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Latest iteration of Peter’s walker

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Here’s Peter showing off my latest attempt at his walker. Instead of making a walker with a seat, I’m just making a walker with a metal frame and wheels on the ends of the legs. Side frames are made out of wire coat hangers, with side supports out of 3/16" diameter dowel pieces, held in place by my best friend hot glue. I plan to prime and spray paint this all black tomorrow.

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Bared to You by Sylvia Day: the passion of complementary neuroses

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Bared to You by Sylvia Day [Crossfire #1] shares a lot in common with the [unfortunately] more popular Shades of Grey by E.L. James. As in the 50 Shades trilogy, the Crossfire trilogy follows the first-person adventures of an administrative-assistant-level young woman, Eva in Bared to You, and her rollercoaster relationship with a young rich man, Gideon in Bared to You, who owns the company for which she works. They have sex and fight a lot, sometimes simultaneously. Their relationship involves some bdsm, submission for the protagonist, domination for the love interest. A series of assumptions, piss-offs, misunderstandings, apologies, jealousies, running-aways and reconciliations passes for plot. And don’t forget the sex. At the end, the reader is exhausted, but there are still two books to go!

But that’s where the similarities end. Crossfire exceeds 50 Shades in quality at every level.
Continue reading Bared to You by Sylvia Day: the passion of complementary neuroses

I did not know that I Am What I Am was a gay song.

I did not know that I Am What I Am was a gay song. published on No Comments on I did not know that I Am What I Am was a gay song.

I thought it just ended up sounding gay. But no, it’s gay. [The bit about coming out of the closet should have tipped me off. :p] It’s from the La Cage aux Folles musical, which is about gay dudes, and it happens to have been written by a gay dude. It turned even gayer when Gloria Gaynor did a single of it.

P.S. How awesome [+ hot] is Gloria Gaynor?!

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1581590.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

I have a crush on Shirley Bassey.

I have a crush on Shirley Bassey. published on No Comments on I have a crush on Shirley Bassey.

She has such a strong voice, relishing every word she hurls forth. I love that rich underlining that her voice gets when she draws out words. She has such a strong, solid, expressive body, made for propelling out song. I love her self-consciously hammy, dramatic little gestures when she sings, as in this 1974 rendition of Goldfinger ["Goooooooooooooooooldfingaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"]. She also has a marvelous sense of humor; look at her glee as she combines sex appeal and playfulness when singing Big Spender in 2001! Like Leslie Gore, she enjoys herself so much when she sings. You can tell that she’s working hard, but loving every minute of it.

I don’t think I could stand it if Lesley Gore and Shirley Bassey did a duet. I think my ears would explode from the combined power and sexiness of their voices.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1581563.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Stalling on Yamarrah’s completion

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Yamarrah has hung around without a faceup or a creemee because I’ve been trying to think of the best method to match her light brown head with her yellowy body. See the mismatch?
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Shirley Bassey covers Get This Party Started

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She makes me actually like the song. I always thought that the lyrics were, "I’m coming out, so you’d better get this party started." 

The mist, masks and mirrors are making me think that someone needs to mash this cover up with images from the ballroom scene in Labyrinth.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1580781.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Smores for Gloravnia

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Sure, I could purchase the Rement Mini Sweets Smores set, but I think I could also make smores pretty easily to satisfy Gloravnia’s craving.

To make them, I need:

  • marshmallows: untoasted, toasted, package
  • chocolate squares: in package, out of package
  • graham crackers: in package, out of package
  • finished smores

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1580383.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Sleepy Hollow has improved infinitesimally.

Sleepy Hollow has improved infinitesimally. published on No Comments on Sleepy Hollow has improved infinitesimally.

The second episode addresses two of my criticisms that I leveled at the show based on the pilot.

