Tag Archives: craft

craft, Disney, Doll, monster high, Uncategorized

New Hands Are Here!

Right now it’s hard to prioritize things. I get home and everything shouts for attention: my bed, my need for nourishing food, my need to make that food, my crafts, the things I need to do for dance and the studio…

Before I know it it’s past my bedtime, way past, and I feel like nothing got done but a mess was made. I know that’s in part the depression talking but it’s also true that my focus feels fragmented.

I did manage to get the studio website updated to the best of my ability tonight.  Unfortunately I had some questions about some class description titles not matching the names of the classes on our schedule.

This is all compounded by the fact that I can read (almost) all the home page and promotional copy I get from my dance partner, in my second language, but I can’t always trust my second language for generating new copy when something is lacking or contradicting itself.

My dance partner also just had a baby. It’s a fresh baby…like 3 months fresh..so text replies to my questions to her might come at once or at 4 am. I’m closing LINE/Instagram and the studio homepage editor for the night and just being glad I started the process and have made headway into new classes and the 2019 schedule.

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You say new baby, I say napping partner. This was at his 2 month mark. I’m going to be doing a lot of baby duty while she gets back into classes at the studio in the new year.

The good news is…I can feel like I did much more tonight because my replacement hands arrived in the mail.

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I found replacement hands for my Sally Doll in progress. Shipping from America isn’t always cheap but…I wasn’t looking forward to hand sculpting hands with a wrist joint and arm pegs.

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…and I can send more goofy text photos to friends here.

 

 

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craft, Disney, Doll, monster high, Uncategorized

Starting Melody

Meet Princess Melody, the daughter of Ariel and Erik.

Melody

That there is all I know about Melody.
Gina’s daughter knows more. She loves Melody. This is how I pay for the 15 dolls Gina sent me. Melody gets made.

From Gina, re: which doll gets Melodied and is she planning to wig or reroot:

I was thinking the belle doll. I didn’t know what would be easiest for you it would be fine if she was a brunette for it as Freya (Daughter) is a brunette if her hair is Good enough. What ever floats your creative juices. Most of all, have fun.
I’m a brunette.

Disney faces are so simplified that hair shape and color do a LOT for identifying character ….So, I wanted to get CLOSE. At least a darker brunette if not black.

The dramatic sweep of bangs and the side part make Melody read as Melody…so I set to experimenting.

First I noticed that there aren’t many videos about re-rooting these dolls.This is probably because of what a pain in the ass removing the heads is AND how much time rerooting a giant head takes. Most customizers seem to go with wigs or gluing wefts to the dolls. Kid play made both of these seem like “meh.” ideas.
I have two Belles in my collection, both from Gina. One is from the first generation of Belle dolls (I can tell because she has blue painted on undies to match the blue dress she came with) and MORE hair, and a second generation doll with yellow undies and less hair.

I started experimenting with more hair Belle and figured I could trick her bangs into doing a side-sweep…even if I couldn’t move her hair part. I set to work seeing if I could get her hair any darker.

I know that synthetic strands don’t really take dye well….but I’m not above magical thinking and believing in the power of stains.

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Yeah…No. Neither Dylon nor alcohol and arcylic inks worker to get her hair more than a shade darker.
I have a new sink container now.

I turned to Belle with the more sparse hair…and chopped.

Then I dipped her head in boiling water and set to softening her vinyl. Her neck softened first, ball of the head joint.
Unlike Barbie dolls, the ball part in her neck is what rotates and moves. The section inside her head remains connected to the head….but it had to come out so I could glue the hair from inside the head.

It was possible to get my tools in at the front of the neck between the joint and the head vinyl but in the back section the vinyl and joint were fused together. I had to tear some vinyl.

The neck hole is a little jagged but I figure I can bond it all together with liquid fusion after rerooting and repainting.

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 The pencil line shows where the part will be moving to. I’ll also be doubling up on the small holes at the front of the head so hair can be swept forward for bangs and back for her pony tail…no gaps.
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Starting the rooting process. I’ve painted the scalp so it doesn’t show through the hair..
Which was when I realized that I hadn’t done the same for my Wednesday doll. The hair is pretty thick but I stopped rooting to paint the top, as that is where the scalp will most likely show through.

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And this is how my Monday evening is looking…hairy.
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craft, Doll, monster high, Uncategorized

Sculpting Sally

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Sally has little boots and slumpy striped socks.

My Freaky Friend doesn’t have real shoes. She has red shoe-shapes covering wide, triangular leg ends. Nothing foot-like under the shoes.

