Fallindoll Rabi complete!

It's been a long time coming, but I've finally finished customizing my Fallindoll Rabi, Eleanor.  You can read more about her initial customization process over here.  I've since applied lashes, switched up her eyes, and created an outfit for her.  This is the first time in a while that I've finished sewing a dress I like.  I modified a Blythe dress pattern I had laying about to fit her and it's not perfect, but I'm so happy with actually finishing it, the flaws don't bother me.  Now all I need to do is finish her counterpart, Fallindoll Force *sigh*.  Thanks for looking!  I hope you enjoy her!

Belated Workspace Wednesday! Eleanor's Faceup (Fallindoll Rabi)

Eleanor, a Fallindoll 27cm Rabi

So, this is what I worked on most of yesterday :D.  I knew I wanted to try something a little over the top with both Rabi (newly named Eleanor) and Force, but I waffled a bit over which direction to take.

Eleanor here isn't completely finished, she'll be getting some custom made eyes, a new outfit, and still needs lashes, but the majority of the work is complete :).  I airbrushed her body in a flecked agouti coloration with little black spots and gradient hands, legs, and ears.

Die cut vinyl detail, drawn in Adobe Illustrator.

I designed the vinyl appliques using Illustrator and exported them to my die cutting machine's program.  Drawing these designs would have taken forever, wreaked havoc on my poor hands, and still wouldn't have been the effect I wanted.  I measured the different areas of her face to get the spacing and layout correct.

Her hands and feet have already chipped a bit of the paint with movement, which is to be expected.  I'm thinking about going back over them with my black Plasti-dip spray since it worked so well the last time I used it on a doll.

I'm super happy with how she turned out :).  Force (yet to be named) will be completed in the same fashion with different designs (more lace like, in cream or white), which I'm still working on.  I hope you guys enjoyed!  Thanks for reading :D.

Fallindoll Rabi and Force Ball Jointed Doll Review

Emory over at Junkyspot.com recently got Fallindoll's new Rabi and Force (27cm) in stock and I nearly broke my neck ordering these two.  I missed out on Hujoo's fennec fox, Penny, a long time ago and I wasn't about to let another slip through my fingers!  I couldn't resist Rabi, either, I seem to be amassing a collection of bunny themed dolls.

Adorable little boxes!

Honestly, I don't keep up with the BJD community as much as I used to.  I only get snippets and photos from those few I follow on Tumblr who also collect and customize.  I'd never even heard of Fallindoll until I got the newsletter from Junkyspot saying they'd come in stock.  If you get a second, definitely check out their site.  They have quite a few ridiculously cute offerings.  I've also got my eye on their vinyl Panda, which is akin to dolls like Wonder Frog and Tokissi.

Anyway!  On to the review!

I ordered Rabi in Light Grey.  The information for Rabi is conflicting on the page, the first notice says they take 16mm eyes, which is likely just a typo.  They actually take something more like 12 or 10mm depending on the dome.  High domed eyes would look awkward in Rabi, her eye wells are not very deep or rounded.  I have plenty of other girls who can use the pink eyes I ordered so I just gave her a pair of brown glass eyes I had on hand.

Holy crap, that's cute.

I -instantly- fell in love.  I mean, jeez, look at that face *_*.  Feel free to use either of these headshot photos for your own mock faceups, if you'd like!  I haven't decided exactly how I'll paint her yet, but it'll have to wait until we get over the flu epidemic going on in our house right now T_T.

Force is equally adorable.  I love how mischievous she looks!  The 16mm eyes fit Force perfectly and I'm glad, I really wanted a golden color for her :3.

Ready for all kinds of shenanigans.

So yeah, they're friggin' adorable, but what about their function?  Both of these dolls are constructed from super durable ABS plastic.  I prefer it in my BJD's because I'm not exactly the most graceful creature on the planet.  The one thing you might be astounded to know is that these cuties pose like pros.  I've owned a ridiculous amount of BJD's over the years from pretty much every brand you can think of and I've never, ever seen dolls pose like these two before.

The roombox their standing on isn't even remotely level.  It's propped up on my quilting arm for my sewing machine lopsidedly.  It took about five seconds to get the one legged poses level and sturdy.  There are notches on the inside of their ball joints which 'click' into place for different poses.  You pose them and they... just -stay- that way.  It's crazy and I wasn't expecting it at all.

