Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Guess who I get to paint next!

2 Commissions have arrived!

I'm super excited to go to town on these two! Like, you have no idea! Opperetta's face is so beautiful, and I'm so glad to have the opportunity to see her in person. I love Spectra's face as well, and she kinda reminds me in the face of someone I know! Needless to say that makes me pretty happy to be painting her face as well. Those Dot Dead Gorgeous hands look awesome, too!

In addition to those two, I've also got one more commission on the way, and I loved Opperetta so much I'm trading a repaint for my own (blonde) Oppy! I can't wait to see her in person as well!

I'll try my best to keep this blog updated with photos as well as I do my Flickr!

I'm going through customization withdrawals!

I've been doing a TON of repaints lately, and now that I'm out of Mr. Super Clear and re-root needles for the time being, I don't know what to do with myself! I've got work piling up until they get here, and I can't wait to get started on it! :( I suppose I should post photos of the work I've done so far though, eh? IMAG0726Touched up my werecats' stripes!

 On my Werecat twins, I decided that Meowlody's boots could really use a repaint! They were so plain looking, and I bet she'd totally love having red bows! In addition to her boots, I also washed the hair on both of them, and using a black marker I added their black stripes back in. The color bled a little bit, but I really don't care! I don't intend to sell them, and they look so much better without the stiff chunk of hair!
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I am also working on a Draculaura that I HAD intended to sell on my Etsy shop, but honestly I love her so much I may not sell her at all anymore! Once my re-root needles arrive, she'll have the lovely color changing plum-to-pink saran hair that I've posted above! I can't wait!
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 Also waiting on my re-root needles is this Abbey repaint which WILL be up for sale! I'm thinking she'll be about $70 once she's completed, and as you can see she has a lovely widow's peak, and deep, dark blue hair with bright yellow.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Dead Tired Ghoulia

I'm in the middle of writing reviews of all the dolls I currently have, but I just received Dead Tired Ghoulia in the mail, and even though I believe I got one with a number of manufacturing flaws, she is absolutely gorgeous and I may just have a new favorite sculpt! No pictures I've ever seen have done Ghoulia the justice I think she deserves. My goodness, she's cute!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Nope, still not finding that love! Cupid's hair Pt. 2

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Well, after taking out the foil, it looks like it was really no dice. There's a bit more curl, but not enough, and after looking more at Cupid's official art, I want to make it more like the movies anyway. MORE CURL! How am I going to do that? With THESE (and bobby pins):

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The funny part is, I could have done this last night, too! I'm not not all that bright sometimes.
So what I've done is cut the thick straw into short, curler-sized pieces, and I've started rolling her hair up, holding them in with bobby pins. I'm low on bobby pins, so let's see if I can manage the rest now!

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Rollers are all in, and the hair is dipped in boiling water! Now it's time to play the waiting game. :)

Approximately 5 hours later...

Something tells me I'm about to be shot...

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Well anyway let's take those curlers ou- GOOD GOD!

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Well let's try running a brush through it?

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Much better!

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Friday, August 31, 2012

Long Lost Love

Alright, I'm going to type this out as I go for the sake of my sanity, and also so I can keep track of all my steps as I go along and don't forget anything!

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The first thing I did was take EVERYTHING off her, except her earrings, because there's no point in leaving them on when they'll just get ruined, caught in the brush, or just annoy me. It was during this that I noticed Cupid's forearms and lower legs are actually black plastic, with the tops painted white to match the rest of the body. Interesting.

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So as you can see in this photo, the curls on the back of her head aren't just twisted or crushed, they've straight up fallen out and gone flat! This is gonna be fun, I bet.

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I've started brushing her hair as best I can, and I actually noticed that her braided halo isn't rooted to her head! Well, it is, but only on one side. If I were brave enough, I'd untie it out of curiosity, but since it would only result in one super long strand of hair, I'm not going to. Maybe if I buy another cupid.

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Well now that her hair is all brushed out, we can see that it's really pretty long! And also quite gorgeous. This puts me at a crossroads. I could keep going with restoring her intended style for the sake of a tutorial, or I could try something a bit different. Let's see what happens!

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I started brushing the underside of the hair, and the curls toward the front are falling into place nicely. Of course those aren't the curls that have fallen out, like the back. Doing the same to the rest of her hair did little to nothing to help the shape. The only option I have left now is to style it with some hot water. The curls are far too gone for a little hair spray, so it's time to dive head-first into my very first boil-perm!

INTERMISSION: Ahmyghad I lost my brush! [....found it under a piece of tinfoil...]

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Oh man, isn't this attractive. First I dipped her hair in boiling water, then I rolled it up in the foil, since I knew water wasn't going to penetrate foil. Is there an easier way to do this? Of course! But I wanted to do it right freaking now instead of tomorrow after buying drinking straws!

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At this step if she were a real person I would be dead. I've wrapped her head in saran wrap in order to keep the curls elevated, and have placed her in the freezer for 20 minutes as a way to shock set them (I doubt this is even a thing, but I've seen it mentioned by people online!) And yes, the front curls were a little heavy, so I'm using her own hands to keep them from drooping.

The rest will come tomorrow, after I've allowed her hair to dry overnight! Then it'll be the big reveal!

If anyone reading this has advice for me, please feel free to post it. I'm not shy about telling other people if they're going to ruin their dolls, so I would like the same in return!

Introductory post!

Although this blog's purpose is overall for doll customization of all kinds, for the immediate future I will be focusing on Monster High dolls, because I've fallen in love. <3

Up first: How I fixed Cupid's hair! (That is, assuming I'm able to!)