While I Was Away
Well, let’s see — I certainly have been away from this blog for a while! It’s been a long hard 2011 for me so far, but as the year draws to a close the autumn fills me with a new life, and with any luck at all, 2012 will be a brighter time.
But as usual I’ve not been completely idle. Shortly after my last post I completed a tattoo sleeve on Balthus and managed to take a few photos of that piece of work (before I removed his body paint in August).
[Pictures with tattoos, 2nd faceup by me and trimmed wig]
December came and I went home for the holidays. And a crappy holiday it was to say the least. But Balthus received his lot of eBay goodies and I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth there. During the heart of winter I also sewed several clothing pieces for Balthus and some girly articles in anticipation of hopefully acquiring a female doll soon. In early February, when I could finally put my arms to use again after breaking my collar bone, I constructed a 1/3 sofa set for him that turned out pretty well all things considered.
[Crappy picture of Balthus with his sofa, better pictures one day hopefully.]
Some time in the early summer I removed his first face up I had painted and reworked a new faceup for him in a much more naturalistic style (though I was not yet satisfied). I trimmed his black wig into a shorter, more boyish look, and while changing out his eyes managed to ruin 2 pairs — almost certainly by spilling a solvent on them, and replaced them with another pair of acrylic eyes in a honey color that I had purchased over the holidays. In the spring (still hoping to get a girl soon) I sewed several girl’s accessories: belts, skirts and whatnot and ordered several pairs of sneakers (for Balthus and any future girl dolls) from Mimiwoo — my favorite site to find cheap BJD things. I knew I would be moving at the end of July, so money got very tight and I didn’t start any big new doll projects until August, although the next two months were very fruitful. In the time I’ve been settling down in my new place I’ve ordered a beautiful new girl doll: an Impldoll Iris (who is coming to me with a free extra Erica head!), purchased three lovely fur wigs from Monstro Designs on etsy, and bought, in a lot listing, used porcelain doll type wigs, 5 of which I will definitely have use for (I got an incredible deal on this one).
[Impldoll company photos for Iris, full body and Erica, bottom head]
[Balthus in his new Monstro Designs wig, with the honey colored eyes from Cool Cat and his current faceup, wearing clothing and jewelry made by me.]
As far as projects go I made my own acrylic eyes using the DIY eye kits from Bella Pupa, I sewed (for Balthus) a new t-shirt in neon yellow, a pair of Jnco style blue jeans, modified once more that black trench coat his previous owner sent with him, finished for him an up-cycled sock-sweater, made him a colorful fleece blanket, sewed 4 pillows (I still need too make pretty pillowcases for those), and made TONS of freaken jewelry for him and his soon to be here lady friend. 
I also gave Balthus his 3rd face up and, being very happy with the results, have decided that soon I will make a tutorial detailing my most successful method thus far.
[A close up of Balthus' current face, also shown: more of his new jewelry by me.]
So it’s been quite the year so far. . . My girlies, whom I will call Sophie and Dahlia should be in my arms tomorrow! I have been working on a very fun victorian-esque outfit for my Sophie, so as soon as her face is ready, her eyes are in, her hair is on and her dress is made there should be plenty of new photos (hopefully here, but certainly) on my Flickr. —> here
Catch you later! 
