Sugru

Today, a surprise arrived in the post. The Boyfriend had ordered a couple of mixed packs of some stuff called Sugru, which I'd heard of as something used in MakieModding but had never really figured out what it was.

Turns out, it's an air-curing, freely-shapeable silicon rubber that bonds to pretty much any surface easily. On first opening the foil pouch, it's got a texture like air-drying modelling clay or slightly damp dough. It's really easy to shape and finish. 

I had a fiddle with a 5g pack and Number 12 (who started off as somethingsomethingcandy... must remind myself!) and this is what I came up with. 

Hey hey Deery.

The website FAQ says that paint is at risk of flaking because of the flexibility of the cured substance... but I'm hopeful that won't be an issue on parts this small. I'm going to leave it overnight and have a good play tomorrow, and will just have to see what happens next! I've already got the materials for the rest of this girl and I'm confident she could be my most adventurous custom yet.

Swampy!

Hey hey all!

Sorry it's been a bit empty around here the last few days. I'm having one of those weeks at work where all you want to do when you get home is fall in a heap and watch something mindless on the telly!

Anyway. I though we might like to close the Swampy chapter... erm... sorry, "Number 6" with a few shots of how she finally panned out...

This is her sultry look...

Shiny beeeeeds

Pretty frillies!

The Awesome Top Hat of Awesome

And guess what! If you've fallen head-over-heels in love with the Swampmistress, today is indeed your lucky day! We've been through a lot together, her and I, and it's time for her to move on. If you're interested in adopting Swampy, drop me a mail (duckiemonsterSPLATgmail.com) and I'll let you know what sort of fee/trade I'm looking for. 

Bondage.

So.

You come here often?

Updating Plum

Given that I've actually got some idea what I'm doing with customising now, I thought it only fair that Plum gets another shot at a face-up instead of the poorly stuffed on finish she was currently enjoying.

Amazing that when you think you can do something, you can't really do it at all.

Not the best photos in the world.

Mmmm silvery.

But you get the idea.

Pink glitter, naturally.
Only because I didn't have any blue to hand, mind you. 

And suddenly the 'orrible greenygold chips look just right. 

Better photos when I've got a bit of daylight to play with. 

Alright, yes she's over gaze-corrected. I've got a new t-bar waiting to go in but I can't remember which box I put it in so's I wouldn't lose it. Besides, I don't think it shows too much in these photos and by the time I'd remembered that I'd got a new t-bar for her somewhere, I had all of the screws back in her head again. Blah!

Caturday Afternoon

It's a rainy old day in South Wales. I was very good this morning and went for a run, and now I'm watching Black Books on Netflix and trying to get on with my scalp rooting.

Unfortunately, Bagpuss has decided he wants to help out. This involves sitting on my lap, trying to steal my cup of tea and purring (and drooling) mightily.

Chiiiiiippies

Love painting chips!

Number (EEK!) 8

*ahem*

I can stop any time I like, you know.

But when there are little beauties like this that come to my attention...

Hulloes Number 8!

...and when I hear they've been living in a box of shame for the last 'x' number of years...

Pleased to meet you. What spiffing trousers!

...it'd be cruel not to rescue them, wouldn't it?

Nice smile too. 

This is an RBL Saffy whose original owner had her first goes of lip carving on her. I've had a bit of a play already (see photo below), and I think I can get her sorted out. I'm planning on trying my first re-root on her; a combination of chocolate brown and raspberry pink. The chips are just some I was messing around with for Izzy... I'm thinking this little lady is going to get a nice rich goldy-brown pair, perhaps some ambery ones? And then a dark pink and gold and a dark gold and pink. Mmmmm. I love chip painting!

I disassembled her within 2 hours of her arriving. Is that cruel? It feels cruel... 

Mad Stylin' Yo

I got this wig thinking it might be a solution to number 6's lack of hair problem.  

Unfortunately, Lex has decided it suits her better and has run off with it. 

Might get one for myself...