In one of my complaints, I pointed out that Abbie [I was misspelling it in my initial entry] has no family, friends or support system. This episode builds up her social circle a bit, providing her with an ex, an Army vet also on the force and, more excitingly, her sister Jenny. The ghost of Abbie’s mentor shows up and tells her to "remember number 49," where she won’t be alone. The scene then switches to Jenny’s room, number 49, at a psychiatric institution, where she only pretends to take her meds and, though haunted by [actual] demons, adheres to a strict physical training regimen. The show thus clearly sets up Jenny as Abbie and Ichabod’s future ally.

I would dearly love for Jenny to join Abbie and Ichabod in their campaign against the Horsemen. Abbie and Jenny, having been estranged during Jenny’s institutionalization, could forge a relationship, dealing with the messes of their past: the pain of being disbelieved when they saw a demon in high school, Abbie’s guilt when Jenny was sent to an institution, Jenny’s jealousy over Abbie’s occupational achievements in the police force, their awkwardness over not having seen each other for years. But Jenny is not an important character; if she was, we would have seen her in the pilot and actually had a conversation or two, at least in flashback, between Abbie and Jenny. Thus the show will not explore the fascinating theme of a sisterly bond forged in the crucible of the supernatural. In fact, Jenny is probably going to die in a episode or two. That said, I will keep watching the show to see where it’s going with Jenny, at least until the showrunners kill her off.

In another of my complaints, I noted that the showrunners completely wasted John Cho by killing off his character at the end of the pilot. The showrunners are slightly forgiven for this because John Cho’s character is back from the dead, doing the evil’s dirty work. I’m glad that he’s back, but I am unhappy that a character of color has been reduced to grunt work for white dudes.

The microscopic improvements have me hooked for at least a few more episodes, but the show is still very stupid overall. Apparently Ichabod’s wife Katrina was burned at the stake in 1782. HAH HAH HAH HAH that’s about a century too late for death due to witchcraft, and, again, I’m going to scream at the TV, "No one was burned for witchcraft in this country goddammit!" In other historical inaccuracies, all the witches in the Revolutionary-era flashbacks have their hair down and loose, an egregious error, especially for the married Katrina, who should have her hair up and covered. Etc., etc., etc.

Speaking of stupid shows, I wonder when Grimm is back?

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1579938.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Northeast Street Rod Nationals, 09/21/2013: customized scooters!!!!!

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We attended the Northeast Street Rod Nationals at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds in Essex Junction, VT on Saturday. I took ~200 pictures, mostly for Janna, all of which I will not reproduce here. Instead, I will focus on my favorite part of the show: customized scooters by AK Rods & Customs of Londonderry, NH, run by Andy and Keith Lefebvre.
Continue reading Northeast Street Rod Nationals, 09/21/2013: customized scooters!!!!!

Fire elemental + sprite of tears

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What would happen if Yamarrah, fire elemental, and Gloravnia, sprite of tears, became friends? I dunno, but it sure would be entertaining!

As a side note, I’m thinking that Gloravnia wears a cropped T-shirt, bellbottom pants and little hightops. She has different stripes of blues in her hair, double ponytails and little cat’s-eye glasses. Not sure where to get little cat’s-eye glasses…

Gloravnia likes toasted marshmallows. [Excuse to get Rement s’mores set.]  Maybe she can cook them on Yamarrah’s hair. :p 

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1579291.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Yamarrah’s wig, part ?

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I tacked some more around her scalp and a lot on her sideburns, trying to make them less voluminous. I also put some Mod Podge in her bangs so that they appear to be affected by gravity. She has no clothes on because I took them off to wire her from her torso all the way down each of her legs and also through each arm.

I think her forelock needs tacking.
Continue reading Yamarrah’s wig, part ?

