Once upon a time around 5 years ago I bought a house. It was lovely, except for the gigantic exposed foundation in the yard that was once planned to be a garage that never happened. Well, we got that ripped out, and then we had to have the yard landscaped because of, y’know, the giant hole, and then we had to enrich the soil so things would actually grow there, and then began the great task of growing things. It’s harder than you’d think. Many plants died those first few years, and other plants took their sweet ass time growing in. But now, I think I finally have a yard that I can take doll pictures in!

Since I need more pictures of these girls, they got the honor first. Blanca is my not-sickly Leprotto inspired doll, and Zsa Zsa has a carved mouth, reshaped eyes, and a working acrylic eye mech. And she’s one of my few dolls with more realistic vs stylized makeup.

That’s it for today, hope you enjoyed this return to the regularly scheduled doll-graming!

When I was a little kid, I had baby dolls.  They were piled in a crib, which was then put at the back of my closet and never ever played with because I didn’t see the point of babydolls and found them creepy.  Changing diapers, even ones only filled with imaginary poo, was never my idea of fun.

When I was slightly older, I had Barbie dolls.  I liked them well enough.  I sewed for them and made furniture for them, mostly. I had a dollhouse that was the coolest thing ever, and would arrange and re-arrange all of the furniture to get each room perfect.  I didn’t really play dolls with friends.  They wanted Barbie to go on dates and shop, which I found terribly, terribly boring.  But then they didn’t appreciate my kidnapping, murder, and alien invasion storylines either.

I didn’t touch a doll again until after college, and that was Pullip.  Pullips didn’t appeal to me as a doll, more as a vehicle through which I can do everything else I like.  Pullips combine my interests in customizing, painting, sewing, storytelling, carpentry, interior decorating, photography, web design, and more.  I’ve stuck with Pullips for a long time because to get tired of them wouldn’t be getting tired of dolls, it would be getting tired of all those other things.

But!  Pullips don’t combine everything I like to do, and not everything I like to that could involve Pullips does involve Pullips.  In fact, unless someone went into my workroom, no one who visits would have any idea I liked dolls as there isn’t a single doll-centric thing around the entire house.   Madness!  So the next few posts I think will be about some of the other things I enjoy…

May Isul: Midnight Deja Vu

Description:  “Guide of the new item will be released May sell bad apple to appear in Snow White Queen was transformed into has become a motif. I hold out for him, the world’s most sweet, seductive forbidden fruit”

Feel Like So: “See you anymore, you should know the sweet taste of ….. such dense Reach out your hand Come on forbidden fruit shine into the darkness of the black”

Clearly, he’s supposed to be the evil queen disguised as an apple seller from the new Snow White series!  Absolutely not some kind of shota lover for Pullip.

He does seem to have a nice face, I’ll give him that.  If he wasn’t an Isul, I might even have preordered him.  But Isuls only look good from head-on or almost head-on because their head sculpt is a bit weird.

Pullip Kiyomi.  She has a rather nice, if not in what has become the standard sweet-lolita-expression face.  I like the glitter chips.

Angelic Pretty/Gothic Lolita Bible collab dal.  She has painted teeth.  This will either be awesome or a terrible, terrible idea.  But those shoes look pretty sweet, either way…

This month is pretty light on doll releases at a glance, but they haven’t released the regeneration series dolls for this month yet, plus there’s a Hide limited edition, plus the Meiko limited edition Vocaloid.  There may be more.  Fun fact: In 2012, Groove has released more limited edition dolls than regular dolls, with a whopping 4 limited edition pullips in March alone!

When pullips first came out they had huge feet. This was great for balancing (they could stand on their own) but not so good for finding shoes! The shoes they came with were often so rigid and tight, one would have to cut them open to get them off the feet. People lamented, and eventually when the type 3 body was released, pullip fans rejoiced as they could now put cheap fashion doll shoes on their dolls!

