just a little update :)

Ah, another weekend. And I just realised my last post was over a month ago -- a first for me, excepting perhaps that time when I had morning sickness. The blog has always been in the back of my mind though, but I'm really coming to that point of acceptance that I will not be blogging as regularly as I did before; in fact, I'd be content to post perhaps once a month, at least till Jakey is a little older. In truth, the thought did cross my mind to leave off blogging altogether, but remembering the friends I've made and who have been so supportive -- as well as those who would bother to leave comments or email me telling me how helpful or encouraging something I'd written was -- gave me pause.

So as I've a bit of free time today, I decided to write a bit. Warning though -- this post is decidedly dollyish in tone haha.. but after all, that is part of what I do to earn my keep now! Thanks to my work, I was able to bring the girls on a little staycation at the start of this June holiday -- the hubs was away on a lovely European business trip for two weeks and I felt the girls deserved a bit of time away as well. We had a splendid time of course, but I think the girls would agree one of the really high points was going to see Maleficent! Did you all manage to catch it too? If you didn't, you really ought to. Angelina Jolie was just perfect, and the film was really so lovely -- and of course, as Disney would always have it, I teared up.

But now -- on to dolly business! First a couple of girls who came and went over the past month -- Starling, right at the top there, and redheaded Poppy here.

In the shop now is Skylar, whose hair I spent a great deal of time dyeing violet, pink and blue. Dyeing, especially synthetic materials, is a tricky affair, but that's part of the fun I think! Plus it definitely guarantees the OOAK nature of the doll.

Skylar's eyelids :) 

Since getting more involved in the Blythe community, I've come to learn more about other kinds of collectible dolls, in particular, the kind known as ball-jointed dolls, or BJDs. BJDs are articulated dolls, and their parts are strung together with elastic, giving them the ability to "move" and pose. Some of them are quite tiny, about 4" tall, while others tower at 24". Pandora here is a 16" BJD, and my first!

The fun thing about many BJDs is that they're easy to customise -- well, easier than  Blythe at any rate, I think. You can paint them, and change their eyes and hair. I deepened Pandora's faceup and gave her new eyes and hair. The girls love her pale, but I personally have a thing for redheads :)

Pandora is from a line of what I consider "mature" BJDs -- as in, I feel they look like young adults. They have very well-developed figures and some are very busty, quite different from Blythe. In this picture, Pandora is wearing what I call her "mature" hair haha..

And so, because I was loving working on Pandora, I decided to explore other BJDs as well. The next one that captured my attention was this little Secretdoll Person. Persons are funny little BJDs measuring only about 7 1/2" (as a reference, Blythe is 11"), with distinctive pouts and a Yoshitomo Nara-esque face. Here, I've opened up the Person and stripped off the original faceup.

I learned soon enough that they were fiddly little beasties -- the tiny face made the carving and colouring quite a delicate, tedious affair.

I finally got Tova done after a great deal of futzing. Persons are sent with random wigs, but since we hated the one they sent us -- something resembling a dried bush -- I had to leave Tova sitting about like this. Which did look a little pathetic.

So Pandora has let her borrow her "mature" hair till her own arrives. Pandora's head is a good deal larger than Tova's, so she looks like a teeny tiny disco queen haha..

Well, that's all for now -- I mean to catch up on my blog-reading while I still have some time now, so I'll see you again.. in awhile! Have a super lovely weekend, dear friends!