1:6 scale upright vacuum and handheld vacuum

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As much as I enjoy constructing or customizing many of my 1:6 scale dolls, set pieces and accessories, I always appreciate an accurate, detailed, appropriately scaled piece that looks and functions great straight out of the package. Sometimes I just don’t want to invest hours of work into everything.
Continue reading 1:6 scale upright vacuum and handheld vacuum

The thrill of the chase

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I just started a 90-day layaway for a 1:6 scale BJD on my want list [previously mentioned in "Oooh oooh!"]. Now that I have reserved her, I can be less cryptic about her identity. She is a Soom Mini Gem Garam, one of the rarest Mini Gems. As I may have mentioned, I have seen no owner pictures of her up until now, and this is the first time I’ve seen her available on the secondary market. I don’t think she sold very well.

Anyway, I have no idea yet what I will do with her, but I have been toying with the thought of adding her to my pests fairies. She has an interesting face. She looks like she’s on the verge of tears.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1578203.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

How not to write, part seven zillion and two in an infinitely extensible series

How not to write, part seven zillion and two in an infinitely extensible series published on No Comments on How not to write, part seven zillion and two in an infinitely extensible series

Today we’re examining The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker. I picked this up because it looked to be in a similar vein as Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy, a silly but agreeably diverting series with occasional intelligent grace notes. In fact, Harkness endorsed Barker’s debut novel as "a marvelous plot [with] clever dialogue [and] complex characters…a perfect escape from humdrum reality." I mentally translated this as "fun, shallow escapism" and settled in for some entertainment.

I have not been entertained. Instead, Barker has been providing object lessons in how not to write, here presented for your delectation in no particular order:

1) Spend a significant portion of the book having the protagonist raped and brainwashed, and then forget about it. Nora, a 30-year-old unhappy grad student in English literature, somehow accidentally pierces from this world into the realm of Ye Olde Standarde Faeries: that is, supernatural assholes who appear like beautiful humans but really look disgusting and who enjoy kidnapping humans and messing with their minds. The first 80 pages of the novel detail her transformation into a thoughtless automaton, coerced into a muzzy-headed state of permanent compliance. She is essentially drugged, threatened, gaslighted, forcibly married to Raclin, a draconic fairy prince, raped by Raclin, beaten by Raclin and, finally, terrorized by Raclin’s mom Ilissa until she miscarries. By this point, the reader just wants the torture to end, but no such luck. Aruendiel, a human, male magician, rescues Nora, and we still have about four-fifths of the book left to go.

The remainder of the book, however, doesn’t adequately address the aftermath of Nora’s ordeal. Barker discusses Nora’s physical healing from Raclin’s assault, as well as the disconcerting experience of having a huge amount of fairy glamour lifted from her. We also get a little bit of ambivalence from Nora about having a miscarriage, but that’s about it. We don’t, for example, see Nora angry or ashamed at her seduction, regretful that she has left behind the lap of luxury for a hardscrabble life with Aruendiel, proud that she managed to get out or even frightened that the fairies might come after her. She does not appear to have been emotionally affected by her torture at all. For God’s sake, she shows more impassioned feeling in her discussion with Aruendiel of his language’s sexist deployment of gendered conjugations and declensions than she does about her repeated mental and physical violation at the hands of the fairies.

2) Fail to establish credible antagonists. Of course, the fairies do indeed come after Nora once Aruendiel rescues her; Raclin, in the form of a dragon, chases her on a few separate occasions, but is thwarted when Aruendiel a) pop-flies him into the stratosphere, b) leaves him with a much larger and very pissy lake monster and c) turns him into a rock. Aruendiel’s casual [and silly — seriously, pop-flying him into the stratosphere?] dispatches of Raclin make the prince seem less like a truly threatening abuser and more like an annoying bug. Because Nora and Aruendiel always repulse the fairies, the fairies fail come across as creakingly obvious devices with which to move the plot [such as there is] forward.

3) Use ableist and racist stereotypes in place of character development. In the ableism department, Aruendiel represents one of the most tedious types, the Aloof And Commanding Cripple With A Broken Body, But A Restless Mind, Whose Rudeness And Grimness May Be Excused By His Secret Tragic Past [But It Wasn’t His Fault]. In Aruendiel’s case, he killed his wife because [somehow] he thought this would free her from an enchantment that Ilissa had put on her. Then he was fighting in some war with Ilissa, and he fell out of the sky, broke lots of bones and died, but his friends brought him back to life. He does not, however, think that he was worth reviving. Why are the Tragic Cripples always so whiny and self-pitying?

