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?)

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!

But this week I managed to photograph a bunch of them — partly due to Carmen’s encouragement & general “go girl” attitude! Thanks C! :mrgreen:  If you’re interested in seeing more photos of them you can check out my Etsy (where they’re all listed!)

I’ll start with the baked goods then follow up with the furniture!

Pink frosted Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate Peanut-butter Fudge Bars

Small Moonpies

Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

And here are the couches I’ve made!

Maroon Couch

Sage green Couch

Thanks for looking!

Well you’re wrong! Hehe! I’ve been slowly (very) working on the bits and pieces that go on in the inside. You know things like shop fixtures & whatnot. So while the walls are still unpainted (except for the white basecoat to seal the MDF) it is still moving forward.

Here are some pics!

Obviously there’s still a lot to be done before these pieces can be considered “done”. I’ve got to paint them with wood grain, pick out some detailing & some other tweaking…. but I thought folks might want to see them “in process” instead of just when they were finished…?

I’m still debating on painting or papering the top & inside of the re-ment counter. I’ll figure it out eventually though I’m thinking I might go with antique gold or brass look for it since that’s a partial theme in the cafe.

I still need to add a hinged flap/to the counter so that I can keep students & other customers from randomly walking behind the counter.

Some of what was done so far:

• all of the pieces were raised up between  (depended on the piece of furniture.  I wanted the counters to be higher (maybe because I’m short so all counters are naturally higher to me–but doll furniture never seems to be tall enough)
• All pieces were cleaned (w/soap & water).
• The barbie counter sides were cut off (they over hung) and the additional pieces were glued on for more detailing.
• They were all primed & then given a base coat of brown paint.

For those of you who might be curious the counters started life as a barbie counter & a re-ment bakery store counter. The back counters were a sink & a stove from pedigree sindy. I really gotta say the pedigree furniture sure does make for good stock bases for stuff!!!

If anyone’s actually interested in the step-by-step stuff post and or write and let me know. I don’t want to bore people with more details than I have to!

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?

Here are some pics to look at! (I’ll try to explain what I’m trying to get across in them)

This is the back & side of the cafe (before being primed for painting). You should always prime MDF since otherwise it pretty much sucks in coat after coat of paint… ugh.

This is the front of the cafe.

I’m working on what style doorknob/latch I want.And I need to make the mailbox/slot insert. I’m thinking something like worn brass or aged bronze for it and the door handle.

It’s also had the inside walls primed, the front’s been painted with a sand textured paint (it might end up becoming another color but that’s just for now). Some scribed in bricking was added for detail (though it might end up being lost when I make the awnings for the front.

DO you think there needs to be an awning over the door as well as the window? Or just the window/table seating area?

Here’s a shot through the window—you can see the lovely round (smaller) tops that Mark made for my barbie table bases!

Since they started out looking like this:

I think they’re much more in keeping with the cafe feel & size now. (after all they need to pack customers in, don’t they!??!)

This is the front of the cafe with makeshift sidewalk bases in place. These are previous diorama roomset bases that didn’t end up getting used… (yes they’re small–they were for things like bathrooms & storage closets LOL) so they’re getting used for this.  I’d have liked them to be a bit narrower but eh, I got what I got and that’s what I got! I plan on actually extending them a bit lengthwise so that I have more play with angles I use to shoot.

This is pretty much the whole set (for now) the main diorama roomset, the spacing out front of it for seating & some scenery stuff, and the off side area where the archway is (which could turn into another room down the line if I really needed it to)

Annnnd…there you have it. The current state of the Un-named Cafe Roomset/diorama!

Heh. I’m finding a weird sort of humor in doing my own–even if I dread admitting that I’m not getting as much crap done as I wanted to.

On the list of things that I was supposed to get done between last week & this week:

• grout the table & chair set from the furniture re-vamp

Nope. That’s just not going to happen right now. I’m not in the mood to mess around with grouting and getting all grotty. (that gets moved to next week now)

• Make a roomset “cover” to help keep my set up roomset relatively dust free. Unfortunately, we live on a very busy road and dust is an everyday menace (It makes me hate doing psys because I usually need to spend an hour or more “cleaning” everything in the set before taking pics)

Yep.  Did that using an old bike cover.

