Update: 14/04 New project! Making a lolita

Making a custom doll is much like any other part of this hobby, you really can't stop at one!

 

So, here I am starting out on the journey that is my 3rd custom DD. After realising that I deeply regretted not trying for DD Yaya and couldn't afford her after market value, I decided to make my own bright eyed, smiley girl instead. Without a doubt, DDH-06 was the only girl fit for the job, so with the help of a great friend who sent me a head from Volks USA with no customs fees, my journey begins today!

 

I have titled the thread 'making a lolita' because the character I'm making will be dressed in poofy, frilly, lovely, dark, lolita style clothing, which is apparently really hard to find for DD! I always pick the easy routes in life, not...

 

Head: Modified NS DDH-06 open eye - GOT

Body: DDS, m or s bust ended up winning a dirt cheap dd3 body with s bust - GOT

Eyes: Purple Volks K type - GOT

Wig: CanCan r53a dkorchid - GOT

Outfit: Something dark and lolita inspired - SHIPPED

Shoes: will decide on this once I have an outfit

Face Up: Will be done by me - not started

 

12/04/14:

 

Head arrived this morning and I got straight to work in sanding her down. I wanted to alter the look of the head a bit before painting.

 

ddh-06 by aquilla429, on Flickr

 

I wanted to keep the characteristics and charm of the DDH-06, I chose this head for a reason after all, but I needed it to look a bit younger and more childish in order to fit the character. To do this, I have rounded off her chin. reduced the plumpness of her lips and I have made her nose shorter, chubbier and a heck of a lot less pointy.

 

It is a subtle difference and perhaps more noticeable in person, but it has achieved what I wanted it to and I’m thrilled with her look so far.

 

Will keep this thread updated as the project progresses!

Edited April 26, 2014 by Guest

I like the subtle changes! I'm interested in seeing this project unfold ^_^ ~

This sounds like a really fun project! Lolita clothes are super cute and pretty and suit DDs so much. I'm looking forward to seeing your lovely girl take shape.

13/04/2014

 

So I continued work on the head yesterday, due to the time I finished and having work early the next morning, I didn’t have time to update with any progress yesterday so I’m here today.

 

I did a bit more sanding on the head, I felt her upper lip/nose was a bit off and my partner agreed so I gave it a bit more definition to separate it from her nose. Again it is a subtle change, but was an improvement overall.

 

 

Next I put two coats of sealant on the head for my protective base layer; I left each coat an hour to dry in between. Once the head is coated, you cannot see any sanding marks and the texture is even over the whole head.

 

After my sealant dried, I put her eyes in and used a light water colour pencil to draft out ideas. I would normally put her wig on at this point but it hasn't arrived yet.

 

 

Finally, I moved on to painting, aaaaaaand, that is when everything went wrong! I have a grand old vision in my head, but I just don’t have the tools/ability/hands to make it happen. I envisioned smooth, pointed eye lashes and I just couldn’t do it. Causing even more problems for me, as I was working on the head, my sealant was going all gummy and tacky in my hands, even though it was smooth and perfectly set before I started. Dust, fluff and stray brush hairs were sticking all over the place, not to mention my fingers also sticking to it.

 

I carried on and finished the eye details as best I could. I ended up trying to Emulate DD Nia’s eyelashes as they were cute but not too fussy, but it’s not quite what I was originally going for In order to take pictures of the head, I had to carefully wipe down all of the sticky areas to remove the visible dust and gunk, but the head still feels tacky and sticks to the table whenever I place it down!

 

 

I have no idea why this happened with my sealant and I’m at a loss with what to do now, brainstorming is required. It is the same sealant I have used on both my previous custom heads and I have never had this happen before. I did do the spraying and painting in different places, but again, this is no different from how I usually do things.

 

If I want to salvage/continue the current face up, I think my current options are:

 

* coat the head again and hope it covers the sticky patches

* Remove the sticky areas with a magic eraser, hope it doesn’t interfere with the eyelashes and see if it can be recoated

* wipe everything, start again and hope that the stickyness doesn't reoccur

* Admit defeat, wipe everything and send her off to someone who can actually paint dolls

 

I haven't decided what to do yet, I'm going to leave her as is at the moment and not rush into a decision. I really don't know what to do. At the moment, this is what she looks like but I'm really not sure I'm happy with her like this, even if I can fix the stickyness...

 

That's too bad about the stickyness, but your girl looks really cute! I like how you've done the eyebrows, and the little eyepatch is great!

That's so weird! The only times I ever deal with stickiness is if the spray was too thick, or if it was really humid so that the sealant dries weird. I've never heard of it drying normally, then becoming sticky later. Maybe your can of sealant is expired or something? Super, super bizarre!

That's so weird! The only times I ever deal with stickiness is if the spray was too thick, or if it was really humid so that the sealant dries weird. I've never heard of it drying normally, then becoming sticky later. Maybe your can of sealant is expired or something? Super, super bizarre!

