Well now that the Big Bang is done and it's not summer (though it's still been rainy/ humid and/ or cold lately) I can work more on dollbei jun and shang dollhua.

I'm getting really frustrated with these ear mods. I've already put hours of work into them, and obviously they're not going to perfect for my first time sculpting anything, and it'd take more time, but I can't seem to get the shape of the details or the helix right, and I can't quite figure out why other than I'm approaching them thinking of how I draw pointed ears instead of as like a 3d thing. But i have no idea how to translate that thought into 3d, and even though it's like one of the most common mods to do, there's really not many tutorials or walkthroughs for doing it :/

It doesn't even really look like I've done much since the last time I worked on them, even though i spent hours working on them today :(

Also some of the blushing chipped off of his fingers and I haven't even done anything with him T_T That's probably my fault for working on it over summer when our humidity is high, even though i tried to choose some of the better days. I have some of the liquitex matte medium that i can use on them to reseal it before painting his nails, but still. Frustrating.

Started drafting the patterns for both of their clothes though. Actually, I'm altering one from Lomi's playground for dollbei jun, sicne the eid measurements are close to his, but I'm drafting them shang dollhua. I'm starting with their pants so they're not so naked in my cabinet xD Dollbei Jun's are going to be from the grey, and Shang Dollhua's from this blue (I think. I'm still undecided on that). The grey is some kind of poly shantung i think, and the blue is a remnant of flagstone dupioni from Silk Baron. The lighting is terrible in my office, sadly :/

Mwhehehehe!!! my taobao order came!! None of the 62cm Loongsoul boots were in stock, so I guess I'll just have to deal with the too big boots for dollhua until i can work out how to make some. But the findings and trims, and the hair crown and animals ears all came! I got a different crown than I originally wanted since it was also out of stock (RIP me), but it's pretty, and they sent some extra hair pins that if I were so inclined, would look cute on Xie Lian! Also, the findings are *tiny*. Like super tiny. Like maybe they were meant to be more like Barbie scale tiny, which is ok, I can make them work for some decorations. I am just terrible at visualizing scale. They could also work for some EAH dolls that i need to make clothes for though so that's a win :)

Here's the ears :3 (I couldn't decide between snow leopard or wolf for dollbei jun, so i got both lol)

and the crown

and teeny tiny findings (pen for scale. yes those are snowflakes. for reasons ;))

ehehehe dollbei jun dye and blushing and restringing is done!! restringing him was a workout holy shit but i managed to do most of it without help!!

Now I need to finish his ear mod, airbrush it to match, and do the faceup, but i’ll probably wait until closer to fall and hopefully less humid weather for that.  For now, I can start on both their clothes! And paint his nails. I’ll probably do some blushing at least on the chest piece and hands for dollhua so they match, but again, that can wait for the weather to be more consistently lower humidity.

Also I was definitely giggling like a gremlin taking these pictures.  He *could* be a little taller, but I’m not unhappy with the current height difference and don’t really want to buy a taller body and go through the whole dying process again anyway. I can add some risers to his boots if i want.

below a cut because doll dicks and who knows how that will go over with tumblr’s content thing.

I tried something with dollbei jun's ear mods sort of on a whim today, and I don't want to jinx myself but I think it may have solved the "this looks wrong but I can't figure out why and I hate it" issue. Or at least will massively help

Of course i started working on it later in the afternoon so the lighting wasn't great for pictures. But I'll post some tomorrow when they're cured.

I'll still need to sand them and do some carving on the one that needed more shaping (figured out it wasn't the right size/ shape to the other one which didn't help it look even) but that should go a lot faster once I'm not trying to fight the shape as much.

Still need to make their clothes and I'm waiting for new sealant for the face ups but hopefully I'll get them done soon ish. Like a couple months or so. I want to work on other projects and have them displayed already!

I paid off shang dollhua today, and Alice’s Collections said he would be shipping out in a couple of days!! If he ships as quickly as dollbei jun did, he’ll probably be here either on the weekend or very early next week!!

Which means I really need to take advantage of working from home this week to finish up the mods for dollbei jun and get him blushed and restrung and a start on his wardrobe D:

11/11 sales means I bought a bunch of things from taobao to work on my moshang bjd (some doll scale findings and accessories mostly, and shoes that will actually fit dollhua because the ones I ordered with him are the wrong size) including some cute hamster and snow leopard and wolf ears >:3c snow leopard AND wolf ears because i couldn't decide between the two

I'm not happy with the ear mods still but I'll keep working at it. It's hard to find people to do mods on the market place. Most just offer faceups, and if I did get on the list for someone who does mods, I'm not sure if they'd be willing to fix what I've started and deal with dollbei jun being custom dyed :/ so i just have to keep going i guess

Base for shang dollhua has been ordered!! It feels very fitting that it will be spring when he gets here too :3 Plenty of time to finish customizing dollbei jun and probably also make at least part of an outfit for sqh too. Oooh I should be getting Hua Cheng around the same time i think, so all my mxtx dolls will be finished in a similar time frame!  I can go take pics in the botanical gardens maybe even :D

Well Loongsoul is having a sale, and I’ve been waffling about getting Bai Jue for shang dollhua, since it’d be a hassle to get Ringdoll Ozhu to work (even though I still think he’d be great...if he were the right size), and I can’t seem to find a lot of information about the measurements for Gouhai (looks like the head measurement might be 22cm, which is bigger than ying zhou, which feels weird, and I can’t find a neck measurement at all). Soo I guess this is my sign to go with Bai Jue xD

I still think the LS 62cm body is weirdly long and tubular, but he’ll be clothed and if it really bothers me, I could eventually buy a different one, either the v.5 62 cm from DF-H or the 60.5 cm one from Guu Doll.

I thought about Yan Ling too, but I think that’s mostly because i love his wig styling which i used for inspiration for my consort!SQH drawing lol and his full set isn’t available anymore anyway

I just need to repeat to myself that i do NOT need to buy more fabric this weekend with Silk Baron having another scrap sale

even if i do actually need more yellow fabric for shang dollhua...and why not add some more blues for a consort’s outfit for him...and this logic is why i have so much fabric in my house and why i should close the tabs i already opened xD

My wrist is very snap, crackle, pop lately :( I want to work on dollbei jun next week since I'm off but idk how much I'll feasibly be able to do, since removing dye seems a bit of an extensive process (I have rubbing alcohol and acetone and the color's not very dark so hopefully not too long but still lots of pieces :/).

I decided it needs to be removed since it's just not what I was aiming for. I'm going to test some things out with the extra bits this time like I should've done from the beginning, just so I can make sure I do end up with something I'm happy with ultimately. Or at least something a little easier to adjust with blushing if need be.

Once I get him dyed to a point I'm happy with, then I can start the fun stuff! Like making clothes and accessories and things. I might wait to do the faceup until I'm doing the one for shang dollhua, just so that there's no major changes in style between them (and also the torso blushing so I can make sure to use the same pastels lol).