Miss Warwick's Adventures in Doll land

Neck Peg replacement for Obitsu.

2014-08-09T09:05:00.001-07:00

I thought I would do a tutorial that has been at the back of my mind for awhile. This is a tutorial for an alternative neck peg for obitsu bodies.
Supplies:
Pliers
Electrical tape
Obitsu
Button with metal loop shank.

Step 1: Cover the top of the button with electrical tape: This stops the shank wiggling about all over the place.

Optional Step: Bend the loop so it fits inside the neck of the obitsu but also so the metal pin still slips through. I put this as optional because some of mine have needed it and some of mine haven't, it depends how thick and round the loop is. (This is what the pliers are for and I didn't take photo's as this step was done before I decided to make a tutorial)

Step 2: Cover the Loop with electrical tape to keep the head from wiggling. (Again might not be required if the loop fits snuggly inside the neck)

Step 3: Insert into the Neck and insert the metal pin to hold in place. (It can be a little tricky to get the pin back in, patcience is the key. A thick needle or other object usually helps to push the pin in or to check the holes are aligned.)

Step 4: Slide inside the head. (For some of my newer dolls, loosening or removing the eye-mechanism was needed for this step, remember to tighten it again, if you had to loosen it.)

Step 5: Put the Doll back together and you're done!

Advantages of this method is that the metal shank on the buttons is a lot sturdier than the obitsu neck pegs, I have had my dolls on these for almost 2 years and none of them have needed altering or fixing, whereas a lot of my obitsu neck pegs have snapped from the weight of the dolls head.

Disadvantages of this method would be if the loop needs bent with the pliers to fit and this can require a lot of strength and patience and it is very easy to bend too large or too small.

Buying the buttons: I found these in my Grandmother's old sewing kit but you can buy Similar buttons here

It's been far too long.

2013-02-10T06:40:00.001-08:00

It's been ages since I last posted, I have had a really busy year with moving house and university exams but I feel it's time to ease myself back into blogging so here goes.
I've had many new editions to my family, including a custom dal- Luna, customised by a friend for me. Pullip Elizabeth was a Christmas present from my boy friend, pullip lunatic queen who was my grail, Taeyang William who I customised myself. So stay tuned as I plan to update here more again.

M'aidez

2012-05-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

Back to Biographies. M'aidez is a pullip Zuora. She has been modified with green eye-shadow and ginger wig, she has two wigs because although I found the one I like best I gave her peter pans wig to make her seem younger, more innocent and sweet. Today her 25cm obitsu came, I think the shortness suits her personality.

M'aidez is a Fairy but she is very clumsy, she can't cast a spell without it back firing and as a result she has been stripped of her wings and sent to live amoung humans, in order to earn her wings back she must successfully cast 5 spells without them back firing. So far she has cast two but is only aware of one. She helped a dal fix her broken ankle and she unknowingly broke a curse, allowing Sid to become a doll again. She is a bit shy and quiet but she is sweet and means well. So far her only Friend is Toki, they don't know each other very well but their meetings give them the opportunity to talk about the paranormal. Being a fairy she does have some limits people don't have for example if a human eats fairy food they are then bound to the fairy world and cannot leave without forfeiting their life, also if a fairy falls in love with a human s/he must give the human her wings or return to the fairy world and never see her/his love again. Of course if the human has eaten fairy food perhaps this could be a loop hole.

M'aidez is named after the Song "M'aidez" by the sneaker pimps, It is absolutely my most treasured song.

I've really F****d up on the obitsu front.

2012-05-05T05:03:00.000-07:00

I am having a tough time with obitsu's lately. So I noticed that Echo's body (pullip MM) had some blue stains on her and after hours of trying every trick in the book I couldn't get them off. Then when I was trying to pose Hypnotica (begoth doll) her neck broke which is a pain because begoth dolls have tattoo'd bodies which are important to keep them in good condition, so any way I figured she could have Echo's body and I would buy Echo a new one later on but then when I tried to put her head on the obitsu the peg came loose half inside her head so i tried to pull it of again but the metal pin that goes through the neck bent and the peg got lost in her head so I have a neck that has metal stuck in it. I then decided that as Lilly(pullip custom) won't be home for awhile I could replace the SBH's neck with the one from my SB-S at this point i was being careful as possible with my bodies but even then Lilly's soft body ripped... so now after all that, I have one obitsu that can be used for a doll. The other one has become a Mannequin for dressing up. Echo is without a body, Hynotica can't have the working body until I get a new peg for it and when Lilly returns home she will also be lacking in a body, add that to my Dal who is residing in the States with the Proffesor and I have a total of three obitsu's to buy D: I think I will try the kind with the magnets next time. I am unsure whether I should put them back on their old pullip bodies or sell the pullip bodies to make money for obitsu's What do you think I should do?

