So it's been a Year

And I haven't posted much at all. This year I haven't had much time for dolls, just a few moments snagged here and there. I'm not sure what more to say than that- real life jumped up and took all my time.

I guess I can recount some of what I did manage over the course of the whole year.

 This is Chioma, my dyed Chibi Unoa. I finally dyed her, with iDye Poly and bought new PanPastels and finished her off with them. The richer colors were perfect for making her dye colors flawless. Her wig is a custom job by StellaMaris. I had made her clothes in 2015, while I was sick that Autumn.


Fayeth (Resinsoul Ju/Soom Adamelli body) is now modeling an experimental outfit I made for her last Spring, in the influence of green and growing things.

The top is just a heavy necklace made out of silver and glass beads. Now that it's cold winter, I feel like I should make her a more fitting gown for snowy weather.

 I finally made an outfit for Amadi. (Simply Divine Harlequin on a Dollstown18 body) This ombre silk has been in my fabric stash for ages, but I couldn't work out what to do with such odd colors- peach and mint?- until I matched them to this vintage scarf I've made a coat out of. Silk is so hard to work with, but the draping it gives is gorgeous. I hand-stitched it all, but it caught and snagged on every callous of my working hands. I was worried I'd ruin it.

I finished the blushing and faceup on my Withdoll Mai girl Nevae, part of the Eddion story. She's been without a faceup for far too long.

 I also made her a wig, after the one I bought for her just did not work out. This is black dyed tibetan lambswool type fiber, applied to a hardcap, pulled back in a chignon knot.

Doll stuff was planned: I am waiting on a head from Armeleia. "Wol" will be put on a slender Doll Chateau Kid body to become my long desired Aspen Dryad. I hand dyed some lace to make stuff for wigs for that doll, but I can't proceed without the head. The next step will be merely to work on the mods I want to do to the body. I can't blush it yet without the head to match it to.

I'm also making another doll I've thought a long time about, or  I will when I have time. I don't know how long I'll keep him, a few years, I guess- Some dolls are just compulsions, art I have to make, that pesters at my mind until I make them real. This one's name is Shade, and he is an IOS Anima head on a Dikadoll body. It will be dyed black.

Amadi gets Aesthetics

Remember my Simply Divine Harlequin, cast for me in Cinnamon? I showed you pics when he arrived, and I put him onto a Pale Tan Dollstown 18 male body. The combo is beautiful. Such amazing artistry in both sculpts and the styles complement each other perfectly!

So I finally found some days in late summer that weren't humid...Sort of. The American Rockies are really dry year round, but get thunderstorms out of nowhere in the afternoons of August. Humidity can really ruin your day when you're spraying aerosols, especially any kind of sealant. It can really cause problems working on Tan resin, because if humidity causes the sealant to lighten at all, it shows up amazingly well against the darker color of the resin.

The first time I tried to seal the body for blushing, I was using Citadel Purity Seal, and I did not know that outside my shop, a humid front was moving in ahead of some clouds while I worked. Rocky Mountain storms are notorious for stealing a march on you. They can come out of nowhere in less than a couple of hours. I am a Native Californian, and still not used to this! You'd think living here in the Rockies for four, almost five years now would have taught me to never trust the radically changeable weather. I need to check outside every hour or so when I work with Sealants in the Rockies. I know this now. I learned it the hard way when the Citadel clouded up on me. It looked like powdered sugar sprayed across the resin. I ended up having to scrub it off the resin.

That took me the help of another doll-hobbyist, many ounces of Windsor-Newton Brush Cleaner, and several DAYS of hard, hard scrubbing. Citadel does not let go in a hurry. Be warned. Ugh. It does Not like humidity At All, and will not be removed without a fight.

So when I came back to try sealing this doll again, I brought back my old favorite, Testor's Model Master Flat lacquer. It's comparatively cheap, it comes in adorable little bitty cans, it was the first faceup sealant I ever used, and it hasn't failed me yet! It also seems to tolerate a smidgen of humidity better than Citadel did, 'cuz I used to use this stuff in a coastal California town, and it has to be practically raining outside for humidity to affect it.

After a wall of text like that, you didn't think I'd leave you without pics, did you? Here he is!

Amadi Arrives

I'd always adored the head sculpts by Simply Divine but never had a good reason to get one.This last year,  I was able to ask them to cast a Harlequin sculpt in their Cinnamon resin, just for me! And they did it!

I made him a hardcap wig out of tibetan mohair stuff.

The only body these guys look the very best on, to my eye, is the Dollstown 18 Male body, which is huge and expensive, but with some Christmas money, I finally got to order one this year,

And this week, it arrived!!

I put him all together and... WHOA.

His name is Amadi.

And here's a little skirty thing I made him. He is HUGE.