Powers of Creation

Jareth and Submit continue Valentine's adventures.

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I've had three avatars in my history online. The first was a picture of a contemplative cherub that I took in a Boston-area cemetery. The second was a screencap from Labyrinth, showing the Goblin King in "Oh shit!" mode during Within You. The third and current one comes from a photo session this morning with Jareth and my new 60mm macro lens.

I'm so pleased with the clarity and detail that my new lens picks up! In fact, I shot all of Me and My Muses E.2 with it. Given how many medium-length and close-up shots of small populations that I do, this could be my new default lens.

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My crotch stand for Jareth from Mint on Card arrived today, so here he is getting a wedgie and showing just how long his legs are. It's 17 inches or 43cm from crotch to ground when he's wearing those shoes. In other words, his legs are as long as a standard 1:4 scale BJD is high. 0_0

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This is how Jareth thinks:

If pink hair is good, fluorescent pink hair is better!

If two leather collars are good, two leather collars and a locking bolero/pauldron thing with chains and dangly accents is better!

If calf-high platform heels are good, knee-high platform stiletto heels are better!

If a black cape is good, a sparkly black cape is better!

[P.S. I'm not really sure what's up with the glasses, but he seems pretty attached to them. :p ]

Behold him below in more clothes created by the inimitable, fastidious and brilliant Brenda/Isabeau/Pansy Fashions:

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Jareth and his new wardrobe of gloriously silly clothes are en route from Brenda/Isabeau/Pansy Fashions and scheduled to land on Friday. Then I can put him back together and have him resume his usual post on the shelf next to my end of the sofa. Huzzah!

Comments forthwith.

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I decided to improve Jareth's faceup today. Since his body is out being fitted for fabulous clothes beyond imagination [!!!!!!!], Janvier Jett allowed him to borrow hers. First he borrowed her wig and glasses too. He has rocked her wig and a pair of the orange spectacles before, but him on her body with all her gear just strikes me as jarringly wrong. [I wonder what he'll look like on Yamarrah's Domuya Flexi body when it comes?]

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After experiencing violent allergies, Flower tells Epona why he's really hanging out in the fake forest. Jareth butts in.

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To tell you the truth, I have no idea where this story is going. I just started it because I thought Timonium looked serious, sly and threatening in contrast to the rest of my fairies.

I also have no idea how anyone could appear threatening to the inimitable Jareth. :p

Outfit 1

• laced blouse with leg-o'-mutton sleeves
• black vinyl corset
• wrap skirt
• cape with collar
• leggings 1 [black stretch]
• fishnets
• underwear

Blouse, corset and wrap skirt rely heavily on Souldoll's Ruvo-Z with some differences. Jareth's version of the blouse has bigger shoulder poufs and no dangly ruffle things, but is otherwise the same. Corset is the same. Wrap skirt takes the tulle and ruffles that are part of the Ruvo-Z shirt and makes them into a separate item of clothing. There are about 5 to 7 ruffles to make it fuller than Ruvo-Z's. Colors of blouse and wrap skirt uncertain.

Cape is a full circle of very lightweight black fabric with slight train. Dull gold metal hook clasp at throat. See picture of NECA Jareth action figure below for design of collar only.

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...was purchased for the sole purpose of illustrating the joke below. Coincidentally, it also happens to be perfectly 1:6 scale, so, now that its express purpose is finished, some musically inclined 1:6er may appropriate it.

 I also have the following ideas for items to commission from Isabeau:

• underwear
• stockings/fishnets
• fishnet shirt
• black leggings
• cape with collar
• something like Soom Faery Legend Kremer's skirt, but without the neck strap

He definitely needs underwear [so he can stop flashing me :p] and the black leggings, as Yamarrah is taking the pair that he has worn in the past.

Outfit 1

• laced blouse with leg-o'-mutton sleeves
• corset
• wrap skirt
• cape with collar
• underwear
• fishnets

Outfit 2

• ???

No, not making smart remarks. Being beautiful. :p

Look...boring pictures. ( Read more... )

I have really disliked Jareth's default hands. As much as I find the sculpts elegant, they have wrist balls separate from the actual hands, and the hands frequently popped out of joint from the wrists.

