Corsetkitten’s Workshop: a blog devoted to 1:6 dolls, props, & photostories

Sorry, but the health is coming first right now.

Doll/action figure hobby related stuff is on hold until I get some results from the doctors.  If I’m out of touch  this week or next then I’m probably in the hospital.

thanks for checking up with the blog.

I’ve spent the weekend catching up on email, and *knock wood* I ought to be finished with that tomorrow.

For today I managed to debox the spare camera, plonk the 60mm lens on it, and then put it on the shelf. (I know it doesn’t sound like much–but for me that’s a major event. )  I’m so pleased that it hasn’t taken me 6 months to open this one! *yes, it did take me MORE than 6 months to open the 1st one*

I’m working on a couple of different things, including a layout/design for a quick N simple cafe diorama set up, furniture (today I was trying to sketch out the details), and beginning the process of rooting the head I plan on using for Merrit’s mom.

I owe a number of folks email.
I’m working on it and will be in touch over the weekend (if my allergies don’t kill me).

This time it’s my camera. I’m not entirely sure what’s up with it, except that for some reason (out of the blue) the auto focus  won’t work. 

I’d hoped initially (we were in oxford killing the day while pudge was being poked, prodded, blood tested and fructosimizined) at the botanical gardens and I was trying to get some photos taken. It worked for about 1/2 an hour after I had it out and shooting using  autofocus (unless I’m going for something specific or am in the home and can duplicate the set up because my crappy eyes don’t focus really well even with glasses or contacts). So I wasn’t too happy. Yea, I know this is why I have a 2nd camera, but still.  I don’t like it when things stop working.

What’s it doing? (C’mon, pretend you care! )

When I try to take a photo with it on auto focus the lens just goes in and out without finding focus.  It doesn’t make a whit of differnce that I’ve selected the point of focus, or the lighting or the settings the camera is on. I tried it on all settings including automatic and it’s a no go.

I thought at first that it might be a problem with the lens. (Ok, I say, well that’s still pretty new and it’s still under warranty)  But I thought, huh, it still works fine on Manual Focus. Maybe I ought to try it with another lens?

So I tried it with my Sigma, again no dice with the auto focus. But of course the camera  still works fine with manual focus. I tried the other canon lens and again the same. So it doesn’t seem to be the lens.

From what I’ve read online (based on the descriptions of other peoples problems) it sounds like it could be a sensor problem. Maybe they/it needs cleaning.  Problem with that is that I don’t know how to do it. Or what I need to do it. The owner manual isn’t overly instructive and I don’t know how I’d manage to keep the dust in this place from drifing into it (the insturctions seem to imply I have it sitting open, lens-less while I’m trying to clean it)

Anyway, if anyone’s got any suggestions or ideas I’m happy to hear them.

My progress with Damara’s breastplate isn’t going forward as smoothly as I’d like. I’ve got to admit that part of it is due to my own lack of patience. I want to hurry it along and I should probably (?) be doing it in gradual stages but I’m not.

Anyway, here’s what the original breastplate looked like:

It’s not hideous…but it’s clunky and weirdly bulky in the spots that aren’t made up of boobage.  I don’t much like it and it’s probably the prime reason I don’t like PBs. That and they’re made out of pretty low grade plastic.

So far I haven’t got a lot to show for my work.  My first time experimenting with the epoxy didn’t go exactly as I planned and the breasts ended up considerably larger than planned. They also didn’t really have the right shape going on with them…so I’m not going to count them.

Instead, we have breastplate attempt #1: (I should clarify that the original breastplate is NOT part of this construction)

As you can see I’ve got to work out the issues with the sizing for the sides. Once I figure that out I’ll be happy enough to actually complete the breast plate in question *add further detailing, properly sand it, paint it to match her skin tone, add nipples etc…* (this one will probably join mondo-humongo boobplate in the misc crap box)

Here’s a shot of Damara with breastplate #1 on and a shirt. I’m eventually hoping for a relatively natural look in clothing (something to balance out those hulkingly bulky shoulder joints).

