I dreamt last night that an older family friend died.  A lot of Catholics are buried with rosaries, and the ones that they have the bodies holding are very cheap with plastic beads.  In my dream, another friend was making a nicer replacement for the one who had died…. and it was particularly sad because the two had been lovers, but they’d never told anyone… so the survivor had no one to really comfort him.  He was just really fixated on making the rosary the best possible.  I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t because I don’t officially “know” either.  (They are together in real life as well, with neither of their families knowing.)  I cried in my dream, which is unusual because I have never cried over a death in real life.

I woke up feeling like I was on the verge of tears, and the feeling didn’t really dissipate.  I’ve felt gloomy all day.

When I’m down, it makes me want to buy things.  -_-;  This is encouraged by the fact that we got a bonus at work for last quarter.  I was so good and I dumped it into my savings accounts.  Dining room furniture set savings!  New siding savings!  Not dolly savings.  I also transferred my Paypal balance to my bank account to try to remove me from temptation.

I can’t say I didn’t buy anything, though.  I bought two lovely super soft throw blanket from Sears today.  Fabulous sale price.  One if for huddling in my freezing office at work, and I am wrapped up in the other as I write.  I am a total blanket addict.  My housemate laughs me because sometimes I wrap a fuzzy blanket around me like a sarong when I’m shuffling around the house.

I think I’ll feel better tomorrow.

I am finding that shifting around heads is working wonders for me.

Vanilla is going to get the Lucas head… and I am surprised by how good the Lucas head looks on the SSDF body.  I’d thought it would be too small, but it really works.  It kinda just makes me go “Lucas, you have a fucking huge head.” O_O

Shai-lai, formly a Lucas, is going to be the Infinitidoll Chris.  Another case of “Wow, this really works.”  Both need repainting, which will take a few days as I have commissions to work on first.
Anyway, the Chrom in the last post is for sale.

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5892787

Why do I do this? *headdesk*

He’s pretty hot, isn’t he?

His faceup turned out really well… like one of the best faceups I’ve done.  The area around his eyes (eyes and brows) looks really good and I’m really pleased with it. (Closeup without a wig.)  I was able to blush the head to match the SSDF body pretty well.  (Chrom is pinker than most Soom NS).  I love the expression for Vanilla… it’s a good continuation from the Abadon, which got passed on to Knife…

But…

When I put him next to Proof, I see that I have reversed the El/Feeple Nanuri proportion problem that I had before… and Chrom’s head is much too slim and small to be paired with a Tsukasa.

I am so miffed. >_>  It’s my own fault, I should have tested the proportion before painting… but I was enthused about the head.  Argh.  And I’ve used up my “me time” for the week.  BLAAAAAAH.

I am considering Soom IO as the next attempt at Vanilla.   Is Io bigger?  Do you think I could find a trade for an Io head for the Chrom?

Bah.  I tried the test stringing and put a little too much tension on the leg… and broke off a bit of the thigh around the socket. -_-;  It has been superglued back in place, but it does tell me that I can’t do a test stringing until I have a resin cast.  Which meeeeeaaaaans that I need to do a junk cast, otherwise I won’t be able to really refine the joints and make her capable of adequate posing.

I really hate molding and casting. -_-;   But this will lead to a better final product, so I guess it’s for the best.

She’s so small.  I wonder how little silicone I can get away with?  I think I will use Smooth-Sil 940, which has a Shore A  Hardness of 40.   It’s finickier because it needs to be measured by weight (10:1), but it has virtually no shrinkage.  I have a gram scale already. I can’t do with shrinkage because she’s already freaking small.  However, the cheaper [but still expensive] tin cure MoldMax 10 doesn’t has a massive amount of shrinkage (.001 inch/inch).  Is that a tenth of a percent?  Another option is to use a polyurethane rubber… which doesn’t have much shrinkage, but requires a mold release agent and different kinds of sealing. However, much, much cheaper… and for a junk mold, that would be nice.  Any of my casting buddies want to give me a thought?

I think I’m also going to fill in the stringing channels on some pieces and cast them sold… then drill them out on the junk cast so that they will be centered and nice.

Blah.

I’m going to start sanding her tomorrow, I think, and getting the ball-joints shaped how they’re going to be prior to casting.

Today was a day of Epic Fail… to give you a frame of reference, it started with the dog puking, moved on to my computer getting an aggressive spyware infection, and culminated in driving a half hour out to the theatre to see Avatar to find it was sold out.  For an encore, we got lost on the way home and took the exceedingly scenic route.

Again, still not really sculpting.  Been painting, but not overly successfully.  I think it;s due to the cold, but my MSC keeps frosting. -_-; Opening a fresh can tomorrow.