I therefore thought that some substitutes with integrated wrist balls were in order. I really wanted a set of exaggeratedly elongated, slender hands to go along with the stalklike shape of the Doll Chateau adult male body. The fantasy hands that Soom issues with some of its female Monthly Dolls appeal to me, as they often have extra-long fingers and nails, but they are hard to find, given their limited editions.

Anyway, I found a set of Soom Breccia's Foxie [=fantasy] hands on the DOA marketplace and snapped 'em up. At first I wasn't sure about the brownish pink blushing on the fingertips, but it goes with Mr. Demandypants' style.

As a bonus, they're posed in a perfect position to facilitate nefarious plotting!

I also remembered how to create my own speech bubbles and how to make them automatically white with a thick black outline and a drop shadow.

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The rest of the story, such as it is.

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He and Jujube are making good friends apparently!

Jareth got restrung with 3mm elastic this afternoon, which makes him much looser. The 4mm he came with had wayyyyy too much tension. It allowed him to stand, but it compromised the poseability in his arms. I'd rather have more poseable arms than legs. My dolls tend to slouch around in aesthetically pleasing ways anyway rather than stand.  ( Read more... )

Unfinished but still sexy!( Read more... )

1. I did not win the Soom Auber I put in for. Fine, all the more money for FAT DOLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. I'm trading Sarah [Souldoll Shiva-G who has been sitting on the DOA marketplace since mid-August] to Isabeau for two elaborate outfits for -- who else? -- Mr. Pointyhead McDemandypants, who is out of his mind with glee.

3. I just scored a second 5StarDoll tiny girl body for Isabel from the DOA marketplace. It wasn't as ridiculously cheap as the first one, which was like $80.00 shipped, I think. This one was ~$120.00 shipped, which would have been the price + s/h from Denver Doll, but without the indeterminate wait time. It's actually not just a body that I'm buying this time, but a whole doll, meaning that a head is included. I have no use for the head, so I'll sell it off, which will essentially reduce the second body to the price I paid for the first.

I have now acquired two 5StarDoll bodies for the price that I paid for the Fairyland LittleFee body. I sure wish that LittleFee body would sell, as I have half a mind to acquire MORE 5StarDoll bodies and make more than two fat dolls!

4. I decided that Isabel, like all my major characters, rocks my signature style, marked by her own preferences. She especially likes leggings and dresses/tops in this style. [In fact, the colors and patterns in that dress are perfect for Zombieville!] Leggings for 1:3 scale toddler dolls are incredibly cheap on Etsy, so I plan to buy a bunch with which I can easily create new combos. As for tops, I'd love to work with Motylalka [maker of the pink/lime dress], sending her Isabel's body [or at least measurements] so she could make a few wonderful pieces that would be guaranteed to fit Isabel.

It's like the Dreidel Song, only it's about handheld rotary tools:

Dremel, Dremel, Dremel
I got one today
And when it's charged and ready
With Dremel I shall play

Ordered the Dremel 8220-1/28 12V cordless yesterday afternoon and sprang for two-day shipping because I really want to get started on those wheelchairs. Stupendously enough, the Dremel came today! Here's Jareth showing it off.
( Jareth + his tool. )

They eat your bank account and spit it out.

In BJD news, Nathaniel is leaving, and Béatrice [that's bay-ah-TREECE, the French pronunciation], a Tinybear Bonbon, is arriving in partial trade. As I've mentioned before, while I do have 1:3 scale dolls, 1:6 scale is my first love. Swapping a 1:3er for a 1:6er benefits me, as well as the buyer darthmissy, who is extremely excited about having a Volks Emma.

I now have a nice chunk of change in my Paypal account, some of which will go toward bubble wrap and s/h for Nathaniel [who is going unstrung in a large flat-rate priority mail box to save on shipping], the rest of which will go toward...

Jareth: "...My wardrobe, obviously! You'll have enough to get me everything on my wish list and then some!"

FLE car: "STFU noob. $350.97 of that is mine."

Theophany: "Yeah, plus she still owes Andrea $106.50 toward me. Wait your turn, person who cost an ungodly amount of money to put together!"

Putative doll based on Elfdoll Doona Ryung: "Yeah, quit pissing and moaning! I don't even exist yet. I am definitely a higher priority than another pair of demandypants for you."

Me [thinking]: I should take a picture of Jareth looking at my checkbook with the caption "SOON..."

