On The Worktable- Current Projects

Okay, here's a rundown of what I've been up to the last few months, and what I have planned or am already working on, in between bouts of bedrest. (Don't ask, long story, medications and then a sinus infection)
I would have included pics but Blogger is being weird right now and messing up my uploads, so you get me blathering instead.



Just finished:
-Making Taki the realpuki hybrid, painting him and making his basic outfit. He is now a very smiley warrior fae in spiffy duds.
-Gave Winter, Leeke Romeo hybrid, a new wig, nice and short.
-Gave Elinore a new wig, dark brown instead of sable.
-Made Donovan the EID Akando a full outfit, tunic and shoes and everything.
-Made Kevya some pants that fit, finally.
-Gave Adara's Khorae, a YID Iplehouse girl, a massive mod makeover and blushing.
-Finished faceup and blushing of Farron, my new Littlefee Elf El.
-Gave Stella the LTF Troll a serious hip modification, new blushing and a new faceup, as well as a new sleeping faceplate.
-Re-faceupped Scythe the MSD, got him real clothes, but the shoes don't fit, so I need to sell those and get good ones.

Currently working:
-Working on Kitso, a Puki Madeleine mod, who will be another tiny warrior fae and Taki's former hunting buddy. All that's left is to sand his ears smooth and remove his seams, and then I can paint him up. Made him some clothes tonight.
-Softening the jawline and browline of a Souldoll Killian head to go on a custom ordered muscular woman body- She will be Fiachra.
-Finding Tiarnach a body imposing enough for him- Soom Supergem is nice but too lean. He needs to have more oomph.
-Waiting on a custom colored body for Siofra. I love her face like crazy, but ResinSoul's kicky 58 cm girl body just isn't enough for me as a collector any more- it can't pose nearly well enough to be my Siofra.
-I need to mod Sir Malcolm's head so it will fit on the Iplehouse SID body he is supposed to be able to use.
-I need to blush that body and make it some clothes for Malcolm to wear.
-Waiting on a Dream High Studio Fira, a special limited fairy that I may sell to make room for other purchases.
-Waiting on an Iplehouse Elemental Guardian Taregan, which will be getting a few subtle mods to be my Davan, villain of my Dun Elisedd Story.
-Going to be buying a Minifee Ruth sometime in the coming year to re-shell my character Two Hands.
-Going to be getting a Minifee Girl body for my Unoa faceplates, which I have decided to make into my character Aithne, so she will need a faceup and blush too, once that body gets here.

As always, props need making for my dollies- I mean to make Elinore a healer's kit, a pack and survival tools for Kitso, and this big white Battat horse I have is going to get spruced up for the Minifees to use.

Also, I am sculpting my own BJDs! First project is a tiny doll, using Super Sculpey Firm, and he is meant to be a Feegle, as in Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books. A six inch tall warrior faery with a tendency to fight everything.
The other sculpt is a Paperclay experiment I have dubbed Mighty Aphrodite, and she is a plus sized 61 cm female body with plenty of curve. So far she is just a rough torso, but I like what I've got and intend to keep going.

Masssive Mods- Iplehouse YID girl

Click Here for the blog post detailing what was done, but I recently took a doll from unposable all the way to Humanly Posable. It was an interesting and sometimes daunting project, but it's done and the results are worth it.

Character Flaws

Almost all of my human/human-like characters have "flaws" of some kind, it's what makes them relatable.
Out of the Court of Dun Elisedd storyline, several of them have problems from mild to debilitating.

Lir and Elinore's issues are mostly situational- the understandable trauma of losing your family, then having to run a kingdom.

Rowena is a bit claustrophobic- a common problem but it makes her a little stir crazy when she can't leave the castle.

Kevya, now, poor Kevya- Here's a list! Poor guy has no memory of a youth or childhood, severe trauma physical and mental from being enslaved and tormented for six years, including extensive scarring and branding on his shoulders and hands. He doesn't trust people, doesn't like being touched, has a fear of crowds, being locked up, has acute senses (which can be a painful flaw, trust me) and has serious social difficulties from years of being treated like an animal. Add to this insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, and for the first several months an inability to remember how to speak... Yeah.

Winter gets dark painful bruises if he's too close to iron or steel for very long- it's why he doesn't carry a knife. He also has an uncanny ability to tell sometimes what people's intentions are- sounds fun until you imagine if no one could lie to you. Ever. Not even when they need to. Think about it.
As a partial result, he's a terrible cynical jerk. He knows who fears him, who is smiling at him but doesn't like him, who wants to manipulate him for his influence so close to the King, and who thinks he's a coward because he did not fight in the War.

