DollsArtCats

This was my favorite of the photos I entered-it's three photos; one of the Du Page river bank(for the rocks and the snake in the middle right), one of Teodor in my backyard above the pond before I filled it in, and a final one of Alexei in a box at more or less the right angle. And yes, my pond did have ice on it! The skull is a tiny plastic skull from the Spirit of Halloween. This one is just a portrait: Another "just a cropped portrait" of Aldwood and the Cat: And a fancy one of Sidonia/ Ami on a very windy day ;) I had ambitions to do much more elaborate photoshoots, but it ended up I had paying work to do instead, so it worked out fine--there is always next year to do more! I hope everyone checks out the other entries and the winners !

Marilyn (Iplehouse Jessica) finds a unicorno. Coppersmith finds a key, but not apparently his shirt. I discover that Benmore is not really a girl. I thought he'd be convertible from his promos, but I was wrong I discover that making wigs is harder than it looks: Costco apples come with free face protectors. And from this year, cats like to check out what you are doing outside with a camera:

I took a LOT of photos. One of the things I did was to put the photos in a folder, and come back the next day and look at them again as thumbnails; then I waited 3 or 4 more days and looked at them again full sized. This way I was a little more objective in sorting. I figured I would do 4 photos that were more "client oriented", as if I were doing promo pix, and then allow myself one personal fave, no matter how stupid :D. This was my personal one, even though it's really a snapshot and the items in it are not all to scale: In the other Mads/Teodore one I submitted, I was careful to hide most of the non-granado hands as well as I could (I think the hand is the weakest part of the top photo here): The one I entered of Sidonia (Ami) made me worry the most--a lot of her is the Soom Cyborg body, not the Granado Nuevo body, and as a company I wouldn't want the competitor's body featuring prominently in a photo--so I ended up making the photo monochrome to sort of b...

K and I spent most of the day looking at Halloween stuff, first at Target, and then around Five Below, and we also went to another used bookstore where I managed to find more of the series I am trying to fill out to give to J for Christmas. We also bought candy corn. Since it seemed like the time to do it, when we got home from shopping I spent some time making a skull bead belt for Teodor the Necromancer, getting shoes on him, and posing him with the new staff that Sicktress made for him. He has a tremendous number of props but no walls or shelves to display them on, so that is the next thing I need to make for him so he can have cool spooky photos.

I wanted a super nice wig to go with the faceup that Lachlana did, and so I ordered one from chattybratty on Ebay, and of course the Kent, WA post office ate it almost immediately, so chattybratty made me a completely new one. (I love her wigs so much). And I love how it looks on Teodor!

He's up for sale just today at Granado, here: http://doll-granado.com/agent_mads I got him blank and while it will work out (Lachlana will be painting him as part of a trade), I wish I had gotten the factory faceup on him when I ordered him.

This yukata is so much fun-- I love how it came out. I am sure it was a pain in the butt to sew, but the texture and the drape are so perfect for Teodor, my resident (dead) necromancer. Since he is a dead guy, I can wrap his yukata any way I want, too. ;) Rajendora added a tie of a complementary stretchy stuff that grips and hold the fabric awesomely well. I had her make three--the blue paisley is for someone who isn't here yet, as Iplehouse is backed up for faceups, but the "digital" fabric from Spoonflower is really cute, and softened up nicely from being washed and pressed. Here Ami just wishes I would finish her wig. Eventually there will be beaded accents on her yukata: Here you can see some of the interior detailing--the seams are all finished inside and the collar has a nice little stiffening piece to make it hold it's shape when worn. Rajendora does beautiful work. I need to get some of my own patterns usable for someone else so that I can have her sew some...

Because it may be months before it's warm enough to do a "real" faceup on my Granado Mads, I just hauled out the acrylics and glopped on a face. it's a "little heavy for day" since it looks like it was applied with a trowel, but at least he's got some color now!

I received a wonderful (and somewhat undeserved) Christmas present in the form of a rare little Domuya mermaid, one of the last sets of dolls that Domuya made before the company broke up. She is msd sized and a perfect friend for my sailor Jack (Granado Terra). She also has a cute little lower leg fin which I somehow managed to crop out of the photo. I also got Teodor's (Granado Mads) semi-permanent eyes put in, and now like everyone else, he needs clothes!

This is Mads, the Mad scientist/secret agent that I posted up a while back--I'm waiting for his head. I have his body, and of course he needs clothes and shoes. He's just such a fun sculpt--he's somewhat based on the actor Mads Mikkelson, but with Crocus' own style superimposed on Mad's features. And here, for no reason, is Zelda's old Sunshine Xavier, that I really should have bought but had no money at the time; he's just such a beautiful version of Xavier--I love the eyes and wig Zelda picked out for him. I don't know where he lives now, but the new owner is a lucky person! I was able to buy Zelda's extra Davon head, so I now have two of these rascals in the cupboard: Life might be simpler if I just collected statues..there would be none of this wig/eye/shoe/clothes nonsense.