Video Channel Review: My Froggy Stuff.

2012-05-01T10:44:00.002-07:00

Whilest collecting dolls on a shoestring budget (Well a student budget but still) it is important to look into other ways of doing things, such as making your own props. I have spent hours just watching online tutorials for different things such as making realistic food, furniture, clothes... in fact you name something doll related and I have probably watched it. My favourite is youtube Channel Froggystuff hosted by a mother with input from her daughter Froggy stuff covers kid friendly but also high quality props for your dolls. My favourite on is this one "make a 12" doll bed" I tried it out making a small bed for Dal and these were my results:

As you can see I am still lacking in bed sheets and perhaps some more decoration to make it look more interesting. I hope to make some for my bigger 12" dolls though. Froggy Stuff has Tutorials on absolutely every thing, her most recent even including how to make a car. Even if I don't plan on making anything I always enjoy watching her tutorials and her doll show called "The Darby show" where mother and daughter use dolls to act out scenarios is both really sweet and rather funny. I hope you enjoy.

Shop Review Mimiwoo.

2012-04-30T05:51:00.000-07:00

Cute little boxes.

Cute Cat ears.

Mimiwoo on etsy is one of my favourite places to buy. I always buy my obitsu bodies there because she dispatches them quickly and gives you free shipping. I bought some small things from her recently and I was really pleased because they came in such cute little boxes. Perfect for reusing as birthday presents when photographing. But what's in them? I bought some resin cat ears, a pair for echo and a pair for a later custom. The other brilliant thing is that Mimiwoo's business cards always have artistic pictures that are the perfect size for doll posters. I plan on making a frame for this one pictured with Echo below and making a perfect doll sized picture.

I'm not sure how there end up with two sets of writing in this one D: fail.

Any way here is my finished resin ears, the inside is blushed pink and the tips black, this is because Echo's old ears were white felt with black felt in the middle and I wanted to keep the black and white but also make them more realistic. I hope you like. if so mimiwoo's shop can be found here and the ebay one here she also often does free shipping on obitsu's

Shop Review: The Pullip Pantry Etsy.

2012-04-22T04:09:00.003-07:00

Echo's Green Dress.

Beautiful Lace Skirt.

Adorable Embroidered Jacket.

There are many little shops that cater to the tiny needs of our dolls and every one has a favourite place to shop. Mine is The Pullip Pantry on Etsy. Although it could be said that I am biased as I knew Jemm via Pullip Fiction before she started up her shop, I can never speak a bad word about her, she often goes out of her way to accomidate people. I have bought from her many times and will happily continue to in the future.

As you can see from the above pictures, she has something for everyone's taste. The Green Dress was made especially for me after complaining that Echo didn't have enough green things to wear I received two different dresses for her. The Black lace Skirt I fell in love with the moment I saw it listed and the lovely jacket was originally for pullip but it fits dal like a glove. The pullip pantry has just released a line of summer dresses so I suggest you head over there now and take a look. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePullipPantry.

Trusting other people.

2012-04-20T11:56:00.001-07:00

Face-up before I sent her away.

first ever face-up

Lilly and Echo.

Taking a break from bio's for a post (or two) mainly because I am unsure who to introduce next. Like I have said many times I don't like to take the risk of ruining plot lines. Lilly is my oldest doll and the main character of my writing so I feel that naturally she would come next but she is still having her face-up done. Which brings me to my next point trusting other people with your property. I sent lilly away around 2 weeks ago now for a face-up, and today I have been feeling a little bit nervous. I am not going to tell you who I sent her to at this point because I feel that no feedback positive or negative should be left until more progression is made. Anyway I'm feeling nervous because I opted to pay early as I wanted to do it when I had some spare money in my paypal account (Bank cards are a pain for causing me problems >.<). I sent the money a week ago which is also when I received my last email from the customizer, to para-phrase it said sending payment early was fine and she should be finished in a couple of days. I have sent 2 emails and heard nothing back so on the basis that she now has my money and my doll I'm feeling pretty nervous. I'm sure that she is just busy but I am unsure how long to wait before I assume that I have been ripped off? I think this person would be silly to rip me off because I have their full name and Address and they are some-what known in the hobby but I'm sure it will work itself out, trusting strangers sure is a hard thing to do sometimes. How do you guys cope in this sort of situation?

