and yaaaaaaay I have a Skelita!

Naturally she was never going to stay in the box!

As much as I love the Skelita make up, it doesn't really say 'calavera' to me as much as traditional calaveras do, so I always intended on customising her, although I think B was a bit shocked that I was going to completely re-do his gift doll!

I started wiping off her make up with nail varnish remover (same as I did for my Cardassian Monster High project doll) and unlike the very compliant Ghoulia Yelps make up, Skelita's make up was incredibly smeary. It ended up being such a mess that it stained her head!

Unhappily, I was forced to mask off her hair and body and spray her face with layers of white paint (thank you Games Workshop!) to cover the mess and create a plain base to start the calavera designs. It doesn't exactly match her bone-white body, since the white is very bright, paper-white, but it goes well enough. It was pretty easy to do her new face-up, although I probably broke all the rules by using pen and ink rather than paintbrush and acrylic, but I got more control from the pen than if I'd tried using a paintbrush. I sealed it all with several thin coats of Purity Seal.

I decided to call her Marigold, since her original colour scheme was orange, and I kept that with the floral design around her eyes, and on her chin. I didn't want to re-root her, so I had to keep within the colour scheme of her hair. I thought it would mean she's more limited in what she can wear, but in the picture she's wearing Abbey Bominable's default snow outfit and it looks fine.

The reason Marigold is all dressed up for the snow is that we have had a freak shower of snow in the UK! The snow is starting to go away now, so I decided to get a quick snap of Marigold dressed up in her thermals in the garden.

I have had a really good trade offer for Kahlua, and I'm waiting to hear back. The doll is a Soom Appini/Nobledolls Rhubarbe, so half Asian company doll, half French artist doll. She's a sleeping sculpt, and I think she'd be a better fit - I think I'm going to make her a third calavera sister with Poppy and Marigold.

I really do like the Saintbloom dolls, but I think perhaps the tan resin is putting me off and making me nervous. The colour is amazing, but I keep worrying about whether she'll go green in the sun, or whether she'll get scratched and I can't sand it out... all the worries. I'm excited about the Appini/Rhubarbe hybrid option - watch this space!

When dolls don't work out...

Hmm. I feel a bit of a meanie pants.

I did write a bit about dolly doubts last month and it seems my fears were realised yesterday when Kahlua actually arrived :(

She is a very, very cute doll and the tan colour is really amazing, but the more I looked at her and the more I thought about it I don't think she can stay. It's sad, but this is the risk with limited dolls. You get into a flurry about whether to order during the time you have left and worry about whether you can find the doll again if you don't order from the company...and sometimes this works out quite well...but other times it really doesn't!

Here is a picture of her wearing the Hand Glass Craft 8mm cobalt eyes I got her, and an ill-fitting Monique gold wig (you can't see here, but I am literally holding the wig on her head for this shot.)

So, I have put her up for sale on Den of Angels, and will shortly be doing so on Angels Unlimited as well, (a UK BJD forum.) I'm the first to put one up for sale (they have only just started arriving), so I don't know what a fair price to ask for is seeing as I don't know how much it would cost me to buy another one if I have made a mistake by selling her, so I have tried to strike a balance between her base cost from Saintbloom ($210), the cost of the eyes I bought her (since those size eyes won't suit any other doll in the house and having an expensive pair of tiny eyes around with no one to wear them is a complete waste!), and the things I would rather buy for dolls I have, like Poppy's body costing around $590* or trading for a LittleFee. I've arrived at $300, which is guesswork but an increase of $90 on a limited doll isn't too expensive, I think.

So yes. I feel a bit mean because I made a snap judgement and spent money on something I'm not actually keeping. It's not the first time I've done this either! In 2009 I bought a Soom Glot thinking she was cute and I let myself get swept up in Monthly Doll fever (which a lot of people caught at the time too,) and didn't actually keep her.

Almost a year ago, Fairyland released LittleFee PongPong, this gleeful tiny doll with a permanent 'squee' look, and I was very tempted to get one then, but I figured since it's not a limited doll I could get one any time and since I go on about PongPong lots, especially to B, I should probably have saved my money and bought one instead of a Saintbloom. The silly thing that put me off PongPong last year was that the doll only comes with a boy body and I don't do boys - it's very silly since the LittleFee body is virtually genderless and no one would know she had a winkie lurking under her clothes and it would be very easy to sand it off anyway (guys wincing now, I bet :p) So, trading Kahlua for a PongPong would be a happy conclusion as well.

*Doll Chateau have brought out a brand new body (Y Body-03) which would be perfectly eerie for her.

Poppy

Poppy has a new wig!

I bought it from a seller on eBay; it's a Monique Gold Collection "Ginger" wig in natural black. The fibres are unbelieveably soft and nicely wavy. The hair clips are from Claire's Accessories (red roses on eather side) and H&M (red chrysanthemum in the middle.)

 

This is how I styled it at the back.

