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Saturday 28 January 2017

Bring out the old!

Over the last couple of days I have been having fun with a couple of my old BJDs (ball jointed dolls), dolls that I've had for quite a while but have been neglected.

The first of these to get some attention was Samantha, my Hana Angel by the company Elfdoll in South Korea.  I don't think that Elfdoll are still trading these days but they used to make some great dolls, lovely sculpts and great quality.  Over the years I have had several of their dolls in various sizes but now I have just the three, and Hana is the tallest of these at 20cm tall.  Hana Angel has been with me for many years now, she came here back in June 2009 when I received her in a trade, however she had actually been with me prior to that when I bought her new from Denver Doll Emporium in June 2007!  I sold her to a lady in California and then regretted it straight away so when the lady decided to sell, we traded and I got Hana back again, however this time she came on a newer body!  Some years later I replaced all her faceplates (she comes with three faceplates showing different expressions) by ordering directly from Elfdoll.

So yesterday I decided to change her body again. This time she has 'grown' a little and is now using a resin body which I bought last year.  It is the perfect colour match to the resin of her faceplates and I really like that although the body is almost identical to her original, the legs are a little bit longer.  Here she is in an outfit that she's 'borrowed' from another doll:



I think what I really like is that whereas before, Hana was a difficult size to dress, being the height of say, Riley Kish, but skinnier, now she can wear clothes designed for Blythe among others, so there is a whole lot of patterns and ready made outfits available for her!


Today I decided to tackle another of my 'oldies but goodies', my very first BJD ever, Narsha by the South Korean company Dollmore.  I bought Narsha back in August 2006 and when she arrived I was just amazed at her, she was pure white and made from French resin which is so translucent, it's really beautiful.  However, French resin does have it's problems and one of those is that it yellows when exposed to UV light.  I knew this when I ordered her, but being new to BJDs and resin, I didn't know that French resin also yellows in the heat.  I was so careful with her, I took her everywhere but always she was wrapped in a dark cloth so that she'd not be exposed to any sunlight....but of course she was being exposed to extreme heat instead and it was only a matter of months before the beautiful white glow became a yellow tint!

The changing faces of Narsha by Dollmore: (top row L to R: when Narsha arrived looking all white and pale pink; when Narsha had been here just a couple of months you can see how she now has the slightest tinge of yellow appearing in her resin.  Bottom row L to R: Narsha returns from Ravendolls with a new faceup;  Narsha looking beautiful with her lovely Raven faceup.



However, I still loved her and in May 2008 I sent her away for a new faceup to an artist that some of you will know, a lady called Raven in the US.  When Narsha came back I was overawed by her beautiful new look but the new look didn't stop the doll from continuing to yellow and as a result I lost a lot of interest in photographing her.

This morning though, I decided to make the effort to give Narsha a good clean up and see if I could make her look better.  I took her head off and thoroughly cleaned her body and head cap with paint stripper.  It's strong stuff and not for the faint hearted, (always use outside or in a well ventilated space) and definitely needs to be kept well away from the face plate.  The yellow remained of course but it looked better as she was cleaner.  I'd noticed that her face paint had started to fade a little and the varnish that Raven used around her eyes feels sticky on one eye, and also her acrylic eyes had cracked which I've found to be quite common, which is why I prefer glass eyes.  So I removed her eyes, and replaced them with some soft silicone eyes because these were the only ones that fitted her eyesockets well.  Eventually I would like to replace these with some brown or hazel ones of the same type.  I reblushed her, adding lots of new blush to her cheeks, chin, forehead and the bridge of her nose.  I haven't sealed it but will redo as and when necessary.

Narsha now has a different darker wig which hopefully doesn't clash so much with her 'skin tone' as her blond one did.  She managed to get some of her clothes back from the Little Darlings who seemed to steal everything when they arrived. 

I'm really pleased with how much better she looks now.  She is still dear to me even after all the time she's been here and all the changes that have occurred to her.  (Sorry about the repetitiveness of the following photos!)











I'm enjoying revamping some of my older dolls and bringing them back to 'life' with a bit of TLC.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing them :)

Have a great weekend everyone and I hope your week ahead is a great one!

Big hugs Sharon xx

19 comments:

  1. It's nice when you go back and get out your older dolls that have not been played with for a good while. It reminds you why you loved them in the first place.
    Samantha looks very nice and it's good that now being a little bigger you have more she can wear. I find one of the biggest problems when , in my case, buying a new dolls is that usually they have no clothes and shoes, so if they can share things you already have is great.
    It's such a shame that resin can be unstable and cause the dolls to yellow, as you say it does not matter how careful you are , sooner or later it will happen.
    You are so great in how you just strip her down and wash her off! I don't think she looks too bad and would not have realised in some of the photos that she had a yellow tinge.
    It's funny how some of our dolls have that extra special place in our hearts.
    Hope your weekend is great too and that your weather warms up :) xx