…Fast forward to 2012. Now the coolest doll shoes anywhere are made for Monster High, and newcomer Barbie brand Stardolls have shoes that are also made for oversized feet. And the pullip collectors lament, if only the awesome shoes fit my dolls!

Well, most of them. Me, I’m psyched! I adore the type 1 body, still have some dolls on type 2, and now I can have all the shoes I want *mad cackle*

There is relevance here. See, doll shoes are traditionally made kinda rubbery to make it easier to get on/off doll feet. Unfortunately, resin is not so rubbery. Shoes made for Monster High dolls, when cast in resin, often will no longer fit Monster High feet anymore. This is the case with the current shoes that I’ve cast, unfortunately. After 2-3 days of curing, the resin loses all residual flexibility and shoes that fit monster high dolls straight from the mold, no longer fit. But they still fit pullips. As I primarily made these casts to add to my pullips’ horde of shoes, no biggie.

However, I am displeased, because I would really like to be able to cast things that are SLIGHTLY flexible. It opens up more possibilities. My eventual plan is to be able to make things like shoes off of my own designs, after all. Therefore, I bought 2-part clearcasting vinyl (I had previously been using resin) and have some opaque casting plastic coming in the mail. If anything I am thorough…

So for now, please enjoy my pullips’ new shoes. And a couple of sets of eyechips made from the excess resin:

I will confess that I bought the Draculaura/Clawd set for those shoes.  I didn’t really need Draculaura, and I’m assuming that sooner or later another Clawd would have been released who didn’t have such a terrible, terrible outfit.  But… those shoes…

Clearly I have something of a shoe problem.  It’s ok.  I admit it.  But if I basically spent $30 to get them, why would I be doing…whatever that is to them?

Craft stuff is messy. Very. Knowing this, even I shy away from molding. It’s not that it’s especially messy, it’s just especially hard to clean up. One DROP of this stuff on the carpet and it will never come out. No matter how much you scrub, or what cleaner you use. Get it on your skin, and it will take some serious repeated scrubbing to get it off…and it feels so SLIMY! Eew.

….Buuuuuuut my husband is on business travel. Teenagers throw wild parties. I pull out my messiest craft supplies. It’s not like he doesn’t know what I’m up to, he just doesn’t see it. And I don’t hear the screams of horror. So it works out all around, really.

I got a few modeling books the Christmas before last on modeling, as well as some rubber/resin/etc. I find it interesting, but I don’t have much need for it. I debated making some specialty eye chips, possibly doll masks. Nothing especially pressing. I tried molding eyechips and the 1-part mold worked wonderfully, but the mold-release agent didn’t work on the two-part mold, so I just got a fused block of silicone.

The most interesting thing I could think of was shoes. Doll shoes, of course. I have a dream to make retro platform shoes with tiny goldfish ‘swimming’ in the platforms. It will be awesome. But I am totally not up to that point yet.

The problem is shoes are hard! Lots of tutorials for casting out there (and books!) and none of them have explained to me how to go about accounting for a shoe with a foot cavity or, horror of horrors, straps! So I’ve been experimenting, all week. Mostly failures, but as of writing this I have half a dozen tiny resin shoes that have come out and fit on doll feet! I believe I have no mastered the basic high-heel. Next stop: Mary-Janes!

Eventually, when I’m done I will make a tutorial for how to cast shoes. After I finish figuring out out myself ^^;

That’s right! Another f*cking Alice.
Fantastic Alice, Another Alice, Lunatic Alice, Romantic Alice Blue, Romantic Alice Pink, Alice du Jardin. And this one looks even less original than the previous iteration, seeming to be a flowery print version of the romantic Alice outfits, with a face that is….eh at best. Romantic Alice had a faceup that looked like a faded version of Blanche, but was at least nice. Alices are now being reased at a rate of more than one per year.

The eyelashes bother me. It’s like they took Romantic Alice’s lower eyelashes and then scribbed some more on top, in a different color/style.

