Very special doll arrival!

Today I'm going to share a box opening of a very special doll~ ♥ Some time ago I bought a doll from the DoA marketplace without telling about it to Sarg or anyone else >:3 I wanted to keep it as a complete secret to surprise Sarg, since this was her holy grail doll and I actually bought it for her... I know her so well that I was sure without asking that she would pay me back eventually. Sarg hadn't even noticed this doll on sale at DoA - which was great since that way this was even more of a surprise to her and she had no idea at all about my master plan.

The package arrived already last week on November 18th, but we didn't want to share the news before the faceups are ready :)

The box! (On the left you can see a glimpse of the cabinet where we keep our smaller dolls :3)

When the doorbell rang in the morning, I even made Sarg to open the door and she was so confused when she dragged the huge box inside saying "Have we ordered something?" At first she thought that some company had sent a doll to a wrong address, but when she noticed that the package came from United States, she got even more confused XD I tried to act like I don't know anything about it...

You should've seen Sarg's face when she opened the box and realized what there was XD

Here she is in all her glory, grey Soom Onyx! ♥

This was like the deal of a lifetime, since I never would've thought that I'd see grey Onyx for sale for less than $1000, especially with both heads and in such perfect condition. We even got the default wig and a Cuprit outfit + crown as a gift, plus the seller offered to pay for the shipping since I had been the only one who contacted her about the doll.

Since this Onyx came with both heads and I knew that Sarg was mainly after the romantic head, I thought it'd be fun to create twin sisters! So when I decided to buy the doll I hoped that Sarg would not strangle me once she finds out that I'd like to keep the OE head X''D Luckily she was okay with it and actually quite excited about the twin idea, so I'm still alive, yay~

One of the twins is evil and the other is more innocent and good-willing, a bit like the original concept of Soom's Onyx - light and dark. We thought that it would be nice if the evil one disguises herself in light colors, while our "good" girl is the one wearing dark clothes XD So there's a bit of a twist, but I think it's fun to play around with things and not always go with the most obvious choices.

Sarg's character, snake demon Hydra, was actually created back in 2009, before she got into the BJD hobby. She knew that eventually Hydra would join the crew, so she hunted down the Angelheim medusa snakes and just kept them in storage waiting for Hydra. Sarg's first plan was Souldoll Shiva, but it had felt a bit like a replacement / consolation since grey Romantic Onyx is so rare. She had also thought about some girl from Iplehouse after they started offering grey skin in their Doll Choice system, but there was no other doll that could have such perfect cunning and seductive face than R.Onyx. But now after all these years, Sarg finally has Hydra in the shell that she has always dreamed of! ♥

Unpainted snakes x)

Here is Hydra with her finished faceup! It's quite bare and doesn't have a lot of color, but there are some silvery scale-like details to create some snake feeling x) Her expression is supposed to be arrogant, evil and also a little bit tired since she's thousands of years old...

The plan was that Sarg would get the original body and I'd search for another body for the OE head, but as we discussed different options she got excited about the possibility to get a 70cm Impldoll body for Hydra - which didn't surprise me as she loves very tall dolls XD We had some grey parts from the company already and noticed that they matched Soom's old grey resin almost perfectly, but since Impldoll offers custom resin color service we decided to send them an ankle ball from Onyx to ensure a 100% resin match. We have admired the Impldoll Idol female body ever since it was released, but none of the face sculpts really appealed to us so this was a great turn of events ^^

Once the body arrives, we'll post some comparison photos and tell more about the experience!

Then what about my girl? I got the inspiration for Spectra from a League of Legends character Diana (Lunar Goddess skin) :D She might not look so much like her, but that's what got me started on creating her character... Even though I've played the game, I've never tried playing as Diana, but I've always loved her character design very much. I had thought that Spectra would be a grey Cuprit if Soom ever decides to release her in such color, but after I saw the sales thread for Onyx it actually hit me that the open-eyed head could work for Spectra a lot better...

