12 Dolls of Christmas: Mojito

On the seventh day of Christmas...

For the last picture of 2012, it's Miss Mojito Collins!

I was trying to go for a dreamy fashion magazine kind of effect, but I think it's just blurry :s I can't wait for the days to get lighter so I have better light to work with.

All the best for 2013!

12 Dolls of Christmas: SHE-RA!

On the sixth day of Christmas, a blast from the past...my prized boxed action figure of She-Ra, Princess of Power!

Picture of the front and back of the packaging!

She-Ra was an eBay purchase, I get plenty of nostalgia trips because I was brought up on She-Ra, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, so occasionally I go off and search for random things on eBay. I think I bought her in 2006. She had never been opened when she arrived - naturally I had to open the shipper box to see her...and I also took her out of the blister pack once, and then felt bad and put her back. I think of her more as a collector's piece, so I keep her inside the shipper box so she doesn't fade. It would be great to have her on display, but at the moment I just don't have the space.

She was a 2004 convention exclusive available from San Diego Comic Con or Chicago Wizard World comic convension, where you had to enter a lottery to buy one! Such was the popularity of The Most Powerful Woman in the Universe, that Mattel made her available in limited numbers after the convention. My girl didn't come from SDCC, she doesn't have the ident sticker on either box, but since she came with the outer shipper box and wasn't just her blister pack self, I think she came from the Chicago convention.

One fun thing about this edition of She-Ra - she has a longer skirt! I think it's a progressive sign that the Princess of Power doesn't need to wear skimpy clothes to be a super heroine. It's also fun to note that she wears more clothes than He-Man does. She-Ra is an amazing role model for women and girls. She kicks ass, she supports her friends, she fights against oppression and she is too busy saving the world to worry about what other people think of her.

12 Dolls of Christmas: Imogen

On the fifth day of Christmas... a departure from the norm... one of my Asian fashion dolls!

This is Imogen, my Sekiguchi Unoa Light Victorian Princess. She is made of plastic and vinyl compared with the first release of Unoa Light which was made in polyurethane resin and strung just like other BJDs.

12 Dolls of Christmas: Mafonwen

On the fourth day of Christmas, here's the beautiful Mafonwen, wearing her Dollheart outfit.

12 Dolls of Christmas: Deryn

On the third day of Christmas... it's Deryn, in the amazing hat that all the girls co-own, because it's far too nice to belong to just one of them!

12 Dolls of Christmas: Mojito

On the second day of Christmas... the picture(s) I shall post...

Show Mojito being glam in monochrome!

I did think about colour popping this photo, because her lips, belt and shoes are a brilliant red, but I think the pictures look cool as they are, and also I'm lazy ;)

The dress and belt are her Christmas presents, bought from Sunny's Wonderful World on eBay. They were slow to ship them out, but I was impressed with the quality of the pieces, so I might risk it again with them.

In memoriam, d.ark - I think about you every time I look at Mojito. I miss your tweets and updates, and I still can't believe I won't see you again. I hope you like what I'm doing with your girl, she is incredibly precious to me all because of you.

12 Dolls of Christmas: Gwenllian

On the first day of Christmas, the first picture I shall post is...

Gwenllian Cyffin on the stairs!

It's two pictures really, but oh well! I realised I didn't actually have any pictures of her wearing the outfit B bought me for our anniversary in October, even though she's been wearing it ever since!

It's Volks' Marine Asterisk set, with some Dollmore shoes. The wig isn't Gwenllian's 'stock' wig, it came with the Kun head RREGUI traded with me. I think she looks very like Hermione Granger in this wig!

Incoming stuff and partial review

I make these collages partly so I actually remember what I've got coming in...

 

Clockwise from the top;
Nine9Style MSD red twist sandals
Saintbloom Rosemary Charlotte in brown tan
Strawberry Bambola bedding
DoliAzura purple mohair Monster High/Pukifee wig
Monstro Designs black wig with white streak for Monster High/Pukifee
Monstro Designs Pink leopard print leggings for YoSD
Monstro Designs black wet-look leggings for YoSD
Releaserain MSD polkadot socks
Sunny's World MSD navy polkadot dress
Sunny's World MSD red polkadot shirt

In the centre;
Sunny's World MSD red bow belt
Releaserain MSD black 'Mink' pompom shoes

Small review:
I've always had a very good experience with Sunny's World on eBay but unfortunately, this time my order was sent out weeks after I paid and I only got confirmation it was even sent out the other day. I hope this is a one-off, but it does make me leery of ordering from them again in the future, since I did really want these pieces sooner rather than later (Navy dress, red bow belt and red shirt) and in previous experience with SW I've had parcels arrive really quickly. I know with Christmas international post gets very slow, but the parcel should have been shipped before that became an issue.

I've never bought things from Saintbloom, DoliAzura or Strawberry Bambola before, so I will do a proper review once those things arrive.

Nine9Style and Releaserain took the usual amount of time to dispatch things out, but I know that they have been caught up in the Christmas chaos. I know that Monstro Designs takes some time to get orders made up and shipped out, and since that's the most recent one, I'm not too worried right now.

