About Aiden Forrester

Click on the "About" Label for more of my characters and info about the dolls that portray them!

 Aiden Forrester
of the Court of Dun Elisedd

Company and sculpt: Volks Yukinojo 2012 head/ Granado 63cm body with jointed hands.
Height: about 63cm
Resin colour: Granado's old Yellow NS, and Volks NS
Modifications: Hybrid.
Faceup: Volks, altered a bit by me.
Eyes: Default Volks Yukinojo
Wig: 8 inch fiber, unknown brand

Name (and nicknames): Aiden Forrester, formerly Lord Aiden Colric.
Age: 28
Birthday: in Autumn

Family and/or relationships: He adored his younger sister, and tried to protect her from the machinations of their ambitious father. Aiden is angry with himself because he couldn't keep his sister from being sold into a marriage to a dangerous man just to gain their father some power and money. He has a twin brother who sided with their father Baron Colric in every argument, and is therefore their father's heir. Aiden betrayed his family to the Royal forces during the Winter War his father started, and has thus been declared to be disowned utterly. Now he lives at Dun Elisedd.

Occupation: Hunting in the mountains behind the castle of Dun Elisedd, to keep the place supplied with wild game as a supplement to the domestic fowls and herd beasts normally eaten.

Pets: None. He wants to train a competent hunting hound for flushing birds. He uses a pack pony sometimes to bring in a kill, but a working animal is not a pet to him.

Personality: Proud as to his personal honor, stubborn, taciturn, cynical about human nature, dedicated when he feels he has a good reason to be or a cause to work for, bold, hardworking even at menial tasks, brave in defense of people he loves, overall rather emotional/passionate. If he does some task, he'll work all day 'til he gets it done right.

Hobbies: He spends his time mostly at his work, hunting. Whittling, sharpening knives, fletching arrows, trout fishing...

Likes: Time to himself, a good take when he's out hunting, getting respect from those he admires, getting recognition for his hard work, being out in the forest, quiet without someone trying to fill it with chatter. He's a Dog Person, considering cats useless freeloaders if they can't catch mice.

Dislikes: Being looked down on, being at the bottom of the social order, being underestimated, chattery people, dancing, Verdani people, dim-witted servants, pompous nobles, people whose only ambition is for power and riches.

Other/misc: People of Dun Elisedd are glad he betrayed his family in the Winter War because it meant a way to win, but they will never really forgive him for being a blood traitor. He's a person who was useful to them, but not a person they will trust, or be seen to be friendly with.

Colrics are known to be hot-tempered and troublesome, and while he might be disowned, he's definitely still one of them in those regards.

He was married once, but his young wife and he didn't know each other very well when they wed. They were off to a promising start on a sort of relationship when she and their first baby died in childbirth. She was only 19, he was 23. Aiden has not sought love or marriage since.

Jenny Marx's Survey II

This quiz thingy dates from the 1860s and was written by Jenny Marx, Karl Marx's daughter. She sent it to her exciting Communist pals to fill out, apparently for the sheer fun of it. Here's the answers of a few of my Doll characters from Dun Elisedd, if we assume/pretend we could get them to answer these.

Answers for Aiden Forrester, Volks Yukinojo/ Granado hybrid.

The quality you like best in a man:
Honesty.

The quality you like best in a woman:
Boldness.

Your chief characteristic:
People say I'm hot-tempered; it runs in our family.

Your idea of happiness:
Being out in the woods, in the fog as the sun rises and the light comes between the branches.

Your idea of misery:
Being caught in the web of lies and power games at home.

The vice you detest the most:
Greed.

The vice you excuse the most:
Giving in to temptations.

Your chief aversion:
Public appearances. I show up if I am summoned, and then get the h*ll out of it.

Your favourite literary or historical character:
I used to think my family's ancestors were great men. If they were like my father, I doubt it.

Your favourite occupation:
These days I prefer hunting.

Your favourite writer:
( He doesn't read much.)

Your favourite flower:
wood-roses

Your favourite colour:
Green.

Your favourite dish:
Fresh caught trout, roasted on an open fire, eaten by the stream side. You can catch trout without a line or net, if you have fast hands.

Your favourite motto:
I'll do Whatever I Must.


