Jointed Love

EID Iplehouse Jessica

2016-07-15T11:37:00.003-05:00

I've always been a huge fan of Iplehouse dolls, the facial sculpting is just so beautiful. I don't often get the opportunity to work on Iplehouse dolls though, especially not the bigger SID and EID versions, so this girl was a real treat.

This is EID Iplehouse Jessica.

Back Together

2016-05-25T15:23:00.001-05:00

She's finally back together and I'm able to see how she looks with her eyes in! I think my favourite set are the ghost/zombie eyes. I did keep one set of her original wheat coloured eyes too.

She may end up with purple hair at some point and she still needs proper costuming and lashes, but for now she is finished!

Blythe

2016-05-18T11:32:00.000-05:00

Well it's only taken maybe eight months but I think I'm just about ready to put this girl back together! It's been so long since I took her apart that I've forgotten where all her screws and bits have gone, and I've also forgotten how the eye mech goes back together, plus, her leg fell off! So many adventures :P

Can't wait to share photo-day with you when I get her finished!

How to Paint BJD Eyebrows

2016-05-05T15:31:00.001-05:00

This is a quick video to show you how I paint BJD eyebrows, and what products I use to do it! You can also view a written tutorial I made a while ago that has some static images too, you can find that {HERE}

How to Use Vallejo on BJDs

2016-02-26T09:30:00.001-06:00

I get a lot of questions about using Vallejo sealant and thought I'd put together a quick video explaining how I use it, and where I buy it.

Hope you find it helpful if you've been thinking of switching from MSC.

UK Stockist: Everything Airbrush

Ram Skull Tattoo - Part Two

2016-02-11T09:37:00.000-06:00

Part two is finally up! It took forever as I got sick and that slowed everything down and it just took a really long time to edit. I've finished the head that came with this torso too, though the torso and head are different coloured resins and aren't supposed to go together I tweaked the photo to make it look like they matched.

The head is a Simply Divine / Stinesculpture "Thomas" head in white skin. I'm not sure if it's Venetian white or Lunar white.

Chuu on Pureneemo Body

2016-01-30T13:47:00.000-06:00

I was messing about dressing the Blythes and got the idea to pop Chuu's head onto one of the Pureneemo bodies and it was basically the cutest thing ever. Her head is being held on in a very risky manner using a mMcgyveresque rubberband+popsicle stick contraption, but it does the job, though she can't look up at all lol.

This isn't a permanent thing of course, this was just for fun, and boy was it lol.

Mousse Video

2016-01-27T10:37:00.004-06:00

I got to work on this adorable little doll, she's called "Mousse" and she's from Merry Doll Round. She's a similar size to Blythe dolls but her head is proportional which makes it the smallest head I've ever worked on! I love that she can share clothes with Blythe, it's a great size.

Anyway I put together a quick video of her while she was here for a faceup. I didn't film painting her because she's too small but I did go over some clothing options etc.

Tattoo Timelapse Video - Part 1

2016-01-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

Here's the first part of the tattoo video where I have the basic lines all sketched out and finished. Just needs shading and inking now, which I'll share in part 2!

Tattoo Progress

2016-01-12T10:18:00.002-06:00

I'm filming the tattoo as I'm working on it so there will be a video once I'm done but I thought I'd pop in and share some preview pics with you.

The body is a Dollstown 18yr and he also came with a head (though he's not the head that goes with this body), the sculpt is a Thomas from Simply Divine.The body is quite old so it's yellowed a fair bit so I photoshopped the head and chest to match for the picture but you can see from the other pics that's it's a different colour.

The chest is even bigger than I had anticipated which is great! When I was doing the preliminary sketches I thought they'd be too big but it turns out the image on the chest is actually bigger than my sketch!

Because of where the chest joint sits I had to make the skull shorter than I was planning to, I designed it to run further down the sternum but I can't do that when the chest stops! Anyway, it's taking a real long time to get done, but it's coming along. It's quite involved so I think I'm going to end up with the video split into part one and part two.

Dewy Finish Semi Gloss

2015-12-22T10:21:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, back when I was experimenting with Purity Seal one of the things I like about it was the shiny finish, I always felt it brought the dolls to life a bit more.

So to re-create that I thought I'd spray some gloss sealant onto my doll and I think it worked out great. It gives her a nice, subtle dewy finish which looks very natural. It works well with the skin texture, adding a little extra boost of realism. It adds a natural highlight to the cheeks, chin, and nose - almost like makeup strobing for dolls ;)

I'm going to offering this Dewy finish as an alternative to the standard Matte finish. It will be added on after the primary layers of final matte sealant as an enhancer, so you can choose to have heavy shine, or a more natural dewy finish. You can also choose to hit all of the T-zone (which is what I did in the image below - it's a subtle look) or just the cheek bones depending on what you're after.

