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.

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!

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.

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

Time for some more BJD Addicts prompts!
 

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!)

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.

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!