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.

I’ll be updating with more stuff over the weekend! Candles & books & things!

Now that I finally managed to finish the first batch of pillows & cushions for etsy, I am now trying to photograph them. I wasn’t happy with my first batch of photos *not to mention I didn’t have any dolls in those photos*.  I’m trying to do them a few each day (last night I got one set done but today I expect to get more than that done).

Part of this week/next week I want to spend sewing for my blythes & possibly finishing up my customizing of Emily (natasha moore blythe).  I’m getting frustrated when I want to dress her only to find that less than 10% of my clothing will work for her body. So! I’d done some sketches a few weeks ago & I’ll dig them out and have a go.  I’m also toying with the idea of making some steampunky  clothes for blythes as well. I figure I might as well since I like them, I have most of the materials on hand, and heck, maybe someone else would like one too! (I love etsy, really!) Not to mention I need to find the funding to pay for my domain renewal & hosting since that’s due next month. *ugh*

Things here are a little on edge for me since Electra seems to be a bit sick. She’s got diarrhea. I called the vet about it but they said not to worry at this point.  She has an appt on the 16th so if she gets worse in anyway before then we’ll take her. She still has a good appetite but I worry. :S

Mark is also in the process of inserting the stairway bannisters & railing etc. Me & the furry kittens are trying to stay out of the way. I’m very glad I am not doing it.

I’ll update again soon. Promise!

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)

So you’ve all been wondering wth happened to me, right? No posts, no photo updates, no forum activity–no nothing! (I’ve been slowly working on things and I’ll update over the weekend but for now the biggest news is this!)

Well, Miss Electra Milkshake happened!!

We’d spent the last week or two prepping the house (doing our best to make it as kitten-safe as possible in a place where lots of small choking hazards & the like abound). Then we had to go through the “home visit” of if we were indeed a safe place, and were we the kind of people that could be entrusted with a kitten….and then of course we went to pick her up…..

And now….now she’s here and just like a human baby she needs lots of attention (and I need to grow a pair of eyes in the back of my head!). 

Electra is a tiny kitten. Tiny. Her head is about the size of a smallish lime with a pair of big ears stuck on.

(I love her gigantic ears!) According to the shelter she is either 10-or-12 weeks old (I’d have expected them to know but everyone gave me a different answer & her paperwork all has different numbers) but she’s vaccinated, microchipped and going to see our vet on Monday for an all around look-see.

She is very demanding and stubborn (which is good, I guess). She also is an amazing little purr-machine! I find it so hard to comprehend that some one was kicking her across their house before she was taken to the shelter!

(I took some crummy video the pic isn’t so good but you can hear her purring through out)

Anyway it’s been a lot of adapting here and we only got her in the house on Wednesday. But It’s been a process of introducing her to the house, and more importantly, to Max. Max being the only cat since last November when Pudgy had to be euthanized, is going to have some adjusting to do.  So far it’s been slow going (but in my experience I think it’s going much better than it did when I intro’d Max to Pudgy & Skinnykitten) so I’m hopeful.

Some more pics of her from the last 2 days (She can’t come into my workroom yet where the computer is so my computer time right now is fairly limited).

So though we’re trying to settle down here I’ll do my best to blog a bit more regularly!

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!

Today the only thing I have to show is the chairs & tables that have now (yay!) been repainted (the first part) for the inside.

Remember they started out like this:

Of course I got Mark to make me new (smaller) table tops. With them smaller it’s closer to what I want the cafe to look like (but of course they needed to be painted).

The weather’s been pretty crummy lately as far as spray painting goes but they are finally done.  I debated on making them brown or black, but I wanted to go with the wrought iron look so black won out. Now I’ll need to detail them (with more paint) and I’m thinking about if I should make flat cushions for the chairs (something) If I do that I can tie the color in with the walls & color theme of the cafe (the red back wall, the dark wood, the creme walls & the blue-green wall)

Here they are so far:

I’m thinking of leaving off detailing them (other than the cushions) until I get the cabinets & counters done.

Anyway, maybe I’ll have more to update over the weekend.

I’ve been trying to build up the energy to add some more books to my “library” and have been working on those. They’re a real pain in the ass to do which is why I only work on making new ones every couple of months or so. They’re labor intensive and just really hard on the eyes.

I’m working on some of the fictional books too and might have them done in a few weeks, since they aren’t first up on my priority. Things here are sort of up in the air (the house, the space scenario etc)

But hopefully I’ll have more photos of stuff to share soon.