Compared to her sister Hydra, Spectra is a lot younger and her expression should look a bit insecure, even though she wears dark makeup. Spectra is actually a good friend of Sarg's Torukia, they have a lot in common XD

We wanted the girls to have self-made fantasy parts as well, so Sarg mixed some polymer clay colors together and made a few horns that attach to the heads with magnets, just like parts made by companies would :)

Here's a picture of Sarg's Hydra wearing her horns, they're huuge!

Spectra's horns look like babies compared to Hydra's XD

One last thing to mention: we're pairing Spectra with Sarg's Diaval (grey Hyperon), which is like the best doll couple ever, at least in our eyes! XD Both of these sculpts have such gorgeous side profiles~ ♥ This was just a quick picture that we took before I wiped Spectra's default faceup...

When Spectra and Hydra get some clothes (and Hydra gets her own body...), we will share more pictures of them and also tell more about their personalities and story ! I can't wait to take more photos with Diaval too ♥

Sweet country girl

Some time ago I finished a new dress for Susumi and decided to take some photos of her on Saturday :) These are also the first proper photos of Susu with her new eyes from White Dolly Story! The wig is from Leekeworld, got it from a group order that I hosted. This is probably Susu's new favorite, it's easier to manage than the earlier multicolor wig she has and actually might look cuter overall!

Getting back to the dress... I've had this fabric for years! Last year I made a dress from it for my Withdoll Angela that wears mori girl style too, but there was still a lot of the fabric left so naturally I wanted to use it for Susu's mori dress as well. I've hoarded quite many fabrics with flower patterns, but this is still one of my top favorites ^^

I'm quite happy with these photos, even though the background setup is quite simple and there's nothing that special posing wise either... I just really love this doll and enjoy taking photos of her ♥♥ Even though she's been home for only a few months, she has already been quite spoiled ^^;;

In her little basket Susu has some bottles filled with different candies that Sarg has made from polymer clay :3 There is also a bunch of nuts wrapped nicely in plastic! The basket itself was decorated to match Susu's outfit~

I just love these eyes, they're so pretty! ♥ In photos the color looks more blue-ish than purple, but I got another pair of eyes as a gift that has a brighter purple shade. I might swap to those at some point, for now I'm really liking this pair though, even if it's not the color I had originally in mind :)

Susu is happy about the straw hat that she finally got from Taobao after waiting for a few months (due to some pre-order items in the order). The decorations weren't so nice though, but luckily we had some cute flowers, lace and ribbon to replace them and now the hat matches perfectly with this mori/country girl look :)

A close up of Susu's cute shoes~ ♥ These arrived in the mail last week, they match the brown flowers in the dress perfectly ;3;

For next, Susumi probably needs a warmer outfit... It's winter here already and some parts of Finland are covered in snow, yet here I am sewing summer dresses X'D I do have a few long sleeve shirts and sweaters in the making though. Sarg also wants to make a cute felted bag as a Christmas present for Susu~

I thought that Susu would be my only Dollfie Dream, but of course she has started to demand at least one friend >__< I actually really like Shijou Takane that was recently announced and I'm going to enter the lottery for her. I won't be too sad if I don't win though, since there's always the second-hand market possibility and Volks is releasing new cuties all the time. Susu will get her friend eventually :)

#ProBJDArtists 2015

Last year Sunday, November 16th was the first ever "I support BJD Artist" day and this event is hold this year too, today on November 22nd!! The idea is to take a picture of your doll with a little message of support to show appreciation for the original BJD artists! You could post this photo anywhere on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, DeviantArt, Flickr) with the tag #proBjdArtists :) I took a picture for last year's event too, my blog post about it can be found here !

