DollsArtCats

  I haven't done an inventory for at least 2 years, because it's a hassle to find the time, the space and the light to do it (my phone camera is actually better in low light, but less convenient to upload here). But that just reminded me that I need to stop buying large dolls, since my ability to deal with the time/space needed is limited. I also didn't prep them at all this year, this is how they came out of storage. I did get my Phoenix Doll Android Mei on some Resinsoul parts I had saved for her for a year: I knew she would fit on the RS Lian body, I just didn't have one in a color that matched her (the one I had was purple).  I do have someone new--Akutenshi GAVE me this cutie for my birthday!! She is a Fairyland Lucywen and a really nice size--she is a minifee and a lot smaller and easier to deal with than the SD dolls. You can't see them but she has elf ears. Such a wonderful present <3 <3 The dolls I have left to "finish" are my IoS A2 grumpy ...

  I don't remember Soom ever having an Idealian free choice before, but it might be because I forget to go look--these guys are beautiful but so big and heavy, like 8 or 9 pounds, and because of this, as another Den of Angels member says, "mostly they just stand around looking sexy". On the other hand if you want someone to model absolutely stunning clothes while standing around, this size is perfect. Here is the link--scroll down to see the sculpt options--all are being offered in either white or tawny. https://id.dollsoom.com/en/shop/2012-free-choice-id75/

 https://twitter.com/PeccaryNotPig/status/1339376403477753858

  It's harder than it looks.

  It's not cheap, but it's a work of art, and Lelahel only makes a few dresses a year. It's worth a look, anyway--and you can get a better look at the images than my sad little screen capture :D https://www.ebay.com/itm/OOAK-Lelahel-Black-and-Ivory-Dress-Outfit-Clothes-Set-for-Twigling-Ingenue-BJD/303719332997 (Looks shifty) I may have bought two small cat dolls through an auction and a very obliging friend, with Akutenshi's help. She sent me a link to a huge local auction of a doll collector's estate, and let me tell you the sheer volume of dolls was pretty frightening :D This was obviously a woman who had been collecting American dolls for years (Madame Alexanders etc) and then branched out into Genes and Fashion Royalty and then bjds and ..there were a lot of dolls. Just to see the lots meant scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. But there in a box was a Pipos Fox, a Dollzone cat, and a tall cat I didn't recognize and I will have to root around to find, and ...

  (Click to enlarge). That is a great price for the IoS body, I kind of need one-- though I may wait and see if I can find a second-hand one later for my A2 head. Sales page: https://www.dollios.com/product/class70-body-only/279/category/118/display/1/ They have a lovely new angel, Uriel, and a new, smexier version of Sezz available as a head. Meanwhile, I made a Kleenex box :D Fear my box modelling skills!

  It doesn't look like much, but I managed to make the ground and make it the right size and color it :D I still need to make a plot for the back and the sides, and figure out some trees...these are just .png trees that I stuck down until I can model a real one. I made the background in Terragen, quite a while ago.

  So I admit I have been a lazy person when it came to updating the blog, but I have been doing a lot of things on the computer (all day!) learning modelling and retexturing and making stuff and deleting it. I've also been sick, so I have been napping more than usual--though compared to most people, I've been very lucky. Anyway, the model (by Meshbox) above was on sale at Renderosity and I had Company Store Credit (always dangerous) so I bought it. It is full of cat toys and frightening yet cute wallpaper. This is the inside: Yes, that is a cat scratching post AND not shown are the 3 stuffed mice laying around. It's a low poly model; so I was able to add a ton of things to the scene, like the cats shown above, which are suprisingly complicated models. And because I can't leave anything alone, I retextured the trailer somewhat in several new colors: It should show up in the Renderosity Free Stuff next week, unless there is a problem I missed. Of course my files are an ad...

  Here she is in "Neutral Tan" (which you pay extra for) and ..horns! The horns are so cute--in fact the whole candy toned "look" of Juno is just darling-- and I want to climb in there and live in her little pink and blue world :D However, I did add up the options I "wanted" and it came to over 600.00 USD so I think maybe I will admire from afar. Also they did not sell the lavender wig, which is one of the best things about her outfit. But you should definitely go check her out--she is so cute all over! http://www.souldoll.com/shop/step1.php?number=4537

  Also, this is what happened with 2020 "What does this button do?" maybe we should turn 2020 off and turn it on again.