When I get my hands on some more epoxy I’ll try again and update further on her progress.

(ok for those who reaaaaally want to know what the very first attempt looked like it’s the one on the left in this pic)

I’m happy to report that the Damara project is moving along at a pretty good pace. 

Here’s what Damara looked like when I started this morning: (you can see part of the boob-plate in progress in this pic as well)

While not all of the work has been 100% satisfactory for me, I’m just feeling pretty good about doing something.  So far since earlier this week — I’ve managed to make her 2 different breast plates (which still need some sanding and detailing done) and they fit fairly well although there was apparently some shrinkage (which I didn’t expect).

I also managed to do her re-root –replacing her default hair with some black hair I had left over from my last restoredoll order.

(you’ll have to check the blog later today/tomorrow for picts of her new hair and breasts)

I was particularly lazy tonight and after spending all the time rooting her–yea, I couldn’t be bothered to do a proper boil perm. Instead I ran the hot water and stuffed her head into the water. Then I doused her in cold tap water. It may not take, but what the hell, right? I’ve got nothing to lose.  Maybe when I get up tomorrow am (or actually I guess it’s am now) I’ll check it out and see 1) if it’s dried and 2) if it worked well enough to at least let the hair lie flat.  I really do hate re-rooting. It is so tedious…but at least at the end of it you know you’ll end up with something. Not like when I sew and I never know if I’ll end up with a usable piece of clothing or something for the scrap pile.

Anyway, it’s about time for bed.

Good question!

Well, aside from sporadically facing the overwhelming amount of email in my inbox I decided that I’d take a little bit of time to work on one of my customs.

Who?

Damara.

Bet you’re wondering who the hell is Damara!??!

Damara is part of my attempt to add some more faculty members to the Quinlan University staff.  She’s also a fabrications instructor (meaning she helps pound through the students’ heads how to make something that will stay enchanted etc).

I realized that I needed her to balance out August’s place on the faculty. He’s basically on the rag all the time & a moody bastard. Damara…I don’t think she’s as moody.  She’s certainly more pleasant.

Deciding what figure to use for Damara was a little bit harder.

I’ve got a couple of CG 2.o bodies left (and a miscellany of heads) as well as a few Volks bodies. But I really didn’t want to use the volks since they’d essentially be the same as the current professors w/ volks bodies. I do like to have some kind of physical diversity in the cast if at all possible (without sacrificing posability though).

Damara is starting life as a BBI AA PB.

I was very lucky to get her from a fellow collector and I have been waiting to work on her for a while and now seems like a good time.  As I got her 2nd hand she didn’t come with 2 breast-plates.  She’s come with the default size 1 boob-plate.  I don’t mind small breasts on my dolls–but I do mind it when the breast-plate makes the torso look ungainly and weirdly bulky. (I should probably also say here that I actively dislike the PB bodies and the main reason for that is the way they designed the torso).

So.

What can I do to make her more aesthetically acceptable to me?

• Re-root her with dark hair. That weird peroxide blonde gone bad look does absolutely nothing for her.
• resculpt her a new chestplate (s).

Since I’m not that hot at sculpting human anatomy we’ll have to see how that goes.  I’ll update as I make progress.

This is what I managed to come up with so far. It’s pretty much a rough draft. I figure that when I really am ready (and have everyone firmly in mind I’ll revamp it) I felt very limited with only a few icons to try to describe some of the dynamics & reactions between characters.

Oh well. I’ll fix it next time.

For those of you curious about it…

here it is: http://corsetkitten.com/QC-R-chart.pdf

I should probably also take a minute to apologize to everyone who’s taken the time to write me an email lately.  I’ve been a bit buried (I’m about 2 weeks behind in correspondence) Please be patient with me a little bit longer and you’ll have an email from me!! ;)  Really!

I am actually working on stuff for the photostories.

