So–here are the students for now! The top 2 rows are 2nd years & the bottom 2 are 1st year students.

1. 1. Morgan Renfield (3rd year & RA)
   2. Olivia Aston-Lang
   3. Zach (Zachary) Bracco
   4. Terry (Terence) Waterstone III
   5. Jillian Carmichael
   6. Alisha Grant
   7. Mallory Watson
   8. Nik (Niklos) Andrastos
   9. Stella Vanderhoff (3rd year & RA)
   10. Shayna Demarco
   11. Oscar Volante
   12. Portia Thorne
   13. Felicity Pierce
   14. Claudia Carsten-Kane
   15. Abbey Strassen
   16. Seth Melborne
   17. Tara Lynhurst (3rd year)
   18. Alex (Alexandra) Ryles
   19. Karly Stuttgart
   20. Claire
   21. Dana Grafton
   22. PK (Pansy) Kirkham
   23. Brooke Blackwood
   24. Merrit Daniels
   25. Jeremy Millais
   26. Raven Kohle
   27. Eff (Effrosini) Andrastos
   28. Rupert Kane
   29. Lori Vanderhoff
   30. Devin Thayer
   31. Calvin Blackwood

I am pleased that he at least looks like a guy!

I’m not sure what either of their  names are, or what year. ( couldn’t get the color to show right but she’s more like a strawberry blonde).

Ok, so I decided that it was worth it to try to tweak her lips and make them a different red. I think it’s an improvement, though darker than I’d originally intended to use for her.

and a close up of her face:

Ok, that’s todays effort.

This is what I did today:

Raven:

I decided to wipe Raven’s face & tried to repaint her today.  I’m much happier with the new resultant Raven, and although (IMO) she looks more wide eyed (and less angsty) I think she’ll do for a younger student & trying to rebel younger sister.

Following on Raven’s heels is Zach.

He was something of an experiment & I’m not sure how I feel about him. I don’t paint male dolls very well & it shows. (don’t mind the stray flocking in the pics)

And then there’s this girl……

(She needs a name)

Do you think she is a 1st or 2nd year student???

She was a pre-rooted obitsu head &  is on a volks eb-a body. I feel she’s got some spark to her (although I also think she looks slightly cross-eyed). Even with the eye issue I didn’t want to wipe her because I do like the vibe I’m getting.

So there you have it–some more of my students for the photostories.

With that in mind she’s encouraged me to make a Mistress for my cast of characters.  I have yet to determine what if anything she does for a job– might make her a lawyer since Inessa is one and that could be one more way that they’re contemporaries. Maybe.  :wink:   Anyway, here’s the mistress. You can’t tell from the photos but her eyes are actually blue with aqua/ cerulean

Click the x to see the enlarged version at full size for detail.

Her pet?

A bit more info about her: (she needs a name)

• Volks Neo head
• She is on a volks excellent E type body
• I rooted her with a mix of NDR hair that I had (some dishwater blonde, Wheat,  and maybe off white?) that I bought years ago.  Nat suggested going the blonde route since she has a previous Mistress doll I made (back when I pretty much only did barbies) and wanted to see a version of her made.

So gave it  a try, though it’s a long time later and the details are kind of hazy to me. I recall she had long, blond hair that had curls/waves, a big chest (I’d experimented–I forget it it was paper clay or milliput I’d used) and a little black plether outfit. LOL That’s about all I remember.

Ok, and you remember that yesterday I tried painting Portia? And how I’d misplaced where her eyes were and in general she had personality but looked a bit “off”. I wiped her & Raven’s faces last night & I gave another shot at painting Portia.  Not a radical difference, but…?

Any better?

As always, comments welcome!

The bad news is of course that I am so very out of practice that they just don’t measure up to where I think they should be. However, even with that I’m looking for a feel for the dolls and I think (maybe) they work.

First, Raven:

This is the 2nd incarnation (and a variation) of the original. I wanted to make her look younger than the original who IMO always seemed a bit older looking than she should have been.

Rupert:

Rupert came out best out of all of them I think–and that’s not saying a lot since I can hardly paint guy heads even the “Boy” N head.

And….. Portia? (Maybe?)