Like Bratz before them, oversized shoes are a HUGE part of the Monster high look. Doll Sally won’t have the tiny little feetzies of film Sally.

It’s not like a Sally doll is going to wear other outfits or need to change her shoes. I’ve decided to sculpt her socks and shoes right on her.

I’m learning to sculpt with Tamiya epoxy putty. It comes in two different colored sticks, like flat gum, and you mix two equal parts together to create the chemical reaction needed for the epoxy to airdry. I picked up two small packets of Tamiya Epoxy Putty (Smooth type and quick type) at Yellow Submarine  for about 500yen each on Monday.

Last night I tried the quick type, without familiarizing myself with epoxy and how you need to keep your fingers and surfaces wet, and wasted about  250 yen worth last evening. not much but still…meh

Moral of the story: When you take the Ambien… GET IN BED.

When I got home today I tried the Smooth Type.

I figured I’d build the socks and the tongue of the boot first.  Tomorrow I teach dance after work and Friday and Saturday are restaurant gigs after work so I probably won’t be able to do a thing until Sunday…but smooth type sometimes needs a full day to cure.

After that dries I’ll fashion the body of the boot (cant make heels, alas, due to her foot wedges). Then I’ll sand a bit and add the laces. Everything will be painted later.

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craft, Disney, Doll

BoxDoll: Ariel’s Blessed Hair.

Ariel’s hair abides.

It’s magical. I don’t know chemically or structurally what makes her red Disney Animator Doll hair so impervious to abuse but I am thankful for it.

It doesn’t suffer the frizzled bent shape that plagues other matted colors. It bounces back. You soak, untangle, and go.

Here are two from the box after washing and brushing. One has waves I finger crunched back as she dried, the other has sections I twisted and secured before drying.

They’re wearing dresses because I have grown tired of having too many naked dolls in my apartment as they dry, but this is not their final form.

And, there may be more dolls coming. My father and step mom (who may or may not be my secret doll clothes hookup…but who are definitely the perps who sent me The Thimble People book that got me into doll clothes ONLY LAST YEAR) have sent me a Christmas package.

I wasn’t here to receive it a few days ago but it’s now scheduled to arrive after my three dance lessons and before my gig tonight.

Wish my apartment luck.

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BoxDoll: The hair.

What am I doing to relax now that the giant box of dolls has come to live with me ?

Oh, some days when I get home I’m just turning on Netflix, pinning a doll between my knees so she won’t struggle, and then dividing her hair (after hours of soaking in liquid fabric softener, combing out, rinsing, and repeating) into portions to carefully straight iron.

This is actually not the first before picture of Belle

It’s perfectly normal to have 1 or 2 dolls in your bathtub just soaking their heads in bowls.

Here’s Belle after soaking, hot rinsing, and her first comb out.

This is the kinda damage that remains. I’m guessing the hair got stretched and pulled to a point beyond what it could recover from.

And this is after it’s been in boiling water.

I set my straight iron to 110 Celsius, sectioned the hair, and began the process of straightening.

Not perfect but muuuch better.

When it’s straight you can see the uneven chunks. I’ll curl and boil perm waves back into her hair later and that’ll become imperceptible.

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craft, Disney, Doll

When the dolls come for you. Boxdolls

“Oh, my apartment is full of dolls. They are waiting for me to come home.” I told a dance student I was giving a private lesson to.

“What’s new?” You ask.

I don’t think you understand. There’s been a major leap in dolls.

Big dolls.

Thanks, Gina.

Gina and I first met on LJ, back in the day, and continued onto FB. We’ve never met but she’s always supported my arts.

She has a daughter now. Earlier this year Gina sent me a few thrifted Disney Animators dolls and I sent her daughter thrifted Pokémon goods.

Now I will be doing a repaint for her daughter and am being paid in…thrifted dolls.

So. Many. Dolls.

Dirty, well-loved, exhausted dolls.

15…I think. Maybe more. Some hedgehog plushies too….and a Wonderwoman.

This is the box that came Thursday.

This is the warning photo Gina sent me.

I have been washing dolls and detangling doll hair since then. I’m not even finished with that task 6 days later. There are dolls in every room.

So it’s time to not only batch attack these dolls, but to figure out how to best try and sell the custom dolls that come from it here in Japan.

I’ve been seeing how the Japanese Mercari app works and copy pasting the descriptions of similar custom dolls to figure out the Japanese I’ll need once I’m ready to post.

Because if I don’t find a way out, I’m going to be buried in dolls.

Dirty, well loved, exhausted dolls.

