Cool things coming

Sundae doesn’t know how she feels about her new nose yet… and I plan to do some troubleshooting on that tonight.

 Also putting together a doll dyeing tutorial soon that will just sorta compile all the weird tips and tricks I’ve heard over the years.

I’ll also be testing a new dyeing method I was told about, which involves these big mesh laundry bags, and seeing if it works!

I don’t know, it makes me sad that a lot of the tutorials I followed when I got in the hobby are either long gone or hosted on Den of Angels, which I know isn’t super accessible place for people. So even though my tutorials won’t have any new or revolutionary information in them, I hope they’re at least helpful to someone out there who can’t access DoA and doesn’t want to dig through YouTube or social media posts.

Studs for Lychee

 

Dunno how I feel about these studs on his ear yet!

I also got Arjava’s dye stripped off this evening! Let’s go! I got lots of really good tips and advice for my next dye attempt… hopefully it’ll go alright!

So there’s a few little stains here and there… maybe that won’t be such a bad thing. I know it’s unavoidable to some extent… Nothing tests my ocd tendencies quite like dyeing a doll, unfortunately.

We’ll see

Really scratched up but hopefully this dyes evenly

Frustrated, defeated

 So— yesterday I had the day off and worked on Arjava basically all day.

I wasn’t happy with the work I did on her.

Now, she’s pretty in these pictures but irl she was very streaky all over her legs and the faceup was just, well, lacking. And when I tried to use my last little bit of msc I somehow managed to cause a big patchy spot in the dye. So I said, we’ll, fuck it, let’s start over.

I reordered supplies (which caused me physical pain, let me tell you) and I’m thinking about what I want to do different this time:

1. No marathonning. We dye one day, blush in small batches on proceeding days. Faceup is not part of the equation frankly.

2. Get the dye BOILING and have it boiling for an hour. Yes. An hour. The dye was a lot smoother after an hour.

3. Sand Arjava’s chest piece better beforehand?? See, I feel like if the piece dyes even a little less splotchily I’ll be happy….

Things I did really well:

1. Arjava’s lips looked really nice.

2. Skin tone— The reddish tone of her skin is really unexpectedly nice, albeit unnatural looking, but… it feels different from ffxiv Arjava, who was more golden. I like also how dark she got. 

3. I made cute nipples and pubic hair! Blushing is a really fun medium. 

But honestly, I don’t think I want to dye another doll after Arjava. My heart just cannot take it lmao.

Eyeball workshopping

 Made some follow-me eyes today! I like them because I hate positioning eyes, and I can make a doll glance any direction I want this way.

Okuni got this heterochromia set and a wig change today. I was never happy with her faceup but I feel the vibe of it a bit more with this wig!

Here’s a little video of how they work. You can really make them any way you like by gluing a half dome cabochon to a drawing or print of a drawing. I’d like to experiment with maybe making eyes that have patterns or other weird stuff inside.

Finally, Yuzuka got a different outfit put on and I put in the eyes I made for her forever ago too.

Blech I close at work tonight and I don’t wanna go

That’s more like it

 

So I really got going this morning on Arjava and I think the bones of the mod are done. I still for sure need to smooth the chest down with a finer grit and buff out any weird little imperfections but overall I’m very happy and excited with how she’s coming along. 

Starting to imagine this character in her mid 20’s as well and that’s wonderful—because I had previously played the character in FFXIV as a 17 year old in a coming-of-age sort of story— and now she’s all grown up and is cool and confident and knows what she’s about.

I had a revulsion to playing the character in any sexual situations, for obvious reasons! And I struggled with the character being fetishized by other players against my consent, so I feel like I doubled down on the character being the most nonsexual entity ever as a kneejerk— but I think a 20-something-year old Arjava is sexually adventurous, self-assured, and proud of her body. 

So excited to get brainstorming about this character again, and how she feels outside of the setting she originally came from!! I’m excited to fill in her profile on the doll page now.

Scary…

 But, progress. This is not my first chest mod so I know this is the part where it’s scariest, but when you start to see the new breast shape coming together it’s all magic from there.

It also feels kinda therapeutic to sand the chest off dolls when I’ve had so much trouble getting the stars to align for my own top surgery, but maybe that’s a story for another time…

Alas, Arjava…

 I kept thinking at work— Is sanding Arjava’s chest down to flat the thing I need to do to make me happier with her? (The character is SUPER flat-chested so the DT body wasn’t exactly perfect) 

And if it is… Why not get sanding? Dye is easily redoable. And I didn’t like a lot of her dye job anyhow. So, like… I wanted to redo that anyhow.it’s probably gonna be a long time till she’s back together but maybe I’ll be in a better place with the rest of my collection by then too.

So this is a little bittersweet but… exciting too. Arjava will finally look like Arjava when I’m done with her. And that’s great! I think she’ll be amazing to have around when she looks like herself. I have so many ideas for her!!

Hyperfixation

 So, I’ve been in a state of hyperfixation as I’ve been working on the website. I mean that very literally. I’ve sort of forgotten I need to take my meds and just generally haven’t been taking good care of myself. I haven’t forgotten to eat, at least, thankfully! Testosterone had my back on that. ^_^

But yeah I’m super high and I think I broke out of that hyperfixated state finally! It feels nice, I got showered and ready for work way ahead of time and even refilled my pill calendar! I’m sitting at my desk here with Odette now and it feels good.

Like, I missed Odette so much. The office had kind of gotten taken over by… Well, my late cat Aubrey had an unidentified pancreatic problem and the office quickly became the “litter boxes and sad cat in pain” room. (Maybe it’s good I went into that hyperfixation state? To deal with that grief? Who knows)

I badly want to get back to work on faceups again. Odette has her default still and while there’s nothing wrong with her default face up, I just want to personalize her a bit after all this time. I don’t know if she’ll be first— I’m suffering with a shitty bout of decision paralysis there— but maybe I should just paint whoever feels good on the day I finally sit down and get to work. If I had the chance today and didn’t have to work today but Odette would be my choice today, if I could.

Maybeeee tomorrow before work if I get a nice early start and do dishes tonight?! Yeah like I could work on her anddddd someone else with the same colors in their face as her (that’s the hard part >_<). I like to paint two heads in one session because I can paint the other one while the first one dries, and then just alternate from there. 

Shigehide? ARJAVA, who has sat blank on my desk for literal YEARS at this point? Okay like let me her her this is hilarious she’s so neglected 

Arjava is a very old character at this point and I think I’m just going to let this character have a hypersexualized rokku gyaru phase ok. Don’t shame me. This is for Arjava, not me.