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    1. You're right Dee, it really is nice to do that and you do indeed realise why you loved them so much in the first place. It was a nice feeling to realise that it was still there too :)
      I agree, I find it very frustrating when a new doll arrives and nothing fits. I have a lot of wigs and eyes and usually I can find something there that will suit, but clothes, I have loads but more often than not I don't like what I've got because I've made them ages ago and am bored with them....so then I want to make something straight away and that doesn't always work either...and then I get frustrated. Fortunately though, Narsha just stole back what was already hers, except for the skirt, that was belonging to the Little Darlings but they won't miss it, they have so much.
      xxx

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  2. Glad to see you having more fun x

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  3. Hi Sharon,
    I do like how your Narsha has mellowed with age and the touches you have added look wonderful on her, she's so pretty. I have Zihu and really need to allot her some time, but there never seems to be enough to do everything that I'd like to do.
    Hugs,
    X

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    1. Thank you Sandi, I'm glad you think so.
      I do like these girls and now you have me wanting to go look for your Zihu because I can't recall which one she is. I agree though, there is never enough time to do all the things we want to do! I have a list in my head but it keeps getting jumbled about all the time! Oh well, one day....
      xxx

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  4. Narsha looks so serious, and this is what I really love on dolls!

    Great you find a way for her to reach your heart again. There are children with a slightly yellow skintone, so it's not that unnatural, I think.
    If you got fitting brown eyes, I would give it a try. The darker hair colour looks nice in my eyes.
    Always interesting; you and your dollies :)

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    1. Thank you Anne, and yes Narsha is quite a serious child :) Although I think she is happier now that she's getting a bit more attention! ;)
      I have changed her eyes to a really nice pair that are a lovely golden colour called Butterscotch, I am very happy with the colour and it suits her so much better. I will share a photo again soon.
      I'm glad you find the dolls here interesting, thank you!

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  5. They are lovely - and so versatile, you can switch parts and have a new doll. Love the changes you made.
    Nonono, I'm not tempted noooo (being very brave...)

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    1. Thank you Ursula, and yes, that is what I like about BJDs, the fact that with a few changes it really does feel like you have a new doll again. I'm often bad though in that I find a wig I like and it'll stay on the doll for years, same with the eyes, but sometimes you just need a change :)
      I know what you mean about temptation, it is why I have so many different dolls!!
      xxx

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  6. Love seeing the older dolls! It's so interesting how resin colours shift with age. I know yellowing is supposed to be a negative, but as long as it's even (and not green) I think there's something charming about those changes. :)

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    1. I admit that I love to see them too, I was looking at a cute older Secretdoll recently, do you remember those MSD ones that they used to produce? Very sweet!
      Oh yes you are right on the yellowing, it's so much better than the greening on tan ones. Fortunately none of mine are greening, but I did buy a BJD some years ago that was described as having 'no yellowing'....only to find that indeed the seller had not lied, the doll was not yellow but distinctly green. Not a nice surprise!
      xxx

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    2. Heh, I have an Iplehouse Cocori from 2009 who's a little green - I've decided to tell people that's she's just a little seasick. ;)

      Secretdoll's People are great, but I definitely miss the variety that they used to have.

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  7. Freaky, funky and great dolls dressed up just the way you can dress them! Love to look at them! Sometimes they make me smile :-) Thank you for sharing them with us. Big hugs, Liss xxxx

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    1. Thank you very much Liss! I'm glad you like looking at my dolls, and that sometimes they make you smile. Big hugs to you too :)
      xxx

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  8. I definitely like changes you made with Narsha. You probably remember that Olga (swish-swirl.com) had problems with her Narsha, and I did never pay attention to Dolmore dolls after that. But yours look absolutely different! And I have to say she is gorgeous! :)

    Regarding yellowing... I remove old sealant and spray the new one twice a year. This helps to keep dolls more "clean" and protect them. Even if it seems that the body is yellow, after removing old sealant it looks better. The old sealant gives "dirty" look. And after cleaning and covering with the new sealant the body looks almost perfect.

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    1. Thank you very much Ariadne, but no I didn't know that Olga had problems with her Narsha. Do you recall what those were? Or was it colour change like mine? My girl changed sooo quickly, I remember being really very upset at the time as I was convinced I'd done everything in my power to stop the sun getting on her for more than a couple of minutes and she still changed colour. But I do still love her and yes, removing the sealant on her body definitely did clean her up a lot. Also the body blushing was wearing around the joints so that really needed to come off. Obviously I couldn't go anywhere near her face with the cleaner but fortunately just wiping her and giving her a different wig colour it has helped a lot :) By the way, I haven't put any more sealant on her, I'm going to leave her as she is now! xxx

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  9. Olga's Narsha had very strong resin odor firstly, and Olga had itching when touched the doll secondly (this may be her only reaction to dollmore resin). So Olga very quickly sold Narsha, thus I do not know anything about yellowing.

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    1. Ariadne I have had that too but I don't remember if I did with Narsha, it's so long ago now.
      x

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