Box Opening: Ulla- DC Ada, legit

Ipod photo of the sketch, since scanner is packed...

I could not sleep waiting for this girl. I've been so stressed and busy, I was afraid if I slept I would miss the mailman and wouldn't get my girl until Tuesday...turns out I didn't have to sign anyway, haha.

(Ulla's name is actually from a series of short stories I wrote about a Swedish-American family in magical realism style. The main character's name is Ulla (pronounced Ooo-lah). I just liked the name for Ada.)

This Ulla awoke in a meadow filled with flowers and butterflies, so she is feisty and bouncy. She dreamt of wolves in the centuries before she was born, so she took the name Ulla.

Her "mothers", Saga and Alfie, can't wait to find her (e.g. arrive at my house lol).

Taobao Order Box Opening

This is my third taobao order. I thought I would show you some pictures of what I ordered and give reviews of the items and the shops. My total for this order was: US $117.80 (699.49 CNY), and that's with agent fees. The shipping cost for this order from them to me was an additional $30. Only mentioning this so you can estimate shipping for yourself.

Also, I will post pictures of the items with/on the dolls when I get around to unpacking them. I'm still moving so the only doll I have on hand is Hugin, and he refuses to model purses….

*Edit: I went and pulled Jack out of his box, so he's going model the purses, whether he wants to or not. Pics of the wigs on a doll to follow.*

First a review of taobao trends:

Taobao trends is really nice, and really great about communication. They aren't so great about paying attention to sizes though. Often I have received wrong sized items, but it's usually not too big a deal, and it's usually only like one or two things out of every order. In this order, it's the shoes and the blue Happy Chamille wig.

I may try a different agent next time, just to see what the differences are in terms of service, agent fees, shipping, etc. Taobao trends isn't bad, by any means. You just have to be really specific.

New Doll Concept Sketch- DC Ada (legit)

I did a quick sketch for my incoming DC Ada. I snagged her from MoC yesterday. I was lucky- there were only two or three listed (1 by the time I got there), and they sold out with an hour. I wanted a legit for awhile, but when they were discontinued, and I couldn't snag the last one at DDE, I thought I was out of luck. I had planned on a recast at some point, but S/L wanted far more than the Haven suggested they should be. He wanted to charge me $120 instead of $89...well that's only $30 less than legit, so I thought I might as well save up for a legit in the future.

My Nanuri, Alora, needs a body of her own, so this money was supposed to go to that. I couldn't resist little Ada. So now I'm back to square one saving for my conjoined twins and Alora's body.

I have a legit and a recast DC Alberta on the way home (the legit is on layaway so I won't have her until November or December), and one will be modded into a boy. I'm thinking little Ada will be their daughter. None of them have names yet. XD

Anywho, it's not coloured yet, but here's the sketch:

I have no idea how I'm going to make shorts that tiny, what I'm going to paint on her antlers, or where I'm going to get a size 3-4 wavy mohair wig. I'll probably have to make it.

Thanks for viewing. ^_^

Face Up Tips: Lips

As you know, I'm still working on improving my techniques so I thought I'd share what I've learned. Here is my trick for lips.

I'm addicted to shimmer powders.

A little background on this head: She's a recast Volks SD16 Kira. Her original owner tried to blush her to match a yellow skin body, and despite all my scrubbing, I can't completely remove it. [Edit: I have since removed it and redone the faceup.] So, this is making one eyebrow look really goofy. Please ignore that for the sake of the tutorial.



 

1. Block out the face up colors. On the lips, dab some color in the middle on the bottom and on the sides of the upper lips. (For a more solid lip, dab color over the whole thing).

Terms list, acronyms, and some FAQs

Awhile ago, I had the idea for a big terms list which included abbreviations.  I'm posting all that I have done so far on it. Enjoy!Links are not live yet.

I thought it might be handy to gather up a list of basic ball jointed doll terminology and acronyms. It can get really overwhelming, especially when you're first starting out. I know when I first got into dolls I made a list of each term I came across with its definition. It really helped! Fortunately, you guys won't have to do that, as you can just read this post.