Really! Ok, so you can’t see it–but I am.

For instance:

• Yesterday I wrote parts of 2 new scenes.
• Today I came to realization that I can have more than one professor teaching the same subject. Even better because now I have one I want to create–who I think will create some good interplay between the perpetually on-the-rag August, and the more uptight Shay. Yes, I think it will be good.
• Today I have begun gridding out the interpersonal chart for all the (current) characters. With some luck I’ll get it to work out and might even be able to post it here. We’ll have to see.

Now, I should get back to answering emails, and gridding. I need to have some good shit to show for this weekend so I can feel like I’ve accomplished something!

I said previously that I was unhappy with my repaints.  I still am.   Stella being the one I was least pleased with she got wiped the same day she was painted. I’ve been trying to repaint her. This is what I’ve come up with:

Stella Before & After:

All I can say is that at least now she doesn’t have that “robotic-glazed eye stare” that she started out with. And she and Lori look slightly more related in the eye-color department.

Here & now is where I say that I am NOT going to be doing any more repaints.  At least not any time soon.  My brushes are shot and I can’t seem to find any to replace them. The frustration that I am getting from painting (and knowing that half the dissatisfaction is due to my tools is just too much for me to deal with. Life is full of enough BS these days that I don’t need to add more to it).

So, until I’m either back home in the states, or someone in US retail realizes it DOES NOT COST 15 BUCKS to mail 2 paintbrushes snail mail…no more repaints.

Yay!  Here’s your chance to see the  heads I painted! And even better–it’s a chance to do me a good turn by giving me your opinion! Now, please remember that as I stated in the last post I’m not really pleased with how they came out. So please don’t expect much.

I hope to update with a new post later this week with the final heads re-painted for choice. I’ll do a poll-feature then for final votes!

Below is a gallery of photos of the characters’ names & below that is a brief  “interview”blurb from each of them.

• Please take a few minutes to read them over and pick which figure goes with which quote (there are no right or wrong answers!!)  use the number in the photo to ID the head.  
• Feel free to suggest possible hair styles or clothing choices–or hobbies! LOL!

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  
  
  

• Olivia Aston-Lang (Livi)

“No, I sketched those myself.  I’m ok at it–I’d have gone into fashion design except that it’s such a cutthroat field.  I’d have liked it but that’s just –well I’m not good enough to always be shoving my work at people and saying “Like it! Damn you, Like it!”   What? Oh.  My major is enchantments.  Mostly because they come easy to me.  I don’t even have to study and I can do them right off the cuff.  My adviser’s suggested that there might be a future for me in R&D. Yea, making new spells–isn’t that cool!?!

• Ivy Elizabeth McMullen

“Yes, I’m Ivy. Ivy McMullen. Um, yea, I’m in professor Kohle’s class too. Er…yea. I have the homework done…it was problems 1-16 and 20, and 22. Uh…no. You can’t copy it. I’m–I’m not a really good student, so, uh, I know most of the problems are wrong… (thought: not really but who are you kidding? you don’t do your work and you think you’re gonna use mine? Not!)
Say, did you see the notice about the lectures we’re supposed to attend next week? Yea, that’s a bummer they’re at the same time as the fall fashion show.”

• Claire Marie Chase

“Is that silk?  Very nice.  I prefer it to linen. Oh look at him–he’s simply delicious! I spent the summer in Oxford and I didn’t see anyone who’d compare to him. Mmm!  Pardon? Oh?  So what if he has a girlfriend?  I’m sure I’m better looking than her and better dressed.  I’ll have to ask my brother for any information he has on him.  MMmmmm… What about Theo? Do I think he’d be into you….Darling, do you really want me to answer that?”

• Jillian Carmichael (Jilly)

“No. The answer is Strontium sulfate. How did you manage to get accepted without knowing that?” Rolls eyes. “You’re not going to be able to skate by without studying–I don’t care how short your skirts are. Or how perky your boobs are. They’ll fail you. And you’re my roomate–so you’d better knuckle down and study. How you do reflects on me and I don’t want anything ruining my average or my chances at getting into a good grad school.” Shaking head. “You’re not an idiot. Just try harder. And read the book instead of watching American Idol!”

