DollsArtCats

It went from ice on the pond yesterday morning, to having the suction cup on the window snowflake heat up enough to have it pop off the window-- and hit the floor with a bang and scatter little bits of crystal everywhere. It's above 60 degrees outside right now and the cat has spent most of the morning sitting on the back porch, watching birds and looking at the grass. I even opened a window and got a start on cleaning out the pond. I also discovered that ants love powdered sugar--J made some cookies last night and I thought that I had gotten up all the crumbs from the floor, but I was wrong, and this morning it looked like Disneyland on Memorial Day weekend. But the kitchen is very clean right now and the cookies were great--linzer cookies with bunnies: I also got the horns turned around the right way on Tara, and almost finished the dress for her--I think it may need an underskirt, though. Here's Herself: I also did some fan art for K, a portrait of Kili: and a sort of

It's from a photo of Cate Blanchett (I assume from Elizabeth?) I saw today on tumblr. I'm struggling with another piece so I took a break and did this one instead. I didn't trace off where the features were so there are some proportion oddities, and I changed a lot of small things that didn't interest me as much as her profile. Here is the original: From belaquadros.tumblr.com.

Some big 1:1 dolls being arranged at the mall. I did a head swap on my Impldoll Delia (who has a small head) and my Bella (who has a large head) and they both look great now, though Bella (Erzulie) needs clothes in her favorite pink, blue and gold. The cat enjoyed the box left over from my trip to Mitsuwa: And it's Lent, so it must be fish for dinner..Kit Kat flavored fish! I missed getting a photo of the Mint Explosion Walleye, though.

Beachgirl's Beryl arrived today, partly disassembled and carefully wrapped in a box, with a complete outfit (that my other Beryl, Antimony, immediately stole). I feel sort of bad that I paid so little for her--she was in very good shape aside from some patterned fading from clothes. She was able to wear the first wig I popped on her and the eyes I had set aside for her, and I had no trouble sueding or restringing her (she had one continuous string and I like two strings on the tall dolls). Altogether she was one of the most cooperative dolls I have ever received...and I think she is so pretty. I need to find her some more pink clothes though--I put on an actual nightgown top thing I had in a drawer and the color is great on her: She is just standing there, by the way, with no stand and no fiddling!

The Mitsuwa meet-up had lots of people--so many that I missed some latecomers, as J and I don't stay late. (J has only so much patience with doll foolery, though he doesn't mind doing a couple of hours poking around Mitsuwa itself). This is a Dollzone planthro, I think one of the event dolls, and would come up to the knee of one of my dolls. Who knew a little flower could be so cute? And speaking of cute, here is another tiny person--look at her compared to the foot on the right. And yes, there was a Tiny Aileen Dragon doll, the baby for the regular-sized dragon: And there was a Tiny Rachel, who Rachel said that everyone called this cutie "Rayray" (I don't remember her actual mold, perhaps a Doll Family girl?) I wish this photo below was better, the doll in the center is a tan Linlan, which is pretty rare--Dollzone quit making tan dolls and Linlan wasn't very common to begin with. This one is a beautiful one, not only because of her tattoos but it was a

Another new head from Granado , and it was painted by Crocus Lee himself. And it looks amazing. No word if he has rings or a tiny moon, though. :D He should be released pretty soon, it looks like!

Many years ago (I won't tell you how many) I was talking with Ron Miller at a Balticon and he said "You should join the IAAA (the International Association of Astronomical Artists) because... Mars needs women." This was because at the time there were just a handful of women members, though that has changed a lot in this century. At the time I just knew Ron as, believe it or not, a "Babe Artist" --because he did these great pinup girls for the conventions and they were very popular. So I wasn't at all shy about talking with him about art, and we had fun conversations, and because I figured any invitation to a professional art group was worth following up on, I joined. And it's been pretty great. Of course had I know that Ron Miller was one of the concept artists for Dune and Total Recall, the author of over 50 books, and a legendary space artist, I might have been a little more reluctant to chat with him. Or maybe not--he's a very amiable guy. In

Soom has just put up a teaser for a boy version of Amber--I have seen them done with the "classic Amber" and a boy body and they are cute! He has narrower eyes and it looks like more upright ears, which I like a lot. You can compare the teaser with this photo of the classic: I had this girl briefly, but discovered all over again that fantasy ears above a certain size are not for me, and sold her to someone who really, really wanted her... and who would not accidentally break off an ear during a photoshoot. (I was saved from this fate by the fact that Amber was on the couch when I was fooling with her dress, and faceplanted into a cushion.) So as a replacement for Amber, I finally broke down and bought.... This girl: Yes, Goldie herself. I'm sure she has a "real name" but Cat named her Goldie from the photos and the name is sticking--this is indeed Beachgirl's Golden Beryl. Beachgirl decided she had too many dolls (is that even possible?) and decided

She is an 72 centimeter Idealian, rather than a Super Gem, so she is taller and heavier--more like an upscaled 65 cm Fairyland girl in weight and style. Alas, she does not come with that awesome book, though you can order the crown as an option. Idealian girls are rare, so I am not sure how the posing is, but they certainly look wonderful in photos. Her sales page is here , and her sales period is from March 17th to March 30th 2015 (Korean time).

I can't even put things in the box part because it is now "Stripey's Couch" and the cat is on it 14 hours a day.

Christopher Doll is an artist and designer, and a pretty great modeller as well--he decided he loved the sentient ship in Farscape and wanted to build his own small version, so he did. It's pretty amazing to see him put it together, and he went through all the steps here: http://www.christopher-doll.com/scratchbuilding-a-model-of-moya-from-farscape Check out how it all began: Then, with some patience and careful drawing, he got to this stage: Then more magic (I will make you go visit his website to see the details) he came to this point: And THEN he cast his creation! And here it is painted up! He actually had the kit for sale for a while, until Farscape told him to stop it (I think there may still be a link to where they were previously sold on the tutorial) but just the fact that he was able to make one is like sorcery, even when you see it all step by step. He does really nice astro art , too. :D

Cliff Steenhoff has a wonderful Flickr Photostream for anyone who wants to build model rockets or just look at neat Nasa and more images--there are schematics of the rockets that are perfect for model building: Many thanks to Nick Stevens of the International Association of Astronomical Artists for pointing out the site, and to Cliff Steenhoff for loading up all the materials!

When we were in Naperville on Friday, we discussed whether someone would call 911 if we just lay down on the sidewalk bricks like geckos and baked in the warmth.

I stole this off of the Simply Divine blog; it looks like Steinsculpture is getting ready to release a sister for Eve! She looks pretty already!

K and I were poking around Ulta and I saw these furry things in the hair section--they are sold to be used like hair scrunchies, and come in brown and blonde (several shades of blonde, in fact). They are 15.00 before tax and I thought maybe I could make a doll wig from them, as they are basically just some wefts stitched together around a core of elastic cord. I felt around the circle of "hair" until I found where it was all sewed into a circle and I cut the elastic: And then I pulled out the elastic that pulled it together, and it got a lot longer :D I then clipped that into three pieces just to make it easier to manage, and brushed it out over a wet washcloth. I ironed it as well, but that seemed to do nothing; the fiber is probably heat-resistant. Here's the brushed and the unbrushed sections: Here's what I finally ended up with: It turns out that the two sections at the bottom are actually double wefts stitched together--at the top you can see where I separa