In the racism department, one of the most interesting characters unfortunately ends up being the most exoticized. Hirizjahkinis, Aruendiel’s friend, is the only female magician in a book where the main culture’s characters think of female magicians as highly improbable, if not impossible. Hirizjahkinis skirts the sexist restrictions of Aruendiel’s society by being a foreigner from some hot, jungle-covered, southerly place [lazy Africa equivalent] with a tradition of female witches. Physically, she is dark-skinned — the only non-white character in the entire book [a fact noted by the white characters] — with her black hair in cornrows. When Nora first meets her, Hirizjahkinis is so exotic and foreign that she wears both a kimono-like robe and a leopard skin over her shoulders. Yes, folks, a leopard skin: the stereotypical sign of a comic-book "jungle girl" or "savage!" Oh yeah, and she’s bisexual — the only non-hetero person in the entire book [also noted by the characters]. Even though she is warm, friendly, patient, competent, unflappable, sexy, badass and clearly the most lively and engaging character in the whole book, Hirizjahkinis suffers from intersectional objectification because, for some reason, Barker thought it acceptable to turn her into an egregious token, the embodiment of all that is different from the straight, white majority in the book.

4) Focus on a vacuous protagonist. I have no idea why Harkness thinks that this book involves "complex characters." They are the least complex I have come across in a long time. The protagonist Nora has no personality whatsoever, and the structure of the book, in which events happen to Nora through no agency of her own, certainly doesn’t help matters. Nora is stalled in her dissertation by her advisor, dumped by her boyfriend, accidentally sucked into another world, abducted and raped by fairies, rescued and healed by Aruendiel, etc., etc., etc., shuttling from one event to another like a pinball being smacked by paddles of plot. It is possible to write a fascinating story about a protagonist who experiences dramatic changes in her life that are outside her control, but this is not that story. Said hypothetical fascinating story requires a protagonist with an interesting inner life whose interpretation of events offers counterpoint and/or insight into the whole structure of the plot. Nora, who apparently has no phenomenological experience whatsoever [see her lack of reaction to her rape], is not that protagonist.

Barker does Nora no favors on the development front by depriving her of a history. Sure, she’s got an ex-boyfriend and a female friend, but we quickly breeze past these people so that Nora may be brainwashed and raped by the fairies. Quick summaries of Nora’s relationship with her ex or an explanation of her friend’s personality provide no revealing details about Nora as a person.

And what about Nora’s family?  Heck, it’s not until two-thirds of the way through the book, when she visits her 10-year-old sister through a two-way scrying spell, that we see that her sister has a shrine to their dead brother and that it now includes a photo of presumed-dead Nora as well. Why didn’t we hear about her little sister and dead brother earlier? Why does Barker pass up a chance to forge significant relationships and thus a bit of individuality for her main character? Why does she withhold such important information about Nora’s dead brother until practically the end of the book, when the reader is so stultified by the pointless plotlessness that they have no energy left to give a shit? The poignant conversation between Nora and her sister, who thinks she might be a ghost, contains more emotional heft than all the pages before it, but apparently leaves no lasting effect. In conclusion, Nora, a character apparently impervious to the effects of life, bores the poop out of me.

4) Tell the wrong story. Barker spends most of her time on a) Nora’s torture in fairyland, b) Nora’s physical recovery from her assault, during which she does a large amount of chores with Aruendiel’s housekeeper, c) Nora’s failed attempts to learn magic and d) her increasing, inexplicable infatuation with Aruendiel. To this, Barker tosses in interminable discussions of human/fairy politics that never seem to impinge upon the plot, scads of silly made-up names ["Hirgus Ext" being a typical example] with no logic behind them [she seems to think that telling the name of everything constitutes convincing worldcraft] and Nora’s continual frustration over the sexism in Aruendiel’s society. If there’s a plot or anything of consequence going on in there, I missed it in the wash of extraneous details.

