Arum - A Reshelling Project

The first doll I bought was a Goodreau OzDottie.

The pictures on the site looked quite good and I didn't understand at the time the fact that a vinyl American made doll was such a bad thing when entering the doll community. (Ironically, the OzDottie has all ball joints, unlike the older Goodreau's which had some hinge joints.)

I placed Arum on layaway with DDE but didn't wait out the entire layaway to pay her off. I ordered her in Feburary 2009 and spent an ugly six months waiting for her to arrive, which she finally did in September, at which time I had 6 dolls which I had ordered and paid for after her. (I was kept uninformed of delays in making and shipping her, unfortunately.)

When the day I received her finally came, I was a little disappointed. The only thing that looked like what I was expecting was the outfit. The wig was different, her faceup was different and even aspects of her face was different.

I suppose they just did a great job on the photos, but I couldn't help a sense of disappointment.

Also, due to some interest stringing, Arum was unable to stand properly without a lot effort and often had to have a leg 'propping' her up.

One of the first things LillyKitten and I did was complete my 2009 Goodreau to her 2008... We agreed quickly that Sabine, the 2008, looked to have a better shaped body than Arum, and although all of Arum's joints are "proper" for a BJD and Sabine's weren't.

Almost immediately I decided that Arum would have to be a cabinent baby due to the fact she had trouble standing and her legs were actually different lengths. I dressed her in an Indollgence outfit and she made a very nice Gothic Lolita. She went to one dollmeet - and for my dolls, most of whom I will take to every doll meet, except if they have no clothes (and Arum definitely had clothes) and then spent the rest of her time sitting in a room.

A little while ago LillyKitten told me that she was planning on selling her Goodreau, Sabine. Although Sabine had a good life and was taken many places, she had problems with the stringing and LillyKitten felt the constraints of having an "OFFTOPIC" doll.

This placed in my mind the idea of reshelling my Arum, who I had never been really happy with and had always had a sense of disappointment in, especially after waiting so long for her.

So I began to look around for a possible doll to reshell her into. I had a look into SoulDoll and wandered across other MSD options before realising that I was not really restricted to an MSD size... I found my reshelled girl very quickly after that.

An SD Dollzone Clovera. I love the expression and after seeing a girl in the flesh, was definitely sure that this is what I will reshell Arum into. I won't use the same faceup, its not dark enough for what I want, and since Dollzone offer three faceups for this darling girl (the fullset one and two more, one called B and one called C).

Arum will get the faceup B, which will make her look a little bit more like a gothic lolita. I almost got her faceup C, but the lips are too light!

 I spent a good amount of last night looking for some appropriate SD sized Gothic Loli outfits for her. The outfit Arum MKI is wearing is being sold with her, and it is too small!

LillyKitten put me in the way of Alice's Collections and from there Arum MKII now has a dress, socks, a petticoat and shoes and on the same night she was ordered...

So now the wait begins for my Arum MKII.....

Older blogging....

8 May 2010

Now, in May 2010 I am the proud owner of 15 dolls and 3 heads, with one bought but still before shipping and one still on layaway.

The latest edition to the resin family is Nemain, a limited event head from the sale of the 2006 Elf Lishe by Luts. She is the Dreaming Vampire Elf head which was given out along with a Dreaming Elf head. I bought her second hand from DoA, from a very nice seller. She comes with an Angell of Dream body, which she will stay on until an old Type 1 Beauty White can be found - and when the money can be found, so possibly in 2011....

15 May 2010

I have been watching the progress of my SOOM Chalco, pretty much from the point I paid him off completely. Last Thursday I finally got what I had been waiting for, a change from 'before shipping' to 'on shipping'.

My Chalco flew out of Korea on Friday night. I was going against hope that he would have a short flight even though he was guaranteed delivery before the 19th.

I found out this morning that he had landed around eight this morning. Since then, he has moved through Customs and the last update at about 1 has him sitting at the airport waiting to be delivered.

I can't wait for him to turn up. I'm crossing my fingers  that he will go to the CS Post office, so there at least a chance that he could be picked up on Monday afternoon. If he goes to the C PO then my meeting on Monday would have to finish between 3:30 and 3:45 for me to have a chance to get back in time to get him. If I can't get him and he's at the C office, then it will be Wednesday.

I don't want it to be Wednesday.

22nd May 2010

I suppose it is now time to talk about the new arrival. I got Magnus at the start of the week. he was posted last Thursday and got in on Friday, then spent the week at the airport. The minion was most desperate to see him.

I got lucky and he was delievered to the CS Post Office and I was able to pick him up after work on Monday before gym. Just before the post office closed too. I unwrapped him after tea that night and with Lilly's help strung him.

He didn't stand very well and in order to get him painted, I had to give him up Tuesday night. He was back by the end of the week though.

Today I picked up the 06 Elf Lishe head for $150 on the marketplace. I would have preferred her with a body, but the body had been taken off the market. Her name is Caesair Elen D'Elf.

I also paid off Angelu on Thursday of this week, so am waiting for two things - for them to register that I have paid the final payment and her to go 'before shipping' and at the same time for her to go 'on shipping'. Hope it won't take too long.

the dolly blogs...

I realised just this morning that I don’t have a plain dolly blog – just for me to express myself and dolly news and the like. I have a blog for my Lishe collections: Lished and I have a blog for my dolls themselves – The Resin Fables, but I don’t actually have one just for the softskin.

So here it is. One blog, just for me. Everything will be in here – arrivals, the decisions... everything.

I thought I’d start with how I managed to get into the hobby in the first place.

It was the start of 2009, I was on holidays from work and Lilly was telling me about this doll she had bought off eBay. We went out to tea and she brought it along to show me. It was Sabine, her first doll, a Goodreau Secret, in Vinyl.

I have always liked dolls – I was a doll girl as a kid, I had about 12 Barbies that I spent a lot of time with. I had paper dolls as well, a lot of them and had played with them on a regular basis. As I grew older the Barbies were placed in the cupboard and my shelves were instead filled with other dolls – I have 2 of my mother’s dolls, a number of country dolls – two Welsh and a couple from Bangladesh (including an Indian Barbie), I have my collection of Kokeshi – some which are the more modern that you can get from gift shops, but 3 or 4 that have come from Japan. I have 2 Bratz and a Legolas figurine to complete the set. But until Lilly showed me Sabine, I had not heard of or really seen BJDs.

I am not into Anime or Manga. I will read it occasionally, but I’m not a Japan-o-phile. So I didn’t find BJDs through that – and in case you’re wondering I’m still not into Manga or Anime... at all really.

So anyway, I met my first BJD (although Off Topic for DoA) in January ‘09.

My first doll that I ordered was an Goodreau OzDottie from DDE in Feburary (I didn’t get her until the end of September). Quickly after I ordered Marcheline, my Dollcatch Stella (who I had by the end of May), then my Pukifee Zoe, Osiris. I was a little bit strange at first, because even quicker after that I ordered my Little Fee Lishe and a Pukifee Bonnie...

By the end of September 2009, I had 7 full dolls, plus 5 floating heads...

And yes... a full blown obsession with BJDs.