catch-up... again!

So, I got married! This was a wonderful and bliss-filled event in my life... but it did result in me being quite busy and forgoing everything dolly-related for almost a couple of months... Here and there I knit a few stitches on a hat or redressed my girls and brushed their hair... but mostly, my sweet girls just languished while I attended to all things nuptial.

Since I arrived home from my honeymoon, though, I have been having a wonderful time reconnecting with my girls.  Mostly, I have been knitting hats for them and just hanging out with them... re-organizing their clothes and gearing up for some winter sewing projects.

I have been pining for a new dolly lately.  I really, really, really want a Nostalgic Pop or a Milky Way Sugar girl.  I love long dark brown hair without bangs.  I have been fantasizing about how some of my dress ideas would look on a brown haired girl. I almost even adopted a pre-loved Milky Way Sugar girl... but it didn't work out.  How dreamy they are... especially the translucent face of Miss Nostalgic Pop!

But then something happened - after I gave up on adopting MWS... my name came up on the Button Arcade commission list for two dresses. Woot! And Ott Lites went on sale 50% off at JoAnn's and I got one. So I sort of gave up on getting a new girl.

Bu then just tonight I revisited my poor Callie the mystery clone. She was going to be turned into a skully girl... but spray-painting her faceplate white went badly wrong.   I bought Montana Acrylic spray paint because I thought that Acrylic would be high quality, but I think it turned out to be too thick.  It clumped and behaved badly in a way that I haven't seen other spray paint behave. I was so upset when it happened back in the summer.  I started trying to scrap off some of the paint when it was still tacky and got some off of her face... then I started sanding with a fine sanding sponge, which sort of smoothed out some patches of paint, but didn't remove it.

Fast forward a few months until tonight.  I took to her faceplate with regular fine sand paper, which is like infinitely coarse for Blythe, but it took the paint off straight away!  Then I buffed her faceplate with a Hello Kitty emory board & back to the ultra-fine sanding sponge.  Now she is okay.  Still a bit scuffy - but I ordered three grades of Norton sanding sponges and I plan to get her back in shape & give her a regular face-up and search for a scalp for her... maybe even a dark brunette scalp.  She had a good eye-mech and some pretty eye chips already.  I need to get her a regular Blythe body - I don't like her Obitsu body because it is too big, though I love how those bodies are infinitely pose-able.

Callie will be my first and last ever attempt at customizing.  I really prefer stock Takara girls (or a Kenner, if ever I met one at a thrift store or some other fantastical situation!) to factory, fake, or clones... or even customized.  I just find the pure girls super-charming and appealing.  Maybe an eye-chip change or a teensy bang trim... but basically I just like them purely how they arrive NRFB.

Still, I am happy and excited to be able to work on Callie right now because it quells my yearning for another girl & breathes new life  in to a girl I thought was a goner.

dissociation...

All the painting and moving and cleaning and major work is done... and I finally had a chance to breathe and rest and finish my BK swap package & dismember dollies.

Well... one dolly, that is. Here is a clearer photo of my new mystery clone in her last few moments of being "stock". 

She has a look on her face like she knows something is up... and it was, indeed!

Everything was going along okay until I got to the top screw of the three and it seemed like it had been glued in or something.  I finally got it turning, but it didn't come out, so I realized, I'd just stripped the hole and it was going around and around w/o budging.  Then it just kind of came out. Well that was too good to me true... a tiny piece of her scalp flange actually broke and let it loose... but the screw is still stuck.  I think she will go back together okay w/o it, though.

Here's her scary face-up one last time before I sand matte her... the eyebrows are quite strange.

 

Pucci Collective saved me as I worked to get her eye mechanism out... I had to use my hands instead of a screwdriver with tape - I just had so much more control and knew exactly how much pressure I was applying, so I felt more comfortable... it took a long time and my fingers got really sore in the process.

Then I started sanding off the makeup to start fresh as a skully girl... almost done...

Comparison of different girls: ICY, Blythe RBL, and Basaak Clone... w/mystery clone faceplate...

All ready for a fresh start!

I also started taking out her eye chips because they were really dull - scratched on the outside and cloudy inside, with the black part of the pupil not very opaque. I think they just used a marker to black it and some weird white glue all over the back of the chips...

You can see from these pictures how dirty the are... but the good news about this funky glue - it's nothing like the funky Basaak glue!  The eye chips popped right out with the gluestick method & left no shards behind. Whew! 

This morning, I found an Obitsu body on BK and I think it will be perfect for her... (seller's photo)

It's taller than I would choose for Mesmer's replacement & I am loving having the clone's old body as a dress form... so I think this will be perfect... it's very boney and skeletony seeming to me & I have been wanting a posable body for one of my girls...  so it will be fun to test it out!

Callie McSpookerson has arrived.