I think her eyes are high up on her face and it gives her a long looking face. I’m not sure if it works or not, though I feel like she has some instant personality. .. Not sure.

So. Not a lot to show for a whole day’s effort. I’m not sure what to think of them.

Any thoughts or comments? (should I wipe them?)

Speaking of my dolls & the Quinlan Chronicles cast—-This week is going to be a “clean up” week. Sorting everyone out again & really deciding who and what I need.

With some luck, once I make some space & have moving around room I’ll get to shooting the first couple installments of the first episode of the chronicles.

So I gave it a shot (scroll past the photos and you can read about what happened & what I did) Also, does anyone care to suggest a name for her??

Before & After

Things didn’t go quite according to plan…

• I discovered some flaws on the back of her head (back face plate) and couldn’t tell if it was from someone trying to get into her head at an earlier time or what. The plastic is indented and has fracture lines in it.
• I gave a few tries at getting her scalp off (used the knife around it) but it wasn’t budging & I didn’t think it was going to be worth the effort (so no boggling her eyes).
• Her eyes bug me a bit because they are so very downward-looking. It’s nice for some shots but actually changing the eyechips turned out to be a hassle. I had to tape her eyelashes back and try while holding the hot melt glue to hold the other eye so that it was sort of centered (it’s kind of hard to explain). I used some coocat eyechips I got from Plastic Paradise Forum.
• I found it a lot more difficult to sandmatte her face while it was still attached to the whole head. I haven’t done the best job but I have managed to take off the major shininess.  I will probably go another round with it in the future when I’m feeling a little more love.
• I repainted her lips but I only did them as a temporary “for now” measure.  I’ve never been a big fan of cotton candy pink lipstick, and she had puce green eyeshadow.  So not a color scheme I adore in cosmetics (ok, in anything!).They’re ok, and better than the Candy Pink ones but I can do better & smoother. Later.
• Did my best to sad off the eyeshadow. Not certain I’m going to try to repaint them with any since it’d be more hassle since I’d not be removing the eyes)

Here’s a quick update of what’s on my plate:

Website:

• I’m working on an update for the main website (www.corsetkitten.com) which I’m hoping to get live next weekend. I’ll post more about that as I get various stages of it done.
• Cleaning out old files/old directories I don’t need. Combining directories & files where possible.
• I’d like to get everything cleared up so I can get back to doing the Friday Monologues & photostories.

Blythe  related:

• I overcame my fear of “ruining” my Blythe (Emily/NM) and started working on her. Currently her head  is in pieces (which was kind of scary since I had to use the scalpel to disconnect her scalp from her faceplaces and I was afraid it wouldn’t want to re-attach–but so far no problems).
• I’ve now replaced my first pair of eyechips. That was way easier than I’d expected! I’m using some coolcat eyechips I got for a real deal on Plastic Paradise. They look gorgeous (but of course I had to tweak them too).
• Emily needs to be sand-matted and then have her lips repainted. I might get mark to show me how to use his airbrush and give a try to doing eye make-up and blush. I learned when I did the basaak’s eyes that I’m not pastel friendly, and the paints even when I tried still left brush marks….so airbrushing is probably the way forward. (I shouldn’t resist learning new skills, I know!)
• I was thinking of if I had any suitable saran I’d add some streaks into Emily’s hair. I think I might (eventually) pick up a CC scalp and try re-rooting it. It’s novel that you could actually see the whole scalp. We’ll see. That’s pretty far down the list at the moment though.

Etsy Related:

• Still working on the candles. They are tedious. I realized this am when I tried to wick the tea light candles that the wick I wanted to use was too thick. Thread is too small. So I need to find some like the other stuff I used. *sigh*

• Am working on some new books to add to the collection.

• Need to photograph throw pillows that should be stuck up on there as well.

Cafe related:

• Still need to paint the walls

• Furniture needs painting & detailing

• I need to start working on props for the interior.
  • I’ll be working on some oil paintings this week to hang on the walls.
  • I’d like to try making a larger espresso machine
  • need to make some “coffee” bags & the small props.

Home related: (this is really the biggest news for me!)