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craft, monster high, tutorial

Starfire 1.0 Finished

Because I had left over air-dry polymer resin clay I decided to make Starfire her own Silky.

To color the clear/white clay I had I added a little acrylic to a blob of clay and rolled/kneaded it until the pigment was evenly distributed.

And I set to work rolling, pinching, and sculpting.

The Silkie I’m showing you I originally considered a failure, because it kept falling forward onto its face. Then I decided to use a toothpick to make a simple hole in it so a wooden rod could be attached to it later.

After a few days of air drying I primed it with Mr. Superclear and powdered it with chalk pastel pigment to make it less glossy. After fixing it once more with Superclear I painted it with acrylic paints.

The Silkie!

Then I set about making a base for Starfire and Silkie.

I found a star-shaped wooden dish for 150¥. I turned it upside down and drilled a hole into it and inserted a wooden dowel into the hole.

I then used purple wire from the 100¥ shop to make little….body prongs. Not perfect but ok for my first try.

I then drilled a tiny hole and inserted Silkie’s toothpick base…and painted everything with the purple paint I’d used for Starfire’s boots.

And my first Starfire was finished.

The second, 17” Starfire will get the second Silkie.

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craft, Disney, Doll, pullip, tutorial, Uncategorized

Sadness stands

My Sadness has tiny little feet. She falls over easily.

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100¥ shop time!

I bought cork coasters, a set of adhesive felt squares and (not shown) a wooden dowel.

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I then glued two coasters together and drilled a hole slightly narrower than the wooden dowel. You could easily cut a hole with an X-acto razor. The reason I made it slightly narrower is that cork compresses and crumbles a little bit.

Then, after cutting the dowel, I glued it firmly into the hole.

A few layers of acrylic paint later, I tested it and then adhered a felt bottom to it.

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The pole slides up under her sweater, giving her a tripod of stability.

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Her toes are up in this picture but that’s easily adjusted.

I could have added a strap under her sweater to more firmly tether her to the base but I haven’t needed it. There was a small earthquake this morning and she was fine.

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Concerned, but stable.

I’ve also realized that her shoulder are too sloped to give her a tote bag but I will eventually turn her “Long Term Memory Retrieval” book into something more existentialist and display it on her stand.

I did the same thing with three cork coasters AND a wooden 100¥ coaster. Of course with wood you need to drill a hole the same diameter as your dowel.

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I painted the wooden stand and drilled a hole into the dowel. This allowed me to make a “belly chain” for my bellydancer. The scale of the chain is a little thick but it’s what I had on-hand. It has a necklace closure so I can open the chain as needed.

The cork coaster got a ribbon and snap tether…and some dodgy 100¥ ribbon for decoration.

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Not bad, three stands for about 400-500¥ total…with leftovers for more.

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craft, monster high, sewing, Uncategorized

Starfire: Part 4

Last we saw Starfire had her face painted, her body sanded, and her hair done.

Onward to clothing.
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There’s not much to be said about the clothing itself. Its a miniskirt and a crop top that closes in the back. It’s shown here with the basting stitches still in.

The difficult part was dealing with Starfire’s armor. I tried first with slightly flexible air-dry polymer resin clay. As seen here. It didn’t quite seem right and the neck-piece fell off easily.

I found a tutorial on youtube to help me and decided to get fun foam/ EVA foam.

Here I am experimenting with fun foam. When attaching foam to foam I used my hot glue gun. I also used elastic, thread, and snaps to close armor around neck and arms.

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Items unpainted.img_1205.jpg

Painting a dark undercoat before using my silver acrylic.

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After silver paint and some “jewels” created with nailpolish.

 

At which point I came into possession of MOAR DOLLS.

As I’ve said, this is sort of a test run for doing a larger Starfire to be friends with my 17″ Raven doll.

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Well, 17″ Starfire is now here. My friend Rea* brought it to me on one of her trips to Japan.

*She’s such a good friend that it was only after she received it at her home (I used US Ebay) and packed it and brought it to me that she told me she has a doll phobia and occasionally has to mute me on FB and elsewhere when I’m posting too many doll progress shots.

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AND….I bought a future Beast Boy on Mercari for cheap.

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They don’t make super tall Monster High boys, that I know of, so Beastie is gonna be small…and eventually green.

And, from the same Mercari dealer I purchased some boots for Starfire.

I primed them with a dark base coat and painted them.

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But….that’s not all. Inspired by the fact I have a LOT of left over air-dry polymer resin clay I got to work making Starfire a pet AND a stand.

Coming soon.

 

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