Okay - that last name might not stick... and Callie is just short for Calavera. I am also tempted to name her Lola Daydream. I'm not going to name her until I have customized her a bit... so her personality can emerge.
(pardon the bad photos - had to take them with my webcam or nuthin' - long story.)

Here's how she arrived - all wrapped in sheets of Chinese newpaper with a faux Hermes scarf as a free gift - or perhaps a wrap?  She's perfect... since she will become a calavera girl... why not start life spooky?!

I've never been creeped out by my other dolls before - but I must cop to it.  This girl kind of freaks me out.  She needs a lot of love.  She probably needs to be smudged with sage smoke, banished, exorcised or aura cleansed or something... she evokes a troubled spirit... like a wounded animal.  I've never unwrapped a doll like this before.  It was strange and surreal to get her out of her plastic costume.

She is covered in plastic having plastic nightmares from behind her strange lazy sleep eyes... poor girl. 

She has pretty good quality hair, but it is thinly rooted and isn't really thatched, so it's kind of impossible to style.  She may end up with a Sleeping Elf wig that I had imagined for Charlotte - I am still waiting on it, even though I found the Guava scalp for her and she became adopted sisters with James.

Her faceplate is really nice, despite the hideous eye makeup & having lots of strange scuff marks.  Her lips are really nice - I almost hate to change them... but calaveras usually don't wear lipstick (or have lips!).  The quality of the faceplate plastic feels nice and substantial and solid like Blythe, but it's not a Blythe as the back plate claims. And the shape of her eyes is a pit different than Blythe - closer to Icy, almost.

(I feel kind of gross that she is a real knock off.  The Blybe/Basaak are obviously different - but she is claiming to be a Blythe - the mark on the back is trying to copy a real Blythe mark. Why or why?!)

Anyhow, her faceplate plastic is heavier than Char-Char's faceplate plastic... but her body is junk.  First off, the knees don't bend at all. I read some people say it was better quality than a Basaak... but I disagree.  Maybe it's better than CCE... but Charlotte's body is way nicer than this one.

I see where they are coming from maybe thinking it's better - it's heavier - I'll give it that much.  But the plastic is badly molded & the joints where her legs attach to her torso are really floppy, so she doesn't stand very well - there is no definition to her hands & feet and she is even missing part of a thumb!

Poor thing!  I think she will get in line before Mesmer for the first of my girls to get a body transplant... or I could get Mesmer a new body and give Mesmer's old Takara one to her. That is probably what I will end up doing so I don't have too many dolly parts around... but I am still steeling myself for the prospect of taking Mesmer apart in order to change her.

So I will start with taking apart Miss Spookerson. I think she has a lot of potential and I am motivated to get started because this girl *needs* some love.  She's had a rough life. In fact, I feel like she has come to me as a bit of a corpse and so the calavera theme is perfect.  I have been sketching today and daydreaming of colors and eyechips... I really want to paint some ideas on canvas first before I paint her...  but she does have a sweet skully girl in there somewhere and I will let her out!

Swap fever & Exciting Mail...

I just finished up some projects for this month's swap and I am really excited about them.  I have a bit more sewing to do before I send my package out for this month.  I love the swaps!

One of the funny things about them, though, is that I have to keep the projects I'm working on under wraps until my swap partner gets them... and since life has been crazy busy lately... that's most of what I have been working on.

So I decided to share what I sent last month... I think it might become a little ritual to share the previous month, as I gear up to send the next month's package!

The theme was Cool Britainnia last month, here's what I sent to my partner...

My partner, moondoxy, had awesome "likes" that gave me some very fun ideas - this dress was inspired by the Crown Jewels and the Tudor Ravens.  The necklace, I bought on etsy.

This one was inspired by Druids, Wuthering Heights, and my ongoing love of smocks.  Mesmer wants one for herself when I get a chance! (in black, of course.) :)

To go with it, I also put together this little necklace with a miniature pendant I found on etsy & a bit of chain.  I would love to experiment more with making Blythe necklaces! It was a lot of fun, but I need to perfect the chain a bit more.

And the last thing I made was this London-themed dress...

The fabric is "Makower Fabrics - UK"  They had a whole bunch of fabulous prints just in time for the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics.  The crown fabric is also Makower.

I made matching dresses for Mesmer and Lizzie Jane to practice what I wanted to do with the crown fabric.  Lizzie Jane didn't really like hers... but it made for a cute photo.

And then I added a bunch of black tulle around the hem and collar and turned it into another dress for Mesmer... though the black crown dress is now one of her very favorites... she does like both.

And... my kooky mystery clone arrived in the mail yesterday.  She was registered mail, so she must be signed for & the post office had already closed once I got home to get the package slip... so I haven't met her yet... but tonight I will!  I am looking forward to seeing one of these mystery girls in person and planning a more ambitious customization project.