And what’s alice without another f*cking bunny? Aside from the many, many regular bunny editions, there has been Another Clock Rabbit, Another Soldier Rabbit, Lunatic Rabbit, White Rabbit, Romantic Rabbit, and now Rabbit du Jardin: the pastel easter-bunny edition. Isul’s face looks a bit better than usual, for once his eyebrows are somewhat normal looking.

Looks like they’re dividing up the Alice releases as they did with Romantic Alice, so this month’s Dal is not an alice, it is a ballerina:

And two outfit sets:

I usually try to be more optimistic about new releases, but yet another Alice set coupled with the re-release of older dolls is really grating on me. Pullips used to have a lot more variety. It wasn’t just lolita-collab-lolita-collab. There were pirates that looked like pirates, instead of ‘pirate lolita’ which is really straight gothic lolita with some ocean-y charms sewn on.

I have noticed that in the last year or so there are fewer and fewer pictures of new releases by owners online which I assume means fewer people buying them. Blame this on the economy if you want, but personally I COULD get new dolls, but the only new dolls I’ve gotten I’ve bought for the outfits and then sold the dolls or used them as custom bait because they were so ‘meh’.

Now, over time the style of doll faces has also changed. Older dolls had faces that were more stylized, newer dolls tend to be more like ball-jointed dolls, which also goes with the trend towards lolita dolls. I like ball jointed doll type faces, but after a couple they seem to blend into each other. The expression is always somewhere in neutral/cute/delighted face. There is very little personality, very little ‘energy’ that always defined pullips apart from other dolls.

I think one of the reasons I stayed in pullips so long when other people migrated to BJDs or Blythes was because I really do just like pullips. I don’t want a BJD head on a momoko-ripoff body. I have a couple of BJDs. They are gorgeous, but they’re just dolls. I have a blythe, too, and while she has a certain personality of her own, it is not the moxie of the pullip doll.

For a long time I’ve thought that they should bring back the old style pullips. Not the specific dolls, but the style of faceup, the moxie, the originality. Not on every release: There is nothing wrong with BJD type faces, either. Say 4 stylized dolls, 4 collabs, 4 BJD-type a year for regular releases. There are dozens of old prototypes people have been lamenting not being released for years–like the red-and-black bat girl prototype, or the second pirate who was originally shown with the Rovam prototype.

What we get is more lolitas differentiating themselves from other lolitas by slapping ‘Alice’ on them at least once a year to cash in on the ‘Alice’ fanbase, and then adding to the lack of originality by re-releasing some of the best selling old-style dolls in an obvious cash grab.

I know, I know: “If you don’t like it, don’t buy them.”
…well, I won’t. I already bought the old style dolls I liked. And I don’t generally buy new dolls because they’re all so very pretty and so very…forgettable. I suspect I’m not the only one, which might hint at why they are finally giving in to requests to re-release older editions to regain interest/sales when up until now the line has always been “all dolls are limited runs, when they’re sold out they’re sold out.”

Regeneration series 2012 start new project!
“Regeneration series (reprint)” Release of

Since its launch Pullip first of July 2003, Pullip series
Now has grown to more than 400 titles.
This is what growth there is in love with Pullip Kudasaru support of our series solely,
We are grateful to. Thank you very much.

In nearly 10 years of history, such as email and the following letter has been received from our fans,
Recently, a growing number that we dominated. We introduce some of them.

<1 e-mail submitted from users like>
“Could be seven or eight years ago became interested in the Pullip.
At the time I was a junior I did not want to buy a Pullip.
I started working, you could afford a little, get a product that is not historical.
Most of those auctions are expensive but I see they have ”
“From about three years ago, but now Pullip fans can get the product past.
Have them or can not reproduction? ”

And so on

E-mail you ※, We will be writing a letter excerpt, please understand we introduced

Among the over 400 titles are also a variety of situations at the time of sale,
From our fans, “the phantom” referred to by phrases like, some things very hard to get.
Until now we, reproduction was not made ​​any Pullip series.
However, these voices from people asked, seriously confronted,
What results can not be considered to meet,
From March 2012, some models,
“Regeneration series (reprint)” to be released in the form of we.