I'm ridiculously excited about Kahlua, which explains the Monstro Designs, Strawberry Bambola and DoliAzura stuff. I was pretty set on Kahlua having purple hair and then I saw this Bride of Frankenstein-ish wig and had to have it. I would love some band t-shirts for Kahlua, and I've seen a pretty cute Adventure Time shirt, but since these are licensed logos I would feel more comfortable making my own - at least no one would be profiting from them that way.

Room box update:
I've been deciding whether to go for carpet or wooden flooring. I'm leaning towards carpet, because making my own wooden floor looks really fiddly. Then again, it might be easier for a doll to stand on wooden floor rather than carpet. You see the problem.

If only this was as easy as making a house on The Sims!

BJD Addicts Written Prompts: #4, #9, #20, #21, #23

Time for some more BJD Addicts prompts!
 

Merry Birthdaymas to me...

Obviously... new doll time!

I've missed having a Yo-SD sized doll around, and I've always wanted a tan BJD, so when Saintbloom announced they would be releasing two of their Rosemary sculpts (Charlotte and Charlie) in brown tan resin, I thought this would be a great opportunity to have a new doll in the size and colour I'm after! I've chosen a Charlotte (the more smiley sculpt), and she's going to be called Kahlua.

Badly needed update!

Oh dear, look at this. Nearly a month has gone by without a blog post!

I really am useless!

However, I'm pretty good a Christmas shopping. I'm right on top of things this year. The only two presents left to buy are flowers for my Nain, which I'll buy closer to the day, and some Walnut Whips for my Dad, which are proving difficult to find. I found a pack of 8 miniature ones in Marks & Spencer for £1.49, but that feels like a very cheap present even though my Dad is adamant that he doesn't want anything.

As usual, I am also very good at taking care of myself too.

It's work's Christmas party this weekend, and I finished off my outfit with a cape from River Island and a clutch bag from New Look. Here's a handy collage;

 

Green dress from the ASOS sale a few months ago

Black and gold wedges from New Look (my birthday present from Nain)

Black tights I already have 

Black devore cape from River Island - expensive, but I'm going to wear it to EVERYTHING

Black/gold lattice clutch bag from New Look

I'm not one of these girls who can't bear to be seen out in the same thing time and again, so I'll be wearing this exact outfit a lot. I've already worn the dress and the wedges, although not together. After the work Christmas party, I'll wear this to my birthday dinner on the 23rd December, and no doubt it'll come out again for New Year's Eve!

The picture of the cape is actually the back to show off the designs. I feel like a dark and mysterious version of Professor Trelawney when I wear it. It's amazing. 

 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Dios de los Muertos

Poppy!

I promise I will stop spamming this girl soon ;)

She's currently wearing Mafonwen's wig, Deryn's top and Gwenllian's Volks SD13 body. Hopefully next year I will get her a body of her own. The only thing that's hers in the photo is the rose in her hair!

Poppy III: The Revenge

Here she is!!!

I'm so pleased with how everything turned out! I've changed her name (and all previous posts where she appears) to Poppy - the flowers were going to be generic red flowers, but they turned into poppies and as I was painting I kept calling her Poppy in my head, so Poppy it is.

The little white heart by her eye came from an accidental blob and I decided that rather than paint it over with black, I could turn it into a heart and pretend it was always supposed to be that way!

Tomorrow I'm hopefully going to take some pictures of her in daylight (with a wig) tomorrow!

Poppy II: La segunda parte...

Finally! I've started to get somewhere at last!

The spray paint actually worked this time, I built up the layers finely and slowly and left her to dry for a few hours without touching her at all. I came back this evening and started to draw on her calavera markings with watercolour pencil.

I'm really pleased with the progress and hopefully this face-up will look pretty good when it's done! The great thing about this being a painted white mask is that the colour difference between my NS bodies and this yellowed WS head is that no one will be able to see the overlap of colour unless they take off her wig or look very closely.

Poppy

I am pulling my hair out with this girl.

My project head (a modded and re-modded old Volks F-05 (F-03 under new FCS numbering)), is being very irritating!

I've decided I want to make her a calavera (Mexican sugar skull), so first I have to create a smooth white base to then draw my designs on.

On Saturday I started painting her with white artist acrylic. It was too thick and streaky. I thinned it, it was too thin and streaky. I washed the whole thing off and today I decided to try again with white Games Workshop spray paint. Layer 1 went on smoothly. Layer 2, looking good. Layer 3...where the hell did that dust come from? Layer 4...why is it all bumpy? :(

I still think spray is the way to go, but after scraping four layers of the stuff off today, I'm too beaten down to try again. The picture above is layer 3 of spray paint, before it went all rubbish.

You can also see how uneven her eye mods are, but meh. I'm not even in the realm of caring about those at the moment, especially when they're going to be spray painted again and then painted over in black. They're the least of my worries. Her mouth is uneven too, but that's entirely original, so if Volks doesn't worry about that, I won't worry about her eyes.