  Sicktress sent me a box of gorgeous clothes! There were so many I haven't even gone through them all, though I did use the back of a cloak that was a matte black to photograph some lace for a 3d project: The lace around the bottom of the skirts is the lace that I scanned :D Anyway, here is an inspiring little jacket modelled by Phoenix Doll Android Mei: I did swap the buttons on the back for smaller ones--the one it came with were beautiful but almost too large to go through the buttonholes. It fits her perfectly--she just needs compatible pants now! Here is Honey in another pretty outfit from the box--those pants! Mermaid pants! So Sicktress has now made many of my dolls much more stylish--thank you SO MUCH! <3

  It was dry and sunny today, so I painted two heads, my Domuya Fin and Souldoll Agnes, here. Agnes is a bit blotchy, and I need to adjust her lips to be not quite as pink, but she is better than faceless-- and I love, love her Soom eyes--they are 12mm I think, and flat enough to fit in the wide Souldoll eyewells. Agnes is designed for Souldoll eyes, which I like, but I just didn't happen to buy her defaults at the time I purchased her. BTW Souldoll is having a head sale right now, and some nice ones--but I am trying not to buy anything right now because of my uh, "accidental" purchase of a heavily discounted Erica Snow from Dollshe. I had planned to put this junk Delf body (I think it once had a Lishe on it?) under my Phoenix Doll Mei, but Mei refuses to leave her cheap Mirodoll body and I have resigned myself to the Mirodoll knees and elbows. They work fine, they are just not beautiful. The Delf body was someone's Female to Male experiment and it wasn't the wors...

  https://dollsmagazine.com/jpopdolls-founder-grace-szczepaniec-dies/ Posted by  Joyce Greenholdt  |  Jun 26, 2020  |  News and Notes  |          Doll-industry stalwart Grace Szczepaniec has died because of complications related to her treatment for cancer, according to her daughter, Layla. Szczepaniec became an icon in the BJD collecting world when she turned her collecting hobby into a business, JpopDolls. She played a major role in Australia’s  Kaye Wiggs  career as a BJD artist, and introduced American collectors to many other new artists, especially European BJD creators. She was a tireless advocate for artists and campaigned against the practice of counterfeiting dolls through the process of recasting. She also cared about animal welfare and was a supporter of the non-profit animal rescue organization  Hope for Paws . Laya Szczepaniec announced June 24 that she would continue to operate  JpopDolls , sa...

  So here is Anne on a Senior Iplehouse body. Granado made her a male-sized, switchable head as "Anne" or "Andy", so she has been a challenge to put on a big enough girl body. Her own Granado body has a fairly short neck, which isn't flattering to her square jaw.  I found this SID body on the Den of Angels MP at a discount because it has a manufacturing flaw in the arm--I think maybe it was an auction body? I was hoping that Anne's oversize neckhole (meant to fit on a boy body) would let her head sit on the oversize Iplehouse neck BUT NO I had to actually saw a centimeter off the neck and then grind it down so that her head would both fit and move on the new neck. It was not a fun process, but I am very happy with the new combo here--the SID shoulders are wide enough and the resin is a good color match. I still need to find her more appropriate jointed fingers--those are Granado boy hands, and they are a bit square and veiny, but again the color is decent. T...

 Goldfinches blend amazingly well for a bright yellow-and-black bird! This was the female of the pair that visit our yard, the male is even brighter in color. They love the echinacea seeds. I don't remember if I posted a photo of my Souldoll Serena after I got her back from Angeltoast (I think I did,) but here she has a wig made by Akutenshi and I think it suits her: And I found a top by Sewing Box Designs that I think everyone has worn (it's more or less Iplehouse Senor Doll size, so it fits a lot of my dolls). I like it a lot on Coral--Coral is a Soom Migma Human head on the Mirodoll body that Sicktress made. The top has a matching skirt but Coral's waist is waaaay smaller than any Iplehouse girls, so I need to make her a skirt from similar materials so it will match. That bead trim is the bomb :D One of the things I did this weekend (besides laundry) was to grind down the neck of an Iplehouse SID body, so it could take my Granado Anne head. It was a godawful job that in...

  Souldoll's styling is so gorgeous! Whoever designs their clothes has such an eye for beautiful textures and complementary shapes! Hannah is another Zenith girl with BIG eyes :D I've learned that if you like the look of the dolls, you need to find the wig--even if you get the factory paint, the wigs are always an important part of the Souldoll "look". I had Light Agnes on the new body, and I loved her sculpt and her hands but the body itself is a bit stiff and hard to pose--the legs are good, but the torso seems awkward and like many bjds, she isn't very good at sitting. The older Zenith bodies didn't seem to have this problem, though the knees were not as sophisticated. But if you want her as a fullset in a case, maybe sitting isn't important :D http://www.souldoll.com/shop/step1.php?number=4509

  https://www.sartoriaj.com/product/limited-serena/1004/category/79/display/1/ I always think of Sartoria J as a place to buy doll clothing (especially Iplehouse dolls) so I kind of forget that they do indeed make really lovely dolls! I poked around on the site a bit and it looks like this version has an optional "corset bust"   which is a innovative idea.  I haven't found the exact measurements for Serena but it looks like she is SD sized, and that means anywhere from 52cm to 69cm--though I seem to remember the Sartoria girls are smaller, more like 60cm. Serena's order period is August 7th (Korea time) to August 13th, and you can get this style faceup or a "modern" version that looks like this: There are your resin choices, too. I need to remember to keep an eye on Sartoria J, they had some cool accessories that I slept through. Thanks to Akutenshi for alerting me to Serena!

 

Missing some horns? I can vouch for the niceness of the Agate horns (so pretty), and I like the look of the Breccia horns (so tempting). The horns tend to be reasonable, like around 35-40 dollars, but the shipping is really expensive--Soom will only ship via EMS and the postage is now around 35-40 just for a small box. But they will be available to order soon, I think the first week of August.

:D

It's a simple dress by Prae , so it's fun to go crazy with it. So far there is a lot of green and I need to branch out :D

Monarch butterflies! Butterflies are so hard to photograph--they are nervous and flighty when you get close, and move contstantly. There are some other oddball bugs flying around--this one seems to be trying to chat up my window decoration: I'm sorry, she's not going to date you, Mr. Fly. And we have bebe tomatoes! Fingers crossed they will continue to ripen... My neighbor Ed grew the start in an old coffee can, and brought it over as a sad little root with 2 leaves-- I am amazed it survived!

There is an Etsy seller that has a pile of really cute dolls hats--some knitted, some felted, all delightful and reasonable priced around $35.00, depending on the size and the amount of decoration. The sizes are listed on the sidebar--most of the models are Pullips, who have large baby-doll sized heads, but the hats, even the smaller ones, look like they could be pinned on any doll, and I am sure the store owner could work up a custom size. Here is the shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeeSharpStudio?listing_id=523044812&ref=shop_overview_header

The photo, and the painting of her face, is by Luckyl on Den of Angels, and she is an old Soom Dia on the original body. Such a treasure! I love these old Sooms and the face paint makes Dia's unusual lips look balanced and beautiful. The smoky eyes also make her look like a 20's femme fatale. Cat will have fun making things for her. (I think Dia needs to have permanent giant morning glories on a hat; the real blooms are such a great color here.)

I saw this one on Etsy and I love buying direct from the artists (when I can find them)--the art looked like stained glass to me, and a little bit like the Aquarian tarot I had years ago--bright and cheerful and packed with details. You can't tell in the photo, but the major arcana has hand-applied gilt decorations to the edges of the cards, and they look like Russian icons--all rich colors set off by the gold trim. A really wonderful and unique deck. The card stock is good--I wouldn't riffle shuffle these because of the gold, but the cards are sturdy and flexible. My photos are rubbish (like so many things, they are so much better in real life) but you can see they have a lot of charm.

She looks a little unsure about it all, but here she is! One of the first Monthly Doll Galenas, with the original open eyes (the recent "Socialite" reissue has "romantic" eyes). She is in very good condition--I did swap out a hand hook and reglued one of her head magnets, but otherwise she is very well cared for, and I like her faceup. I haven't decided about her eyes yet--I need to look and see what the original ones looked like, because I might have them in my eye box. But I like these as well. It's so nice to have clothes for her--since she is on the standard old body, she has so many choices :D Along with being bad and buying a doll (though really, the Galena was SO REASONABLE for such a classic doll) I also bought an inexpensive tarot deck direct from US Games System, the Crystal Visions deck. ( US Games is easy and good to buy from; fast shipping, literally hundreds of decks). I saw this one on The Truth In Story video channel , which consists of ...

2020. What a sucky year, but there are good things too. The mask supply is now almost adequate, since I ended up supplementing my unsatisfactory ones with purchased ones. The one I am wearing here I bought from astro artist Aldo Spadoni via Redbubble, and it's comfortable and fits: (red dwarf planet, a bit hard to see in the folds) Everybody masks up in Illinois, even the illegal fireworks cartoon characters: It's a flyer--unlike all our neighbors, we do not buy fireworks. We have no need to, when everyone else has them. And shoots them off EVERY DAY.  -.- The weather has been pretty good--the garden in back went from this in May: (when I could still pretend I was in control of it) To this in July: The baby foxes are big now: The baby Bad Bird that eats the other birds is bigger too :p And we have butterflies on the echinacea (I need to plant a lot more after moving the hosta) And we have bunnies, here is one pretending to ...