“Regeneration series (reprint)” is not reproduced “re-time items of products fine” is.
As of Pullip body has evolved, while making the best of the original
We have products that match today.
Specifically, in speaking Pullip, even with the 1st original body,
“Regeneration series (reprint)”, the body will adopt the current 4th,
With its well designed, some, re-use our fine.
Quantity for sale is limited to top 500 will be the world’s
Package for, “Regeneration series (reprint)” and special packages.

Will be released in late March 2012.
First of Regeneration series
Pullip / Fantastic Alice (the original, released July 2004)
Pullip / Fanatika (The original, released in January 2005)

Will be released late April 2012
Regeneration series second phase
Pullip / Moon (original) Pullip first model launched in May 2003!
Anne Pullip / (original, released in April 2004)

Regeneration series after the third bullet, we will be announced

This is similar to something that happened in the Blythe community, and I’m not especially happy with it, either.
Why am I not happy with it? Well, a few reasons:
1: pullips have always been marketed as being made in a limited quantity. They sell out, become hard to find, price fluctuates, etc as with all collectables. If you really love a doll you can still get it, it just takes work. So while this may be a cash grab disguised as pandering to new collectors, it is a bit of a slap in the face to more established collectors who saved up and scoured Japanese auctions sites to get that dream doll.
2: the dolls are all being re-released as type 4s. We don’t have any pictures yet, but for Moon, a type 1 doll with a shiny face and rooted scalp to be converted to a wigged type 4 doll that is probably matte, this is going to be strange. I adore my Moon, but she is not an attractive doll, stock. She also would look nothing like her original self with all these changes. As I demonstrated when I made my Faux Noir, a Noir with something as minor a difference as painted eyelids COMPLETELY changes the ‘personality’ of Noir.

3: People will still look for the original doll, either out of collector’s OCD or a desire for the older version which will look slightly different from the new version (I know some people who do not like the 2-part head mold and any dolls released on it) and this will make fraud/scamming/honest mistakes a lot more common.
4: I will now have to put up with new collectors going “I GOT A _______” for the sake of saying they got an old HTF doll. Let me explain. In any fandom, there is a certain type of person who shows up and immediately goes and buys the most expensive and sought after items so that they can achieve instant ‘status’ instead of because they actually like those particular dolls/ponies/transformers, whatever. They are generally VERY ANNOYING PEOPLE and the only solace I can take is that due to the cost of obtaining a “bragging rights” type of collection, there aren’t that many of them. This will remove some of that barrier. Joy.

So yeah. Not happy.

While I have chronicled the various extreme customization projects I’ve done, I am not as good at chronicling the mundane.  Sand a face off, slap some paint on there, add eyes… done!   Eventually.  Several hours (or days) later.  And after much swearing and occasionally bleeding.  But that’s the gist.  There are MANY pictures from this series, so if you want to see the full set, go here.

Step 1: Decide what I want to do.  Lots of people do this different ways.  Some people sketch out their ideas.  I don’t usually need to sketch things out, but sometimes I do (like when I did Puddles, after my first failed attempt at making a ‘cute’ clown) and when I do, it’s usually nothing flashy, just some basic MS paint type stuff to help me decide what I want to do.

Step 2: Pick my base.  This is an important part!  You can’t make any doll from any doll. Well, you can, but it probably won’t won’t come out as well as if you just did a little planning ahead of time.  For example: what type of body will this character have?  If I plan on rebodying, I either have to pick a head that will match the body I plan to put it on, or I will have to pick a body I can match to the head.  Soft-busts can’t be spray painted.   When I made the Bleach custom of Nelliel, I had to use a giant-busted Volks body, and therefore I needed to use a head that matched the volks natural giant-bust, as it only came in one color.   There are about 3 heads that match that body.  Two of them are sold out and sell for >$200.