I thought for a while which doll I'd take the picture of and the decision was quite easy in the end - I chose my dream girl Gwynithia, Soom Cuprit in bronze skin, who I managed to get thanks to Soom releasing her in this beautiful skin color ♥ Getting her had been my dream for quite a while and I was absolutely thrilled when Soom responded to the demands and made her~ The idea of just buying a recast never even crossed my mind, I would never be able to enjoy my doll, if it was a recast >.< It wouldn't be the doll that I dreamed of. Even if Soom had never made her in tan skin, I would've rather been without the doll than bought it as a recast. No matter how much a person wants to own something, it doesn't justify turning to illegal copies as a solution. There are only excuses to buy recasts, not any good reasons.

With Sarg's permission, I'm also sharing the picture that she took. The doll in the photo is her grey Soom Hyperon, named Diaval, who is a similar doll to Sarg as Gwyn is to me - a holy grail doll ♥

Me and Sarg have often send thank you messages to the companies with photos of the dolls that we got from them. We always feel so grateful to them, since without their hard work none of these beautiful sculpts would exist. This recently got us wondering - what about recast owners? Would they have the heart to send a photo of their recast to the original sculptor and tell them why they felt like they have the right to buy an illegal recast and be happy about something that has been stolen? o_o

More photos submitted to this project can be found from ProBJDArtists Tumblr and of course under the #proBjdArtist tag on different websites and social media~

Lady and the Tramp

An update on Katherine and Renate~

After receiving our new girls, we wanted to get started on their faceups as soon as possible! We were curious and excited to see if these two sculpts really are suitable for our characters, especially my Grace, since she was a bit of an impulse buy and not what I had originally planned. We were supposed to go to the doll & teddy bear fair on Sunday, but ended up feeling a bit lazy and just stayed at home to faceup these two X''D 

I had some issues with my first try at Katherine's faceup, but Sarg helped me by giving some tips and also borrowed better brushes :) I've usually used watercolor pencils for the eyelashes, but with Sarg's help I managed to get them done with acrylic paint this time! The technique was quite challenging, but maybe with more practice I get better at it. It would be nice to re-paint some of my older dolls at some point and give them painted eyelashes too~

Sarg took a WIP photo of me working on Kat's faceup~ I wanted her to have quite dark lips and eye makeup, so it took many layers and a lot patience to get the colors dark enough, without the colors smudging all over her face ^^; (Also, Pusheen pants <3)

Then here are some pictures of her with the finished faceup:

Despite the trouble and worries that I had, the faceup succeeded in the end and I'm really happy with the result ^3^ Now I can finally see for sure that Grace is the perfect sculpt for my character! ♥ I don't know if it's just me, but I think that somehow she no longer looks that much like Grace D: Or at least she seems so different compared to other photos that I've seen of this sculpt before... I kind of get a "baby Carina" feeling from the way Kat looks XD

Since Kat has no own clothes (nor eyes) yet, we made her a jewellery set so that she has at least something of her own XD I have some ideas for her clothes too, but we'll see when I have the time and inspiration for getting started on sewing them...

We also took one picture of our lovely couple~

Kat and Ren look so different, they actually remind us of Disney's Lady and the Tramp XD But difference like this makes the couple interesting, both in their appearances and the story~ Their personalities are different as well - Kat is more elegant and a bit reserved, while Ren is quite relaxed and outgoing.

Sarg took some pictures of Renate, so let's take a better look at Renren~ (Renren is the nickname that K often uses for Renate)

Since Rena's Bibiane form had freckles, Sarg realized that they made her look a bit younger than she should be, so this time Sarg left them out and gave her some scars instead. The face doesn't look too pale or blank even though the blushing is lighter and there's not so much texture. Sarg also likes thick eyebrows because they give even very beautiful sculpts some attitude and masculinity. Raffine would make a great male doll as well, so the androgynous look is quite successful!

Actually the scars suit the character well, because Ren is working at military service and it's the kind of job were you might get some bruises. Sarg gave her some slight scars/bruises on the hands as well and blushed them to match the Iple NS better. These jointed hands are actually quite yellow-ish shade, but with the blushing the color difference is less obvious.