We’ve been looking into getting a new cat for our family. Max has been pretty lonely and sad since Pudgy had to be euthanized.  Mark thinks it’ll be a good thing to help me and I think it’ll be good for max especially when it comes time for us all to clomp onto a plane. Then he’ll have company and that’ll make me feel more at ease.  So the last week or two has begun the slow process of  baby proofing the house…a hard thing to do when you have two craftspeople and a small space. LOL!

So watch the blog & when we find the right one to bring home I’ll be sure to post about it!

I got my 2 heads from  Dollyhospital and I found them well packed. They shipped pretty quickly too, considering they came from Thailand. These are they:

I couldn’t be bothered the other day when the Basaak came (on the body) to take pics of the inside of the head. So I checked em out (they seem to be about the same size as the coin bank heads).  For about 13 dollars a head I think they’re a good deal.  Here are the insides:

They came with “sleep eyes” too.  Which is nice since my other Basaak & Blythe didn’t come with those)

And the scalp (you can see how it fits together, right?)

I want to note that the coin-bank Basaaks seemed to have nicer hair & the scalps fit on a lot better than the one that came on the body.

Ok so now it’s a case of getting a couple (2) obitsu 23 cm bodies to pop em on.

For shits & giggles here’s a pic of the one head on a volks Beauty body:

Now….at some point in the next week or so I’ll actually start the fun part—customizing!!

At first glance I really didn’t think there’d be much of a difference.  Call me cynical or whatever but I pretty much assumed that these knock offs were being made from “lost” (stolen) or rejected plates meant originally for Takara Blythe.  (I’m wrong apparently).

So looking at them…
I mean ok, there’s some difference in the face molds…(actually I’m sure there’s a considerable difference but I just can’t see much of it yet).  But was there anything really different???

This was a pretty important question to me since I’ve been looking at the prices for Blythes ($$$–$$$$$$) and if there wasn’t then why the difference in pricing? It couldn’t be for the body, since people seem to get rid of them frequently (changing them out for Takara Licca, Obitsu and other bodies). It could be for the name of course…But no.

Well……. if you’re going to talk about “build quality” there’s a big difference. Huuuuuge. (IMO at least).  Points of difference: (these are more than likely stating the obvious to anyone reading but I feel I should line them out anyway).

• The quality of the plastic used on the dolls is different.
• Blythe has a narrower nose bridge etc.
• Hands on Basaak are not well defined (sorry no close up pics right now)
• Legs on Basaak are a different type of vinyl–harder/more dense. It was an actual struggle to bend her legs. Blythe’s clicked uber-easily into place.
• Blythe appears to be slightly (marginally) shorter than Basaak.
• Basaak just isn’t built very sturdily–upon undressing her I found her torso beginning to crack apart at the side seams.
• Basaak’s face is definitely a different color than her head/scalp. It’s not as obvious in the photos as it is in person. Blythe may have that problem too but Emily doesn’t so I can’t judge for certain.

• Basaak can do an awesome imitation of Linda Blair in The Exorcist.
• Unlike Blythe Basaak can not only move her arms up and down (ala swinging them) but she can move them outwards & up & down (like a bird flapping its wings).
• Because the Basaak’s legs are made of harder material her feet aren’t as squidgy as Blythe’s. I’m guessing this may make the body mildly more posable in shoes etc.

• Her headscalp is easy to remove (although it took me a couple of tries to get it back on after).  She came to me with stains on her vinyl head scalp thing. And her hair is greasy and ratty (like a little kid cut her hair–its got chunks out of here and there).  I’ve since washed her hair & tried to give it a trim to even it out and I have to say that it’s not that bad.

One thing that I cannot stand about Basaak is whatever the vinyl/ plastic is that they used to make her legs out of is exceptionally stinky. I’d have said it was just me (I’m extra sensitive when it comes to odors) but Mark actually commented on it too (like the fact that when he picked her up and put her down his hands came away smelling like the plastic).   In an attempt to remedy that I did wash her legs (since I was going to wash her hair anyway) but no dice. Still uber smelly

Blythe vs. Basaak?

No.

