Mama Shi

Still working on Elm Guard (which Shen Li is a part of), I made Mama Shi.

She is an earth elemental.

She started out as a Triad Alpha body with a South African barbie head. 

 

As you can see, the body and the face did not match colors, so I body blushed until they did. 

There were still things wrong. Her neck had to be sanded down and she didn't have enough of a voodoo look to her, so I rerooted her in wool dreadlocks.

Li Shen

Phew, I've been busy.
I've been playing and customizing a lot, but I just never seem to take pictures and write about it.

Here is a bit from last month.
Working on the characters for one of my photostories, I made up Shen Li. He is a water elemental, who grew up in a monastery in the Blue Mountains.

He is a Volks tan body & head, painted and rooted by yours truly. God, do I hate painting. I can't do it :(

Fantasy project: Kaia

So, while working on my fantasy challenge entry, I learned quite a few things.Like molding hair and flocking.

This is technically not the first step, since the lips are already repainted on her.

Took out all the hair. Pain in the butt, it's all glued on the inside.

I'd never be able to do tutorials, forgot to take pictures of molding hair and painting it. Here her hair is already flocked on top of modeling paste and paint.

Eyes repainted to suit her character.

Fantasy project: boots.

Here we go.
Making shoes process.

Side pieces.

Front and sides glued together.

Added laces and heels.

Back is sewed up.

Painted the sides and the heels.

Added the top piece with the kunai sheaths and knives. 

I finished my entry for the fantasy challenge.
I learned how to do molded hair, flocking and even certain repainting.
I can now make leather boots for MH from Scratch.
I made kunai knives out of sculpey.

I wanna kill myself.

I have two weeks till the challenge is over.
WHY AM I CONSIDERING DOING ANOTHER PROJECT?!

Anyways. Pictures and details will follow. 

Well, damnit.

First Flickr makes horrible changes to their UI.

Now blogger looses my whole reading list. 

What is going on here?

This is sort of a rant post.

Time and time again I have mentioned my frustration with the Fashionista dolls.
I love the fact that Mattel has an articulated playline. Clearly, the posability and motion range could be so much better (look at LIVs, for example). But that's not the point.
The point is that I hate Fashionistas.
1. There is NO skintone range. Yes, I know, there is Nikki and there is Raquelle. But that's three (3) skintones. That's not okay. Why doesn't Teresa have a darker color? Why isn't there a darker AA lady (Yes, SIS girls, but they are not a part of the main cast)?
2. There is no redhead.
3. I hate their faces. The only one I can somewhat tolerate is Raquelle. The faces are grotesquely oversized, there is too much makeup and they are just not human.

Now then.
As I can't stand their heads more than anything else, I end up buying a lot of FF girls (who had amazing features) and putting them on Fashionista bodies.

Here is what I end up with:

Nat

 See? She actually works very well. Her head is not oversized for one thing.

 Also, her eyes are not trying to run away off her face. I think that's a huge plus.

She is so pretty.

Asha

 That's another one. Even though she has lots of makeup, she still does not look like a hooker.

Bonus picture. I repainted these shoes a while back and just wanted to share.

Bottom line? Fashion Fever faces were better. I actually think the Fashion Fever bodies were better too, proportion wise. They didn't look quiet as anorexic as they Fashionistas do.

I'd like to see better face paint, more face variety, more body varieties from Mattel. 

It's March 8th!
In Russia (and most of Europe) today is celebrated as International Women's Day. In my country it is traditional to get all the important women in your life something nice for this day: flowers, chocolate, presents. I guess the closest American holiday to this is Mother's Day. But hey, I like Women's Day better.

Libby (with Pepper's assistance) gives her
mother a bouquet of flowers.

Rachel does not smile much, but she is
actually very happy.

Pepper is very proud of her niece.

Family portrait.

So, to all the ladies out there - Happy Women's Day.

~Kat.

Red Carpet

As we, in the bigjob world are preparing for Oscar night (annual celebration at my house), my dolls take the time to do it as well.

Rachel, a big movie enthusiast
(don't get her started on Steven Spielberg, she hates him),
 all dressed up for Oscar Night.

Rachel with her almost-three-year-old daughter Libby.

I should have probably started a blog prior to posting things on flickr, but hey, who knew it would be frustrating that I can't share my doll problems with people in the real world (No, that's not true. I can. They just make faces and have no idea what I'm talking about).

Current problem.

Pepper, who is a Skipper hybrid with 11 points of articulation. She, in my opinion, does not have nearly enough motion range. Being the main character of my story, she needs to have exceptional range. She is also supposed to pretty short, tan and sort of flat chested, all three of which are covered by the current body she has.
For the last couple of days I've been exploring other body options. What I would love to have is a 25 cm obitsu marrone with the small chest. However, they don't exist. As a result, I have a Volks Neo EB-A coming in the mail in a few days, but it's going to be too tall. I've checked out Kurhn (not enough range), Pullip Type 3 or J-doll (their legs are so skinny! But I'm betting on a type 3 body anyway, maybe I'll like it more in person), Pullip Type 4 and Momokos. The last two seem like they would work the best. However, the Pullip stock bodies are not sold separately (or if they are, I can't find them) and Momokos are damned expensive.

So, while hitting my head on the wall (metaphorically, I like not having concussions), Pepper is going to have to stay with a limited articulation until I either spring for a Momoko or until Obitsu starts making darker bodies.