Step 3: Sand that motherf*cker down.  I don’t know why, but some dolls (mostly early ones) sand easily while other dolls don’t. You can’t just sand the parts with makeup or you might end up with an uneven finish, even after you seal it.  Between the sanding and the razorblades to get at the nooks and crannies, this is where I end up with the most blisters/cuts.

Step 4: Begin!  I always do the hardest parts first.  It’s not because of my customizing-masochistic tendencies, it’s common sense.  The only part of the makeup that is not interconnected to other parts is the lips.  Blush often runs into eyeshadow, eyeshadow runs into eyelashes and eyebrows.  To remove messed up eyebrows, I would likely have to remove a lot more.  So I start with eyebrows.  They are the hardest things to do because there are no reference points for their symmetry.  Therefore, I make some

I try to take as straight on a picture as possible, stick it in the computer, use eye tops of the eyes as a reference point to rotate the head until it’s level, and then use a straight line drawing function to make a grid of the face.  Symmetry=beauty.

As you can see, my first draft was not perfect.  Nor was my second, third, or fourth.  I went through around 5 stages of revisions and tweaking before I got the eyebrows right.

Step 5: The lips.  The lips are not always the hardest part.  Often, they’re the easiest.  In this particular custom, though, I had to match a transparent tint though, and that means I had to match both the color and the color concentration.  It took a bit, but unlike the eyebrows, it was more a matter of getting the color right and then experimenting with ratios of transparent base to paint.  I didn’t have to paint the full lips to test it, just put a dot on the bottom lip, compare to Paja, and then go back and tweak it more.

Step 6: Eyeshadow! What color eyeshadow does Paja have? Green, of course!

Wrong. It’s more of a golden-orange-yellow. And that took several mixes, applications, removals, and re-tries to get. Color can be a tricky thing. Ever had an argument with someone over what color something is? Sometimes I’ve done a part on a doll and had it be perfect and then had to erase it when I saw it in different lighting.

Even after I got the mix right, I had to redo it because on one try I concentrated the color too much and in another I ended up with a blotchy spot.

Step 7: Swear. Often (I sure do!) By this point, I’m roughly 2-3 hours in, and I’ve only done the eyebrows and lips. Now the dal customs are a lot more exacting than other dolls because I am making them to match their pullip counterparts, so I am at the extreme end of my obsessive-compulsive perfectionism. But it is rare that a faceup takes less than 5 hours, which works out to what… 1 hour per eyebrow, one hour per eye, and another hour for the lips/blush? It’s kinda insane, really. And that’s just a normal doll, no modding or airbrushing or anything.

Step 8: Try, try again:

What’s wrong? Most people would say ‘nothing’. The transparency of the eyelids is too concentrated! GAH! Remove all eyelid paint and eyeshadow. Return to go. Plz start over. Again.

Step 9: Do not lose your cool

Not much difference. It looks maybe a shade lighter? Same paint, I just added more transparent base to compensate for the thickness of the layer on the eyelids vs the thickness of the test spot.

Step 10: Remember thy law of symmetry

There’s this thing called ‘paint tupperware’. They’re like .2 oz tiny containers that you can put paint in after you’ve mixed it to keep it from drying out. I recommend them. Even if you’re not insane like me, it is handy to be able to do touch-ups without having to try and color match, or worry about how long you’re taking since paint that dries out and becomes gloopy leaves gloopy brushmarks on your dolls’ face.

Step 11: Eyelashes. Uuuuugh.

Eyelashes are deadly. You don’t have to worry about them as much on ‘natural’ bjd-type faces because hey, look in a mirror: are your eyelashes in the exact same place/lengh on both sides? Hell no! Stylized faces though? Symmetry. It all comes down to symmetry. I do them two at a time, frequently switching between a super-tiny paintbrush and a fresh razorblade to LIGHTLY scrape away any uneven spots until both eyelashes are perfect, then move on to the next pair. And the next pair. And the next pair.