That’s not really a fair match (and don’t even get me started with comparing them to volks LOL).  Considering you can get a Basaak off of feebay pretty cheap (or the heads for just about 12 bucks a pop) I’d say it’s a good way to get some practice in on this unique doll type.   Since I’ve determined how I’m going to work them into things I think it’s ok. They won’t be stuck on the shelf like the FR girls.

I do it sometimes… and on a couple of occasions I’ve had to eat those words: namely when I started adding Takara CGs and  Fashion Royalty Dolls to my collection.  In both cases I said I’d never collect them (or conceivably want them).  Of course now, if you look at my collection you’ll see that I have quite a few CGs, and 4 Fashion Royalty dolls to my name (It was 5 but I chucked one on feebay last week).

When I first  looked at Blythe I thought “No way!! That Big Headed Doll is not ever going to be something that I am going to add to my collection!”

Right?

Oh, that’s not to say that there weren’t some out there that I thought were cute.

Or downright funky….

Let me lay out some of the reasons why I started thinking about getting one.  They might not make sense, and you might not agree with them, but hey it’s still a free world (in my part of it anyway)! I’m not asking you to agree, or to like them…..just to tolerate, Ok?

• Looking at different photos of Blythes, Blythe Clone/Knock offs I saw a real range of creativity & openness.
• Something else is that many of the people who have them really play with them and take photos of them. Not just a couple of “look at my new dress” pics but like taking them out and about. That mentality appeals to me.
• People who are willing to play with their dolls. And create things for them. And they’re friendly on the boards I’ve checked out. People didn’t snub me because I was buying a knock-off. I liked that egalitarianism.
• Even though these dolls are expensive people are willing to customize them across the scale from simple mods to crazy things. I like that.

I decided to welcome the Big Headed girl into my Small Head collection.  I bought a knock off on feebay for pretty cheap (am waiting for it to arrive) and Mark, being the guy he is decided to get me one as well (although not a knock off). So–from a no Blythe collector I’ve suddenly become one overnight!

Mark got me a secondhand Natasha Moore Blythe.

I liked her haircolor but I’ll say that once I’m comfortable w/ experimenting on the clone I’ll work on her to make her more my thing.  She did come with most of that stuff seen in the pic (that’s a web found pic btw not my actual doll).  She arrived on Thursday and was a really nice pick me up after the bad news from the oral surgeon.  Yes, doll therapy! :silly:

Blythe’s big downfall in my eyes was/is her apparent lack of articulation.

Why would I go forward and then step backwards???

I think if I have to answer that I’ll say because she’s a different avenue for me to walk down & explore.   Something different.  A way to stretch my creative muscles without getting out of dolls all together.  I doubt I’ll ever be one of those people with shelves full of them, but the face/ head does have a certain charm & interest for me.

Ok so let’s talk basics here.

What is Blythe’s body like?

IMO it’s not good. It’s kind of like barbie back in the 70′s except that her arms only go up & down. No side up & down movement. (I’ve heard that some of the clones have that though)

• I’ve read across the web that her body can be replaced with a Takara Licca body (though I’m not sure the point in bothering with that since the ROM & posability isn’t improved that greatly.

• I have seen them popped onto 21 & 23 cm obitsu bodies and size and height comparisons make that seem a good option. More posability & if you reinforce the body torso interior it can even manage to support her big head & pose freestanding.

C was asking me about how Blythe compared in size with Momoko & other dolls. So here are a few shots.

Note that I’m using the fishing line method on Blythe for now. If I don’t prop her against furniture or a wall she just falls over.

And for giggles:

Blythe has semi-arched feet which are very squidgy.

One last thing….

Just remember that old adage:  “A mind is like a parachute: it works best when open!”

These heads are seriously over-rooted with hair. I had to try to thin it out and event hen still decided to give them boil perms to get the hair to lie down flat.

#1 Brown eyes

#2 Blue eyes

Over all I’m happy with how they turned out. They’ll be going up for sale on Etsy this weekend since even though I like them I don’t have a use for them.

Well as I stated at the time I wasn’t that happy with the way Devin’s eyes had turned out. They’re gloppy & sloppy & just not that good. And one of the eyes seems to be going off on its own……

DEVIN [Before]

Repainting Devin is a tough call because sometimes it’s that impressionistic painting that gives some of my dolls their personalities….but I feel it’s also me being lazy. Since I don’t want to get into that habit (the same phenomena exists on Jillian’s eyes) I felt I needed to repaint Devin. And hope that I can keep that quirky vibe.