I haven't tried it with any shimmer spray yet but I think it might be quite nice.

*Commissions will be opening soon in January, there'll be a newsletter about it after Christmas!

The Collector

2015-12-20T13:52:00.000-06:00

Been a while since I took a photo of this guy, he's harder to think of this to do with because he's so much larger than the other dolls, but it worked out pretty perfectly when I decided to have him pose my nendoroid.

Although the nendoroid is a bit chunky so it doesn't necessarily look like he's posing it per say lol. I need to get him a proper mini action figure.

Faceup Timelapse

2015-12-07T07:10:00.001-06:00

After a minor disaster with one of the commissions wherein I had to wipe the head and start again, I decided to use the drying time to cram a face on my new Lisa doll. Right now she's in an old wig from the wig box but it's to permanent. It suits her well enough but I have it in ind to make her a golden blonde, not a redhead. Which means that sometime in the future there'll be some wig making!

Doll - Ana Salvador / Dragonfly Works
Wig - custom made by 1mim
Eyes - 14mm Mako AM-016
Collar and coat - by Jiajia Doll (Momoko Size)
Dress by Cutie Store (Blythe size)
Shoes by Miss Blythe (Blythe size)

Box Opening Video

2015-12-01T07:29:00.002-06:00

This was an unexpected purchase, I just had to have her and was lucky enough to get the last girl available. She has such a wonderful, whimsical feel to her. She reminds me of clay animation characters with her proportions, or work by Dilka Bear, she's very other-worldly.

Anyway, that's enough from me, there are enough waffles in the video!

Doll: "Lisa" by Ana Salvador
Dress: Cutie Store
Eyes: 14mm Mako AM-016

Next Batch of Eyes

2015-11-29T14:25:00.000-06:00

These are some of the pupil-less eyes I made a few weeks ago. I love how glittery and sparkly they are. The gold ones are my favorites, closely followed by the pink ones, the dark green is nice but a little too dark. These are the junk casts though so the green might look better in the new sclera shape.

I have a silicone mold setting at the moment, I'm hoping to have the mold finished and be ready to make a new batch of eyes using the better sclera shape super soon!

Painting Kinoko Jill

2015-11-23T13:01:00.002-06:00

Finally! I finished the video. Lots of aimless rambling and such, it's not a tutorial, just a speed paint, but I do try to be helpful lol. Grab a cup of something delicious and watch me paint!

Nendoroid Stromtrooper

2015-11-16T13:58:00.000-06:00

This guy arrived the other day and he is SO adorable! Quick un-boxing video for you. I got him at JBox but it looks like they've sold out of the Stormtroopers, but they do still have Darth Vader.

Kiniko Juice Jill

2015-11-11T07:53:00.003-06:00

One of the dolls here this month is this Kinoko Juice Jill! She is adorable, I actually didn't know that Kinoko had another doll sculpt, but then again there's a lot I don't know about Kinoko dolls. From what I understand they were very rare until recently Kinoko teamed up with Azone to release a vinyl version of Kiki called Kikipop. This girl is one of the original resin dolls though, I'm so lucky to be able to meet her in person!

Anyway, I filmed a quick video where I waffle about random crap and undress her to show you the body and such. Hopefully I'll film the faceup as well for part II.

Dress is by Kuloft and eyes are by Mako.

Just got some great information from Puffy-Puffers (her owner) about Kinoko:

Kinoko Juice is a two person team. They currently have four sculpts. Kiki, Jill, and the two newly released cat girls, Haine and Nia. Each have their own type of body except for Haine and Nia, which share the same cat body. Kiki has a flat chest, and Jill has boobs.

The resin versions are only able to be directly purchased through a lottery system in Japan. You email Kinoko Juice when the lottery entries are open, and the winners will receive an email that they've won and can purchase the doll. The alternative, for those without Japanese address or those not lucky to win the lottery, is to go on Yahoo Japan Auctions and bid on any that pop up. Kiki usually shows up once or twice a month, Jill is rarer. Historically, Kiki's prices used to run about 150,000-230,000 yen, but after the Kikipop released, the prices have dropped greatly from 100,000-150,000 yen. Jill will still run from 150,000-210,000 yen, as she does not have a non-resin release counterpart.
Kiki has two face sculpts, the munyu (:3) face, and hoekuchi face. The munyu face is the version that they sell with Azone as Kikipop, an ABS version instead of resin. They had three releases so far, an exclusive limited release just within Japan, and two normal releases. The most recent release is a fluffy Lolita style.

