Text
When was the last time you cleaned your sewing machine? It's a simple task, and something I do between projects. Have you noticed your thread tangling or tearing? Stitches being skipped? A funky noise that shouldn't be there? Chances are your machine needs to be cleaned. Cleaning it will prevent it from breaking down and requiring repairs, and that can get very expensive.
3K notes
·
View notes
Photo
-insert Mario 64 Bowser theme-
Custom Bowser doll, made by me, over the course of 3-4 months. Base is a Fancy Nancy 18″ body with a Be Kind head, and shell off a Halloween skeleton turtle. Sculpted over with apoxie, painted with acrylics, with brushed yarn hair, and tail made of fabric and sculpey with a wire armature.
This has been the biggest custom project I’ve ever made, and I’m very happy with him!
352 notes
·
View notes
Text
Creating Kagome Part 1: The Doll
WARNING: VERY LONG POST AHEAD!
The journey began with me finding someone who could make Kagome’s school uniform since there’s no way I can do that lol. If her outfit couldn’t be made, the entire project would be in vain. Fortunately, I found a very talented seamstress who’d made Sailor Moon outfits for Made to Move Barbie bodies. I contacted her, and she said she could make Kagome’s uniform! Yay!!!
Next up was choosing the perfect doll. That alone took a good month and a half. I’d planned to use a Barbie for sure because I’m familiar with Barbie and her mechanics (i.e., head swaps and body compatibilities), plus she’s the most common fashion doll for clothes and accessories. And these days, she comes in a variety of skin tones… which turned out to be a big deciding factor for choosing the perfect candidate. I was making this doll specifically to go with my 12″ figure, and if you look at official images of the couple, and even watch the episodes, you’ll see that they have almost the same skin tone. In Barbie terms, the purple top Made to Move doll (ironically, the Asian one) was too pale in comparison to my figure. If I were making Kikyo, she’d work. But I wasn’t. I was making Kagome, and despite the story, the two are vastly different in terms of personality (and even, in my opinion, appearance - I never thought they looked that much alike).
My first plan was to use one of these dolls:
They’re both anime Mattel dolls from the Barbie Video Game Hero movie. They already had the anime face, so I thought whichever one worked best would just need a reroot and a body swap and I’d be done! WRONG. The neck hole in the doll’s head was vastly smaller than that of a Barbie, and I wasn’t comfortable cutting it to make it larger. I only had one shot, and knowing me, I’d mess it up drastically and be majorly sunk. So I knew I had to use just a regular Barbie instead, one without the anime face mold.
So then I found some Barbies that had the appropriate skin tone - I chose the wheelchair body, and of course it had to be a Made to Move body for posing capabilities. Victory! But of course, anime characters have those distinctive large eyes, and a Barbie face wasn’t going to cut it. So I had to contact a repainter on Etsy and ask if he could repaint a Barbie face to resemble Kagome’s. Then we had to determine the best face mold for that because of how defined the lips were. Anime characters also have tiny noses and mouths, so we agreed that the Lea face mold would be the most effective.
The doll I finally decided on was a Fashion Fever Lea circa 1999. Her skin tone matched the Made to Move body, so I was thrilled to finally have a doll picked out!
She did, of course, need a reroot because she had blonde/brown streaks in her hair, and Kagome’s hair is solid black. I can’t reroot, and I’m hesitant to dye doll hair for fear of staining the doll or her clothes, so I had to send the head off to get her rerooted. When that process was done, I sent her to my painter.
This process alone took about three months. When I finally got the doll back and complete, I was so happy - until my mom, who isn’t even an avid fan of the show, asked me if I thought the doll really looked like Kagome.
(NOTE: That uniform is one I got from a different seller, and she’d mistakenly used an old 90s TNT body rather than the Made to Move body as the base, so it’s a little large on her. That backpack was made by Beautyshare on Etsy).
So after looking at the doll, while I do love her, I decided that yes, she is more of a “Barbie as” version of Kagome rather than the actual character. The problem was her largely defined nose and mouth. Nothing wrong with her, but I decided I needed to keep looking. Like I said, being an OCD perfectionist is both a blessing and a curse.
