Playing Dolls

After a stressful day yesterday, I took some serious doll playtime. I wired a doll for the first time and she's much more pleasant to handle. Three dolls were redressed and rewigged.

These are all iPhone pictures.

 

 Good grief, Sybarite's heads are huge! Geometry looks like an Amazon next to Ms. G and Nelson.

Nelson is gorgeous in her peachy pink wig and pastel Ficon gown. Ms. G, newly wired, is standing nicely for the first time. Now maybe I can start to enjoy her instead of fiddling with her legs all the time.

Nelson Goes Brunette

I've been trying out wigs on Nelson. She looks great in every color but I have such a mish mosh of sizes, not all of them fit properly. Here is a Cheryl Wood wig. I was a bit small so I think it was made for Avantguard Dolls. I put it in my heating pad for a few minutes to soften the glue and it went on beautifully. It's a good technique to reshape your hard cap wigs. Just don't leave it in the pad for too long.

I am having difficulty with her lower leg stability. She's giving me the same instability problem as my Ficons. The knees keep getting into an awkward position. They need an improved design.

Nelson, Domina and Plum

Today is a good day to show you some new additions to my collection.
First up is Kingdom Doll's Nelson. She is the newest 16" resin BJD to hit the doll scene. 
Here are several prelimary (iPhone) images of her. (Actually all the images on this page are iPhone images.)
Nelson is wearing the full length black sequin Sybarite gown from the Basique Black Giftset and a random blonde wig. Neckpiece is a Tonner product. Her ears are pierced but are quite small and the matching earrings do not fit. She has a well-defined sculpt which will photograph beautifully once I get her down into my studio. Her resin feels wonderfully smooth and her joints are neither kicky nor loose. I am going to enjoy this doll for a long time.

My Sybarite "Domina" decided that she wanted to wear "Gateau's fashion. She wears it very well.  So often the Sybarite shoes are a pain to put on, especially over hosiery, but these were made properly to my delight. I love this ensemble.

 In the first photo of Domina, her lovely pink nipple was positioned at the opening of the silver parts of the bodice. Photoshop came to the rescue. Did I ever admit something about my pictures? If you see me using special effects it's most often because the picture sucked. I take a lot of pictures of my subjects from all angles and with the lighting moved around. However, when I use the phone, I have much less control of the results compared to when I use my professional equipment. That's when Photoshops filters other than sharpening and exposure come out to play. Even then, the idea is to make it look as if you meant it to be that way in the first place.
Ahhh, the tricks we evil Photoshoppers play. I prefer to get it right in the camera anyway.

Two adorable vinyl BJDs have come to live here. They are Ai Ball Jointed Dolls from Jun Planning, the same company that makes Pullips.
Here is their description:

Precious and posable, personable and perfectly palm-sized, each 12.5cm (about 5 inches) doll in Jun Planning's Ball Jointed Doll Ai series has been created with care and is exquisitely detailed, complete with wigged hair that can be removed if you choose, and inset eyes that can be repositioned from within using putty.  Packaged in a sturdy gift box designed to keep safe in travels.

 My first was Lagrus.

The left shows how she comes packaged in ther padded box. I added eyelashes and enhanced her coloring a bit.  On the right, she is wearing a short blonde wig. I used different putty than what she came with. Actually I use moldable silicone earplugs that come in a multi-package available at CVS and I'm sure at most other drugstores.

 My second Ai came today. She is "Plum." I haven't taken her out of her package yet.

I think she's even cuter than Lagrus.

These tiny dolls are fun impulse buys and would also make great gifts for doll friends of all ages. Their price ranges from $29 (so I've heard but have never seen) to much higher from the rip-off artists. I paid the normal going rate of about $34.99 with free shipping on eBay. For that price, these are great bargains and a fun introduction to the tiny BJD. The quality is very nice. They pose better than Amelia Thimble. Their vinyl is nicer than her resin! I don't have Amelia anymore so I can't compare their clothes to see if they can share.
Amelia is only 4" tall. A basic doll like this costs $175. You do the math.

Happy Hunting!

Kingdom Doll Announces Nelson's Sale Date

Subscribers to the "first to know list" received a newsletter regarding Nelson, the debut doll, with some long awaited news. She will go on sale on Friday 31st January at 18:00 GMT. On the east coast of the US, we are GMT - 5:00, which makes that 3:00 PM (EST) here in PA. 
Look it up.
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time

Nelson is priced at $650. plus shipping. 

An excerpt from the letter:

Please take a moment to look at our store page (link displayed below) for more details about the doll and her outfit. Please also note, the images shown in the store gallery are of an actual production doll and outfit, not prototypes. A link to the terms and conditions of sale are also available on the store page, please do read them.

https://kingdomdoll.co.uk

An excerpt from the website:

Our debut doll Nelson (using the Novantae head sculpt)

Nelson is a 16 inch resin fashion doll, with 22 points of articulation. Her resin, which is of the highest quality, is a classic "English Rose" which was exclusively created for Kingdom Doll. She has pale ice blue eyes and a soft make-up palette of peach, muted gold and grey. Her hair, a hard cap wig, has long soft waves of a variegated pale golden blonde.
Nelson is a dressed doll limited to just 60 pieces world wide. She features a faux leather jacket inspired by the Spencer jackets of the 1790's and a strapless empire line gown made from silk chiffon with beautiful gold braid trimmed bodice. Black calf length square toed boots with gold buckle accents, a pair tap shorts and hose complete the outfit.
A stand and a complimentary pair of pose hands are also included!