Meanwhile, there’s a much more interesting thread running through the story: that of the conjunction between magic and death, fairyland and the afterlife. Nora enters fairyland through an abandoned cemetery, and it’s mentioned that she has always liked old graveyards [a fact that’s never enlarged upon]. When she determines how much time has passed in the magic world, she figures that her family must think that she is dead. In her adventures with Aruendiel, she encourages him to bring back to life a young girl. Her interest in life and death takes on new significance when she converses with her little sister and sees herself in the same category as her dead brother: enshrined in absence. Nora has a cautious, curious, mournful relationship with death, which is probably the only interesting thing about her.

Aruendiel does his own dance with death. As a magician, he has used magic enough so that his life has been extended to a few centuries, time enough to see generations of friends and family grow old and die. He has killed a bunch of people, including his own wife, which seems to affect him less than his own death and revivification. Part of him kind of wishes his friends had just let him stay dead, but part of him clearly wishes to keep on living. 

I’d like to hear that story — the tale of how two people so personally invested in death navigate the trials of life — but no. Instead we get the housekeeper teaching Nora how to chop up apples. I stayed up way too late last night, reading this book, waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1577869.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Oh, Sleepy Hollow. You are so stupid.

Oh, Sleepy Hollow. You are so stupid. published on 1 Comment on Oh, Sleepy Hollow. You are so stupid.

Just watched the pilot for Fox’s new Sleepy Hollow, which involves Ichabod Crane pulling a Rip Van Winkle, sleeping for 250 years, then teaming up with a WOC police lieutenant, Abby Mills, to stop the Headless Horseman, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. [Previous comments on the trailer here.]

I don’t know where to start on the stupidity, so I’ll just make a list of things that pissed me off, in no particular order:

  • When discussing slavery with Abby, Ichabod gets all huffy and says that he was an early abolitionist. Abby says that slavery has been abolished for 150 years, and Ichabod remarks, “Yet here I am in shackles [= handcuffs].” His defensive comment about his progressive abolitionism and his turning of the entire history of enslaved Africans into a comment on his momentarily restrained state both serve as a perfect example of privileged white people appropriating the marginalization of oppressed people for their own whiny rhetorical purposes.
  • No one seems particularly fussed about Ichabod’s claim that he was alive during the Revolutionary War. The dude giving Ichabod the polygraph test [hi there, Nestor Serrano — nice to see you!] listens to Ichabod’s comments about “the American colonies,” “the Revolution” and “General Washington” and, noting that none of these trigger the polygraph, therefore instantly concludes that Ichabod is from 250 years in the past. Or, you know, he could be a) drugged, b) delusional, c) lying, d) several of the above. A, B, C and D represent much more logical conclusions than a 250-year sleep, but this show clearly demonstrates that it has no use for logic.
  • Ichabod’s wife, Katrina, was burnt at the stake as a witch shortly after the Revolution. This inaccurate bit of backstory, along with the egregiously stupid detail that witches were burnt in Sleepy Hollow up through the 1830s, makes me want to throw things at the TV. Nobody was killed for witchcraft around here after the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692, and no one was ever burned at the stake for witchcraft in this country. I can’t stand it when ignorant people try to drag witchcraft trials into centuries where they don’t belong.
  • Abby, like most female protagonists in police procedurals, is an Exceptional Woman with no family, no friends, no colleagues and no support system. Her mentor, Sheriff I-Forget-His-Name, is decapitated within the first third of the pilot. Apparently she grew up in Sleepy Hollow, as she mentions a supernatural experience she had in town with her sister in high school, but we never hear about any family or friends she might have in the area. Characterized as a mentally ill failure who bounces in and out of institutions, Abby’s sister is dismissed by the plot as a useless, unreliable failure. The story thus sets Abby up as isolated and in a perfect position to become dependent on Ichabod, the only person who believes her. I bet they’re going to pair off and fall in love VOMIT VOMIT VOMIT.
  • On a related note, Sleepy Hollow is apparently a single-sex town. The only woman besides Abby with more than two lines is Katrina, a dead damsel in distress who needs Ichabod’s help to be liberated from a dreamland where the antagonists have imprisoned her.
  • As the pilot starts, Abby plans to leave her Sleepy Hollow job for the FBI in a week. She really wants to go, and she claims that she does not want to mess up this opportunity. Her actions, however, tell a different story. Throughout the pilot, she defies her captain’s orders: interrogating Ichabod, bringing him to a crime scene, releasing him from the mental institution under false pretenses, snooping in the sheriff’s office, etc., etc., etc. The captain responds by talking tough and then doing absolutely nothing about Abby’s infractions. At first, I hoped that his de facto leniency would lead to a rare instance in which a police department actually supports a TV character’s investigation of supernatural phenomena, but nah. It’s just sloppy writing, in yet another pointless sacrifice of logic.
  • Could the show have picked a more boring villain? The Four Horsemen are a fine choice, but the show really hampers itself with the decision to amputate the head of one of them. The Headless Horseman literally has no expression, which means he just stomps around, either axing things or shooting things. If the showrunners wanted to show a modicum of inventiveness, they could have employed body language to communicate personality: a raised fist when victory seems imminent, a jaunty twirl of the axe after a successful kill, even an alteration of the gait depending on the circumstances. But no, the Headless Horseman just plods around, hacking things. Booooooooorrrrrrriiiiiiing.
  • The show commits the unforgivable crime of bringing in John Cho to play one of Abby’s fellow officers and a secret agent on the side of the Horseman…and then killing him off at the end of the pilot. This is a multipart offense, consisting of a) gratuitous bumping off of a POC, b) lost opportunity for a cool storyline in which Abby and Ichabod’s efforts are thwarted internally by pro-Horseman forces on the force and c) horrible waste of a talented actor.

So there you go…racism, historical inaccuracy, illogical plot holes, lazy sexist characterization, dull antagonists and more racism. Awesome!

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1577538.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Further work on Yamarrah’s wig

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Tacked more flyaways down. Combed out the spikes for more of a blended look. Glued in some red bangs, then pulled down some orange pieces for further bangs. Still need to sculpt the bangs a bit and, of course, the widow’s peak and sideburns will lie flat against Yamarrah’s skull when I’m done; I’ll either glue them or use sticky tack on them after I do her faceup. Still, it’s looking good!
Continue reading Further work on Yamarrah’s wig

Standing tall

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My crotch stand for Jareth from Mint on Card arrived today, so here he is getting a wedgie and showing just how long his legs are. It’s 17 inches or 43cm from crotch to ground when he’s wearing those shoes. In other words, his legs are as long as a standard 1:4 scale BJD is high. 0_0

Continue reading Standing tall

Makin’ tails on speech bubbles

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Balloon Tales has an Adobe Illustrator tutorial. There’s also some detail here.

I keep running up against the limitations of Elements. I can’t justify ~$700.00 for Photoshop, though.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1576317.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Six-armed robot dragon dolls!

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Souldoll puts out some amazing stuff these days. Their Souloid line, a series BJDs with robotic elements in their design, is especially cool. It started off about two years ago with Iraki, a 43cm male doll with robotic lower torso, pelvis, legs and feet. All Souloid releases have been in this scale until now, with the introduction of Kowalski and Billian, 70cm males.

