Now Loading...

Despite having *most* of what I need to make these custom dolls, there's always something small I've run into near beginning a new step where I'm rushing to place a snail order and it puts yet another project on hold.

While waiting on bias tape, satin fabric, a hand sewing machine, curved needles, etc., it's looking like the first thing to come will be a body suit pattern that I'll be downsizing to fit a doll. Technically not a hard adjustment. It's a 1/3 doll (so 1/3 a standard human height) so the first steps will be to scan the pieces and rescale to 1/3. Dolls tend to be a lot more slender and elongated than standard people though so I'll need to stretch for allowance, making sure I have at least too much that I can trim down later than undercorrect and have to recut fabric and enlarge the pattern. The fabric itself is a 4 way stretch so I don't need a rigid fit, just somewhere around snug once pulled into the doll. I can dust the doll with talcum to make it easier if needed, but I don't want to lose the color and opacity by having it too stretched and bunching anywhere.

I may mess with some air dry clay, but I'm thinking a papier-mâché base may be the best way to start. Clay itself tend to droop while drying or baking so papier-mâché for air dry, armature wire and foil for baking is often the way to go.

We'll see, I guess. Part of what makes crafting so alluring is the challenge leading to those results, good or bad. I always but in excess of what is needed in case the first attempts are less than ideal. And these are the challenges that inspire all other creative endeavors. It's not books on writing or drawing or craft or character development or conversation, it's the doing, the unique perspective I can give through trial and error.

So I continue.

Full Size to Doll Size

The pattern for the catsuit came today, so it seems like a great time to go into details again...

First, I had to scan the pieces on my office printer which is the equivalent of trying to scan tablecloths made of tissue paper. About 25 pieces. Twice. There were two. The catsuit makes sizes 16-24 in women's sizes so a bit on the larger side of things as well. So once that's done comes the piecing together. I saved them as jobs and the next step is simpler than it could be. Because I've set up my Actions for this in a prior project.

From Actions, I made a set that turns sketches into transparencies, leaving only the lines. From there, I'll command-T the pieces to drag and turn them into the completed pattern. Then will come the basic resizing and printing to cut the pieces.

I'm going to see them as is then take them in on the doll. Loose baste with a temporary thread, flip through, sew, liberate the temporary threads, cut excess fabric and it should be good to go.

Hours and hours of work but I'm eager to see how I do with the plan. I have plenty of fabric to make mistakes with so no worries. Just frustration and eventually triumph. 

One can hope.

Wig Quest

Didn't think I was done going on the quest for making the perfect wig, did ya?

Okay, not really 'perfect'. Perfection is an idea I rightfully murdered long ago. The best for my ideals is plenty, but I digress.

Came up with this:

Well, these. The first came out taller than I wanted and a little shabby at the part. I've since hot glued the part a bit more flush, but she's going end up with some sort of crown to cover the mess. As for the redhead, it did turn out beautifully, but I originally intended it to just be bangs and a ponytail. The seams were too visible so I ended up laying braids over the spot I didn't like. Turned out very well, even if it wasn't what I set out for.

What's next? Well, I said 'quest', so that's not all I had in mind.

I bought some pre sewn wig caps to sew wefts. I've seen some interesting tutorials on blanket stitching wefts and using a hand sewing machine, so naturally, I ordered what I need for both to try at a later date. AliExpress can be slow but it's worth it to buy crafts there. Amazon overcharges and I'm just not a brick and mortar shopper.

Resting for the remainder of the day since I work the next couple of days but more projects to come!

Wig Sadomasochism

So I finished one wild woman's wig...

Though it's longer than the source pic, the color and style are absolutely perfect, so I'm thrilled it turned out so well.

But it didn't end there...

Oh no.

Because I wasn't done punishing synthetic hair wefts while being beaten by glue. So I started another. This time, I have sewn the first row underneath and around. Many finger stabs. Then I coated the top with silicone and spun the hair wefts onto the silicone like a pottery wheel.

I have no actual clue how it will turn out. Once it dries, I'm poking a hole in the leftover space, jamming hair through to iron down and cover the remaining wefts, and beseeching the universe to reward my insanity. Will it work?

Pics or it didn't happen! Stay tuned!

Not a Bad Day

So today was more about working than crafting, but we made good money at the restaurant and managed to make a busy short-handed day a productive one.

As for crafting, I was able to finish the wig cap for my 1/4 girl, but the 1/3 girl's wig is still drying as of now. I'll likely go ahead and finish it up after work tomorrow. I work every day this week but I'd still like to sneak in some crafting.

I haven't mentioned this before but I also do some conservative investing on a site/app called Acorns. It takes whatever money you want to put up, daily, weekly, or monthly and invests it in stocks, bonds,  etc. based on your selected risk. You can also do Round-Ups, a feature that lets you take transactions and round them up to the nearest dollar and they'll let you invest that money from your checking/savings account once you reach $5 increments. Since I do a lot of micro transactions, I have it turned off, but you can set it to round and take the money out automatically. It's a great way to either save for retirement or just put aside money for holidays.