• Claudia Karsten-Kane

“Oh, please. Tell it to someone else, would you Mallory? I know you’re completely smitten with that man–but you’ll never get anywhere with him if you don’t _do_ something! I say you should try to investigate–you know he’s got his girlfriend–and a woman on the side…why not see what else you can find out? Then maybe you’ll have an in! Don’t look at me like that– you know that’s what you want to do anyway. Really.”

• Portia Amelie Guichard

“What would you like to know about me? Yes, I’m from the Avondale Guichards. No, I am not seeing anyone at the moment. I broke up with my fiance over the summer. Oh, he was being a prat. I can do better than that. Not to mention my goals are set higher–I am not content to live off my family’s effort. I have goals that I aspire to. No one, man or woman is going to stop me.
Excuse me?
Of course I expect people to listen to what I say. Why shouldn’t they? I’m a very knowledgeable woman and I come from a good bloodline. Not to mention they usually regret it if they don’t. (small smile) Me? My flaws? …Well, maybe I can be a little bit vindictive. But who’s perfect? (laugh) I’m probably as close as you can find in human form.

• Tara Mills-Bowman

“I’ll tell you, being an Resident Advisor this year is great! It’s giving me-and Stella-the chance to be recognized for how much work we did the last two years…Last year was really rough what with the demon that those stupid girls summoned in the bathroom. Talk about a mess…Exploded pipes, water all over–and Shasta–the RA for the hall was unconscious. Stella stepped in and I-well, of course. I helped. That’s what best friends do. She also inspires me to try harder at whatever I do…My future? It’s bright. I’ll either take a post in the family or I’ll go on to do research. Maybe both. I’m not sure…and that’s the lovely thing about being so wealthy–I don’t have to worry. I’ll decide when I’m ready.”

And out of the 9 heads I did start off knowing which of them were going to be Stella & Lori Vanderhoff:

• Stella Alexandria Vanderhoff

“It’s only right that they appointed me as RA for the hall this year. And of course Tara too. She’s so dependable. I believe that friends can be invaluable–as long as you choose the right ones. Am I popular? Oh, I don’t like to boast…but yes. I’m never lacking for dates, study partners, or people who just want to bask in the glow that is me. (small smile). I’ve made Dean’s List every semester since I was admitted. Right now I’m in the top 2% of the 3rd years. I plan to be in the top 1% before the year end. Did I mention that I’m studying with the intention of going into the legal field? I’m starting an internship this year. I’m rather excited about it.
Lori? She’s my little sister. Am I going to treat her differently? (chuckle) Hardly. As long as she follows the rules of the university, and the ones of the hall, she’ll be fine. Otherwise - she’ll learn the hard way. She’s bright though, so I’m certain if she wants to break the rules she won’t get caught. After all It’s all about being caught. Just like life.”

• Lori Apollonia Vanderhoff

“I’m so glad to be done with high school! Coming to Quinlan University is a nice change–although having Stella looking over my shoulder all the time isn’t what I was hoping for. She spent the summer boring me with how much studying I’ll need to do. How I need to behave. What classes I should take. Which girls I should be friends with. What kind of clothes I should wear…Blah, blah, blah! As if. She’s always been jealous that I took after mother and she–well…she’s almost as flat chested as a pancake! (giggle)
My studies? I don’t need to study that much–I’m brilliant–did you know that? What? It’s true that my grades aren’t that good…but it’s because I find classrooms bor-ring! Four boring walls, some teacher droning on endlessly about some obscure fact…I can make C’s without reading or practicing so wh

y should I waste the time? Yes, I could make B’s or A’s of I studied. But why bother? Anyway, everyone says that your first year is the time you’re supposed to have the most fun at university–and I intend to!”