Toki Galen.

2012-04-17T13:57:00.002-07:00

Toki was my Second doll, I wanted a male companion for Lilly and I had fallen in love with the Alice in wonderland lunatic Series, so it just had to be Lunatic white Rabbit. I found him for a good price without stock and later I bought his stock. He came on a sunny day, the male man left him in a sack in the Garden (our mail box is a good 1/4 mile from the house at my parents). I had watched with binoculars everyday for a week and a half for the postman to deliver him and some how he got delivered without my notice. (I didn't want a lecture on buying another doll). Toki means Rabbit in Korean and Galen means mad/crazy in swedish so (Rabbit Lunatic). He came into my story when Lilly found him unconscious beside a river, He is mysterious and Polite but he worries all the same. It is Evident that Toki has strong feelings for Lilly, but he also has strongly loved another woman only to be rejected. Due to this and feeling like he had out stayed his welcome he ran away from Lilly's home and the two are now on awkward speaking terms. I think he is a kind soul but a bit weak of character in the running away sense. I think he is also a bit of a Romantic. There is still a lot more I want to reveal about his background, but I think it will take many episodes of my picfic and I don't like spoiling endings, so I think you will have to stick around to find out. If you would like to read my picfic it is currently only on pullipfiction (here) I would like to upload it somewhere publically but I don't know where the best place to do so is, any suggestions?

P.s. I forgot to mention, Echo's wig with attached cat ears is for sale. Open to offers.

Echo Minou

2012-04-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

I'm Starting with Echo, at first it seemed important to start in chronological order but Lilly is away for a face-up, and Toki's story revolves some-what around Lilly so I'm Starting with Echo who is Lilly's best friend. When I saw Echo for sale, I knew I had to have her, First I saw the cat eyes and ears and thought "she can be my cheshire cat" but after looking at more pictures I knew she had to stay Echo and she had to be mine!

There was a gorgeous picture of her in a green top labelled Gamer chick and I thought of her as a bit tomboyish but when she arrived she came in a green dress and I lacked trainers and tomboyish clothes so she became a character who may have once been a tomboy but now is a cute and sexy blonde (with a few confidence issues). One Character trait I have given her is to (almost) always wear green. Echo is a musician trying to make it big, through a few accidents (both written and my own clumbsiness) her guitar is broken and she has resorted to returning to college to live on a students wage, busking (before the guitar broke) and doing the occasional modelling job. She bunks with Lilly after she was ripped off by a con man pretending to be a with a record label. She is loyal to her friends, and works hard to help them out. Minou means Kitten in French (or pussy but the cat kind not the rude kind) In her Bio I wrote her mother to be an Aristocat and her Father to be part of the "Felidae" cat clan. In real life Felidae is a family of cats (Felidae wiki) in my story they are a large wealthy family similar to the Rothschild family (or the mafia but without the drugs and danger) I have hardly thought about these details since I wrote them but I think I will weave them in to the picfic more (along with some thundercats refferences of course). She is in her early 20's (22 maybe).
Echo met Lilly at the age of 10, like Lilly she was often picked on for her odd appearances and the two bonded instantly, she has always been close with Lilly and Friendly with Lilly's brother Kiro. As a My Melody she has a range of musical ablities. On the Surface she seems confident and bubbly but deep down she is confused about her own identity. She has a crush on Toki but is unaware that he has feelings for Lilly.

Pullip Bios.

2012-04-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

So I've been blogging here now for awhile and I realise that although most of you probably stumbled here from Pullipfiction (I say most like people read this :P) and I have never introduced you to my dolls, I find this to be a difficult process, I have made up bios for most of them but then I forget what I write or my idea of their background changes as I discover more about their characters. I have learnt with dolls (that don't come with pre-written names and bios) that you don't create backgrounds and personalities for them because they tell you them selves. I probably sound like a crazy doll person now but what I mean by this is, that you try to give them personalities and then when you start to dress them and photograph them and write about them they don't suit the clothes or poses or character roles you wrote them in to and so your opinion of them changes. For that reason I am not going to post all the dolls bios here as a copy and paste. I am going to spend the next few posts concentrating on one doll per post, telling you what I planned for them, how they differ from my plans and perhaps a little about future plans... but not enough to give away any storyline plots ;)

As for Begoths, I keep them pretty accurate to their bios on their supplied Character cards and hardly ever redress them... but at some point I will introduce you to them too.
I hope you look forwards to it.