Step 12: Faceup complete!

Now seal it, and hope nothing goes wrong with the sealant or you may have to sand it all off! No, I’m not being sarcastic. It’s happened to me before many times. Aerosol sealants especially can be tricky. You have to spray at just the right distance, not too much, not too little, and within the right temperature range. And it can still go wrong. Nothing to do but swear, walk away, eat some cookies, and start over. Or you could not seal it–but I wouldn’t recommend it, not unless you plan on sticking it in a glass case and never handling it or having to worry about cleaning off dust.

Step 13+ Assemble the bits!
Putting everything together doesn’t take very long. For a naked doll.

Clothes take longer. There aren’t many doll clothing patterns out there, and even for the ones that are, they take tailoring to fit a pullip/dal/taeyang/whatever. Often, if I’m creating an outfit that is not something along standard skirt/pants blouse, it will take longer to put together than the whole doll. The biggest problem is when you are dealing with dolls, 1/2cm can make the difference between ‘perfect’ and too big/small. 1/2 cm is less than most seam allowances! But that’s another story for another time

I hope if you have gotten this far, you now have a greater understanding for the amount of work that goes into a custom. It is not easy to do a good job, but getting a doll ‘just so’ is always worth the frustration of creation!

I mention this because I’m not especially talkative, especially online.  If I have something useful to add, I will.  If I don’t think I have anything to say that is either a) useful or b) interesting I tend to spare my fingers the typing and everyone else’s eyes the reading.  If I were a comedian, I would definitely be one of those “Don’t think I’m nearly as funny as I am” people.

I’m sure there are dozens of topics I could talk about that people would find interesting, just as there are dozens of topics I could talk abut that I don’t generally because I think most people would find it terribly boring.  Like my fascination with nail polish.  See?  I bet your eyes are already glazing over.

(suffer the sparkles!)

And yet there are blogs on nailpolish.  I’ve visited them.  To me, they are interesting because they are things I don’t already know.  However, this is not a website about nailpolish, it’s a website about customizing.  Therefore, to most people reading this, the nailpolish is not so interesting.

See the problem? I don’t blog for myself, because I already know everything I put in the articles and tutorials.  To me, most of the things I could write about are less interesting than reading an article on how to wet-marble nailpolish, because I don’t know how to do that and I already figured out how to do whatever it is I would be blogging about.

What’s the point of all this?  Feedback.  Specifically, if you all want to see more posts in the future, tell me what you want to see more of. Pictures of customs?  Random dissertations of the evolution of the pullip bust line?  The story of the time I accidentally shrunk a doll head?  Leave a comment here (or in whatever blogpost is most recent if that’s easier)or shoot me an email.

OH NO! Yes, I hear the protests. I understand. Mind you, I’m not planning huge changes, mostly here and there I look at a doll and go “since I figured out how to do ______, I could do that so much better now…”

The first doll on this list is one of my first customs, Saturn. She was made from an Arietta, and I kind of liked her lips so I kept them, but over time they started to annoy me. I also did her faceup before I found her perfect wig, and I always thought her eyebrows could be a little lighter and maybe a touch more purple to go with her wig. Small things, mostly.

“Oh no you don’t…”

Normally when I redo a doll, I just redo the doll. But because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to change on Saturn, I mostly redid her face on a second doll so that I could fiddle around and compare without risking damaging her. This is a picture of early-on in the process, before I decided on the new lips:

And here’s the finished product:

Not so different, really, except for the lips! Mostly she’s just been refined. The original Saturn had glittery purple eyelids, Saturn 2.0 also has glittery eyelids, but also a slender line of glitter on the inside eyelids to bring it all together and make her pop a little more. The chips are different, but the original Saturn had sanded down blythe chips which just aren’t as shiny as for-pullip chips. (I have a color match for the original chips coming in the mail)

Who else is on the list? Himemiya. Ravish. Who’s already had work done? Eric, Ash, Valentine.