So I've got my little balance going of classic hard work, mixed in with the just as hard but fulfilling work of crafting. Writing and drawing are still elusive, my muse on vacation there, but I know she'll come back with plenty of it for those aspects. I can't exactly put a harness on my creative outlets but they flow like a thundering waterfall when the time comes.

I look forward to seeing what the week has to offer and am anxious to put forth the effort for those bigger goals. More doll tutorials to come, but I'm trying to wait until I have some substantial finds rather than breaking them all up. As a little side note, while I haven't found the perfect glue, im getting better at utilizing them. Whatever didn't cooperate tacky glue wise, I plan on patching with hot glue. I may go ahead and finish the large wig with some hot glue, since those affix to the underside and I'll be flattening that out with a patch anyway. Good stuff all around, I think.

Glue, Yarn, and Madness

Crafting!

Fucking crafting...

I love it, all trials be damned, because successes are as big as the obstacles. Today, I did exactly what I hoped to do.

Sort of.

I started by making a wig cap for the new 1/4 girl I don't really have plans for yet. No sweat, just the usual glue and power mesh.

Then came Rienna's wig.

I love/hate it. Insofar, I've yet to find a glue that doesn't piss me off for wefting but sewing wouldn't exactly be easy either. With the tacky glue, ugh, it just never wants to hold right away so I've taken to just squirting a bunch of glue down, waiting about a half hour for it to firm a bit then sticking the hair on, just so I'm not playing weft chicken as they try to slither away from the wet glue. E6000 was not better. I've yet to figure out how to keep that bitch from oozing away when not in use. I managed, over the course of the day, to get the wefts on until the hair's off-center part so I'm leaving it to dry and I'll tackle it again tomorrow after work.

Crochet... What. The hell. Did I do. With the rest of the polyfill? I'll have to buy some more anyway, but I once again hid it from myself so I've yet to finish the cupcake. So on to the Ezio plushie. Wonderful world of flying by the seat of my pants. Masochist... I crocheted eyelash yarn into a crocheted head to make facial hair. Looks fantastic, total pain in the ass. Then I started sculpting the neck, body and an arm. Again, looking great, but yarn sculpting is one of those things where you kind of hold your breath and hope you don't fuck up. I haven't, so far, and I can undo mistakes, but that doesn't make it less precarious.

So yes, productive day, and hoping for more of those this week. Writing? Drawing? Who knows? I rather like this thing I do where I'm just working on what I'm in the mood for. And there's always something. ADHD is a mental playground. Mixed with talent, it's a whole carnival. Or circus. Either way, it's a wild ride full of imagination, anxiety and victory. I'll run with it.

Craft Mojo

It would be amazing if craft mojo was something I could summon on command. Artists, writers, creatives in general, all face a sort of on-demand attitude from people who... Well, aren't creatives. Okay, we're ALL kind of creatives but there are certain types of creativity that are inevitably wishy-washy. Writing nonfiction is about gathering facts while writing fiction requires tapping into a fickle world that sometimes isn't bridging the gap into something translatable. Web design is using a visual space while sculpting is about manipulating a physical space, and depending on whether you're using a source or pre made assets, there lies the difference between organizing or creating original content from imagination. Imagination isn't really a wholly logical space that can be harnessed. Nor should it. Part of the thrill is the slippery, wild chase to catch it.

Inevitably, what is drawn from imagination sometimes get jumbled for me. It doesn't dry up or burn out, it just comes gushing like a waterfall and I'm standing at the bottom with a goldfish net. Often, I play with a lot of snippets before I expand all at once, able to start producing with insane efficiency.

Which is why giving advice has always felt tenuous, or like I was giving recipes with no way to list the ingredients. I've got my craft mojo, so I feel like I want to describe it but I can't. It just means over the past week, my goldfish net traded up. I'm probably catching mid-sized sharks but that's a good sign. The burgeoning ambition was simply a sign I'd been in the throes of mania. It really wasn't that good for me in the long term.

In any case, I started crocheting a cupcake for my friend's daughter's birthday and an Ezio plushie for my nephew. Yesterday it was a small yellow flower shaped dress for a small doll. Tomorrow...

Well, I can tell you what I'd like it to be. I'd love to work up a swimsuit and wig for my doll project, keep working on the crochet I started. I'm not in the headspace for writing. Right now, that part is a stream, frozen on the surface, rushing beneath. Ideally, the ice will crackle and slough away in time, but I'm not looking for it to be the rushing river. 

That place was too much an obsession, too much a diversion to pull me from pain. When I first started to slam through writing, it was a way to salve the grief of too much loss piling up. Once I healed those wounds, the writing itself had masked too many bad habits picked up. My health started another decline and I had to face that there are aspects of myself I'm blind to and I needed help to get back on track.

Don't look for a secret to creative mojo. Just understand there may be some intuitive signal that there is something else needing attention. You will find you are more productive over time, more thoughtful with what you produce, if you listen to those urges that go ignored. Now, I'm not talking some serial killer urge. Lock that way the fuck up. But if you've got some voice saying you suck at self-care, maybe take a breath and listen a little more closely.