Here is where Inkling’s pieces are:

All I’ve done is start padding out a few areas and working on making the joints fit better.  I am trying to shape her calves better…. also started making the sockets for her wrists.  No ankle sockets yet.

Tomorrow I’d like to pick up some elastic and try a test stringing just to see her proportions and joint fit….

In other news, she is too small for the Blythe dress I bought.  So I have an exceedingly well-made Blythe dress from Etsy that doesn’t fit anything else that I have. -_-;  However, it seems that she fits the Bratz Kidz clothes… the ones from before they changed to snap-on clothes.  She seems to be close in size to Volks Customize Figure Kit, just a bit smaller.  Mandy has her CFK in Licca, which is why I thought Blythe clothes would fit Inkling.  They still might, it could just be the cut of the dress that I ordered for Etsy.

The Volks 1/6th shoes fit, though, which means she can wear Blythe-sized shoes.  I’ll probably try out more clothes when I test string to see what fits.

Sometimes I print out pictures of Inkling and draw on them.  I mark how she needs to be slimmed or fattened or lengthened… sometimes I just write myself notes of what I want to do later.  I printed this out earlier in the week onmy lunch… and gave her hair and eyes.  I think she’s cute. ;)

This is The Antagonist, the main character from my NaNoWriMo piece from 2009.  These were more going for a mood than trying to show him off.  He’s been here since the beginning of December, but only just got to a point where he was complete enough to photograph.  He still needs a correct pair of eyes – these were not the color I thought they were.  Pink rather than red.  Blah.  This look is based on his appearance in the second (not yet written) half of the story.

He’s a very yellowed 43cm Classic Narin.  The yellow is not a bad thing in his case – I actually sought out an old, yellowed french resin doll because the character is described as having a complexion like yellowed paraffin that bruises easily.  I am very fond of him… and have only narrowly stopped myself from taking him to work with me when I’ve anticipated a rough day.

(Here’s one of these pics in color if you’re interested in how yellow he actually is.  The yellowing is even, though.)

Dear Inkling,

While I am happy that your arms are no longer tubes of uniform thickness, I am rather annoyed that your right elbow socket took a turn for the worst.

I’m sorry I haven’t worked on you much at all.  I am particularly sorry that I have done nothing to make your crotch stop gleaming like that in my progress photos.  I have no idea what about your pudenda is so friggin’ sparkletastic, but there it is, like a beacon.

My creative output of all kinds has been at a low this week… and I am convinced that I am on my fourth consecutive Tuesday.  I have mucked up two faceups and given up till the weekend.  Much fail.

I will do better tomorrow.

Yours,

Aimee

Lately I really want a Pullip or a DAL.  Mostly a DAL.  Sometimes even a Blythe.  I don’t think I actually want to own it, though, just customize it.  I really want to customize it.

How easy are they to resell if you’re not Blythe!Famous?

Also… I’m really excited that I have exceeded my goal and have 12 or 13 backers on my Kickstarter Project for Haiti relief fundraising!!!  At the same time, I’ve had something like 40 new people subscribe to me on YouTube.  It kinda bothers me that these people are hanging out to get the new video, but can’t be assed to donate a few bucks to charity. Oh well.  $525 is $525 and I am so excited by how freaking awesome people are to have pledged it!

Worked late again last night and felt overwhelmed by the day…  only sculpted for about 20 minutes.

Worked on making joints fit a bit… the side in the right of the pictures has had more work and is going prettyOK.

I had a guest for the weekend, so I didn’t work on tinydoll much… I evened a few things out, and her shoulders now fit into her shoulder sockets… her knee fits into her knee socket… but otherwise it’s been slow going.  (I’m glad I had a guest, if I’d focused the whole weekend on tinydoll I probably would have been homicidal!)

Her wig and eyes showed up today… and are too large. -_-;  I have two options.  Make her eye holes bigger…. or buy some smaller eyes.  I’m not sure which I’ll be doing.  I think smaller eyes, because I like her facial proportions.  4mm. Sigh.  I found a bunch of places to buy them, so that’s okay.  For the wig… well, I guess she’ll need to wear smaller wigs.

In good news, the shoes fit.  Yaaaaaay.

I’m not sure of her fate.  I’m definitely going to cast her, but I’m trying to nail down when and how.  I am debating as to whether or not I’ll do a junk cast, then clean that up before moving onto the final.  It depends, I guess.  It would depend on whether or not I’m going to sell casts.

If I AM going to sell casts, I think I will do a junk cast, clean that up and make the jointing and surfaces perfect, then send that off for professional casting.  A friend sent me some rates that are very reasonable and I know the company so I know the quality will be excellent.  Good resin color choices too.

I need to get a bit further along before I can decide.

I feel frustrated tonight, though, so I am more tempted to throw her in the garbage than to have her cast. -_-;;