Restringing a Feeple 60

This tutorial is to show you how to string a Feeple 60 the way Fairyland does it. You could probably string them the normal way, but I prefer the FL way. I'm going to rehash some stuff from the F60/SDgr hybrid tutorial post, so if you read that don't be surprised to see some of the same stuff here. On we go!

Ok first of all, this is a pain in the ass. Probably a bigger pain in the ass than restringing a pukifee, no joke. You WILL want help for this, or else you be looking like a dork like I was doing this.

You will need two lengths of elastic for the body, both about 2ft 4 inches.

Each piece should be around 2 ft 4in.

Unstringing the body:

This was a surprise. F60s need two lengths of elastic, one for each side of the body. To remove the neckpiece, first remove the feet.

A Reiteration: My Stance on Recasts

Every now and then I feel compelled to reiterate this in order to protect myself:

• I do not sell recast ball jointed dolls or any other product.
• I do not purchase recast ball jointed dolls for the purpose of reselling them at their value or for profit.
• I do not recast ball jointed dolls or any other product, nor do I even know how to do this.
• I do not help purchase recast ball jointed dolls or other bootleg products for others, but I will point people towards that information when I know where it is.
• I paint dolls, including recast dolls.
• I do not sell recast dolls as legitimate dolls, nor do I condone such behaviour. 
• I have no intention of engaging in any of these activities. 

Feeple 60/Volks Lorina Hybrid

Ok first of all, this is a pain in the ass. You WILL want help for this, or else you'll be looking like a dork like I was doing this.

This first tutorial is to show how to remove the neckpiece on the F60 body and restring it so you can use it with another head.

Note the First: You will want help for this.

Note the Second: Also, I kinda messed up on this leg. You will actually want to tie the knot and leave it towards the torso. DO NOT untie it like I did or hold the knot at the bottom. It makes things seriously difficult.

Face Up Tips: Eyebrows

I'm still learning and improving my face up techniques. I'm not the best or anything, but I have figured out some things that help me with my face ups.

I <3 shimmer powders!!!

A little background on this head: She's a recast Volks SD16 Kira. Her original owner tried to blush her to match a yellow skin body, and despite all my scrubbing, I can't completely remove it all [edit: I finally got it off and redid her faceup]. So, this is making one eyebrow look really goofy. Please ignore that for the sake of the tutorial.

Here's my technique for eyebrows. Update: Scroll to the bottom of the post to see recent eyebrows done with this method!

Photostory thingy: mature content

Alora's Dream

Alora has long dreamt of seducing the famous hero, Jack. She slept one hundred years in a castle surrounded by roses, cursed, dreaming of him.

He awoke her from her slumber, but he had another love: his childhood sweetheart, Jill. So Alora weeps, waits, plots, and often dreams...

 

Restringing a Pukifee- My Technique

There is pretty much no information available on how to restring these little buggers, so I put together what I could find and took mine apart. I do not have a legit to compare to, so I'm just going off what few tutorials did exist and what owners of legit ones have said. This method I'm going to show you works really well for me, as you'll be able to see in the pictures, so hopefully it works for you too.

(Pardon for the messy background. That's my painting table so paint is everywhere.)

My victim is Rumpelstiltskin ('Stilts), a Cheshire Cat Minion. Before this, he could barely sit upright. I'm not happy with the results of this restringing, but my fingers hurt too damn bad to do it again for awhile.

Stilts is a recast pukifee Pongpong from Steven.

NOTE: Make sure you keep the knot in the legs either in the shin or up in the hip area. DO NOT let it get stuck in the knee, like mine did. This will really make it a pain in the neck to pose.

Pukifee Poses!!!

Click here for the pukifee restringing tutorial!

Note: After these, my knot got stuck up in Stilts' leg, so I couldn't do any cool one-legged pose. Those will be tried eventually! Enjoy for now~!