Other projects that I’m working on this week:

• I’m working on the Cafe again and am painting the walls for it this week. I’m going to see about adding the detailing to the furnishings *and oh, yea painting the tables and chairs LOL)*. It’s a slow going project but at least when it’s done it’ll look good.
• I also need to make a base for the front of it (sidewalk) and the awning area (and some door handles & locks for the front door).

FYI I’ll be working on my regular website this week so if you happen to stumble across it and it doesn’t look right/work or is not there you’ll know why (but feel free to ping me an email anyway–it might be a mistake! LOL)
I’m still learning when it comes to that stuff too. It’s been a while since I did anything with it and since y’all were nice enough to comment on the fact you’d like to see a diorama section I’ll be sure to add one.  It’s kind of funny but looking at the analytics for the main website vs. the blog it’s almost 2 different sets of visitors. Go figure?

4 years.

That equals out to 208 weeks. Out of that I’ve spent 2 weeks back home. So 204 Weeks total.

I’ve been here for a grand total of  1428 days (give or take since I’m sure there’s a leap year somewhere).

I’m sad. I’m down. I’m still trying to plod on and get things done but I feel so far away from home. So far away from friends & family.  I feel cut off and really really far away. Out of sight. I’m just sad.

Whatever, right? You don’t read this blog to hear me whine about non doll related stuff! I’ll try to update in a day or two with doll related stuff. See y’all later when I feel chirpier.

This is your chance –you lurkers & regular readers — to speak out and tell me if you think I should either add a tab on the blog for that, or possibly make a section for them on my website (which has a planned re-vamp coming). If you have an opinion one way or the other please leave a comment on this post.  Also if there’s any additional information you’d want with the diorama/roomset info.

So?

Would you like to see my roomsets all put in one place? Possibly with information on how I made them or what I did to custom them?

Or…

Do you just want to continue to troll Flickr, My blog & various forums where I post them piecemeal?

Comments? Opinions?

If I manage to get them done (sanded & stuff) before tonight I’ll snap pics. If not it’ll have to wait til tomorrow.

Ok folks! Hope you’re all having fun doing something!

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!

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.

Cue Mark….

He apparently told his father I was going to make him a “giant” chocolate chip cookie for father’s day! HUH?  :blink:   What?! :blink:

Yea. Well I’ve made cookies about twice in the last 4 years.  Cakes are more my thing, and cupcakes.  And Cinnamon rolls….and all that kind of gooey, sweet gooey stuff.

I asked Mark on Saturday how he expected me to do this seeing as he methodically emptied out my container of (hoarded) nestle toll house morsels that I sent here from the states. Yes! Mr. I-don’t-like-sweets ATE THEM!

*sigh*

So his answer was “I’ll sort it”. Ok….well. His way of sorting it was to buy some chocolate galaxy bars LOL. Not really baking chocolate LOL! But I tried to be game about this. After all, he’d just bought me that spiffy Blythe doll instead of some airplane related junk….

Well I started measuring things out (Mark & his friend went off to an airshow/model show) and realized we were short eggs, and the sugar was low but I could probably squeak by.  Figured I’d test out how it was working and made some regular sized cookies. They were ok. So I figured I’d throw “The Giant” on the cookie sheet and try to go get the fabric I’d washed this morning ironed.

Now….

Fast forward 10 minutes. (I was figuring that it should based on the fact the small cookies on the sheet took between 11-15 mins that I’d turn the cookie around in the oven at 10 mins and give it another 10)

Timer beeped so I hustled downstairs.  Time to turn it!! Things were smelling—not quite right.

Then…

Well I got to the kitchen and I did a double take. There was SMOKE coming out of the oven! WTF??!!!

So I raced over thinking OMFG! How will I rescue the cookie? I opened the door and was greeted with this:

And dumbass that I am, I got a whole face full of steam, smoke and burning cookie fumes. ((cough cough cough)). Ugh. Took what remained of “The Giant” and realized it was deader than dead. Threw it on the stovetop and set about clearing out the smoke (*which was still filling our galley kitchen*).

PFFFFT! I turned off the stove (the on/off switch) and was trying to figure out WTF had gone wrong–and wouldn’t you know it? Hah…hah..hah… Apparently at some point after I put it in (and was taking the laundry out of the washer) I must have brushed into the temperature knob–because it was turned all the way up to the oven’s max! :pinch:

Doh.

Ah well.   I called Mark after that and told him he’d have to tell his father he’ll get a raincheck on the cookie. This is what came out of the oven ((Avert your eyes–it’s terrible!!!)

I’m so embarrassed to admit this happened.  And somehow in the process I think I might have seriously irritated my sinuses/nasal passage on the right side since I’ve had a splitting headaCHE ever since. Ugh.