...like O_O. It's the first time she's seen one of my BJDs. She was probably wondering why it looked like a person, but wasn't moving, giving her petpets or feeding her tuna.

I have over $600.00 worth of stuff on my wish list at Doll Crack Peddlar, my latest discovery in US purveyors of doll stuff. 65.4% of that is another BJD and a wig for her, while 33.4% of it is clothes and wigs for Mr. Pointyhead McDemandypants. The remaining 1.2% is Rement because, even though I only use a small fraction of my hoard, I apparently neeeeeeeed this particular set.

It would be really nice if some of my marketplace listings would sell and allow me to get rid of my auto loan more expeditiously.

Whoops.

Mr. Demandy McDemandypants wants the following, in no particular order:

some underwear [contemplating something like Dorsetclothing's retro black ruffled underpants on Etsy because they are FUCKING HILARIOUS]

the previously mentioned hot pink and black vinyl underbust corset and matching miniskirt

that Souldoll Ruvo-Z outfit for Zenith dudes

some weird black leather cropped vest with steel epaulets featuring studs and spikes

a froofy skirt with various black and pink layers [eyeballing one on the DOA marketplace]

Tata's Paradise Evildoer Punk black leather bolero jacket, also with spiked studs [yes, I know it's sold out]

Tata's Paradise motorcycle gloves ["theirs not to reason why..."]

a short red fur wig

a long hot pink wig

black leather collar with steel spikes

black leather wrist cuffs with steel spikes

I would get him a ball gag too if I thought that would stop him making demands, but he's here inside my mind, kind of like the Phantom of the Opera, only not abusive and with a much better sense of humor, so a ball gag wouldn't do anything.

FLE car: "Neener neener, I'm getting all of Elizabeth's extra money for the next two weeks!"

Jareth: "Curses!"

Me: "You do realize that you're demanding a wardrobe that costs hundreds of dollars that I could be spending on other dolls, right?"

Jareth: "It's all part of my cunning plan to have you forsake them all and have no other gods dolls before me."

Me: "You have no power over me."

Jareth: "La la la I can't hear you..."

I finally threw on Jareth's Cheerydoll trench coat, even though he insisted it was not froofy enough for him. Nevertheless, he rocked it, as well as an extra pair of specs that I bought when purchasing Janvier Jett's.
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Wear the clothes you have, ingrate!

Check out this stunning outfit from Souldoll: Layers of floofy shit! Tulle! Laceups! Corsetry!

I saw; I bought; I came.

Wait...that's not how it's supposed to go.

As an extension of my interest in dolls, I've long had an interest in mannequins. For example, about 11 or 12 years ago, when I lived in small quarters in Somerville, MA, I purchased a 1950s mannequin off Ebay.

I named her Mick. She was made of wood pulp composite and had a nice old musty smell. She had a lovely, small, foreshortened head with uptilted features and knowing, side-glancing eyes.

I customized her by giving her a mohawk of blue and purple and gluing stars over the areas where her skin paint had chipped. I also gave her rhinestone studs around the border of her pinnae. Then I dressed her in all the awesome clothes that I could never wear myself. Naturally, she also dressed as Jareth, with a white blouse, my black velvet cape, the pants seen below [har!], an artificial bulge and an appropriate wig.

She was classy, demanding and vulgar at the same time, rather like Frank from Rocky Horror, as you can tell from the photos below. Incidentally, the button on her pants says "I heard it was come as you are, so I came in my pants."

( Mick and her naughty, naughty pants. )


I no longer have Mick, as I got rid of her when we were moving apartments from Somerville to Cambridge in 2005. I was in one of my phases where I thought that having dolls was rather silly and impractical, especially life-size ones. She went out on the curb on trash day, but not before crabbily socking me in the mouth with her arm when I was disassembling her. I am confident that she went on to provide enjoyment for someone else, though. Like many desireable items left out on trash pickup days in our college-student-heavy neighborhood, she quickly disappeared before the garbage trucks came. No doubt she ran off with someone to become yet another moody and glamorous art project.

There were other life-size dolls too, such as the Styrofoam drag queen head who sported glittery rainbow eyelashes and helpfully stored my hot pink bob wig. There was also the African-American model that we discovered somewhere, decapitated, and reassembled by carefully balancing her loose head on her neck. I never named them, loved them or missed them the way I did with Mick, however.

