Anyway, I thought I'd share some of what I've been up to. There's a lot of talk in the BJD (ball jointed doll) world about recasts, I don't want to get into that subject on here because it's a very emotive subject and I'm going to bed soon and it plays on my mind, but my lovely friend Sue in the UK and I, were talking back last summer about how it is possible to get a cute BJD for a really reasonable price, without resorting to buying recasts.
Soooo we both bought a head each from a company called Alice's Collections in China, the head in question is a Little Peach 1/6 scale head from the company Doll Family and at the time we bought ours, it was $18 plus $5 postage. I see the price has now gone up slightly to $22 but still very reasonable for a bjd head. The head comes in five resin colours, normal pink, white, normal yellow, tanned and grey and we both chose the tanned version. The head comes blank without any body, eyes or wig. The heads shipped approx two months after we purchased them, so I received mine about November. We were then going to send Sue's head cap to a company called Resin Soul, also in China, as they have a resin matching service and will make a body to match the head cap from the head. We chose the 1/6 scale girl body. We decided to wait until after Christmas to order the bodies. The bodies would cost $80 each plus postage.
After Christmas, unfortunately, I had a bit of a financial crisis and was unable to go ahead with my ordering of a body, so Sue went ahead and ordered hers. Unbeknown to me, my lovely friend ordered a body for me too as a gift and she surprised me with this generous present in February!!! I'm so very blessed. 💖
Sue sent my body and her dolls head to me, so that I could do the faceup on her doll as well as my own doll.
This is Sue's blank doll.....
We wanted the two girls to be twins, so I worked on them at the same time in order to achieve some sort of uniformity.
I tried to make both girls as similar as possible but despite all my efforts at keeping them dust free, I managed to get some tiny pieces of lint under the sealant! I was not a happy bunny and decided to start Sue's doll again.... but for the life of me I cannot find the photos of the finished head second time round, so here, below, is the first one.....
Finally the two heads were finished and I was happy with them. And today my husband, who is currently in the UK, was able to hand Sue her finished head.
Here is Sue's lovely girl, who is now known as Ida.....she has a lot of attitude!!!
I made this outfit as a gift for Sue.....
And here is my girl, who is called Sarah....
Sarah also has to wear glasses but she left them off for the above photos!
And here is Sarah in a different outfit:
I will take some better close up photos of Sarah soon, I just need to replace her eyelashes as I'm not happy with the ones she currently has, as I used the wrong glue.
I'm very happy with how both girls turned out. I'm not a professional faceup artist, but I did my best to bring the girls to life and hopefully I have achieved that!
Thank you for visiting, I will be back soon with the other things that I've been up to recently.
Have a lovely week ahead!
Big hugs Sharon xx
Dear Sharon, oh they are both adorable! I love Ida's "afro" as we would call it here in the US. It's so Pam Greer from the 1960s African-American hero movies.
ReplyDeleteYour Sarah is so sweet. Her face is very expressive.
Thanks for the information on these BJD dolls. They are definitely affordable.
Awww thanks so much Dorothy, I'm glad to hear that you like them. Ida's afro is so cute, isn't it! My friend Sue was looking everywhere for just the right wig and finally found this one on Etsy. I think it suits her perfectly.
Deletexxx
Oh Sharon, they are both divine little dolls. I love that although they are twins, you and Sue have given them that wonderful touch of individual personalities. Their faces are perfect, you are your own worst critic, I think anyone of us would love to own such pretty little girls. I adore Ida's and Sarah's matching outfits and the second outfit on Sarah is also very cute, the bunny hat she is wearing is perfectly timed for Easter. :)
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I think your time away from the blog has been very well spent. :)
Big hugs,
X
Thanks so much Sandy, I'm glad you like them. I suppose we are all the most critical of our own work and I'm very bad at that too. But honestly, I kept looking at Sue's girl and any flaws just kept screaming at me to be done again...so I had to obey. I'm glad I did though, because I'd not have been able to rest knowing that she had something wrong that I couldn't fit for her.
DeleteBig hugs to you too.
xxx
You did a great job on both of them. I'm sure your friend knew she would appreciate your work on her doll and was happy to gift you with the body. You earned it! It's nice you and your friend can do these things for each other. That's real friendship. Nice you have a friend who shares your interest too. Lori couldn't think why i was so excited to get a Betsy McCall at the flea market for a dollar because, as she put it,"Who would pay any more than that?!"
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Tam! It's lovely to be able to do things like this with friends, isn't it! I actually met Sue through BJDs, many years ago, she commissioned me to sew some thing for her daughters first BJD and the rest as they say, is history!!!
Deletexxx
PS wow you found a Betsy McCall for a dollar!!! That's really brilliant :) These non dolly people just don't get it, do they!!!
DeleteThey are both lovely girls! You did a great job with their faceups. I love that they are so sweet and delicate.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Kamelia, I'm happy you think so.
Deletexxx
Wow! You did an amazing job and give life to two adorable dolls. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I did my best so I suppose that's all I can do really. I know I'm far from professional but I keep trying to get it right, hopefully one day I will :)
Deletexxx
Resinsoul have some really great dolls. And they are really affordable. You can get a whole doll for $140USD. It's a shame a lot of people don't think highly of the company. I've had many Resinsoul dolls pass through here and have loved them all (psst, I am planning to buy another end of the year!)
ReplyDeleteI love how your face up turned out and the outfits look so adorable. I think they look like twins. Plus both girls look great on their shiny new body. Love the proportion.
You're right, they are nicely made too. I don't think this little one is the best poser in the world but she's long and skinny which I love, and the colour match was perfect, so that made both Sue and I really happy.
DeleteI'm glad you like their faces, thanks so much!
xxx
Pretty dolls, well done! I love the clothes and Ida's hair!
ReplyDeleteAnd there is always a way to get a doll that are affordable and legit, even from the wellknown companies.
THanks so much Niina, I'm happy that you like them. I'm very pleased with their little faces :)
DeleteI agree, there is always a way, it just sometimes takes a bit of creativity!!
xxx