I just need to get her a body now. She's pretty close to being finished, which is a nice feeling. I suppose because she was a complete surprise (I didn't plan to have a calavera doll, so Poppy doesn't have an existing character) there isn't the same drive to get her absolutely everything ever that remotely looks like what they would wear, the way there is with Gwenllian, Deryn and Mafonwen.

Dolly Doubts

Sometimes during the wait for a new doll, the doubts set in.

After the original shipping date of 31st December, the new shipping date is 31st January to 15th February for the brown tan Saintbloom Rosemary dolls. I'm excited about Kahlua, putting her together and making her look awesome, but at the same time I feel that perhaps I got too caught up in the 'OMG, affordable tan doll!!!!' hype and I should have thought about putting that money towards a body for Poppy. Especially since once Poppy has a body that's my doll 'family' completed. My other SD heads can share bodies and I'm happy with that, but for what I have in mind for Poppy I think it has to be her own body.

Ultimately, the whole hobby is about luxury. These are expensive toys and there's no obligation to 'finish' one doll before another doll arrives, but the momentum I had with Poppy (designing her face up one day and putting the finishing layers of sealant on her just 7 days later), I just haven't had that with a doll in a while and it would be awesome to finish her.

It makes me think, perhaps I should sell Kahlua when she gets here, sell the clothes I'm stockpiling for her, and put the money towards Poppy...but then once Kahlua's here and I've done her face-up...I''ll probably feel different again!

What's really setting the doubts in is that another collector in North Wales is selling a Doll Chateau Olivia, a doll on the exact body I would want for Poppy in a colour resin I would be okay about getting. If I hadn't got Kahlua, I could probably have bought this doll, or at least paid the first instalment of a layaway and received the doll super fast because this collector is really not far away from me at all!

I'm trying to rationalise that yes, I would be okay with a WS body for Poppy, but I would prefer an N-Y body, and I don't really need another floating head, especially since I have no character for the Olivia head and would either be stuck trying to sell it or have to keep it in a box in my increasingly bulging wardrobe. Also, if I wait it out, save up for the N-Y body I want, it will be better than buying a doll just because it's one county over from me!

Shoes!

Now, everyone who knows me also knows that one of my biggest passions is shoes! I have loads and loads of shoes of my own, but I also have quite a sizeable collection of doll shoes.

There are 26 pairs of shoes in this picture, (I actually have 28 pairs, but I'm missing a boot from the LE Volks SDC Kurt fullset outfit & I couldn't find a pair of Dollheart heeled boots.) They range in size from SD13 to YoSD and there are so many different styles.

Yes, I know I have three pairs of shoes in leopard print (and two pairs are identical since they're in the same size), but I bought one SD pair and one MSD pair from Dale Rae when her shoe business was still active and then bought the second SD pair when she was selling off all her remaining stock - I couldn't resist. I find leopard print to be quite versatile and I have three big girls who wear the same size shoe, so at least two people could wear leopard print flats at any one time, (if I wanted.)

So, from the top;
Row 1 - Leekeworld knee-high 'grey' Converse-style SD boots, Dollheart x Cristy Stone 'brown' button SD13 boots*, Dollheart 'brown' frilly SD boots, Volks 'brown' lace up MSD boots**

Row 2 - Releaserain 'white' rockinghorse SD shoes, Dollmore 'black' mary jane SD shoes, Fa-tiao 'tan' brogue SD shoes, Releaserain 'old gold' multistrap SD shoes

Row 3 - Fairy Tale/D-Tale floral Mori SD shoes, Dale Rae 'purple' side-cut SD flats, Dale Rae 'black' flats, Fairy Tale D-Tale 'tan' Pirate Boots for MSD

Row 4 - 2 pairs of Dale Rae 'leopard' SD flats, Dale Rae 'burgundy' SD flats, Releaserain 'pink' rockinghorse MSD shoes

Row 5 - Releaserain Mink 'black' MSD pumps, Fa-tiao 'red' mary jane pumps, Leekeworld 'white' Converse-style lo-tops for MSD, Dale Rae 'pink' suede MSD flats

Row 6 - Nine9Style 'red' MSD sandals, Dale Rae 'leopard' MSD flats, Volks 'tan' YoSD engineer boots, Tata's Paradise Nike-style YoSD trainers

Row 7 - Ruby Red Galleria 'black/red' YoSD trainers, Ruby Red Galleria 'purple/pink' YoSD trainers

*These are quite possibly my most favourite boots (doll or human) ever. I wish I had them in my size, I wish I had them for every size doll too.
 
**These are actually the first EVER BJD accessory purchase I made. I bought them from eBay back in 2008 when I was just getting into the hobby. I had only purchased my first BJD the day before, so I didn't even have a doll on me when these arrived. Even if I sold my whole collection, I'd keep these boots as a reminder of where I started :)

My dolls actually have more shoes than my boyfriend does.