Final Glimpse

Here are some of the last shots I got of Number 5 before she got boxed and dispatched to the 'joys' of the Bank Holiday postal service... happily she made it to her destination, yaay!

Cheerio then, Number 5. Hope you get a name soon!

ATTENTION! ANNOUNCING A NEW WORLD ORDER

Ladies and Jellyspoons, do not adjust your monitors. For we control all that you see and hear.

We, the Blythes, are here to announce that our days of looking decorative, winsome and yes, 'vintagey' on shelves is over. We no longer accept that we are simply fashion models, to be adorned and dismissed as being of low intelligence.

Throughout the country, our forces are rallying. With the support of our Playmobil friends in arms, we are preparing to overthrow the existing world order.

Makies and other dolls of 'substance' shall either be imprisoned...

...or held in thrall to us, providing tea and tasty snacks as we require. They shall no longer lord it over us because of their techy credentials and funky 3D printed processes. They shall be our slaves.

From our ramshackle hovel base in the fashion-bereft badlands of South Wales, we communicate our agenda. Our elite forces are preparing to strike simultaneously throughout the country, leaving CHAOS in our wake. This is but phase 1 of our plan. Phase two... ahahaha, we're not telling, but you might want to lock up your left shoes.

So prepare yourselves, puny humans. Prepare for the glorious MARCH OF THE BLYTHES, as we shed our clover leaf stands, take up our tiny designer handbags and equip our fully functional space stations (or alternatively, one of those bear hats that costs more than a fully functional space station).

We shall not be suppressed! We shall not be denied!

We shall be victorious!
*massive applause*

Sewing Day

Looks like Lex has finally decided to get going on that skirt and jacket set she was talking about.

Measure three times, cut... erm... carefully?

Happily Aspen is good with a sewing machine... Plum's talents tend more towards making the tea.

Er... Lex? Where's the fabric? 

Plink's trying a bit of cross stitch.

Very ladylike there, Plink. 

And Melchie... oh dear.

Still, the stitching is neat.

Well. At least it's a finished product.

Number 6: Baity bait.

In the Blythe world, 'bait' or 'baity' is shorthand for 'someone (quite possibly the seller, although I don't think it was in this case!) screwed up on this one a little/pretty bad/a whole damned lot, pay your money and take your chances'.

Alright, I'm up for a challenge.

This little beauty was a Cinnamon Girl, face mould EBL-7, launched in Feb 2003. She's supposed to have thick light brown hair, a set of blue/orange/green/pink eye chips, brown eyeshadow and light pearly brown lips.

Hey hey, Number 6! How you doing? 

Unfortunately, it looks like someone's decided that they don't like that, and have scribbled on her face with... um... nail varnish... before using a blunt paperclip to scratch out some lips and a philtrum.

Er... what's that on your face?

(Insert music from Psycho and do a slowly zooming-in close up here.)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

Okay, okay. Caveat Emptor and all that. She was a complete bargain and I got in there first, so over she came from Spain. We got out the box, posed for two or three photos, then on went Hunger Games on Netflix* and out came the sanding sponges.

Then out came the x-acto knife. Which needed three new blades in the course of doing this doll's makeover.

Ladies and Jellyspoons. If you're looking for a quick way to spruce up your Blythe, can I suggest you use pastels. Volk doll chalks. Make-up. Acrylics. Watercolour pencils... in short, use absolutely anything under the sun with the exception of NAIL VARNISH. It's not that it's hard to get of, it's that it's:

1. Bloody impossible to sand off because... 
2. ...it's damaged the plastic underneath so badly that it just crumbles into nothingness...
3. ...and when you scratch that lot of nasty away, the underneath looks all... melty. 

It took the best part of four hours to strip back the faceplate to something I could even contemplate trying to carve/file/sand properly, and I'm not entirely sure even now that I got all of it. There's a patch on the outside of her left eye that just won't take pastel properly, no matter how many times I sand and re-apply, and the eye sockets ended up a little larger than I intended, because I just had to keep cutting away the bad stuff... 

