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.

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: 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.

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!

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!