I've been working hard at designing the face I want to draw on her. I think I want the traditional flowers on her forehead, chin and temples, but I do want spider webs and hearts too. I just need to work out a nice placement for them.

BJD Addicts Written Prompts: #12, #17, #26

Probably time for 3 more BJD Addicts prompts!

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #12 - Undies?
This comes up quite a bit in dolly circles - whether your dolls wear underwear or not. I have a lot of pretty underwear for my dolls, I do feel that it's 'proper' for them to wear underwear, particularly if they're wearing a skirt or a dress. Usually if they're wearing trousers or leggings they don't because it does ruin the line of skinny jeans to have underwear going on underneath!

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #17 - Unfortunate Buys?
I'm not really sure if this prompt is about dolls, clothes or accessories, so I'll talk a little about all three.

Those who know me will know I am really bad with maths and scale. It took me the longest time to figure out what 1/3 scale really is. I have a photography backdrop of a library, which I love, but is more appropriately scaled for 70cm BJDs. I'm hoping that it won't be too noticable being as my SDs are supposed to be 11-16 year olds, so their surroundings are going to be a bit big for them...but it was a silly mistake for me to make.

I have bought beautiful clothing for dolls only for it to not fit how it should, or shoes that are advertised as one size but fitting another - I class both of these things as unfortunate because I really liked them and desperately wanted them to fit!

Unfortunate doll buys can be a bit touchy, especially if someone has then gone on to buy the doll you think was an unfortunate purchase. Anyway, here goes...my second doll was a Bobobie Cookie (a WS tiny doll.) She was very cute, but I was expecting a doll the same size as a Volks YoSD (here's my problem with scale again...) so she was much smaller than I wanted, I quickly realised WS wasn't for me, and the resin was shiny and quite thin. It's not put me off Bobobie/Resinsoul entirely, but it has made me realise that dolls smaller than 11cm are just too small for me.

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #26 - Pretty vs Poseable?
I've been fairly lucky when it comes to this particular conundrum because the dolls I've been interested in have, on the whole, been both pretty and able to pose the way I want them to.

I'm not against hybridising a doll*, so if there was a face I adored and a body I prefered I wouldn't worry about putting them together to make a whole doll that appealed to me on all levels. My personal preference is stability over poseability. It would annoy me to no end to have a doll capable of tons of poses, but be so unstable that they couldn't stand for any length of time or even sit prettily.

I adore my Volks Megu (on an oldskin SD10 body), but her body does drive me insane. I've replaced her legs with other Volks legs and she is semi-stable sitting down, but she's still incapable of standing unaided. I think with some modifications she should be able to stand, but I haven't had the time or the tools to take care of this. In a perfect world, I would love to get a Volks Super Dollfie Graffiti body for her, because it would be super-poseable, but still compatible with her skin-tone and size.

*To return to this point, no I'm not against hybrids, but I would prefer to keep my Volks heads on Volks bodies. My main reason being that if there ever was an opportunity for me to attend a Dolpa, I could bring any of them with me without worrying about headswaps and whether their 'stock outfits' would fit another body. Volks Dolpas, for those who don't know, are events run by the Volks Inc hobby company for customers who have either bought Volks dolls/products or are interested in buying Volks dolls/products. The event is strictly Volks-only, and you can't bring non-Volks dolls or Volks/other-brand hybrids to these events.

Who is Gwenllian Rhosyn Cyffin?

This is the '10 things meme' carried over from Flickr!

1. Gwenllian was born in the Year of the Iron Snake, in the Century of the Goat

2. Gwenllian has a gift for languages. By the age of 12, she speaks five.

3. Her parents are constantly on the move as aeronauts and explorers, so Gwenllian was brought up by her aunt and uncle from when she was 1 year old.

4.Even though she is an only child, being brought up with her cousins means that they are as close to her as brothers and sisters.

5. Gwenllian was born before her parents got married - her middle name 'Rhosyn' is actually her mother's maiden surname.

6. Gwenllian is usually the peacemaker amongst her friends.

7. When she grows up she wants to travel and learn even more languages.

8. She finds tall, dark and handsome men attractive. (Bit of a shame for her though, I really don't do boy BJDs!)

9. Gwenllian's most prized possesssion is her silver bow bracelet, which belonged to her mother, Catrin, as a young girl. (This is being made by orangebabydolly and I am so excited about it!)

10. Gwenllian's name is pronounced 'gwen-kh-lee-ann' (the 'kh'/'ll' sound can be heard on this Forvo page for the word 'llall', there are two 'll's to listen out for!)

Winter

Hair is grey
And the fires are burning
So many dreams
On the shelf
You say I wanted you to be proud of me
I always wanted that myself

He says
When you gonna make up your mind
When you gonna love you as much as I do
When you gonna make up your mind
Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses have gone ahead
I tell you that I'll always want you near
You say that things change
My dear 

-- Winter, by Tori Amos 

Today would have been my Taid's 88th birthday. I still can't believe he's no longer with us. 