I mean, holy smokes, that's ridiculous.  Their legs are able to fold up flat against their thighs or out to the side suwarikko style.  Their torso can be moved forward, backward, side to side, and it just holds in place like it doesn't even care.  Their joints don't jerk or slip out of place and that just boggles my mind.  I have several other ABS dolls so I was expecting them to perform in a similar fashion, but no, these are hands down the sturdiest BJD's I've ever owned.

My complaints are few and won't matter after I'm finished customizing them.  The headcap was a complete pain to remove.  I had to insert a butterknife between the gap and gently wiggle it out.  I don't expect to be removing it very much once I finish painting them, but it's something to be aware of if you like to reposition your eyes more than I do.  It's also virtually impossible to position the eyes inside the head with wax or tack while the strings are around the pegs which connect the head to the body.  If you have a full stem eye that extends too far, you also might run into issues with the strings knocking your eyes out of place, so stick to half round or acrylic stems that can be popped off.

I'm incredibly happy with these guys, they're so completely adorable.  I'm really looking forward to finishing them and taking photos, especially now that I know they pose so incredibly well.  Thanks for reading!

The Mushroom Girl: Kinoko Juice Kiki

A very, very long time ago when I was almost brand new to the idea of doll collecting I stumbled across one of the cutest, most stylistically sculpted dolls I'd seen so far.  Unfortunately, at the time, there was very little information about the doll, it took me a great deal of searching to even figure out what the name was, much less the maker.

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that not only were these dolls sold exclusively in Japan, they were also hand made and sold in limited quantities at very high prices.  At the time, I gave up on ever finding one for sale in the US, much less being able to afford it on the secondhand market.

That little doll was Kinoko Juice Kiki and I'd wanted one for as long as I can even remember.  A few months back, I stumbled across a Japanese auction for a dirty, damaged, and long neglected Kiki.  I didn't care and I bid immediately, hoping like hell not to be outbid.  To my absolute disbelief I won!  Three weeks later, she arrived and I couldn't wait to get to work.

I did not take progress pictures, as there are certain proprietary aspects of the doll that I wouldn't want exposed to anyone looking to copy.  Specifically the unique, handmade eyes that a copy would not arrive with. 

She arrived with a laundry list of issues that needed to be fixed.  Her eyes, which cannot be replaced, let alone even found on a secondhand market, were my biggest issue.  The material was cracked in one eye, right through the iris.  I have no idea what the artist uses to make them, but I filled it in with UV cured resin to blend the distortion created by the crack.  I ended up with a barely visible line and a few air bubbles, but I am very happy with the result!

Her default faceup wasn't salvageable, so I repainted her as close to the original style as I could, with a few subtle changes.  Her headcap was also stained pretty badly.  When I sanded the stains away, I discovered that she had yellowed pretty badly.  So, I took a magic eraser to the rest of her body and she cleaned up surprisingly well.  One of the connections on her hand had been worn almost completely away (or it was broken and sanded, I couldn't really tell), so I had to resculpt the piece back up to fit into her wrist with epoxy.

Unfortunately, she didn't arrive with all of her extras.  Only one of the optional hands was included, but I don't mind a bit.  It's been almost impossible to find clothes and shoes that fit her, but YOSD fits pretty well, though a bit large.  The dress she's wearing in these photos was made by DollsAhoy and was intended to fit Blythe, that's how teeny she is.  Blythe pants, though, won't fit because she has much bigger hips and legs.  I had several pairs of the shoes she's wearing in different sizes (from trying to find something to fit Hujoo).  They're a bit long in the toe, since her feet are very round, but overall, it's as close as I think I'm gonna get.

I still haven't finished with her, but the process of working on her has been so fun.  Most of my BJD girls have arrived as 'damaged' or 'junk' items.  I really love restoring them back to their original glory <3.  I still have heads in storage that I've been working with on and off for a while that haven't been photographed, haha.

I'm so, so incredibly glad to have found one of these amazing little dolls.  She's definitely a grail of mine, if not THE grail.  Thanks for reading!

Lishe and Nina BJD Faceups for Rachel

With the sheer popularity of Monster High, these dolls are the ones I'm asked to work on 95% of the time.  I haven't met a doll I didn't want to paint, though!  A long time ago, I used to be an avid BJD collector (before I even knew communities and such existed) and would spend time painting my own dolls to get the hang of it.  They weren't the first dolls I ever painted, but, but they were close.

I'm always excited to work on BJD heads, it's a completely different process vinyl dolls and gives me a nice change of pace.  I painted this Fairyland Lishe and Luts Nina for Rachel recently as a commission and was very happy with how they turned out!