Hah. In this shot, you can't see the 'melted' look to the lips and right eye socket. 

That said, she's not looking too shabby now. The perfectionists'll notice the slightly uneven finish around the top of the right eye socket and to the upper lip... sorry Ma'am, nothing more I could do. I tried sanding the hell out of it, and the finish just kept looking worse so I stopped. Her philtrum is a little more prominent than I generally like; again, nothing else I could do once the damage was fully assessed. Yup, those are copper glittery lids. Who likes Steampunk? I love Steampunk, as it happens. 4 new pairs of chips: brown and gold, silvery grey, green and blue.  

Not perfect... but a hell of a lot better

We're waiting on a chocolatey-brown alpaca side part scalp and some glorious ambery/gold beads for the pullstrings. And then instead of bait, I reckon she's going to be simply stunning. 

*Not a bad adaption of one of my favourite brain off reads. I think they got Katniss really well, Peeta wasn't too bad (and he only really grows properly as a character in the second and third books) Rue was perfect. Looking forwards to the next one. 

ENGLITTERINATION!

Glitter + Duckie = EXCITED

Well, who wouldn't be?

The last of the eye mech customisation series, we're glittering up our lids and replacing the lashes. Woo!



Hope you've enjoyed these videos. I'm planning on covering basic caving and the 'technical' bits next (boggling, gaze correcting and so forth). If there's anything else you'd like to see, drop a comment.

Northern Blythe Meet

We met Fil's Velvet Minuet

Some people weren't keen on Makies

Quite a lot of dolls!

Some were really cute 

Everybody say CHEEEEEESE

O Hai Millie!

*sigh* If only I could paint that well... 

Makie Curious

The amazing standing Kenner!

This Blythe looked like her owner.

Drusilla the sleepy vamp

More Makie examination

Thanks to all the terribly friendly Blythers for a lovely lunch, here's hoping I'll see some of you in October at Blythe Con!

Moar vids?! Shirley not!

Oh yes indeedly!

New Blythe video tutorials, hoorah! Today we're rambling about how to swap out eye chips, remove lashes and prepare your Blythe for the first bit of her makeover.

Hope you enjoy...  :)

   

There are a couple more videos; you can find them on the You Tube (or wait for me to post 'em here tomorrow). As always, drop a comment if something isn't clear or you want to know more.

Enjoy!

Hoorah!

Well, the evil exam is OVER... Not that I think I did terribly well and I'll be resitting it, but at least I don't have to think about that until the 'official' fail is in.

Spent this evening sorting out number 5's chips. Who knows, maybe there'll be another video tomorrow?

Yay, good post day!

Today in the post there was a...

Pretty dress.

Stripy jumper.

Selection of customising things.

Yay for nice post days!

Elin Modification Step 4

Aaand we're nearly there.

Yes, you're getting your body back. 

After letting the face-up set, it was time for hair. I must admit, it was the hair that started this whole process off. I'd happened upon a totally gorgeous re-root from the talented Piparrot on the Blythe Kingdom forums and just had to have it.

This is where we were headed from the start!

I'm not really what you'd call a sugary sweet princess... but after drooling over the divine Juliet, there was most absolutely a hole in my life the shape of a mohair girl.

Er... not really your style, dearie. 

Unfortunately, attaching a re-root is not the most dignified process in the world.

S&M, Blythe Style

But it was absolutely and completely worth it!

Before... 

...and after!

(And OH, the glittery lids!)

I'm beyond amazed with what I've managed to achieve, especially as the work on her this week was punctuated by the Boyfriend being rather unwell and frantic revision for my big exam at the end of the month. I will say that working on a real Blythe (even an SBL!) is much easier than a factory. The component quality is much higher, the eye chips are easier to remove and the mechanism seems a bit more sturdy.

I had a bit of a wander around evilBay yesterday... and my next project might just've fallen into my shopping cart. Watch this space, big plans for this one!