I tried but I really couldn’t stand some of the faces…

I thought the painting quality was way below even average for me. After doing a 2nd round of repaints I am coming to realize that a big part of my problem is the brushes that I am using (they need replacing).  I’m still not entirely thrilled with #’s 1 & 7 but I think they are vastly improved. As for blue hair…I know she could be better but I think she has a certain something about her…

So I spent all of yesterday, the day before, and this morning working on the heads that I was painting for use as students in the Quinlan Chronicles. I have to say that overall I am not thrilled with them, but some are definitely better than others and I even like some of them!

I started with 11 heads and have a total of 9 completed. I’d done 10 but at the last minute I messed up the curly blue head so that’ll have to wait until next week when I sit down to paint again. Just as well anyway since I still need to make the demon-girl & the anti-social 3rd year who’s also on the same floor of the dorm as the other female students. It’s not going to happen but I’d like to get my hands on a newer volks C-head for the 3rd year. Although I could use an N head and maybe that would explain why she’s SO anti social (I’m hoping at some point to set it up that some of the students run to her for help and a good dose of verbal abuse). We’ll see. I still haven’t decided what head to use for demon-girl. I don’t really want to use one of the C-heads although if I could get a newer one and maybe sand it a bit that would work. (I think I need to experiment on the old manky one I have and see if that might work)

That’s the good news! Now, I need to set up to take a few quick photos of each so that you lovely readers can help me to decide who’s who! (I’m terribly indecisive).

Before yesterday (May 7th) I hadn’t painted a head in 1:6 for months.

Yes, months.

November was the last time I actually sat down with a head to paint.

Understandably, I’ve been feeling uneasy at the thought of sitting down again and doing it. It isn’t really like riding a bicycle at all–and if you don’t do it for a while you get rusty (and in my case you forget how to do it).

So yesterday I finally sat down and determined to beat down my procrastination and do it. And my thanks to Milk for the encouragement yesterday & today, it was (and is) much needed.

Yesterday’s exercise didn’t go particularly well… I had 11 heads that I got out of storage (my whole volks/obitsu stockpile) and tried to sketch in their starts. I struggled with that for a couple of hours but managed to get the eyes relatively even/acceptable for my use. I even got a few expressions/character in them so I was pleased.

But then, (of course there’s a but!) when I tried to actually add color, dimension and some illusion of depth everything went south.  I don’t know if it was from trying too hard, not trying hard enough, or a low level of frustration, but all in all it was not very productive.

I came out of yesterday with 3 things:

1. The new (and odd) knowlegde that it is easier for me to draw 3 level lines on both sides of the eyewells with my left hand than my right.  My right hand (dominant) seems to be unable to do this. The left can. I don’t know if it is related to perception or what…now if only I could develop better fine motor skills with my left hand! (must try in the future).
2. I’ve begun to remember some of the process…so I am on the right track (although my brushes are getting ready to give up the ghost).
3. One head painted that I feel is acceptable, although not particularly good. I decided against wiping it as I feel the face has a “bitchy” feel to it and I need that for some of the students.

Now I am trying to settle in and give it another go.  If I can get a few heads done today that I like I will post them all here and you readers can have some fun telling me which names & faces seem to fit better (I actually want to have a bit of fun with that so it will also include a little bit of dialogue for each)

Ok. Enough procrastinating! Off to paint!

As promised (see, I do deliver!) here are the photos of the clothing I made. I feel kind of bummed that 11 outfits= 2.5 weeks of work. The photos aren’t the best, but they’re ok. My faves are #’s 1, 5,7 & 9…

Despite feeling somewhat burnt out, I think I may end up doing some more sewing next week…What can I say, I’m a masochist!

After 2 weeks straight of doing nothing but sewing I am feeling a bit burnt out.

I’ll photograph the sewing creations tomorrow–I don’t have the patience to try to do it tonight (or rather, I started and then everything was going totally craptakulously, so I decided to stop for the night).