In tribute to Begoths Forum.

2012-04-13T14:13:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I took some pictures of my begoth girls, Atara inferno and Gloria Phobia (purple limited ed.) with the intentions of posting them on the begoths forum. You see begoths for the past few years have been having money troubles and no one was quite sure if series 9 would ever get released, slowly people stopped posting on the forum so often until there was only a maximum of 1 post per month (well give or take). So I vowed to give people something to look at when they returned. Sadly today Dian pointed out today that the whole website has had an update, the forum has gone missing and series 9 has been announced as rejected. Although I post about pullips a lot, Begoths is where I started and its where my heart will always be. Lots of people are selling their collections and going to different hobbies, I would never sell my Current begoth dolls for other dolls. I just might not buy more for awhile. Any way fingers crossed for the forum coming back... and many thanks to Steve Varner.

The Story of Monomono.

2012-04-12T12:47:00.002-07:00

Damaged Monomono

Ok today I'm going to tell you about my monomono doll. Monomono (means monkey) is a cute Dal I purchased awhile back. I always thought of her as rather tomboyish probably a due to Maaikeh's Character in the Picfic MIB (Highly Recommended) but PullipFiction user (and friend) Jemm soon changed that with her gorgeous Dal Piper. Any way I love having dolls that are some how unique and as Monomono is a pretty common doll I was determined I wanted to modify her. Reading Dan's doll blog and seeing a dal with a cute smile and cheek dimples I was determined that was what I wanted to do, I did some research but with little in the way of lip carving tutorials, I decided to bite the bullet... but to cut a long story short, I messed it up and even the Skills of my Art and Craft experienced boyfriend didn't seem able to quite fix it (well at the very least I would have to sand her face off and repaint). You can't see the damage greatly in pictures but it was awful in person. So she sat wig-less and damaged for awhile before I caved and bought a new monomono. The first time I had bought her with stock but out of the box, this time I bought her mint in box. She was fairly cheap (before Parcel force charged me a fortune- B******s). Opening her from the box (one of the most beautiful dolls in the box btw) gave me a new love for her. I was staying with my man for a week so she had to sit around in just her underwear (picture in the last post). In the mean time I still had this damaged head lying around, I decided to sell it but after listing it a better offer came up, a kind friend (also met on PullipFiction) offered to Customize her for me, for free! he wants to practice his customizing skills, I get a new doll- win- win! So she's all sent off waiting for the result. And I still have cute monomono- isn't she darling!

(Its been so long) your hobbies and other people.

2012-04-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hmmm so I had planned to update here as often as possible, but I guess I just let things get on top of me. The other day my boyfriend was having a google images search for obitsu's, he had typed in the words "male obitsu" and after scrolling down we found one of MY pictures from this blog. It wasn't a picture of a male obistsu but it was exciting none the less. He told me I should update my blog more because its a good to become known within your hobbies. So I guess he's pretty supportive of my hobbies, but then I am supportive of his too, he likes to paint miniatures and play warhammer 40k (amongst other things). Other people in my life sometimes tell me I'm a bit strange or my mum sometimes says things like "don't spend your university money on dolls" but I'm lucky in that other people just seem to be jealous or impressed that I have a hobby that I'm so dedicated to, are people supportive of your hobbies? do you tell them?

Here is a picture of my Dal at my Boyfriends house, playing with his miniatures, I set it up when he was in the other room, I'm not sure if he found it cute or if he was worried the miniatures would get broken.

The Body problem

2012-01-10T12:14:00.000-08:00

Recently the thing that has been on my (dolly) mind is bodies, I am a pretty curious person and I like to try and explore all my options. Other than normal pullip bodies the only replacement options I have purchased are obitsu. So I ended up with two pullips on obitsus and Zuora on a normal pullip body.

I can't quite decide if I want to replace her body as her skin tone is hard to match and I like that her pullip body makes her shorter however compared to her obitsued friends she feels lacking as obitsus offer great flexibility, nicer figures and a range of hand options, the floppyness and the fact they keep falling apart is frustrating.
So I was led to consider other options. So far I can think of 3alternatives: Azone, Liv and Fashionista. Fashonista is out because barbie bodies are horrible and not my cup of tea.
Liv offers a close skin match but I hate that there is only one bust size but then again so do normal pullip bodies, so I am unsure. This leaves Azone but after further research I found they look a bit strange and really childish on pullips so that leaves them out too.