...on a jet plane.

Mesmer got to be the first of my Blythes to travel.  We had a terrible disaster with some reactive plastic from a vintage Sindy dining chair that stained the backs of her legs.  It was heart-breaking... we discovered it when I got her down to see James' arrival and so the day was bittersweet with a perfect new dolly and an injury to one of my beloved girls.  I took a picture, but can't bear to post it yet. Too sad.  However - it frees me up to let Mesmer wear black stockings and tights now, as she has been craving for a while - I read how they could stain and I was afraid... but now they hide the red plastic chair stain and who cares if they stain more... and she is now rooting for an eventual change to a super-bendy Pure Neemo body.

Long story short - to make it up to her, she insisted on being picked to come with me on my trip to my family reunion in Kentucky.  It rained most of the time we were there - which was a bit disappointing because I brought her Vintage Skipper swimsuit and we were planning to try to sneak off for a poolside photoshoot... but I did take this fun picture of her looking wistfully out the window at the rain.

On the way home, I had to fly back to work earlier than my parents, so I was traveling just with Mesmer and we had the most public Blythe photoshoot I've ever done - it was tons of fun and I didn't care a whit about being embarrassed because I wasn't ever going to see the folks in the airports again!

There was still rain once we got to Cincinatti - even severe thunderstorm warnings!

But we finally got cleared for takeoff, just as the sun was setting...

In Salt Lake... she helped me find my connection... and we took one last shot at the gate before heading home.

 I really bonded with Mesmer on this trip.  (oh and before I forget, I made her that black and grey hat as my activity while traveling!) It was so fun to have her along and there were a few times when she was a great comfort, as well as a fun companion.  She is the bravest and most adventurous of my girls and she has the battle scars to prove it - but I find the more I let go of worrying about her staying perfectly stock, the more I feel comfortable about really playing with her and the more fun we have.  Also - her personality comes out a lot... so it's a win-win situation.  She will definitely be my traveling companion on future trips. She's a bit of a jetsetter, already!

always one step behind... belated welcome to James St. James

When she arrived - all the girls came our to welcome her... she looked a little stunned at first! Lizzie Jane lent her a dress so she wouldn't have to be shy. :)

Still not so sure... but Char-Char and Mesmer are trying to make her feel at home - they recommend a little trip outside.

That's better!  She starts to feel at home and what a pretty girl she is! The camera loves her custom details.

She is such a pretty girl and we are all happy to have her join the family... especially Charlotte! Once her new Simply Guava scalp showed up the day after James did... they were like long-lost sisters reunited! <3

I wasn't sure if the pink would suit her - but i think it's perfect - especially with James.  It matches her lips exactly!

"Call it impulsive, call it compulsive, call it insane."

I just bought this mystery clone doll... within 5 minutes of discovering it's existence.  I don't know why - it was a totally impulsive move. I want to make her into a calavera.

I've seen some gorgeous Blythe calaveras - but when it comes to proper Blythes, I can't bring myself to do much to them myself... I really like stock Blythes NRFB when they come to me. Out of curiosity, I bought myself a factory custom who is on her way and I am very excited to meet her... but unless I found one baity to begin with, I could never bring myself to change a real stock Blythe very much... I like them as they come!

Yet, I loved the calavera idea ever since I saw it... I was a calavera last year for one of my 4 nights of Halloween!  It was my first time trying the makeup - I just had a black face-painting pencil left over from a kit of vampire facepaint I used a year before... and a liquid eyeliner for the finer lines... it was hurried - but tons of fun & I got a lot of compliments.  I image searched calaveras and had a wonderful time looking at all the beautiful details.

I've seen a few truly lovely Blythe ones and some that were maybe not so well executed... but a lot of love went into them... I fell for all of them! I don't have an airbrush or anything as skilled & specular as these works of art... but I love to paint and I've thought it would be fun for a long time.

My friend just posted this lovely pictures to my FB recently, wanting to learn more about Blythe, totally rekindling my curiosity for a dolly calavera.

 I had been scoping out factory girls on the Taobao agent pages for a girl who might make a good calavera... the whole agent thing with factory Blythes kind of weirds me out & on ebay I'd rather get a stock Prairie Posey or Very Vicky new in the box for the same price than a factory or fakie girl I am just going to have my crafty way with... and I wanted a black haired girl most of all, but had not seen any factory girls with black hair.

So when I learned about the new clones and took a look & saw a black haired girl for $40 with free shipping who I could play with and not feel guilty... I just went nuts for a moment, threw caution to the wind and bought her!

I  really must be stopped.  In addition to the whole customizing diversion... I really do want to collect some more expensive stock Blythes like NosPop, Pheobe Maybe, and Gentle River. Really I do.  I just keep getting sidetracked.