End of Summer, Beginning of Autumn

 Starting with a BJD picture is always a good thing :)

At the end of last month, I was asked to make a blog header by the awesome Adventure Girl - Llinos Cathryn Thomas for her blog 'Biscuits In, Writing Out'. On the theme of writing and biscuits I got out my great-grandmother's Bavarian tea set, some oatie biscuits, a cotton blend napkin and my swish Parker Pen and snapped away. The top ranked result can be seen here! Her blog is filled with funny, insightful and thoughtful things as she blogs about writing, creativity, awesome women, and lots of other fun things!

I really like this time of year. The weather is usually very nice in early September, just in time for kids to go back to school, and I tend to enjoy early autumn far more than summer. Summer for me usually means uncomfortable heat, lots of overtime at work and lots of tourists on their holidays, but by this time of year everyone's gone home, the heat has cooled down and my shifts get less crazy too.

This time last year I was stressing over my impending dissertation, so it's very nice to have a September I can actually enjoy!

B and I have been on a bit of a health kick for the past week, we've been eating really good, healthy food and this week we've started throwing in some exercise. My word. I am aching!

Monday we walked up the Jubilee Path on the mountain Moel Lus (ouch!), and yesterday we walked to Llandudno and back. Today we had a much shorter walk, from Deganwy to Conwy ;) I don't think my poor legs could have managed much more!

This afternoon I came back and took advantage of the sunny afternoon to take some pictures of Morideryn in the garden. The sun hits a lovely spot at the top of the garden and lights up the crocosmia and the old shed at the back, so I thought it would make a nice backdrop for doll pictures.

Here you can see her full outfit, she's wearing a summer dress by Kalcia, white slip by Nine9Style, stockings by Plume Blanche Creations, and the brown version of Dollheart LS000186 boots.

I do dress my dolls in a style that I tend to wear myself - B describes it as 'verging on twee' ;)

 The browns and oranges are really making me feel autumnal :D

Hopefully by the next update I'll be able to show off Gwenllian! Her body is on the way from Thailand and her face-up is almost finished in Scotland. It'd be so awesome if they arrived together and I could put her together straight away.

Incoming!

I've finally paid off the layaway on Gwenllian's body and Viridian House is almost done with Gwenllian's face up, so she is finally coming together at last! It's going to be really exciting to see her in one piece with her new face-up and put her in her Wimukt mori outfit!

As well as Gwenllian's head and body coming in, I have a few wardrobe additions too! Now, I haven't been too bad by buying these because I have sold some dolls and clothes, so I'm actually spending hobby money on my hobby this time, instead of my wages!

The outfit and boots are both by Dollheart - the outfit is LD000502 [SteamPunk2012] - Journey and the boots are LS001219. I know I've said it before, but I love buying Dollheart outfits because there are just so many pieces involved. I can get a few outfits out of one set this way and each piece can be used with other items I have in my dolly wardrobe. Originally I was just going to get the outfit, but then I saw the boots as well and couldn't resist ;)

The deer antler headband is by Kuloft, who make very cute things for dolls from colourful plastic. This was another impulse buy. This is Dal-sized, which means it fits heads that are 8-9" in size. This should fit Deryn and Gwenllian well, but might be a squeeze on my melon-heads, Mafonwen and Tommeliesl, whose heads come up to almost 9-10". Kuloft do Blythe-sized headbands as well (9-10"), but I wanted to try something I know would be smaller just in case the Blythe ones were far too big.

Last but not least, the summery dress is by Kalcia from Etsy. It's going to be Gwenllian's. I think the pattern is very cute and it's going to break up all the blues, greys and browns that she normally wears.

My parents are away on holiday this week, but instead of having wild parties and staying up all night, what I'm actually going to do is finish some BJD projects I've been putting off. I want to re-string Mafonwen properly with new elastic and I want to catalogue my BJD wardrobe [/librarian!] What I really want is to catalogue and photograph everything so that instead of hunting through for the things I want, I can refer to my own guidebook. It should hopefully keep things neat and tidy this way too.

Tommie

As I mentioned in my previous post (Dolls moving out!), I've traded my Volks YoSD Yuh for a Volks Kun head...and here she is!

Her name is Tommeliesl von Dorfli, but her friends call her Tommie. The wig she's wearing was a gift from RREGUI, the person I traded with. Tommeliesl has blonde hair, so this wig will be going to resident brunette Gwenllian, when she comes back from Viridian House. The blue eyes will be staying though - they're 18mm glass eyes from Luts.

Tommie will be a floating head, I don't anticipate getting a body for her at all soon as she isn't one of the main characters in the story, but she is one of my favourite characters so she probably won't be bodyless for long. She definitely needs a face-up though!

How do you solve a problem like Mojito?

I am having style problems with my Unoa Sist. I originally planned for her to have a mint green colour scheme and wear pastels...so far so good. Only, when I did her face-up and tried her wig on her, Mojito didn't look the way I wanted her to look.