I may no longer have Mick, but I still have my memories of her, which involve either feeling either a) deviously daring as I dressed her in flamboyantly explicit outfits or b) extremely frustrated by her limited articulation. She could swivel her arms and wrists, but that was it. She detached into just six pieces: her head + torso, two arms, two hands and then her waist + legs.

Despite Mick's limitations, I really had fun with her. Clearly, I haven't stopped thinking about her after all these years. Indeed, though I no longer have her, I have still kept the quintessential items of her wardrobe -- the FUCK pants, the "came in my pants" button and the pride button -- just waiting for the time when they will be used again.

Let's face it -- I want another mannequin. I mean, really...did you honestly think I would be able to resist the prospect of a life-size doll that's positively cheap compared to the wads I regularly blow on BJDs? You can get a simply posed, full-body mannequin with a realistic head for between $90.00 and $250.00, excluding shipping. Compare that to how much I'm investing in my Jareth, one of my dream BJDs, and you'll see why I consider mannequins cheap.

Anyway, now that I shop around for mannequins, there are so many more choices than there were when I bought Mick. A decade ago, I sought in vain for affordable mannequins with "plus-size" figures and/or basic limb articulation and/or head sculpts that had features besides vacant eyes, overstuffed lips and square jaws. Look at some of the options that the Mannequin Store [which apparently hasn't changed its site layout since I first came across it over 10 years ago] now offers.... I could settle for the adjustable sitting mannequin in standard mannequin body type [albeit with relatively larger breasts] and then make her fatter with strategically placed polyfill.

Their category of flexible mannequins contains two types of articulated mannequins. First, they have soft-bodied mannequins with wire armatures. The key words here are "flexible," "bendable," "soft" and "wire armature," just as a note to myself, for future search term use. These come with blank heads or solid, realistic heads, which look rather small and incongruous. Anyway, they're poseable down to their fingers! Just $250.00 for a female soft body with a hard head! I wonder if you can swap the heads out...

Second, they have hard plastic mannequins with a combination of ball and hinge joints. The key words here are "flexible," "jointed" and "pose mannequin." The "pose woman," as she is called, has ball-jointed shoulders, swivel head and waist, as well as hinged elbows, thighs and knees. For some reason, her wrists do not move. The articulation reminds me of the non-Fashionista articulated Barbies. Anyway, she's just $400.00.

They also have another type of articulated mannequin filed under their sitting female mannequins. She is billed as an "adjustable sitting mannequin." She appears to have swivel head, neck and wrists, as well as hinges at the elbows. Unlike the hard plastic ball/hinged mannequins, she has definite body segments and exposed metal joints. She also has a larger rack than your average female mannequin. For some reason, she's priced at $250.00, much less than the jointed mannequins mentioned above, maybe because she doesn't have knee joints. Her combination of realism and naked, mechanical articulation really appeals to me. I even like her head sculpt. I would totally get her over the aforementioned jointed mannequins, even if she didn't come with knee joints. [If she did, I would definitely choose her over the earlier jointed mannequins.] Of course, she's sold out on the site. :( Damn damn damn.

There are also a few more body shapes available for mannequins. Here's a "plus-size" mannequin with more fat on her than the standard mannequin. Tragically, she does not have a head. I can't stand mannequins without heads. They creep me out.

And here's a mannequin who's "eight months pregnant," apparently with a baby mannequin? I'm not sure how they reproduce, given their lack of genitalia.

My dream mannequin would be a "plus-size" female with  the articulation and head sculpt of the adjustable sitting mannequin, plus knee joints, and the ability to stand up or at least remain propped upright against a wall. I'm thinking that the adjustable sitting mannequin with knee joints must exist, as she's shown in the photo with knee articulation. I'll have to ask the Mannequin Store who makes her. Maybe some other place has her in stock. I will find her!

Darn dolls. I know how they reproduce now...by planting seeds of ideas in people's heads that then grow to fruition and cause greater and greater purchases.

EDIT: OH MY GOD! Ball-jointed mannequins with articulated ankles [which is probably overkill] and load-bearing, locking joints! Also tension-jointed mannequins, which look cheaper.

And a standing mannequin with raw elbow joints.