Answers for Aneirin, a fae creature, bond-slave to Tiarnach, Prince of the Wildwood (Dollshe Saint Hybrid/Mod)

The quality you like best in a man:
Sense to stay out of my woods.

The quality you like best in a woman:
A nice singing voice.

Your chief characteristic:
I am quite bloodthirsty, usually literally.

Your idea of happiness:
Being free, walking in the woods by moonlight, when the night flowers bloom and the moths dance...

Your idea of misery:
Being stuck on a leash, doing Tiarnach's dirty work.

The vice you detest the most:
Disrespect.

The vice you excuse the most:
Hunger.

Your chief aversion:
Daylight is glaring and blinding. Hiss.

Your favourite literary or historical character:
*shrug*

Your favourite occupation:
Tending my gardens- I have a few small patches of wildflowers I watch over when my Lord doesn't need me around. I like my flowers.

Your favourite writer:
( He doesn't read much.)

Your favourite flower:
Oh, wood rose, night lily, Young Maid's Fancy, thistle, pond lilies, crocuses, bluebells, Lady's Slipper, primrose, snowdrops, daffodils.. (he goes on... and on... )

Your favourite colour:
White, like the Moon.

Your favourite dish:
Fresh blood of a young rabbit, with perhaps some of the liver and heart... *slurp*

Your favourite motto:
Alone Is Best.

Making Schatzi, part 1

Schatzi, a Dachshund BJD

I am still working on several other things in the Eternal Rotation, and they will make their blog appearances as I work on them,

 but this is yet another project because I wanted to try making an animal BJD before I do more work on my humanoid BJD sculpting. BJDs need pets, and Schatzi here will be the size of a Miniature Dachshund to the 1/3 or SD dolls, and a Standard Dachshund to the 1/4 or MSD dolls. If he works out well, I want to try a Corgi, too. I don't know how long it will be before I am good enough at this to make a house cat, though, so don't hold your collective breaths for that development. :sweat

I started with a good plan, and some notes on joint types. A stubby wee dog will be basically ALL joints, with very few major straight parts like humans have with their long limbs. The hardest part will be the hind legs, because I want it to be able to sit properly.

I'm working on this one in polymer clay first, which has its pros and cons, but they're pros and cons I know well, since I've been working with the stuff for over a decade now. I sculpt, then bake lightly, then add more, then rebake. Eventually I'll do a home junk cast in resin and refine that rough cast with Apoxie Sculpt. The end goal here is to have something nice enough to cast multiples of in resin.
I made a body tube shape and then cut it into segments, and it looks pretty miserable for the first rough stages. My HS art teacher used to call this the Butt-Ugly Stage, and every project goes through it, so it doesn't make me panic.

I worked the body into socketing segments, and made a paw and some leg sections.

That one paw got duplicated by push-mold, saving me some work in making four different paws. I did have to refine all four paws, of course, but it was a good way to get them all the right size. I also made a headback, and that masky thing there is the rough base for a faceplate.

Neck with headback perched on it. I tried a segmented neck but it looked like a stubby diplodocus... so we're going with a mostly straight neck, with a cup base for mobility. This has been rough sanded for symmetry and shape so far.

The body wasn't long enough compared to the legs and neck, so I added another segment. I also added foreleg/shoulder holes, roughed in.

Progress pic- The body segments and neck, headback, leg and paw, just to check proportions. There's the rough faceplate too!

Without the eyes as more than big sockets, he looks like Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas. But he's coming along.
My sister's family has a Dachshund so I'm pretty familiar with their pointy wee faces and little arched noses.

Testing the shapes!

Sitting up. His legs didn't stay this long, because this test stringing showed me they weren't the right length compared to his body. Finally he begins to look like a dog! I tried a segmented tail, but stringing it turned out to be too fiddly, so this is the only pic it shows up in. Shame, because it was so nicely mobile.


Much refining later:

Dogbutt. Here's the one piece tail, and it rotates in its socket quite nicely so he can wag or slink, as the mood takes him.

This is a bad shot, sorry, but I've fixed his body joints to be much, MUCH smoother and closer fitted. Symmetry is the hardest part, I think, and he's almost at 50% done. He begins to show the shapes the final sculpt will have.

His little ears turn in their sockets too. The faceplate is nearly done, but I need to work out his eyes so they can stop being big old holes in his face.

More to come!