So I changed tack. I figured perhaps Mojito wasn't a minty, pastelly girl. Inspired by ClockworkAngel's amazing psychobilly doll Cherry~Sue, I thought 'why not make her a rockabilly chick?'

So, I wiped off the pastel face-up with the mint green eyebrows I kinda liked, and did a more rockabilly style one, with glossy red lips, dark eyeshadow and eyeliner and some nifty black arched eyebrows.

I ordered her a new wig, a natural black one with curls and waves in a rockabilly style. It arrived today and... what an awful wig. I do expect that there's a difference between a wig that looks good on a large doll and a wig that is scaled down for a smaller doll, but this is barely recognisable as the wig I wanted. It is supposed to be black on top and brown underneath (I was going to snip off the brown) and the wig I received is a multitonal brown/black thing. There are even stray blue fibres in there from another wig.

So, I was forced to wash and restyle the wig. It's currently drying on top of a ball of kitchen paper put on top of a bottle so it'll dry in the right shape without putting a wet wig directly on my doll.

I've started re-reading the Hunger Games and now I want Mojito to be all pastels and fun colours again like Effie Trinket. I really don't know what to do with her!!

In good news though, I've received her feet and I got some high heel feet and option part hands as well, so there are more parts to play with as I try and figure out who she is.

Watch this space!

Dolls moving out!

This morning I put two dolls in the post!

My YoSD Yuh is going to a new home in Spain and my Dollfie Dream is going to her new home in York. Carrying the two large boxes down to the village post office was a bit of a struggle! I couldn't have managed any more!

The money from selling my Dollfie Dream has gone towards a body for my Volks Rose, Gwenllian, and my YoSD is being traded for a Volks Kun head. She has her original papers and Volks headplate, and the person I'm trading with is also paying for the cost of a Viridian House face-up for Kun when Caroline reopens her shop.

I am much happier with a smaller collection, I get a bit stressed when I have over 8 dolls because I can't really do anything with them if there's too many! My current dolls are;
Full Dolls;
Volks SD10 Megu - Mafonwen Enku
Volks SD13 School B - Morideryn
Volks SDC Kurt - Klemens-Ruprecht von Klessel
Alchemic Labo Unoa Sist - Mojito Collins
Volks SD13 Rose - Gwenllian Cyffin

Floating Heads;
Volks F-03 (head only) - Mefyswen
Volks Kun (head only) - Tommeliesl von Dorfli

I am pretty excited about my incoming Kun. I don't intend for her to be a full doll, she'll be able to share bodies with my other SD girls and that's fine by me. She is based on another of my characters, a Schkauss girl called Tommeliesl who goes to school with Gwenllian, Mafonwen and Deryn. Schkaussers can be brash and outspoken, but Tommeliesl is quite quiet in comparison.

I have some 18mm blue Luts glass eyes for her and I'll be getting a Leekeworld wig in sandy blonde. Not sure which style yet. Tommeliesl isn't a main character, so I don't expect to amass the same kind of huge wardrobes and wig collections the other ladies expect, but for me a 'complete' doll is one that has their own eyes, wig, personal outfit and shoes and doesn't have to share, so a complete floating head would be one that has their own eyes and wig at least!

Sad Post

My Taid (Welsh for grandfather) passed away yesterday. It's difficult to describe how important he was to me. He supported me in whatever I wanted to do - he was thrilled when I got my BA at Bangor University and without him I'd never have gone on to do my Masters at Liverpool.

I'm happy that I managed to make him so proud. There is more I could say, I will miss him on my wedding day and when I have children. I'll miss him whenever I have any exciting news or career moves. It'll never be the same without him, but he did get to see what made him happiest - he never dreamed one of his grandchildren would make it to the college on the hill he used to look at when he was a young man living in Bangor. He got to go to a graduation ceremony there and it was for both of us. I wish he had made it to Liverpool to see me graduate a second time, but he was ill in hospital then. He saw me in a cap and gown again though, through the pictures we took.

I'm so proud he was my Taid and I'll miss him every day.

ישוע אמר: "אני התחיה והחיים. כל מי שמאמין בי, למרות שהוא מת, אבל הוא יחיה, וכל מי שחי ומאמין בי לא ימות."

Box Opening

This is the first time in a long time that I've had an entire new doll arrive. My last few dolls were floating heads until I could buy them bodies. Getting a whole doll at once is very exciting!

May I present...the box opening of Miss Mojito Collins!

I laid out all her parts to check that eveything was included, and discovered she had no feet!

This was a bit of a surprise! I can't string her without her feet and they're still in London for the time being. Happily, Lolly from Den of Angels was selling some Unoa feet on the Marketplace so I bought those. I don't mind having two pairs of feet for her, I can paint the toenails different colours and mix things up :D

The biggest surprise, aside from Mojito's missing feet, is how big Unoas are! I was prepared for her to be quite small and slim, but she's comparable in size to an SDC girl. I've owned a MiniFee in the past and I think MiniFee are definitely slimmer than Unoa.

 Here's here Leekeworld wig and her Enchanted Doll eyes. I had to remove the resin flash from her eyeholes before she could try her eyes. A quick trim with a craft knife and...

Here she is! The eyes are sadly too big for her, I think she needs at least a 12mm pair to show some white and look good. Her wig fits perfectly though, so I'm quite happy with that.

I can't wait to start putting her together. The next step is to trim off the flash and sand her seams down and after that I can try doing her face-up. I've been watching lots of tutorials to try and get my ideas together. I think I know what I want for her, I just don't know if I have the skill for it.

As a new girl arrives, another girl goes off to a new home! Melangell, my SDC Kurenai, is going off to live with my friend, which is awesome for me because I'm getting my friend into the hobby and I'll also get to still see the doll!

Mojito!

This is the little planning doll I've made for Miss Mojito.

I have adopted an unassembled Alchemic Labo Unoa Sist kit from the collection of my friend d.ark, who passed away in May this year. This kit is something to remember her by, because she adored her Unoas and was a fan of everything Araki. It's an unusual position to be in, to be excited for the arrival of a new dolly but at the same time miss the person the doll belonged to and know that if d.ark was still with us she'd be assembling the doll herself.

I'm hoping that d.ark would have liked the plans I have for this doll.

Mojito is going to be the embodiment of my favourite cocktail! Minty fresh and sparkly! I also recommend it made with pink lemonade - it's fantastic!

Awaiting her arrival, I already have;

• LR-102_D wig from Leekeworld in 'Pale Turquoise', which comes up as a nice minty green (I am still on the lookout for a true green wig though eagle-eyed folks)
• 12mm Enchanted Doll pupilless Milky eyes in a half light mint/half dark mint
• Wimukt mori outfit
• Dale Rae pink suede flats

I have been a bit frugal this time - the only new thing I've bought for Mojito is her wig. Her eyes, clothes and shoes are already in my doll wardrobe!

Closet clearing!

I kept promising myself I'd have a closet clear out, but I genuinely am now!

I've started listing shoes on eBay, more shoes will follow. Please help me by adopting my shoes! I keep them in great condition and many of them have either never been worn or worn just once!

Gwenllian's gone to the spa

Well, Gwenllian has now gone to Viridian House for her face-up. I'm going to miss her being around. It's been nice having my 'big 3' together, but when Gwenllian comes back with her new make-up she'll be perfect!

My last try at getting Gwenllian a body of her own didn't work out - there was a language barrier and a lot of misunderstandings - but I've found another SD13 body on the DoA Marketplace and I'm looking into that one now. It's an L bust, so if I do get this one, Gwenllian will probably inherit Morideryn's M bust body and Deryn will be upgraded! Deryn's steampunk outfit looks great on her, but it was made for dolls with a bigger bust!

Tomorrow I'm going to start working on the Ikea Duktig bed I bought months ago. I set it up perfectly fine, but it's a strange size. Only 1/4 scale dolls can lie down in it, but the bedposts are too chunky for them really. It really looks like a doll bed if you put a MSD-size doll in it. I want to convert it into a sofa for my big girls to sit on, because it'd look more correctly scaled for them.

What I need to do, is make a seat back from thick cardboard, make seat cushions and back panels and work from there. I'm going to make it so that it can be converted back into a bed if I want it to.

Meet the New Girl!

Presenting Miss Gwenllian Cyffin!

This is the second doll I've had of this girl, (previously she was a Soulkid Snyder), I think the Volks Rose sculpt is the closest yet to finding her.

Gwenllian is at school with Morideryn and Mafonwen Enku. Whereas Deryn is outdoorsy and sporty, and Mafonwen is analytical and into mathematics, Gwenllian's passion and talent lie in languages. She has residual magic in her blood (her paternal uncle is a local cunning man and village leader), and although she isn't magical enough to attend the high class school of magic, Ysgol Gofannon, she is still considered 'upper-class' for a village girl due to her talents and connections, and is sent to school at Ysgol Graiglwyd.

Gwenllian's residual magic manifests in an incredible talent for languages - she can speak, read or write a language (with excellent comprehension) after hearing or seeing only a few sentences of the language and she is able to communicate with animals, which encourages her to be a vegetarian for ethical reasons - after all, who eats their friends?

Although her human friends are Deryn and Mafonwen, she has an 'Eastern Pointed Cat' (i.e. Siamese cat) named Arthur who is extremely chatty and friendly.

Gwenllian now has a middle-name, Rhosyn, after her sculpt :)

In the pictures she is wearing a mori girl outfit by Foxybrowny, Little Monica wig and Dollheart boots. Her face-up and eyes are by Volks.

While B's away...

I clearly have a shopping addiction.

B has been away at Download Festival this weekend and while he's been away I have bought;

• 1 Volks Rose head
• 1 Little Monica 'Simply Bob' wig in Dark Chocolate
• 1 Little Monica silicone wig cap
• Mori-Girl outfit set by Wimukt
• 1 blue polkadot playsuit by Dorset Clothing
• 1 BJD photo backdrop (a library)
• 1 pair Releaserain 4-strap SD shoes in Pearl Tan
• 3 new pieces of fabric (Russian Matryoshka, Little Red Riding Hood & stripe & anchor designs)

We're going to Liverpool in two weeks for a little holiday and I've paid for the hotel too.