So….

This is the result of the attempted repaint. I don’t feel I caught the spark, but I am happier that the painting is cleaner (though you probably can’t tell from these photos).

What do you think?

I liked her eyes (although I did feel they were a tad large) but something about her face up really irritated me. This week while I have been trying to get back into doing repaints, I considered wiping her face and repainting her.
This is Claire: (who might be renamed)

I really didn’t want to since  her eyes had come out rather well. So instead I decided to try repainting her lips . She had bubble lips—and maybe that’s what was bothering me, I don’t know! :whistle:

The thing with the old style C heads from Volks is that the lips/mouth area is very molded and fairly deep. I don’t do very well with it even if it is a favorite of mine (and I wish they’d done something more similar to it on the newest version of the C head).

One of the other issues I have with the old C head is that they also tended to be more conservatively rooted…so you ended up with more bald spots visible on them. Claire also had this problem.  So I decided that if I was going to work on her, I might as well do it right. So I rooted in some high and low lights into her head in an effort to plug up the most obvious bald spots. Gave her a boil perm to set the hair to lie down flat.

This is how she looks now, with the newly inserted hair & repainted lips.

The lips aren’t perfect but she’s suddenly looking a lot better to me, and I am not going to repaint her (at least not right now).

Of course, now I think I might rename her Chloe. It’s the name that keeps coming to mind when I think of or look at her.

It’s been a long while now since I did any repainting so these aren’t as cleanly done as I’d like. Forgive their clothes too… I tried to find stuff that would sort of fit their personalities but didn’t have much on hand that did.  Both were done using Volks Neo heads rooted with old hair from NDR (Noix de Rome).

OSCAR

Out of the two I’m happier with Oscar’s facial painting. It’s cleaner & neater.  I enjoyed making his porcupine hair but although I wanted to cut it shorter than it is Mark vetoed that idea.

DEVIN

I liked a certain something in Devin’s face so I did not end up wiping it.  That said, I probably will repaint him/her soon since looking at it int he photos it just looks clumpy & not too good.

Here’s a better pic to show the crappy painting: Wonky eyes, clumpy brush work. etc.

Devin originally started out as a male character and then morphed into a semi androgynous figure–probably a girl, but currently shown on a Volks Excellent  N body type. I’m not sure what body type will ultimately be assigned.

But at least I worked on something. Plus the room you see (vaguely) in the background is the dorm room in process.

What I did manage to get done this week:

I re-rooted 2 heads & rooted in highlights/lowlights in another one.  (No pics yet but maybe tomorrow).

It’s 4pm here and I’m finally getting my head to a functional state. So I’m pulling out a couple of my blank obitsu heads. I haven’t painted a head in months & rather than use of the newly rooted heads I figured I’d just practice first. I don’t want to put pressure on myself (got enough of that from Mark at the moment) LOL. And yea–if one of them turns out really well then I’ll root it LOL!

So anyway,  if I’m successful then I’ll paint into the night or else again tomorrow. If not then I might switch off and see if I feel like painting the canvases. Or maybe sewing. I have a couple of things I NEED to make.

eh.

What if I could do the “Dorm Room” on the Small Living Room base (aka the Friday Monologue room) ? I’d use  the wall with the door in it (after all it’s a dorm so who cares too much about that?) So I decided what the hell?  I’ve got the walls handy (I just need to give them a couple coats of paint & some skirting boards) toss the beds in and a barbie desk (and wardrobes) and there it is! Ready to go!

The great thing about this is that if I’m careful & tweak things just right–I might actually be able to start proper episodes & photostories for the Quinlan Chronicles.

• I’ll have the local cafe
• A student Dorm room
• Maybe a student Lounge if I  decide to use the Small Living Room set as that (and I don’t see why I couldnt??)

Then really–at least as far as the student stuff goes—I’ve got just about everything I need! (Ok not everything but a lot!) and I can use the same base & part of the walls from August’s Living Room set for a student classroom if I decide I need to do some of those shots in the psys!