Sir Donovan had a childhood stammer in his speech that returns when he gets embarrassed, or around a pretty woman. He hates it.

Sir Malcolm was badly injured during the war. He has a marked limp in one leg and can barely do anything with his left hand anymore- nerve damage from a stab wound.
He's got bad survivor's guilt after his king and all his friends died in the war.

Mathonwy is nearsighted, so he has glasses. He was also born very pale-skinned, but that's just how he is. All he can do is avoid the harshest daylight.

Fiachra, a character coming soon, has a serious chip on her shoulder about having to play both the lovely noblewoman and the fierce warrior, and how people don't seem to want her to be anything but one or the other. She's got a bit of a lost identity.

Tiarnach, whose doll form awaits a body, has his own weirdness but that's because he's Fae. Mostly, he has angst over the fact that the woman he loves can't keep herself to herself.

Davan, also on his way, is simply freakin' sadistic. He's cruel, but not petty, and logical like a steel vise. He will dominate, possess or destroy anything of power that he comes across, no holds barred, no remorse, and no mercy.

Wardrobe Updates

So Halloween has come and gone, and the month of October is over. It has promptly begun to snow, and sealant-spraying-friendly weather will now be extremely hard to come by. It's times like this I wish fervently that I had a fume hood like in my high school chem lab.
However, I can sew, which means I can keep adding to my dolls' expanding wardrobes. I want to get each of them into a basic outfit with shoes by New Year or so. Here's Donovan's new outfit. [Donovan is an EID Akando from Iplehouse.]



In my Dun Elisedd story, Don's people are northern Clansmen heavily inspired by the historical Scots, Picts and Irish, so his clothing has influences from them, including a large penannular style brooch for his brat, or shoulder wrap, and a knee length tunic with a keyhole neckline, as well as several pieces of almost gaudy jewelry.



The outfit without the shoulder wrap. Even his belt buckle was chosen for its similarity to La Tene' period Celtic metal finds.



Here's a shot of his shoes- Not entirely historically accurate in type or construction, but plausible.


Siofra the Fae Lady got some new clothes earlier this year but I hadn't taken pics yet, so here is her new outfit.



It has a heavy Roman influence because I wanted her outfits to hearken back to an earlier style, and early British clothing was influenced by the Roman occupation. Siofra needed a Pre-Medieval look. She also needs a new faceup, but that can wait for Spring, I guess.


I never thought I'd have a doll who could get away with wearing orange, but she wears it rather well. Her coloring is so different from any of my other dolls.
[Siofra is a Resinsoul Yun cast in Light Tan.]

Racing the Year Wheel

I am working on several dolly projects that I must complete before the end of this month. By that time it will be Late Autumn/Early Winter here, and I will have no more warm sunny dry days good for spraying sealant.

I'm used to SoCal, where Summer doesn't end until after October, and November is our entire Autumn. Winter doesn't arrive until Late November or December, and only brings frost and rain. Here in the Rocky Mountains it's different. Sometime in Sept. it was as if someone hit a switch and said, "Let There Be Fall!" and lo, it was Fall indeed, verily. The trees on the mountains are all turning reds and yellows and oranges, vivid blazing colors. It's a new experience for me.

I have so much to blog about but my hands are hurting, so I'll be more eloquent later. You will see my Massive Makeover for Khorae; my new Littlefee, Farron; Don's new outfit; Lir's new boots; and you will meet Tiarnach, Prince of the Wild Wood. Also WIP pics of Stella's Makeover.

QuasiMiddleAges, or What year is this Court thing supposed to be?

In case you're a new guest to my little corner of the blogosphere, I should mention that I have this medieval sort of fantasy story I've been working on for years, and a majority of my dolls are characters belonging to that story. Specifically they belong to the Court of Dun Elisedd, the group of people who are the movers and shakers of a castle in a small northern kingdom.

It draws inspiration from many, many sources, not the least of which are things like The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Prydain, Beowulf, the Arthurian mythos, and histories of many actual kingdoms. It is a fantasy story, but like Tolkien and other authors, I have something of a passion for world-building and cultural anthropology, so I have done a lot of thinking about the cultures in this world and how they interact, and what their clashing or melding means for their society.