I have a problem. It's so easy to just click on stuff!

I'm pleased to announce, though, that Momoko (my Dollfie Dream) is on layaway and her new owner will have her in two months' time. So in the spirit of out with the old and in with the new...I'm going to get a lot of the old out. I know I keep saying it, but I really do mean it this time.

Incoming...Shopping ban, what shopping ban?

More incomings!

It's summer time (not that you'd guess from the weather we've been having in Wales recently...), and that means I start thinking about all my unfinished stories and original characters again.

A character I've attempted to write about numerous times is a little girl called Gwenllian Cyffin, who has a strong nose, blue/grey eyes, a brown bob and a marvellous gift for languages. My first ever BJD (Soulkid Snyder) grew into this character and a whole world developed around her. I didn't want Gwenllian to stay a child for ever and her mini-sized self needed to be reshelled into a new resin incarnation. Sadly, she stayed in a box for over a year because I was too frustrated with her size to do much with her -- particularly as her two best friends (Mafonwen and Deryn) ended up being SD-sized dolls.

Both of the candidates for older Gwenllian can be seen in the above picture. Little Monica Reynell (in the brown wig) was the outstanding favourite for a very long time...but when putting her picture next to Maf and Deryn, I felt that Reynell looked older again. A girl in her twenties rather than a schoolgirl in her teens.

I then discovered (or re-discovered) Volks Bianka/Rose (Rose is in the pink wig)! Looking around on Mandarake, I found a Bianka for a very good price (but still out of my reach without a layaway.) My big breakthrough happened last night when I found a Volks Rose head on eBay being sold by a DoA member with a great reputation for a great price and (as it was payday) I didn't think twice.

So, Gwenllian-at-16 is going to be Volks Rose :) She will have to share Deryn's body for now because Gwenllian and Deryn are both taller than Mafonwen, but eventually I'll get her an SD13 body of her own.

The outfit in the picture is by Wimukt/Foxybrowny and sized for Volks SDGrG dolls. They are a bit slimmer than SD13s and SD10s but this outfit is quite baggy, so it shouldn't be a problem for her to wear. Gwenllian is a little bit mori and a little bit steampunk and a very cool character. I saw this outfit by Wimukt in March of this year, but only after it had sold! I hoped that Wimukt would re-release this outfit because it would be perfect for Gwenllian. Morideryn is my mori girl, but her colours are warm pinky, orangey browns. Gwenllian wears greys and blues.

The Simply Bob wig in Dark Chocolate (modelled by Little Monica Reynell) is Gwenllian's only wig. For as long as I've known her as a character, she's always had her thick brown hair bobbed (probably always will) and as soon as I saw the wig advertised on the Little Monica website, I knew it was perfect for Gwenllian. I bought the same style in 'carrot' colour for Deryn and I love everything about the wig. My other new favourite wig seller, Crobidoll, didn't have exactly the right colour I needed. Their CRWL-66 bob in 'Powder Brown' was the closest I could find and the colour was a bit too reddish.

The Volks Rose head I bought is coming with the default Rose eyes (grey/purple with black line Volks HG glass eyes), so Gwenllian should have the right colour...but if they're more purple than grey, I have some Hand Glass Craft eyes in turquoise that should look good. Gwenllian has steel blue/grey eyes and I think that when you're resinating an existing character, it's often the eyes that have to be perfect pretty soon after you start putting your character doll together. If you can see the character in those eyes, you can cope with the not-quite-right wig and the sort-of clothes and the nearly-there face-up. That's what I think anyway :)

Ultimately I will get Gwenllian on Viridian House's waiting list for a brand new face-up, but I don't want to arrange a slot until she's physically in my possession.

I bought the original Gwenllian in 2008 while I was struggling to write my undergraduate dissertation. She was my muse for that. Perhaps the new Gwenllian will be my muse now, and I'll actually finish something!

Spring Evening

I had a small photoshoot with Deryn this evening while the light was still pretty.

She has a new wig! She's always going to be a redhead, but this time her wig is from Little Monica. The style is called 'Simply Bob' and the colour is 'Carrot'. It's a perfect match for the Limited Edition Leeke wigs I got for her at Christmas in 'Real Carrot'. It's going to be great if Little Monica bring out more styles of wigs in this colour because this is her hair colour and anything else would look a bit weird on her now. I'd love to have more wigs in this colour so she can have more hairstyle options.


I really recommend Little Monica wigs - I recommend Crobidoll wigs too. I used to rely on Leekeworld because all the wigs I received from them were in great condition and the number of styles and colours available is huge, but I don't like that dark wigs have black wig caps because the risk of staining is really high. I was so impressed when I recieved Melangell's dark wig from Crobidoll because it had a flesh-tone wig cap, not a dark one. The overall quality of the wig is great anyway, but extra thumbs up for the light wig cap! Likewise, this Little Monica wig has a light wig cap too.