What is stamped on the butt of Jill is the words Kinoko Juice, in Katakana, which is how they usually write their doll company name everywhere :)
Kiki was released in 2008 and I believe Jill in 2010. Nia and Haine were finished just a few months ago to my knowledge. Kiki has a mushroom in her ear and Jill has a heart in her ear.

And the Makos are moon 13 in 14mm!

Hand Crafted Eyes

2015-11-05T12:56:00.000-06:00

For the last few months I've working on making my own resin eyes, if you're a Patreon of mine you will have seen all my failed attempts and have had to listen to me complain about my serious lack of awesome in eye making, but I'm really pleased to finally have arrived at a happy point in the eye making adventures.

There are still lots of issues and they're not quite where I'd like them to be but I feel like I'm actually progressing now. I still have to resculpt the 12mm and 10mm, then work on colours / application and such but here's my latest batch of glitter eyes.

These eyes are mostly 12mm, the teal coloured ones in the first doll picture are 14mm.

Blythe Concept and Progress

2015-10-29T13:30:00.000-05:00

I took apart my Cadence Majorette this week and got her all ready for her new new life.

I thought I'd share my concept ideas with you, I usually don't because it's such an early stage and things never really stay on track, but I came up with a quick base sheet to sketch on and I thought I'd make it available in case anyone else finds it useful. I'dd add it to the bottom of this post.

I've decided to go with a Dark Crystal theme, I plan to keep her stock scalp so I wanted something a little spooky and dark but in an ethereal way, the Dark Crystal seemed perfect for that. Also it's a childhood favourite of mine!

I carved her lips and nose earlier in the week and I'm mostly pleased with how they've turned out. Of course they could be a lot better and I've got a lot of learning to do but it's a big step forward compared to my first attempt. I actually feel like I might understand how to shape the plastic now. I left her as is though as I'd done some uneven things that I think more carving would not help. But lots of lessons learnt for next time.

I've changed out all of her eye chips, with the exception of the wheat coloured stock chips, I quite like those so I'm not sure if I want to change them or not. It would be nice for her to have one set of 'normal' eyes anyway - though mauve/purple might be a better colour choice. I'll have to decide once she's finished.

Anyway, she has black glitter eyes for darkness, grey zombie eyes for a soulless look (once the skeksis have drained her life energy!), pink ghost eyes to reflect the colour of the crystal, and then the natural wheat eyes for a normal look. I think the black glitter eyes are my favourites.

Concept sheet, feel free to print it out and test your colours and ideas on it!

Barbie

2015-10-19T15:34:00.001-05:00

I've been wanting to try painting a Barbie for a really long time now, well truth be told I wanted try my hand at a Tonner fashion doll but didn't want to throw my money on something I might screw up so barbie seemed like a good first try.

Anyway, I forget which Barbie this is, it's not an exciting one, just an $8 one, but I'm pleased with how she turned out. It's a really different painting style working so small, and I've got a long way to go and a lot of improvements to make but I'm really happy I didn't totally fail.

When I was shopping for the Ever After High dolls I also saw the new Cinderella Barbie set so I've gone and snapped up a Cate Blanchet, "Lady Tremaine." I'm really looking forward to repainting her. Have to say, it was a hard choice between her or Helena Bonham Carter, but yanno, Aussies first ;)

Cedar Wood

2015-10-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

This was really fun, I don't usually do big eyes but thought I would this time and I really like how she turned out. I also opted not to gloss her eyes and I think I prefer them that way. In the past I've found it a bit tricky to get a good shot of the doll because of the reflections from the glossing. This way we don't lose her eyes to random shine spots and such.

Excessive amount of pictures coming at you, plus a before and after shot at the bottom!

Ever After High

2015-10-12T10:33:00.000-05:00

I got two Ever After High dolls to paint and on a whim at Target I also grabbed a Barbie. This is the first time I've seen these EAH dolls in person and I quite like that they're a litter chunkier than Monster High.

I really like Cedar Wood, I think the wood grain molding on her body is kinda great. I know I'll definitely stick with the wood theme for her. She'll probably be the first one I paint.

Barbie will be an interesting challenge, her details are so tiny! Should be fun though.

Monochrome Diva

2015-10-08T14:31:00.000-05:00

Love this girl in Black and White, she photographs really nicely, she's mostly complementary colours and that translates well on film.

Anyway I decided to list her in my Big Cartel shop so if you have an interest go check her out.

Monster High Repaint

2015-10-07T14:24:00.003-05:00

This is one of the 'Create A Monster' girls that I got last year but never got around to painting. I'm feeling very rusty after not painting for a month so she didn't come out quite as I had hoped, but she'll do.

I've got two Ever After High girls on their way to me, I'm hoping to paint both this month. I really wanted to try their big, round featureless faces. I like the bobble headed look, they remind me a bit of Blythe.