Ok so anyway, I was taking a break right???

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigght!

I saw a thing called a ticker tape quilt. There’s an awesome tutorial that made me feel it was doable: SewMamaSew . So  I wanted to try to make one.  I’m not all that good at quilting (up to now I’d never even completed a quilt) so seeing one that made me feel like “hey, I can probably do that!” was nifty. So I got to work on it–after all if I was going to make a dorm room (for multiple people) different bed treatments would be needed etc.

This is how it sort of started out:

I was lucky that the rolls of scraps I’d gotten last time at the fabric shop had a LOT of small prints. It helped make the quilt seem a little more in scale than it would otherwise have done.

After  all the sewing (and sorry they’re small but they’re still pain in the ass things to sew) I washed it roughly a couple of times in very hot water. I wanted to get the patch pieces to fray (I wasn’t sure if they would since I’d prewashed everything before hand) and I wanted the base of the quilt (white) to have that kind of rumpled/used look that they get.  (I’m not sure how well you can see that in the pics)

I know, not a lot to look at and not really a palette that I would have chosen… Which led me to wonder which of the students it would be meant for?

Yeah. Looks like Eff has claimed it!

Anyway that’s what I was working on the last two days.  Overall I’m happy with it and I learned as I went along which is good. I doubt I’ll ever be a “quilter” since it’s so fussy & nit picky (and part of the reason I liked this kind of quilt was that it seemed to be less-so than usual).

Comments?

I know it’s been a long time coming!!! XD I hope someone enjoys it! :w00t: Looking back today I realized that the last one I’d done was in March! :blush:

I’ve tried to fix the issue of text sizes changing & appearing blurry after exporting them. Not sure this is much of an improvement, but them’s the breaks… 

And as always—your feedback and thoughts are welcome (provided they’re constructive) :cheerful:

I’ve made a good start on the re-scripting of the August/Alison photostory. I’ve re-bodied Imogen (fashion royalty Ayumi), and gotten some various bits of inspiration.  I’ve decided that I’m going to make August his living-room this week & next.

I’m debating on if it should be on the larger roomset base or the smaller one (like I use for the Friday Monologues).  Smaller is easier to fill up, bigger might look nicer. Dunno.

He’s not paid particularly well, so maybe the smaller roomset would be better. The drawback to that of course, is that I haven’t got a second door that I can use in that roomset–everything would need to be shot with the existing door.  I guess I have some more thinking to do.

Anyway, I shot some photos yesterday when we went to the park.

I had to stop after some dumbass let their dogs run free (why, if the park has signs to keep your dog leashed, can’t they follow it? It’s a rule observed more in the breech than not)  :angry:

After that I got really irritated (sorry I don’t like having to get slobbered on by some weird dog just to protect my dolls (which were laid out or set up for photos). I took one last photo:

Dumbasses!! :angry:

I also got to work on Firday Monologue #7  but the program kept crashing on me before I’d saved things so I got fed up with trying to write the same thing over & over. Look for it this week sometime. Heck maybe even tonight, who knows?)

I didn’t know exactly what role she was going to play in my collection I only knew that I really liked her headsculpt.  It didn’t take me long to lose patience with the FR bodies (sorry the posing standards just aren’t up to my needs) and so consequently Ayumi got shelved with the “I’ll get back to her at some point”.

Back in 2008 I started seriously considering giving her a new body and again I didn’t really like my options enough to commit to one.

Then last year in 2009, Jendini posted some photos in flickr of her Ayumi who had been re-bodied onto a Volks Neo Teen body. I  was surprised (considering how anorexic she had looked on a regular volks body) and thought “Ah hah! At last! Here’s something I can run with!”. When I asked her about how she managed it she gave me a couple of photos that she’d done to show how she held the head on to the body.

So yesterday I was feeling all full of nervous energy (had to go to the dentist this morning which fills me with extreme amounts of anxiety) and thought I’d give that a try.  While I didn’t manage the magnets (or inserting them/holding them on quite the same way) my method still worked and I’m happy with the outcome.

I’m confident that I’m going to play more with Ayumi (Imogen) more often now! :biggrin: