DollsArtCats

Dear all, Thank you all for your continuous support to GRANADO, We are holding a Winter event starting from 6th Dec 2016 to 6th Jan 2017. Period:   6th Dec 2016 ~ 6th Jan 2017 Target:   All our customers who would like to order our dolls 1) 6 Dolls are Re-released! Large doll :  Kortes ,  Pancho ,  Gabe ,  Fabio Titan doll :  Nico  and  Awin 2) Discount & Free Eyes! a) Order over 1000USD (Not including shipping fee) - Gets 10% Discount and 1 pair of ExtraS iris Eyes! b) Order over 800USD (Not including shipping fee) - Gets 8% Discount and 1 pair of ExtraS iris Eyes! c) Order over 650USD (Not including shipping fee) - Gets 5% Discount and 1 pair of ExtraS iris Eyes! d) Order over 600USD (Not including shipping fee) - Gets 1 pair of ExtraS iris Eyes! - After you placed an order and made an authenticate with us on QnA Board or E-mail, we will refund the discount via PayPal. - Please authenticate with your order ID to us by 12th Jan 2017,...

Male Embody video is up!  You Tube, you will have to Skip Ad. A Granado Gabe is the photo subject here, being "still the prettiest" like Legolas. :D (Akutenshi came over and we tried on various wigs on various people). Gabe is on the old Lads body. OK here is one more link--it's a vine so it's only about 6 seconds long. With "owls": https://vine.co/v/iDtDlXuuHaH

So this is Alex, Granado Gabe number three. One was traded, two was Ereshkigal 1 for a while before being swapped for a Garnet, and then this guy showed up, courtesy of the wonderful AlisonVonderland . I had some other plans for him but no, he's a merman, with his homemade glitter eyes. I am glad to have him back. :D

Please pardon the flyaways-- Snowy on Den of Angels wanted to do a Gabe hybrid, so I posted pics of Ereshkigal for her to get an idea of the size and look of the Gabe head on a Soom Super Gem (the old body). There is a small amount of neck gapping: But overall the proportions are good. Here is a full-length picture: And a head measurement for wig size (I like 8's myself, this black wig is a 9, I think--I need to make one for her that fits. The rest of the day was working on something that isn't mine, so I can't post it here, and starting work on something for Granado's future photo contest, assuming I can fit it into whatever theme they choose. So for no reason here is a squirrel photo:

Looking very surly at being forgotten in their bags from the big inventory photoshoot, Amber (Luts Nanuri 07) and Violetta (Luts Juri 07B) pout on the table top. It took so long to get everyone together that the sun went down, which is why the photos from yesterday are a bit blurry. It's almost artistic here, where Carissa (a modified Soom Cuprit SO) sits next to Ereshkigal (Granado Gabe head on a Soom Free Choice Topaz body), who seems to be "resting her eyes". I wish these guys had come out better--an Iplehouse Denzel and an IOS "G"; I think I will re-shoot them later when I get a day with some sun. Finally a quick look at Iplehouse Rexy, who probably should be stored in tissue, but I like seeing her with the other dolls so she is still out for the moment.

First up, Sicktress fixed Dragael's wings (she also named her, so it seems appropriate). Unfortunately, it turns out the Nephelin wings are sort of custom drilled, so the holes on each side of her torso aren't drilled the same: (You can see where I need to put the magnet back in as well. But after seeing Sicktress working on her guy to build up his back, I think I will do a small scale version of the same, and drill out that left wing hole where it needs to be, and fill in the other holes completely with LaDoll. The wings will be in just one position, and that is ok with me. I also got a pair of Soom Monzo wings and they have a sort of hex key connector which is a million times more sensible than the magnet and pin assembly--you can change the angle but the wings are in there securely: And Mom sent me two wonderful things! A dress, which Ereshkigal promptly stole: It's sparkly and has a lot of center detail that you can't see from this angle, as I was just trying ...

This is Gravitas, (an Ariadoll Gravity) who is acting as Teodor the Necromancer's assistant. It's hard to get good help these days--Gravitas ends up being a liability, I think, but meantime he was seriously fun to paint. I should have taken a photo of his hands-- but I will next week, as I have a doll meet tomorrow. So I have been busy finding shoes and boxes and wigs. Tara, Soom Beryl and Ereshkigal, (Granado Gabe on a Soom Topaz body,) are all dressed and ready to be boxed here: Bird, Soom Tremo can't find his shoes (I am not sure he can find his feet, much less clothes, but he is a pretty boy:) And after a lot of sewing I discovered that the Countess Constance, Lady Aldwood, (who is an Iplehouse Doria) wouldn't fit in the limited space in the car, after all the others had been stuffed in; so she has to go to some event later. By then her corset should be hemmed and her nails done. :D

Well, done as far as turning in my last photo entry for the Granado contest, and for the moment while I clean up and recopy some of her patterns onto something better than scratch paper. I ended up making two crowns for her, one with pearls and one with garnets... and then she ended up wearing sculpey horns that I made ages ago for the photoshoot. Though you can't see it, she was wearing shoes :D. Here is one of the crowns: Here is how I ended up finishing the back of the dress--the rings are by Darice and are called "Chain Maille" and I am sure with a dowel and some bolt cutters and patience you can make your own, but I was lazy and I just bought these. I love that you can flip them up to string them, and the fat ribbon actually works very well--you can thread it through the rings easily, but it has enough tooth to stay put when laced. Black silk ribbon might be nice too, but I don't have any. Here is the hook that holds the collar shut--I need to adjust the patt...

I'm scrambling to finish Ereshkigal's clothes for the last photoshoot for the Granado contest--I have turned in 4 pictures so far; but held off on the last one, since I wanted to get one of Eresh, who is a Granado Gabe/Soom Topaz Free Choice hybrid. Here is the sculpt as just "Gabe": Eresh's little collar has been kind of a mess--the first one I made I tried to line with gold velour, which was too bulky and had shy little legs of nap dangling down below the edge of the collar, which was an interesting effect but not really the look I wanted. This current version has the most gorgeous paisley brocade, but it's far too ravelly to be a good choice for a small item with narrow hems. I need to learn to use fusible interfacing, which would solve a lot of my problems with this kind of fabric. Here my friend bias tape once again comes to the rescue to make the edge neater and act as a tiny facing. The top edge now looks pretty good, with the bias tape ironed down...

They match her hands perfectly! Also they can be moved around--the magnets are under the wig. From Blue Otter Paradise on etsy.

OK, it was just in the morning, and it didn't stick, but by the time I went to go visit Akutenshi7 the weather had warmed up to only 41 degrees F, so I am glad we moved all the palm trees inside, where they are taking up a lot of the living and dining room (there is another palm you can't see to the right of the photo). Originally we had planned to go to the Kane County Flea market, but mostly because I hadn't yet eaten enough cookie dough to be winterized and immune to the cold, we went instead to a bookstore that had central heat. I did some Christmas shopping too. I'm liking my new camera--it takes nice macro pictures when I remember to set it correctly. Here are a couple of backyard toadstools: I haven't quite figured out how to set the depth of field--this photo of Ereshkigal is two photos put together, as I managed to get the calender in back in focus on one, and then the doll in the second one. And now I have to tidy up a bit as K will be here any seco...

Back in 2012, Soom did a hugely popular Free Choice Event of their early fantasy dolls, where you could order things like Beryl, Cuprit and Topaz in any color as long as it wasn't the original color. You could also mix and match heads and bodies, though you had to buy a head and a body. So a lot of people ordered a) Vesuvia as a full doll (I have the one in Normal Skin, she was originally released in a lavender glitter resin) and b) a Topaz body with whatever head they really wanted. This was because the Topaz body was the cheapest one and the closest to the normal human body--she came with clear orange fantasy hands and feet, though since her fantasy feet you can't use to stand her up on, Soom also included human flat feet and heel feet with her. The problem later came when people took off the head they wanted and then popped out the headless body on the Marketplace--I think the normal skin bodies got picked up right away, because it's easy enough to get normal skin han...

brought in by Stripey. Not brought in by Stripey: toy helicopter that J bought. Stripey Did Not Want. Also, tried on Granado Gabe's head on the Maiden body. Didn't look bad until I put this blonde wig on him, then it was another Do Not Want. Tanglewyn looks sympathetic.

My Mom not only knits hats, scarves and gloves, she could knit a coral reef if she felt so inclined. She took pity on my lack of Caterpillar from the Alice story, and knitted me a Caterpillar (Soom never made a posable caterpillar, and I whined a lot about that.) By coincidence, I was fixing up Tanglewyn the Fairy this morning when the caterpillar box arrived; and Tangle makes a pretty good Alice for a photo op. (The doll that has been Alice here is now sharing a body with someone else and is not ready for her close-up.) I may make him little yarn hands so he can hold a teacup, too! I also spent some time today goofing around with the new Lads body--I haven't wired or sueded him at all, and he holds poses amazingly well...and I found out one reason why: He's got little embedded silicon beads under his chest plate! How cool is that? And yes, I did cheat a little for the one footed pose, but that is because my table is slippery and I was having trouble with his feet skiddi...

Still working on Fabio's faceup--I need to clean floors today so I can't spend all day poking at dolls, but another Den of Angels member had a question about Gabe's joints on the Lads body, so I took a picture of them. They are the "peanut" joints and they are awesome.