So I continued to hunt for the perfect doll to use. I thought a Momoko doll might work, but she was too short and also didn’t have the desired face sculpt. So I finally decided to just type into Google Images one day “11″ anime doll.” I had no idea what would pop up, but what I got changed everything. Among the results were, of course, some Azone dolls and generic action figures, but then my eyes drifted to this doll and my jaw dropped:
Her face really helped seal the deal - her eyes were already the perfect shape, and she had that itty bitty nose and the small mouth that was smiling! She’d obviously need her eyes painted brown, and her eyebrows would need to be black and not blue, but I knew I could do that easily enough. Larger anime eyes are easier to paint those little details on as opposed to the tiny Barbie eyes.
The next step was to see if I could even find this doll. She’s an older one, based off an old Sega game known as Sakura Wars. I’ve never heard of it, but at this point that was irrelevant. I was making props in between searching for the right doll, plus having some custom made due to my lack of ability to sew and ordering others (thanks, ReMent!), so I knew I had to get this doll going. To my pleasant surprise, eBay had a large assortment of this doll available, all in the United States!
My next concern was whether or not the skin tone would work. All the anime dolls I’d seen so far (Azone, Obitsu, and even custom-made ones by other people over the years) had that super pale skin tone that belongs to Kikyo, not Kagome. So I looked at several listings, trying to determine if the skin tone would work. Then luck really came to my side as I found this doll for sale deboxed, resulting in a much lower price (this doll wasn’t expensive even in the box, but hey, I’ll save money wherever I can! I don’t need the box!)… and the seller was actually holding the doll in their hand! That allowed me to see the doll’s skin tone in comparison to someone’s actual hand, and it was almost the exact same shade. So I knew I had to jump at this chance.
Next up - wait for the post office to deliver this doll (don’t get me started on the USPS…). I was so anxious, wondering if she’d be okay for what I wanted to do. When she arrived at last, I opened her up and was pleased to see that she was about Barbie-sized (a tad shorter but her head wasn’t too small like some other anime dolls out there, so it would fit on the Made to Move body), and her skin tone didn’t look like the purple top Made to Move. That’s good. So, moment of truth. I took the doll into my doll room, where the decapitated body was waiting. I held the Barbie hand up to this doll’s face, and…
SUCCESS!!! A perfect match!!! The relief and excitement that washed over me was intense! At last I had an anime doll!!!
Of course, nothing is quite that simple. This head removed from the body super easy (it’s just a peg inside, no hooks at all), but the head hole was too small for the Barbie body. But only by a little bit. So I took a chance and grabbed my X-Acto knife and sliced off the inner ring inside the head. That did it! It took a little bit of elbow grease, but the head did get on the body! I then had to use a bit more force to slide it down the neck so it didn’t look like it was just sitting on top of it, but I got that too!
Original neck hole:
After using the X-Acto knife:
The prepared body (the neck peg is necessary to secure the head to the neck, but I did completely remove the hook portion since that isn’t necessary and it was too tall for the head anyway):
On the body!
Next up was the hair. I’d hoped to just dye the hair, somehow, thanks to various YouTube tutorials. Her hair was blue, and obviously that wouldn’t do. So I took it out of its ponytail, and received yet another surprise… not a pleasant one, though. Because the doll’s hair had been in a ponytail, the manufacturers apparently thought there didn’t need to be a lot of said hair, so there were a TON of bald spots! So even if I did manage to color the hair, there was no way there’d be enough of it to make it look how it should. So to Etsy I went to find a rerooter!
What luck I had yet again when I asked a few potential rerooters and came across Paradise Doll Designs, who was actually following me on Etsy and turned out to be a fan of Inuyasha! So I knew I had my candidate! And she did a superb job! I enjoyed talking to her during the duration of the reroot, which didn’t take long at all! The process took about a month starting from shipping the head to it being shipped back. Yes!!!
