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 :)



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.

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. 



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 :)

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant Hapus!

Today is St David's Day, the day dedicated to Wales' patron saint, Dewi Sant. His last sermon to his congregation reminded them to "do the little things," ("gwnewch y pethau bychain") because little acts of goodness and kindness done by everyone add up to a lot!

My Volks Rose, Gwenllian, is dressed up in traditional Welsh dress - when St David's Day falls on a week day lots of younger children go to school dressed in traditional clothes, I did every year in primary school.

I made the hat myself and boy do I have the stabbed and pricked fingers to prove it! Ouch! I think this is the last Welsh hat I make for quite some time!

BJD Addicts Written Prompts: #3, #8, #25

Here's some more BJD Addicts prompts!

Tommie

Introducing Tommeliesl von Dorfli, my Volks Kun/F-22, fresh from a spa visit to Viridian House!

This character is one of my 'big four', so it's exciting to have her fully face-upped, with the right wig and eyes and costume! Tommie is part of the same story as Gwenllian, Deryn and Mafonwen.

Bad blogger!

My poor abandoned blog! I'm sorry!

I won't even try to catch up where I left off last year because I'm bound to skip things and it's a bit too much to play catch up all in one post!

The main thing to mention is that I have retired as a moderator from Den of Angels. I wrote my reasons why on my Tumblr blog and it was a sad decision to step down so I'd rather not go over it all over again. I'm re-evaluating my participation in the BJD hobby and as much as I still love the other mods and being a mod, I want to see if I still enjoy the hobby without DoA tying me to it.

I still like and appreciate my dolls as objects (and that's not wrong,) but I've not done much with them at all, whereas when I started in this hobby I wanted to be actively doing things with my dolls and not just admiring them from a shelf. The new things I bought them were not being worn and I barely photographed them. This year I want to see how attached I am to the hobby, and so far (seeing that it's February) I seem to be doing okay.

In the last year I've sold a few dolls and changed the line-up at home, but I'm happy with my choices and pleased with the dolls I have. I've updated the Ball Jointed Dolls page (above) to reflect my current doll collection.

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!)

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!

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!

Poppy

Poppy has a new wig!

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.

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.

12 Dolls of Christmas: Last day!

On the 12th and final day of Christmas (even though that really ends on January 6th!), I present to you, Miss Momoko Jones. I sold her earlier this year, so this picture is obviously not recent, but I wanted to pay tribute to an amazing doll. I still love Dollfie Dreams and I'm still a bit sad that I sold Momoko, but at the same time if I hadn't my collection would have been too big and a big collection makes me all stressed and unhappy.

I hope that her new owner is still enjoying her a lot!

12 Dolls of Christmas: Blind Mag!

On the 11th day of Christmas!

 

This is an awful picture of Mafonwen, but she's cosplaying as the amazing Blind Mag from Repo! The Genetic Opera. This is quite an old picture! She and I cosplayed together, but I didn't get a picture of us both. Mafonwen's cosplay has gone on to a new home now since I don't see us duo-cosplaying this particular character again, but I do still have the piercing blue eyes, so I'm sure I could rustle something up if It had to be done :D

12 Dolls of Christmas: Rupert

On the tenth day of Christmas...

My boy doll, Rupert, very rarely gets photographed - which is why this is an old photo of him trying to get my attention while I'm doing some work for my MA!

12 Dolls of Christmas: Poppy

On the ninth day of Christmas... last year's mod triumph!

It's ridiculous how proud I am of this doll. Yes, some of the lines are a bit wonky, perhaps I could have been neater in places, but this is the first face-up I've actually been happy with, ever, and my first ever doll modification all in one.

My plan for this year is to get her a body at some point. I want a Doll-Chateau body for her. I did think about getting one in Normal-Yellow resin, but now I'm wondering whether WS resin would be better? She's yellowed anyway, but since her face-up covers the majority of her head, I'm not really concerned about resin matching. We'll see, anyway.