I have trouble sometimes with keeping my historical & locational influences to one period or place. I am madly in love with the Arthurian era of war-torn, Saxon-invaded Britain, with kings and chieftains and warriors, and the simpler architecture and gorgeous celtic artistic forms they had. I also like the "Ivanhoe" period of Post-Hastings England with the Saxons and Normans uncomfortably mixing, and all the cultural awkwardness there. There are lots of things in fashion and clothing, however, that I like from as late as the High Middle Ages, 1300 or so. I try to keep my main influences in fashion, art and architecture somewhere between the Roman British era and theNorman Invasion, just for the sake of clarity and some vague unity in the whole mess.

It is well worth pointing out that I have only barely begun a dabbling study of British and European history compared to many authors and illustrators, and there's a lot more to study. It's one of the things that makes this story a work in progress.

Why base a fantasy novel on history, you might ask? Because I've seen what happens when you don't, and it looks like Dungeons and Dragons. *twitch* Not that I have anything against High Fantasy, as it's known, but it doesn't feel as real to me. The appeal of Fantasy is that you can imagine somewhere, somehow, once upon a time, it was real. My story is about real people, even if there is a bit of magic involved and they use swords and horses instead of iPhones and Toyotas. These people live and love and bleed and die, and I can't cheapen that by making everything up and having it not make sense. Their world needs to be solid, and have real weather, real troubles and real life in it.
My fantasy world cannot have everyone on the continent under just one king, they can't all speak a Common Speech with no good reason for it, and they can't have an economy based on unrealistic amounts of gold pieces everyone has and everyone values exactly the same, and they can't all have conveniently enlightened modern views on property, citizenship, women, and slavery. That's how it is in many Fantasy settings, but not in mine.

The Grindbox - Resin is Toxic

Resin dust is like silica, coal dust or other things tiny, particulate and inorganic- once it gets into your lungs, it never comes out. It can cause cancer like Mesothelioma, or simply Miner's Lung just by being in there. Cancer can be fought by horrible chemicals, but there is no way to cure Miner's Lung. It is a slow death sentence.

Sounds dramatic, but that's the truth. Lots of things that we deal with every day can totally kill you if you do something stupid, and resin dust is no different. Arc welders and industrial power tools are just as deadly, but the right equipment makes them safe. With the right precautions, you can make resin safer to work with. One vital way is to wear a properly fitted respirator of N95 rating or higher and make sure it is always fitted and has fresh filters. There are lots of ways to keep resin dust out of your environment and under control.

What I have for my setup is a thing I've been calling the Grindbox. (Pictures coming later!) It's like a sandblasting box used industrially or a chemical hood, except it's built out of hacked together parts and caulked foamcore board because I couldn't be bothered to try to cut wood in an apartment, and wood is heavy. Metal was out of the question. I plan to post images of the thing to my blog eventually but I'd recommend building this thing to serious modders only, since it takes a lot of work and buying a dedicated shop vac and expensive HEPA filters- Also, I have not yet perfected the design and cannot in good conscience vouch for its efficacy yet. I still wear an N95 mask while working with it, just in case. (Mesothelioma is a horrible way to go. Not for me, no thank you!)

What the Grindbox is made up of is a big ol' box with a wide, tilted lid on top that has a panel of clear acrylic in the lid so I can see what I'm doing, and big sleeves and gloves that are caulked into their holes and extend into the box. The gloves are rubbery non slip gripper things that help me not drop things when I am working with the Dremel and they are thick enough to protect my fingers when the toolbit slips accidentally. (Never work with a Dremel without gloves- we like our fingers' flesh!)

The lid is sealed by velcro straps to hold it tight shut when I am working in the box. The box has an air intake made of a hole with HEPA filter over it caulked to the side, which I will have to replace periodically. The air outlet is a caulked on funnel in the opposite side, to which has been sealed a vacuum hose attachment. This is connected to a just-for-this Shop Vacuum that has been fitted with HEPA rated filters that also have to be regularly changed, but this thing sucks up all the dust and shavings from whatever I work on inside the box and does not allow particles back out into the air.

There is also a hole in the side of the box to allow me to place a Dremel in the box, then run the cord out of the box. This currently has a valve-like sealing around the cord made of layers of rubber and Gorilla tape, but I'd like something less kludgey eventually. Currently the Dremel just kind of stays in the box and I open the lid to put new bits in the box, then close the box promptly and use my gloved hands inside it to change Dremel bits.

I am still perfecting the whole thing but it does make it possible for me to do lots of stuff I could never contemplate doing in an apartment. I wear an N95 mask when I use it anyway, and have air purifying filter fans running in the studio pretty much all the time just to be extra safe.