BJDs, Zumba & Bellydancing, Uni Progress, Kegel Q, Christmas
BALL JOINTED DOLLS
And so, I've discovered the curious world of BJDs, that is, Ball Jointed Dolls!
An excellent community here on LJ to learn more about them, is this one:
bjd-wtf
This post is a good starting point to read material from that community.
sizes
Roughly put, there are three main sizes. 1/3 (60 ish cm), 1/4 (40 ish cm) and 1/6 (below 30 ish cm) sized dolls. But there can be variations within and outside these. Also, xenomorphy dolls, with hooves, horns, wings etc exist. *bets morfeusz perks up at the mentioning of "horns"* ;P
outfits, accessories, props, furniture..
Ohyes, just making a variety of outfits, for a "person" that does not grow and that is in a manageable size for ambitious outfit projects, funfun :D And when one can take photos like this of them, very nice indeed. And, there's of course a market for BJD clothing, wigs, furniture, props and food items. Yes, I am wanting a BJD dollhouse too.
faceups
Of course, the core of this hobby, is the so called faceups. When the dolls arrive from the factory, they are completely blank. So applying blushing, eyeliner, eyelashes, eyebrows etc in the face, is a faceup, so not just makeup! When ordering a doll, one can request for default makeup to be included. Usually people apply a sealer before putting any faceup materials onto the doll, to protect the resin. Then, they add the actual colours, and the best be non-oily and sharpies are a big nono! Once that is done, painting with water colours, acrylics and so, one applies yet another layer of sealer, unless it's stuff that is best kept without, but atm I can't really remember the stuff that one shouldn't apply a sealer on. And, one can also purchase eyes of various colours and iris designs, to place into the heads of the these dolls. So, modification is plentiful in the possibilities alright.
Some bjd owners practice own faceups, redoing them every now and then, posting pictures for others to critique. Others, may have tried own faceups, or simply sent doll head or entire doll, to a faceup and/or blushing artist. Some faceup artists are really really good.
For pics of nice faceups..
Kesha has a set of piccies of faceups she has done here. She also offers the possibility to re-open eyes, that is some heads have not open eyes, but sleeping eyes. So, one can cut out open eyes, and in turn make them customshaped and all. Also try searching flickr overall or the net, for bjd faceups.
tanned skin
Tanned dolls are not so common, because the colouring makes the resin casting a bit trickier and more likely to fail, if memory serves me right from the stuff I've been plough-reading. And naturally I have an idea for a tanned doll, a BJD remake of one of my Guild Wars characters in fact, a ranger/necromancer combo, Fyxen Yfelcwene. Yes, she's a vixen that evil woman ;D
future resin resources
Quote from Mystical Magical BJDs:
"If you peek in on any BJD bulletin board, chat room or website, you will find people referring to their dolls by name. Even the companies refer to them as 'your daughters' and 'children' on their sites. You will hear what the dolls think of their owners. Some have relationships with other people's dolls."
So, I can't help wonder, if this sort of doll will gain AI stuff and really become a pet thing or substitute child or Persocom, if say we live very long and need not rely on offspring so much for our sense of immortality and more focus on nifty techy status gadgetry that act as addon extensions of varying degrees of ourselves. BJDs are a sort of RL resin avatars. As they are in a way a representation of the owner, you know?
And when one sees One of A Kind Dolls that are amazingly realistic one cannot help be very very impressed by the craftsmanship. Still, this is really nothing new, we humanoids like to create characters, representations, avatars of ourselves in many shapes and forms here and there, be it for boardgames or mmorpgs. I still recall not just picking any random name for my Diablo 2 chars, ohno, I had to think carefully of various mythologies and more to find one that fitted.
doll flavour
So far the Minifee BJDs (I hope that link works) have caught my eye. They have a bit of a pearshaped more mature looking body and are of the 1/4 size, and have very well articulated knee joints. The only thing is perhaps that the "girly" faces I like tend to have very big eye openings, and I'd rather have them a bit smaller and more realistic. Even though those Unoas are awesome and all they were a bit heftier in price, although maybe a MNF body and a Unoa head hybrid.. but getting ahold of a Unoa head is not the easiest thing it seems, and then there's matching the resin colour. I must at least promise myself to unless I am filthy rich, to never ever even consider getting a doll that alone with just body and head and as is, without any addons or clothes that is $500 and above, 'cause I mean seriously, I'd feel bad just touching it, let alone taking it outside in UV-light or anything! As the resin does fade, and faceups do not last forever..
ZUMBA AND BELLYDANCING
And eoeo is right, Zumba looks like a lot of fun :)
But goodness gracious, this Sadie, she can move her belly alright. First video is a bit "technical" but still very impressive, second has more motion. Third shows various clips of Sadie bellydancing.
- Sadie BellyDance
- Sadie Belly Dance 2008
- Belly Dancer SADIE
UNI PROGRESS
Well, there's that course I seem just barely able to re-register for, and then everything else takes up my time, and I keep thinking "I'll do that later.." only later turns out to be after course has ended, yet again! Argh.
English C, goes soso at least. I just need to get better at staying more in sync with the course schedule, and the course is at its very end soon!
LIS essay, well, it's there still.. and let's just keep it at that as commentary >_<
My main priority is English C atm, when work isn't cutting into my study discipline.
KEGEL EXERCISES
Anyone that does 'em, and if so using smart balls perchance? (males, if you have no clue what I am talking about, just disregard ;)
Seems those are quite big though, but they're soundless compared to the Ben Wa balls, yet the latter are smaller. Hmm.
CHRISTMAS
Christmas was a-ok, we did a different thing this (err, last) year. Instead of buying x pressies for everyone, we bought only 3 small pressies, worth 50-100 sek, and then anyone taking part in this "christmas game" put their 3 wrapped pressies on a table, and everyone gathered around it. Then, with the help of one die, everyone took their turn and whoever had the highest number got to start with it for real. If one got a 1 or 6, one got to take a pressie off the table. Additionally if one rolled a 6, one got to re-roll the die. Once all pressies were cleared off the table, everyone opened the pressies they had gotten.
And then, round two started after someone set a timer of some sort at a set time, say 15 minutes, and then put it away so no one could see just when the time ran out. Then one started rolling the die again, and one got to take a pressie of whoever had more than one. As if someone had one pressie only, one could not take that one. And then, when the time was up, everyone got to keep whatever they had assembled!
Oh, the friendly neighbourhood dragon gave me a photo product table thingy, yay!!! So beware, small semi big photographable objects, I'm coming to getcha :D I just need to get my paws on a tripod!
And yes, still trying to get up that big hill of hope for a destination.. aka proper goals in life. Obsessions are good to have along the way though.