Turned out like a flaming pile of crap though.    The bike cover was one of those narrow gusseted ones and although I tried to cut it down /adjust it to fit in multiple pieces it –well it just ain’t pretty.  I’m going to the pound shop today (while I’m in town setting up another eye exam & returning library books) and will see if I can pick up a lightweight tarp there.  Ideally I’d like something the weight of those old plastic tablecloths people used to use….

• Get a Friday Monologue done so I can get back on track with them

Gave it 4 shots this week & I just got sick & tired of the plasq comic life program crashing on me. WTF? I’m sorry, but writing original dialogue–and then trying to re-write it repeatedly is no fun.  I so seriously need to get on the ball when it comes to making some balloons for PS. Comic life’s biggest pro is the lay out ability–but man, it’s just pissing me off otherwise. At this rate Mallory’ll just tell me to get bent before doing another FM.

• Remind Mark that I’d still like my X-mas present from 2009

Yep. You betcha! It’s looking promising as well since he mumbled something about doing it and having the space for more airplane parts. Heh. It’s  May now…I wonder if I might have it before the end of the month?

• Re-script the August Photostory

Yep. Or at least that’s in progress.  I’m surprised but actually happier with how it’s turning out now.

• Begin making the furniture needed for the August photostory. Yea, I probably could get away with using some crappy mattel stuff but –no. August doesn’t get much screentime at the present but I’m hoping that will change.  Besides, I’m feeling sort of furniture-y so I’ll go for it.

That’s the state of things for now.

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:

So instead…. You get to look at a partially completed project! :tongue:

What’s left to be done?

Ah ha! Glad you asked! :cheerful:

I need to:

• grout the tiles on the table top & chairs
• I want to add additional detail to the chairs
• dry brush the whole set to give it some patina
• Seal it all.

So…that’s what I did. When I’m finished with it completely I’ll try to remember to take photos  (preferably outside since it is meant to be a patio table)

Anyway let me get to the point of this post. On Figurvore there’s a challenge for this month (we’re doing them every couple of weeks as a series of exercises to help us as customizers to grow & expand our skill sets).

I picked some pretty crappy barbie furniture for my challenge (y’all can see it in the thread). I was going to just repaint it and leave it at that, except that yesterday I got hit with some inspiration & decided I’d really push myself & try something new (I know that’s the whole point of the challenge, but c’mon, I figured the challenge would have been committing to a color scheme LOL  :blush: ) I have such commitment issues when it comes to color schemes!

anyway I decided I’d take my set and try to turn it into something one of the characters might be able to use outside on her (as of yet un-built) patio.

I’m under the gun though since the deadline for completing the challenge is this Saturday! So I’m off to do that! I’ll post pics when I get it done (fingers crossed for luck)

After that I’ll get those emails out to you guys!

ALSO: Next week I’ll be resuming the Friday Monologues. :biggrin:

Some further info:

All aspects of her outfit were made to be removable.  After all, a steampunk adventuress she may be–but Natalia might not always want to dress that way!

Her ensemble consists of:

• Raygun (I need to actually take a pic of it alone)
• Goggles
• Necklace
• Cage crinoline
• Camisole-type top
• Panties/bloomers
• Underskirt
• Overskirt (lined with biscuit silk)
• Underbust corset
• Spats & shoes

The majority of the outfit was sewn from 100% silk (biscuit color, teal) and the underskirt was made of a coppery/bronze polyblend.  Her cage crinoline was made from copper & brass with a bit of leather.

I really wanted to make her a lot grittier but I struggled a lot because I don’t think that my mental image of a steampunk female adventurer would go over so well with many of the convention goers…so I tried to find a happy medium between the two…Not really sure that I did.

I lost patience with the FR body’s lack of tension & ability to hold a pose–but you know what they say; “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” and in this case, as much as I admire some of the headsculpts that Integrity puts out I feel I’m firmly going to avoid any that I can’t re-body.