If you want to check out something… feel free to look at the silly shots I took earlier today:

Thanks for being patient!
(and ok, I actually took the sheep photo last weekend)

Sewing & photostories:

On a photostory related note:

I have been struggling the last week or more to figure out exactly how many students I needed for the photostories. I’ve settled on a total of 10 male characters (broken down into groups of 2 for room assignments) & 18 female characters in total.

Both the Male & Female numbers reflect having RAs (resident advisers–2 each). so that the number of freshmen & sophomore students is actually 8 & 16 respectively.  I know the girls are outnumbering the guys at the moment–but for a few reasons that I’ve skewed the gender ratio.

1. I don’t have enough male figure bodies handy to make more.
2. It seems to me that there will be more girl groups/girl related plotting going on.
3. I need to have some generic girls to use as “filler”/ background/bit part players.

For the dorms I figure that they are smaller older buildings. Each floor has 10 rooms (2 of those are singles) and a large multi-person bathroom/shower/bath room. I think that the student lounge may be located at ground level (insted of my original thought that there is one per floor).

So back to the characters:

18 girls sounds rather overwhelming, doesn’t it?

Well it could be except that a lot of them (at least initially) only pop in and aren’t main steam characters. So they aren’t really that important to start with. They may become important later but only time will tell.

Regardless of their importance, I felt the need to figure out who they are, and of course, who they are rooming with! (that actually is important for continuity.) Which meant that before I could do up the room-chart I’d have to know who I have, who I need etc.

Talk about a pain in the ass!

the first issue is that I am running seriously low on supplies. So that means I’ve got to make people with what I have on hand–no matter how crap it is.  That doens’t make me happy, but I guess all I can really say is que sera sera.  and suck it up.

So who do I actually have made already? (18 doesn’t sound as bad when I look at what I have handy)

1. Mallory
2. Eff
3. Karly
4. Alex
5. Abbey
6. Felicity (she’s gone back for an update, but hopefully she’ll be back soonish!)
7. Raven

If I hadn’t sent Meg & Frid off to Texas, they’d have rounded the number up to nine. Instead, I’m left at 7…which means I have 11 figs to make.

I’ll update more about them as I go along (and figure it out)

Sewing related:

I know–I know!

I promised almost a week ago that I’d share some photos of the clothing I was making & had made…

Well… you need to wait another day!!

sorry about the delay, but I keep wanting to finish one more piece… Hopefully, tomorrow, since I’ve had the blind replaced in my workroom, will be a good time for photos.

Well its been a weekend of ups & downs. 2 migraines really cut into getting a lot done, but today (Sunday) has been proving to be pretty productive.

So far today, I have managed to get the following sewn (all items still need to have hooks & eyes or snaps sewn in place. I prefer to do that while I’m downstairs on the couch which is waaaaaay more comfy than sitting at the work desk/table)

The majority of this stuff is for CGs since I need to earn some money to pay this month’s student loan bills.

• long sleeved pink sweater
• denim skirt with white & pink trim
• black, grey & pink knit dress
• Op-Art black& white skirt
• pink,black & magenta skirt
• black & white striped short sleeved shirt
• white printed t-shirt
• Black & blue gypsy/ren-esque shirt (hard to explain)

(pictures will come tomorrow when I have the patience to clean up enough space to shoot photos)

Now, back to sewing and then off to bed!

You know, I’ve been doing some thinking. Remember, this is my blog so I can spout out all the opinionated folderol I want to here! Yes, I do that on occasion.

I was thinking about how things have changed in the hobby since I started back in 2000. In terms of the supplies & stock available to customizers and collectors and just the state of information in general.

People don’t really know how good they’ve got it now–both on the 1:6 and 1/4-1/3 scale  areas of dollfies & the BJDs.  Really.