 

It is really weird! Never happened before to me either. I just brought the can on Sunday so it should be valid, I will double check when I get home though and if it's not I'll be taking it back to the store.

 

The only thing I have thought of since posting is that maybe I sweated through my gloves and that heat/moisture gummed up the coating? I don't feel like I was excessively sweating and my gloves didn't feel physically damp that I can remember, but it's the only thing I can think of and it would make sense I guess because the only sticky areas are the places I was holding the doll whilst painting.

 

I've ordered some finger cots so I will try again using them while handling the head, that way I know that even if I sweat, it won't get through to the head. If the sealant still goes all sticky once I try again with the finger cots, I really don't know what else to do XD

Really strange effect, i've seen a topic some days ago about a similar problem potentially caused by sealant which was not "good" for vynil here in the forums http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7791&start=0 , but i don't have experience myself

Really strange effect, i've seen a topic some days ago about a similar problem potentially caused by sealant which was not "good" for vynil here in the forums http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7791&start=0 , but i don't have experience myself

 

I have used the same sealant on my first custom, in much larger quantities, she is over a year old now and I inspected her yesterday and she is still in perfect condition, the sealant is perfect and I never had any issues with her. I also used this sealant on my second custom who is 7 months old now and on a much older dd head and again, no issues at all.

 

I think the issue likely lies in the conditions of use, or how I handled the head.

15/04/2014

 

Today I decided to wipe the head and start again. I think the issue was likely caused by conditions of use, or my handling of the head. I'm leaning toward handling because the stickyness was in the areas where I held the head so it seems likely.

 

I've ordered some finger cots so I will wait for them to arrive before doing anything else. With them I know there is zero chance of any sweat or natural skin oils seeping through and interfering with things, I'm hoping that way, the sticky issue will not reoccur.

 

On the plus side,the new Liqutex acrylics I brought were so much nicer to work with, even during removal and no stains or marks leftover unlike my previous paints which were a total pain! The other good news is that the head looks good as new again so the stickyness was just a issue with the sealant, it wasn't an issue with the head, which is nice.

 

Probably won't have another update until my finger cots arrive, there's not much else I can do until they get here.

I had an issue with sticknyess once when I accidentally over applied in an area(new nosle just exploded out sealant) and it was humid out. So it may have just been the weather messing with it.

18/04/2014

 

The wig has arrived and it is sooooooo nice! I can't believe how much nicer it is in person, the colour is perfect and it's got a lovely texture. So soft.

 

Because it's a deep purple wig with a black wigcap, I did thoroughly wash it (scared after horror stories of Chihayas deep blue wig XD) but there appears to be no excess dye coming out which is nice. I have also had the dd head cap inside the wig cap for almost 24 hours and as of yet no signs of staining either. Brilliant!

 

Still not recieved my finger cots yet, so no further progress with the face up sadly.

26/04/2014

 

Well my finger cots arrived in the week so I'm ready to try again with the face up, I just need the weather to play along now. I work during the week all day so weekends is my only chance. Sadly today it was raining so I couldn't coat today either. I hope for better weather tomorrow.

 

My outfit parts have also been shipped and I am eagerly awaiting their arrival to see if they will work as intended *fingers crossed*

 

I also brought a body for her today! I've not hand much luck in finding a DDS body, but today I did win a body from YahooJapan. It was listed as DDS but I believe it to be DD3 Hips. I brought it regardless because at the price I won it for (16500 yen) it was worth snapping up. It does have a broken inner frame because the seller has said the arms no longer attach, but I already have the internal skeleton parts at home, as well as cool cat reinforcement rings, so I'm good to go!

 

Apart from the arms, the body itself looks ok and no other flaws were mentioned, however at the price I got it for, even if there is something wrong I really can't complain!

 

I just need time to paint her now and almost everything is done.

I'm really curious to see your finished doll, i bet she'll be beautiful

I like the mods you made, can't wait to see her finished faceup

05/05/2014

 

I have attempted doing the face up again since I received my Finger cots. The good news is that the finger cots prevented the sticky situation occurring. The bad news is that I still couldn't paint her the way I envisioned her so instead I have arranged to send her away somewhere to get her face done professionally instead, I will leave the artist a secret for now though

09/05/2014

 

Got my outfit pieces today! Super duper happy with it so far, some customising needs to be done, but here are the bare bones of it put together so far.

 

 

Eventually I decided I couldn;t wait wait to see it on someone, so I tried it on Lilith, can't believe how good she looks in it! I think she may not want to give it back!

 

That is the lovliest outfit! I really like the skirt details and how it fans out so prettily when your girl sits down. It's wonderful seeing all the pieces slowly coming together.

Too bad about the stickiness!! But the newest face-up looks great and the outfit is awesome!

I'm looking forward to seeing more updates

Oh! I love your progress! She will be lovely! Keep going! DX

I wanted my girl to be a lolita too... But I put her in lolita and... Yep... She didnt want it so I had to change things around DX

Your lolita is looking great! Cant wait to see her done!

I cannot wait to see her finished, she will be amazing