Holidays and Descisions

2012-01-06T05:10:00.000-08:00

After my last post I learned that the holidays are longer than I thought they were, we don't go back to university until the 17th. Although this leaves me more time to do all the things I wanted to do, other things always seem to crop up, I have friends to catch up with as well as family and I am terrible at making decisions, one decision I have made is not to start my new years resolution until I go back to uni, my goal is to try and loose weight before my 21st in may, I have a weekly target of one and a half pounds a week, my hope is that by keeping it small I can achieve it. For those of you wondering I would not class myself as fat but I have always had a pot belly and I tend to seesaw between healthy and over weight (never loose too much and never gain too much) I think it would be nice to have a flat tummy for a change. Any way enough about that I know you came here to read about dolls, although sadly I have little to report, I did get a sewing machine for christmas so I am going to take classes to get better at sewing and sew a lot more clothes for my dolls, I also have a few customs planned so I should crack on with those.

Christmas is Just around the corner.

2011-12-17T05:07:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been thinking about Christmas, I am not particularly looking forwards to it family wise, so naturally everything is related back to my dolls. The tough thing is that I have exams up until the 21st and am returning home to my parents house the next day. This leaves me little time to do anything with my dolls, and I would very much like to do more of my Picfic and keep that going over the holidays, as well as take some Christmas photoshoots. Further more I just can't stand the thought of leaving my dolls alone in a cold empty house for two weeks. So the conclusion seems obvious, however it will take a lot of packing space, unless I only take one or two dolls home for Christmas. This probably requires more thought. What are you doing over Christmas?

Miss Warwick

Upkeep of Dolls.

2011-12-13T04:43:00.000-08:00

When discussing my hobbies with other people, I often find that most of my friends, the majority of which are male or not very feminine, don’t get the appeal of collecting dolls. My boyfriend one day said to me “I don’t get it, what do you do with them if you don’t play with them? I mean I buy miniatures so I can paint them.” I.e. he doesn’t think there is anything more to dolls than buying them and having them. Oh how wrong he is, BEgoth dolls are fairly simple on the up keep front. I find with pullips, however, that far more up keep is required, especially when you board the customizing train. I bought Lilly, nude as a Xiao fan, after seeing a friends custom pullip and being entranced, the first thing I did was change her wig, I didn’t think about it before I did it at all.

Even though I bonded with her immediately, after a while and many pictures, I knew I wasn’t really taken with xiao fans face-up. This was the next thing to go and I gave her a new face with pointy eyeliner and dark silver/grey eyes.
Soon however the length of her wig started to become a bother, it was getting tangled and was too long to pose her very well, so a haircut was in order. At the same time I decided that her face-up was still childish and amateur, so I bought some pastels and gave her smoky purple eye shadow. She stayed this way for many months before I decided to obitsu her, so I bought a SBH-M obitsu, I soon learnt that although I loved the extreme flexibility of an obitsu that the softer torso kept coming apart and wasn’t for me, so I sold it and bought a normal soft bust obitsu with small breasts. For now I think Lilly is perfect but I have learnt that more possible dolls just require a lot of up keep. My Dal is missing a foot, and My Melody is missing two screws and is extremely wobbly. Personally I love this amount of upkeep because I love to tinker with my dolls and really it’s just a secret excuse to play with them ^_^
Miss Warwick

Hello, First post, Welcome!

2011-12-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hello
So, I've wanted to create a blog for awhile but have struggled to think of names and ideas, after much effort here we have it. It's simple for the moment but once I get used to this I might jazz it up a tad.
So about me, I am 20 and from Scotland. I am a student studying psychology and in between studying I have a number of different hobbies. I like to play computer games, table top games, paint miniatures, hang out with my friends but my biggest most expensive hobby is collecting and customizing dolls. The two types of dolls I collect are BEgoth dolls (I have 13) and Pullips (I have 3 pullips, 1 Taeyang, 1 dal and 2 heads that I plan to do some work on). My aim for this blog is to mostly talk about dolls but from time to time I might give computer game reviews or rant about other things.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I will enjoy writing it.
Miss Warwick