Ren has a piercing on her lower lip and Sarg has plans to make her some tattoos later, as well as a blushed six pack :DD

Overall, we both are extremely satisfied and happy with our girls~ They inspire us a lot and hopefully we come up with some nice photoshoot ideas for them :3 We're also going to send a thank you picture to Iplehouse, since without their work we wouldn't get to enjoy seeing our characters as dolls like this ♥ I think it's great to show the companies how much their work is appreciated and how the dolls they make have the power to bring so much happiness to their owners ^^

Double box opening - Iplehouse Grace & Raffine

My and Sarg's Iplehouse girls arrived this morning ♥ It was quite a surprise to receive the shipping notice just one day after we had finished our layaway... And we placed our order on October 9th, so it only took one month for them to make our girls ^^ Iplehouse is such a fast company, yet their dolls are great quality!

So, the dolls we got are SID Grace in real skin (mine) and EID Raffine in normal skin (Sarg's). I rambled more about the sculpts and characters last month in this post, so now I'll just share the box opening pictures we have :) We had actually planned to do a video box opening, but ended up being too lazy and just took a few pictures... Maybe someday 8'D

Without further ado, let's get started with the box opening!

Warning for slight nudity in some photos!!

Huuuge box... Susu (~55cm) is here as a comparison to show how big the box actually is ^^;

This is all that there was inside - one SID box, one EID box, a beautiful "Iplehouse Artwork" box with one of Raffine's default outfits, a wig and a pair of sunglasses :)

Iplehouse has re-designed their SID box! This new one looks absolutely stunning *o* I haven't had time to browse through box openings lately, so I have no idea when this change happened? I got my previous SID girl only 4 months ago (her box opening can be found here) and she still had the old box design D: The EID box is still the same, but I wonder if Iple has plans to re-do the boxes for the other doll lines as well?

Here's a quick picture of the Raffine dress, which is stunning. This is actually not for us though, Sarg splitted it to our dear friend Rootedinvanity :3 Hopefully she'll like it! ♥

Opening the doll boxes...

Certificates~

Two pretty dolls + two foam humans XD

This is Renate, Sarg's Raffine ;3; I think the sculpt looks much nicer in person than I was expecting based on the photos! (Elsa Nendoroid photobombing on the background, ahem...)

The re-designed EID woman hands! ♥

And here is Katherine, my Grace x3 Now I know for sure that she was the perfect sculpt choice for my character, I absolutely love her! ♥ (Elsa again...)

She has the beautiful re-designed hands as well~ I need to do a comparison of the new vs. old hands (and feet) at some point. We were surprised to notice that the new feet actually fit in some shoes that were too small for the older feet!

Trying on her wig and some eyes~ I'm still waiting on her own ones from Makoeyes, but she can use these for now. The wig needs some customizing as well - I ordered some white clip-on hair extension pieces that I'll sew on for a more K style look :)

I love the way this sculpt smiles~ Most of my other Iple ladies have a more serious expression, so I love having this girl bring in some smile as well!

Here is Renate with her eyes, wig and jointed hands ♥ Me and Sarg both immediately agreed that this sculpt works for Renate's character much better than the previous sculpt (Bibiane), which looked more like her teenage version.

Attitude? Check. (Those sunglasses are from Iplehouse as well~)

Poor Katherine doesn't have any own clothes yet, but she stole borrowed this dress from Sarg's Nieve :D

Our love couple! ♥ They're just perfect together, I do love how expressive Iplehouse's sculpts are even blank.

We'll be quite busy this weekend, since we're going to see the new James Bond movie on Saturday and on Sunday we'll visit a local fair for dolls and teddybears :) Hopefully we'll still have some time to at least get started on the faceups for Renate and Katherine, can't wait to be able to take some proper photos of these two! ♥