I’m gonna sound like a cranky old-timer here, but really…how it was in the old days:(at least for me and my fellow customizer friends)

• If you wanted supplies (volks dollfie bodies, rooting hair, heads etc) you had to either order them through the 1 (and only) retailer in the US (the Doll & Hobby Shop)  at the time or you had to go through a shopping service in Japan. For a short while there you could buy volks stuff from HLJ but that was discontinued.
• No matter which of those routes you went you were bound to end up waiting MONTHS for your supplies to arrive.
• If you wanted anything special you were going to wait even longer.
• Sometimes you could buy your supplies on feebay or on a forum but generally they were priced even higher than the cost of going the other methods.

Those things made the hobby more of a labor of love than basic ol’ barbie customizing. If you customized barbies (or the like) they were considerably easier to get your hands on–and if you screwed them up you weren’t likely to cry as much either. If you wanted to buy someone else’s customs (and this still hold true for the really good ones) you’d pay and arm & a leg.

But this brings me to where the hobby is now….or at least how I perceive it to be….

• It’s well-and-away worlds easier to get supplies now.
• For those inside the US you’ve got Volks USA & various outlets selling parabox/obitsu stuff.
• For those outside the US (in Europe, like me) you’ve got volks.co.jp which will now sell to your through their website. It’s something of a pain (mostly because between the shipping charges-EMS only–and the customs fees) but better than nothing.
• feebay is now totally awash with dollfie/obitsu customizing supplies.  (Back inthe day you could type in “dollfie” and you’d be lucky to end up with 50 items…now you get thousands. You want heads? you can find em there. Want bodies? Ditto. Clothes? Ditto. Accessories? Ditto. There are so many more listings for dollfie/obitsu related items than there have been before. That’s good…right?

Well…yes…I guess.

I say that because, well, I think that to some extent, the hobby has suffered because of the ease of access. I know–you’re thinking –”what? didn’t you just say it was a good thing?!!” .

I did.

But IMO it’s made the 1:6 suffer a bit because everyone’s gotten completely sucked into the 1:3/ 1:4 scale dollfies. (Don’t get me wrong–I like them. Heck, I had them in the past and sometimes regret giving them up!) What I mean is that the 1:6 aspect of the hobby is getting overlooked. Example: If you search dollfies online, 8-10 times you’ll find that the result is something related to BJDs and not 1:6 dollfies.  Even Flickr, a site which thousands of people (maybe more) use…dollfies more often than not will bring up BJDS. *sigh* (and can I say here for the record one of my biggest pet peeves is when people refer to volks (excellent, beauty, CM or Dollfie plus) or obitsu as BJDs. For Pete’s sake before they say that why don’t they LEARN what exactly a BJD is??!! (a Ball Jointed Doll) *and for the record, BJDs (historically) were made also made in Germany although that link doesn’t mention it*)

And that’s the thing-The 1:6 pool seems a bit empty at the moment.

Things wax & wane in popularity. People’s interests change or expand (or contract). I’m guilty of this myself, at times. But I always go back to my 1:6 dollfies. I think they are my first love and always will be. I just wish more people could realize the positive aspects of them. I think to a certain extent I’m worried that they may end up being pushed off/out of the market. *shrug* I don’t know.

I don’t think that the pool of customizers is as big as it could/should/would be….but I guess that’s the nature of fads and hobbies?  I’m glad to see that it doesn’t seem to have waned much in Japan  (at least judging by the Japanese blogs I read, and my browsing on YJ). I hope that the 1:6 hobby picks up in the future.

Why am I bothered about this?

Mostly because seeing the work that other people do/put into making a figure inspires me. It makes me want to try and create something too.  I can count on one hand the number of western doll people I know who actively customize & repaint their figures. That’s not Bad…but I just wish there were more. As it is, I frequent a lot of Japanese sites & blogs because I find the level of artistry astounding & awe-inspiring. And I need to be inspired…to be motivated. An example would be PAPY (one of the few japanese customizers on Flickr) who I admire.

Ok, I guess I’ve rambled enough.