Even my mother agreed that this doll looked better than the Barbie! LOL! So when the reroot was done, the head was returned! Every time I got a step closer to my ultimate goal, I just felt like this:
Now granted, the character’s hair has kind of “spiky” shapes in the back, and her bangs aren’t uniform in size and kind of stick up, but keep in mind this is doll hair, so there’s only so much that can be done with it. It’s not like a sculpture that can be manipulated, even with a ton of hair spray and mousse. I used some of that (cream and spray meant specifically for synthetic/doll hair - I’ve read not to use real people hair products on dolls because it could cause damage down the road) on the back to give it that kind of uneven look, and once I got the outfit on the doll, it really helped tie it together!
Source photos:
I looked at those pictures for so long trying to get the hair just right! LOL It looks better with the outfit on, because when the doll had no clothes on, there was no perspective or context. :D
So the next step for this doll was getting her eyes painted! Finding the right shades of brown wasn’t as difficult as I feared it would be. I managed to get the eyes painted, though of course one had to be stubborn while the other was nearly perfect. But I eventually got them! I’d bought some special tiny acrylic brushes just for this project, and had been saving them in anticipation. I used one of them to go over the blue eyebrows with black paint (no Sharpie in case I made a mistake), and though they aren’t perfect, the bangs cover up the imperfections.
Source photo:
Well, she should be done by this point, right? Not quite. Remember the lovely rerooter I mentioned? Well, she was also among those on Instagram who discovered that it’s possible to switch out Barbie doll hands! YES! I was terrified to do that for fear of breaking the little pegs, but with Sara’s guidance, I managed to accomplish it! She told me that the DC Super Hero Girls dolls, also by Mattel, were perfectly compatible with Barbie. This was ideal for me, as the hands that were designed to hold swords and hammers would be perfect for Kagome to hold her bow, walk her bike, and even hold her little bottle of jewel shards (more on props later)! So… hand swap time!
This doll is my biggest hybrid doll ever. Sega doll head, Barbie Made to Move body, DC Super Hero Girls hands, completely custom-made outfit and accessories, full reroot, fresh face paint, etc. All in all, I am so excited to have this doll at last! And just in time for the anime’s 20th anniversary!!! Yes, the anime debuted in October 2000, and 20 years later, in October 2020, the series not only celebrated its 20th anniversary, but also dropped a sequel! And the manga that the anime is based off of? This year is its 25th anniversary! It debuted in 1996! I thought this was the perfect time for such a large project that’s been nine months in the making (plus 17 years considering when I first had the idea!). So now, behold, the final product:
HALLELUJAH!!! This has been a long, and at times stressful, journey, but I am so ecstatic now! I had so much fun bringing this character to life, not only to go with my beloved 12″ figure but also because I enjoy turning dolls into characters that I love, that I’ve decided to try my luck at making some others… I think Miroku and Sango should join in, don’t you? :D They most likely won’t be as perfect/detailed as Kagome, but I’m still excited to get started on them as well!
Stay tuned for the post about Kagome’s props - because no doll or figure is complete without those!
CREDITS: Reroot by Paradise Doll Designs School uniform by elenpriv Face paint by me Bow and arrows by me Quiver customization by me
89 notes
·
View notes
Text
Oh wow, I wonder if her clothes and accessories will fit some BJDs...
instagram
84 notes
·
View notes
Text
Ramunder pre-order at: Maracreatures.se
27/9-27/10 2021
77 notes
·
View notes
Photo
275K notes
·
View notes
Photo
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
A peacock but all of the eyes on the feathers are human. The spreading of the tail isn’t a mating display; it’s to help with finding and hunting prey. Similarly to a chameleon, you can tell when it has locked onto a target because all of the dozens of eyes that were previously looking in different directions suddenly snap to look at one thing.
Otherwise it’s a normal peacock and interacts normally with other peacocks, grazing on vegetation and occasionally eating rodents or birds that get too close, and almost never taking human infants
15K notes
·
View notes
Photo
I got an Unoa Lusis head at a doll show and decided that I wanted her to be a Sphinx! Imade her body in the posable art doll style and I learned a ton about how to do it better in the future, haha. She has a Buff headback, the sanded Resinsoul Tang upper torso I had left over from Daniel, and a pair of ResinSoul jointed hands. I 3D printed the wrist parts. She borrowed Soony’s wig for the convention I brought her to (November 2019, RIP conventions), then I got her a better one than the gray wig in the top photo there but I haven’t gotten a photo of her in it yet.
