Lots of wonderous things...

Firstly, my lovely new Makie 'Scabz' arrived and immediately made himself at home with Sisterly gifts from Mushroom...

...and this weekend I finally blushed and styled my long overdue little cherub (who is still currently going by the temporary name 'Rabbit'... although she's looking more like a 'Bunny' now 'cause she's so cute. But given that she is so ginger, carrots may yet play a role in her naming!

And lastly... just 5 minutes ago, compulsively and at 1.45am, I backed another Kickstarter project (the first being Chris Salmon's animation of 'The Price' - a Neil Gaiman short story) for a doll by one of my favourite comic book artists Jill Thompson. Unfortunately it went on the credit card as the total means an extra $40 to ship from the US in 2014, but I seem to be developing a taste for doll start-ups and couldn't resist this one with the bonus artwork.  Given that I finished my little ginger-nut on the same day as seeing this wonderful ginger witch 'The Scary Godmother' and that Jill Thompson is solely responsible for 'The L'il Endless' (Chibi versions of, again, Neil Gaiman's Sandman Universe), how could I not jump on it?

*sigh*
And only yesterday I was telling someone that no dolls were on the cards at the moment.
Curse you creative enterprise and all those talented people in the world!

Mushroom Love!

Okay. So everything is out of sync now. I got a lot of doll stuff. I sorted a lot of Rement. I got a a few photography jobs back to back (one of which is a wedding that I still have to sort through 1000 shots for), and amongst it all I had the time to finish 'Bouncy' (which was the Makie head originally known as Ziggy), Cosma (the custom dyed Makie belonging to Fil of Spectatordoll,  mok.me jewellery and All Rolled Up (crikey! what doesn't she do!?!) and... lastly... my own gorgeous 'Mushroom' who I am THRILLED with.

Bouncy (not Beonce ;p )

Ziggy/Bouncy was interesting because she was dyed after being stripped of the previous faceup. I thought there would be issues but the dying process was fine. What I discovered (as we all had just assumed it would go right through) was that dye only effects the surface of makie flesh. Ziggy had originally had a bit of a ridgy forehead so I shaved the ridge and his eyebrows off, revealing white Makie skin underneath. So I ended up doing my usual technique of lacquering and sanding the head to a smooth texture and then airbrushed a colour-match to Cosma so that I could experiment with colour on Bouncy before doing Cosma for Fil.

Bouncy and Cosma

In both cases I found that every layer; every application of MSC or Citadel, had a dissolving effect on the pastel or pencil that I had applied for that layer. Any type of moisture, however brief, be it fixative or varnish, caused the colours to dissolve into the dark base layer. Kind of like washing a blackboard. I did manage to get vague yellowy tones on Bouncy and vague pinky tones on Cosma, but I think airbrushing or pure painting could be the way to go for dark-dyed Makies. Or I need to use better quality pastels... hmm...

Also, Cosma was the first Makie that I didn't pre-lacquer. I did use a number of MSC coats to start with, but otherwise there wasn't a significant difference in the technique, but the final appearance is more matt and makie-like, as you'd expect.

Mushroom

Mushroom however, being original white (and lacquered from last year) was far more forgiving to work with and after wrestling with ideas for her make up (from 1960's psychedelia to a full-on mushroom-head) I decided to go with simple hints like white mushroom spots and a little nod to her Mario-mushroom [toad]stool from the first Makie meet as a little tattoo behind her ear.

peek-a-power-up

 Why behind her ear? Well, we've all got our little 'power up' spots, right? Plus, now that's she's complete, she definitely looks like a gamer girl.

I'm not often satisfied with a faceup. I always feel like I could do better, or that I might have missed something. But with Mushroom I'm really happy. Perhaps it's because Makies are slightly more cartoony to start with, so hitting the mark with realism isn't as much of a pressure. 

But there's also a level of satisfaction I've never experienced with bjd's. She was 'mine' from the start. I put those features on her face even before the paint went near her. I knew how she'd end up even whilst people were asking 'why are her eyebrows so high?'. even the fabulous dreadlocks that Fil made on my request last year have turned into a wig even better than I'd imagined! I just used the lock & loop technique on a silicone wig cap knowing that a scarf would disguise the head cap line.

plotting out the dreadlock holes.

So that's all the makies sorted for now. Fil has both Bouncy and Cosma (as they can both share a matching body) and if I get a new body for Mushroom, 'Wired' makie here can inherit the old one.

I just designed a little brother for Mushroom so perhaps in the future I can reign her in regarding child-friendly themes (I mean designing a potential pot-head for a childs toy might not be my brightest move) and have her as a benevolent big sister with a winning smile instead :)

x

Many little Highs...

So... After the 100 subs video, my flatmate (or 'Jack') went a-travelling for a month and came back via Singapore with lovely Blythey/Makie-ey gifts from here, gawd bless 'im!:

Kimono, Dress hat & boot set and Azone shoes. :)

And if that wasn't enough, whilst he was away, I won a little prize from Duckie - to go with the little poncho draw I won from Poklfil. A cuuuute cape! (with some Plink and 'Birdy' stickers!). So thoughtful!

Most of my time was spent decorating my front hall whilst he was away as I wanted to utilise the afternoon light for doll work. So time for a bit of Cherry Blossom with sparkles:

(As I write, this desk is already a mess! lol)

And then, soon after finishing the hall, it was time to take Birdy out to her first 'completed' social. Did the fun London bits with Amy afterwards, like Cybercandy and Forbidden Planet, and managed to bag a Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Unicorno out of a Tokidoki blind-box!

Then I found my missing girl (or at least the sculpt that had originally vanished in the post). She's much older than the one I lost, but equally adorable, of course... (she is currently pending a new faceup as I unstrung and cleaned her recently)

*Breathe*

...And then, after only a month from ordering (during which time I finally ordered some boy-jeans!), I received the rosybrown body for my second Withdoll Juwel head. It was the first thing I'd ordered after receiving the overdue refund from the two lost dolls. I'm still unsure whether I'll be keeping both boys, but here they are before I cleaned and prepped Judge (sitting) for his new faceup too:

 

It was around this time that I managed to find an end of line, last of stock, display model of an overlocker/serger which, in the end, only cost me £25! Should be okay so long as I mainly work in straight lines and never need any replacement parts! lol. For the money, it's pretty darn good!

And then, also around this time, I sent the clapped out old Ziggy Makie head (minus eyebrows) to Poklfil for a dye bath so that she could send him back to me for experiments before working on her Cosma Diva commission. He suffered a bit where I modded him and sanded away his colour, but I'm now colour-matching him to Cosma and, along with the majority of my other doll heads, he's prepped and ready to go. If he is successful, and Fil likes 'him' (I say him when he was actually a her to start with, so that's how 'she'll' end up) I'll go ahead with Cosma.

Box 'o' [MSC-prepared] Heads

...and that's not everything yet! There'll be more catching up to come!