She's sat in the cherry tree in my garden - it's formed a brilliant natural seat where the trunk splits into three main branches. I can sit dolls in the fork of the tree really securely. (I wish the bungalow behind her was a bit more obscured but oh well!)

The outfit she's wearing is Dollheart's Pure Maid outfit, her stockings are by Plume Blanche Creations and her shoes are by Releaserain. The Pure Maid outfit is great for Christmas or Valentine-themed pictures and is pretty much the only lolita outfit I have in SD-size. I am interested in more loli-outfits because they're just so pretty!

Wish Wish Wish!

I've just placed a pre-order for Wish magazine, the whimsical fashion, design, crafts & cute things magazine based on the WishWishWish blog.

I've been a huge fan of the blog for a while now and I can't wait to get the magazine and read it over a lovely cup of tea. I'm very excited!

BJD Addicts Written Prompts: #4, #14, #20

I haven't done any BJD Addicts prompts for a while, so here's three more!

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #4 - Favourite Brand/Store

This is an easy one - Volks!! Firstly I can't emphasise enough how important good customer service is for BJD companies selling on the international market. With Volks you know that your concerns won't be ignored and they keep you updated easily with shipping and tracking information. I have never had a problem with Volks and that's one reason why they'll always have my customer loyalty.

Lots of people complain that Volks sculpts are boring or too conventional...and I guess if your thing is the Soom fantasy dolls or the ultra mobile Feeple 65 or MiniFee, you have a point there. However, there are over 70 different FCS heads to choose from (the Volks Full-Choice doll system, creating a doll just the way you like it!), and as for limited dolls, at the last count there were well over 290! So even if Volks' standards don't appeal to you, there is going to be one out over 300 dolls that will.

Volks dolls are occasionally let down by the plain sales pictures but I like that they are plain. I can definitely see what I'm getting in the doll and I'd rather a clear, plain photo than an overly photoshopped one, or one where the doll's wig and clothes obscure what the doll really looks like.

Volks resin is consistent from one batch to the next, so you can be sure that when you're hybriding parts of Volks dolls your doll is still going to be all the same colour. The resin has a nice density and texture, a Volks doll feels so solid and stable when you touch it.

Aside from the dolls and the customer service, Volks has a great range of clothes, tools and art supplies. There's so many reasons why they have been the best in the business since the advent of the modern Asian Ball Jointed Doll hobby (pioneered by Volks) and I would not hesitated to recommend Volks to anyone.

One of the other common complaints about Volks is that their dolls are expensive. Protip - if you think you can't afford a Volks doll, check out Mandarake (it's one of Japan's largest seller of second-hand hobby paraphernalia and they do ship internationally), a perfectly good Volks SD10 body was recently for sale there for £150! Second-hand heads can be picked up for similar prices depending on their rarity.

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #14 - Favourite Commissioners?

I don't commission a lot for my dolls, but when it comes to face-ups I do (because I've tried and although I enjoy doing them, there are others who do the work so much prettier than I can ever hope to.)

My favourite person to commission is Caroline of Viridian House. Her work is truly lovely and really brings out all the sweetness in a BJD sculpt. She's painted Mafonwen, my Megu, and Morideryn, my School B. I know that whenever the next doll needs a new face-up I'm going to be booking a slot with Caroline. I just adore her work. She's a great person to commission too, she owns dolls, so she is in the hobby and understands dolly people foibles about keeping in good contact during the commission and she really knows the medium. Her paints and sealants are all resin-safe and her background in illustration is brilliant for understanding the requirements of the face-up and the 'look' that the owner wants to achieve with the doll. 

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #20 - Selling

I've sold a few dolls now and sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's difficult. I firmly believe that if a doll isn't working out, you should let it go. It's easier on you to try and find something else that works for you and in a way, it's also kinder on the doll - someone else will get to buy it and enjoy it. The hobby should be fun, so if you have a doll that drives you mad (a bad poser when you want them to be a photography model, for example), you aren't having a fun time with the hobby.

I've only found it difficult to sell a doll when I still love it. Usually when I decide to sell a doll I've made a conscious decision to stop thinking of it as mine and I've already started the separating process, it makes it so much easier to think of it as someone else's doll rather than keep calling it by the name you chose for it, etc. Sometimes I've had to sell a doll because although I still like the doll, the associations the doll has are upsetting. That was difficult, but I also knew that the buyer was really into the doll and that did help me make my decision.

The only sale I've ever flaked on was when I thought I should sell Rupert. This was not long after I got him and I knew that boy dolls weren't really my thing. I thought that because he sat on my shelf looking pretty all day I wasn't playing with him and I should probably move him on. I had a buyer all ready and I tried packing him up and I just cried. I just couldn't let him go and I had to apologise profusely to the buyer. Thankfully she was understanding. It was then that I realised you can still enjoy a doll without having him or her on your lap all the time or dressing them up and photographing them. I haven't photographed Rupert in a year, but every time I go to my bookshelf he's there and beaming, so I know I made the right decision.