235 notes
·
View notes
Text
Quick pics of Link and Zelda with their finished outfits!
370 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Seizure First Aid.
Learn it. Share it. Know it. Use it.
651K notes
·
View notes
Photo
After I made the Tennant BJD, I had to make Daniel, but he was a much bigger project because I knew that I couldn’t get a body with the right body type (ESPECIALLY not in ¼ size). He was a work in progress through a lot of 2019. I created the torso sculpt starting with an open source character creation addon for Blender (Manuel Bastioni or something like that? It wasn’t available anymore last I checked.) but I modified/resculpted it quite a bit. The head, like Tennant’s, was done in Sculptris then Blender. I finished the pieces the same way as Tennant’s head… it was just more pieces and a lot more work. I also put some heavy gloss around the joints to protect the paint under the final matte sealant coat, and all the pieces are sueded with real suede very generously. None of the joints have chipped yet. I used the limbs from the Resinsoul Tang body Tennant was on before and I got some ¼ Dollshe 28M hands. He’s kind of similar in measurements to a DearSD or “Big Baby” doll. I’ve since created an updated head (I didn’t even finish the wig for this one, haha) but the body is still the same.
108 notes
·
View notes
Photo
3D printed Tennant BJD, mk 1, from 2018! He was originally made for a Resinsound Tang body with Dollshe hands, then I got him an Akagidoll body later. He was sculpted by me in Sculptris and finished in Blender. I printed him on my Monosprice Maker Select Plus and finished the head with putty, spray can primer, lots of sanding, and a terrible thick coat of Krylon spray paint. His hard cap wig is saran and very much glued in place, haha.
I’m still pretty proud of him honestly, but I made a version with a refined sculpt, smaller head, and resin print later.
106 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Jolim sidestepped and thrust the end of his stick to the side of Vahn’s head. “Dead again.” He slapped his companion’s cheek with the stick and shifted back. “Come on, Vahn, I thought we were sparring. If you’re not going to fight seriously, I’m going back to work.” “I am fighting seriously,” Vahn protested. He dropped his makeshift weapon to his side. Jolim shot him a reproachful look. “You’re too distracted. Why are we really sparring?” Vahn looked away. “I just wanted to clear my head, that’s all.” “Too many mage girls in it?” Jolim grinned. . #bjd #abjd #balljointeddoll #asianballjointeddoll #iplehouse #iplehouseclaude #iplehousesid #iplehousesidclaude #bjdstagram #bjdsofinstagram #dollstagram — view on Instagram https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/p640x640/74995711_151669569476797_8607922008826254870_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com&oh=2e6b41cedb944a09e2687bb3c2cce309&oe=5E87ACC0
2 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Your characters are so amazing and creative!
I was tagged on IG to make a collage of my doll family and I should’ve gone with more of a grid, but ehhh!
Let me know if you want to know more about any of them! I can’t believe I have 30 dolls and soon to be 31 XD
168 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Oh yeah I have a tumblr! Here’s some pictures of my current work-in-progress. This Lyse was dyed and modded by her previous owner, which I both removed. I’ve given her dreaming eyes, pointy ears, horns are by Apel. The dye job is rit dyemore racing red, and rit dyemore charcoal. Gold paint is a powder from schmincke, that I just kinda found in the art store, I don’t know, try and stop me from taking every gold paint in existence to try. You can’t.
322 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Lost Girls (10/15/18)
Disclaimer: At the time I wrote this, it was still October- I was in the middle of preparations to move and taking flights out of state so I had no free time to post this until I moved. I tried to keep most of this post the same to preserve the excitement in its purest form!!! I’ve done so much with them since then that I’m dying to queue up posts…
SO!!! FINALLY PRESENTING!!
STORY TIME.
I found eight tinies at my at my local goodwill store.
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhohmygOD???
(More pics, screaming, getting emotional, and story-time under the cut.)
Keep reading
575 notes
·
View notes