The larger Souloids’ design represents an imaginative departure from the usual. These dudes have full robo-bodies [except their human heads], as well as tails, vespertilian wings and three sets of arms apiece with articulated fingers. With all that weight up top, I’m surprised that they can stand alone, but their tails are probably acting as struts. :p Given the extra resin in the multiple arms, it’s no wonder that they cost $1,200.00 naked and unpainted. [With all options and s/h to the US, you could be paying ~$2,100.00!]

Kowalski and Billian amaze me. Their concepts take two popular design elements — therianthropes and cyborgs — and merge them successfully. Their detailed body sculpting accurately suggests mechanical components, while their unusual bodies are feats of successful engineering. Their angular headsculpts effectively combine an angular, robotic look with the expressive humanity shown in so much of Souldoll’s work.

I used to think that Soom innovated the most in BJD concepts and design, but, of the major companies, I now see that the title of most creative must be given to Souldoll. I love Soom. However, their Monthly Dolls now contain a dull, repetitive succession of therianthropic features. Even the Faery Legend line, which, I think, hit a peak around Azur, Aenigma, Kremer, Cylin and possibly Metato, has been really uneven lately. By contrast, Souldoll continues to add [and then retire] a variety of sculpts, as well as a variety of androgynous, frilly, over-the-top outfits. Their Tarot line, though uneven, deserves credit for an original concept and some truly cool executions, and their Souloids are just plain awesome! Go Souldoll!

I really wish they’d bring back their 1:6 scale Soul Littles, though. :'(


This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1576141.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Yamarrah’s wig construction [with bonus Jareth!]

Yamarrah’s wig construction [with bonus Jareth!] published on No Comments on Yamarrah’s wig construction [with bonus Jareth!]

Made another draft wig this morning out of pink fibers, cutting them with the grain so that the hair pointed down. I rolled under less of the edges so that this one was a bit bigger than the first draft, but still snug. Yamarrah models in the first picture, Jareth in the second.

Confident that my pattern would fit Yamarrah, I cut out her final wig from the yellow base fur with red and orange spikes. The third picture shows her hair before styling. I then saw that her hair sat high on her forehead, so I experimented with the addition of a widow’s peak. The last picture shows her current hair after the addition of Mod Podge and widow’s peak, a separate triangular piece of fur that I stitched in.

I still want to give her little pieces of loose hair hanging in front of her ears. I am satisfied with progress so far, though.

Continue reading Yamarrah’s wig construction [with bonus Jareth!]

Yamarrah’s wig: cutting against the grain

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I made my first 1:3 scale faux fur wig tonight! To create a pattern for Yamarrah’s wig, I used Janvier Jett’s wig, made by Akasarushi. I flipped it inside out, traced one half and reverse-engineered a simple pattern based on two semicircles side by side. Then I hot glued the edges under and stitched the center part. Had to rip out a stitch or two from the part at the back edge to make it fit, but otherwise it was the correct size. A successful first draft!

I noticed when I turned the wig right-side out that I had cut the draft wig against the grain of the fur, meaning that the hair was pointing up instead of down. Since I want Yamarrah to be a fire sprite, the resultant messy, anti-gravity look is actually pretty cool. It also adds to the 1980s air she has, I think.

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Chittenden County Doll Club, 09/13/13: everyone’s dolls!

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Lorraine [vermont chick], Megan and I gathered for a meetup this afternoon at the usual place and usual time.

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Oooh oooh!

Oooh oooh! published on No Comments on Oooh oooh!

A 1:6 scale BJD on my want list has appeared on the DOA marketplace. She’s in the You Wish! category of relative rarity, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen her for sale on the secondary market. I would like to get her right now, but the price is a little steep.

Furthermore, I have a drawer full of 1:6 scale BJD parts that I have acquired, but not done anything with…like that second Soom Aenigma head. Hell, I completely forgot I had that. I am not quite sure why I purchased it in the first place. Anyway, I feel slightly guilty getting someone else when I have little populations lying in wait, unused.

Obviously not that guilty, though… :p

While my idea for a 1:6 scale dryad BJD has fallen by the wayside, I’ve recently been thinking about a concept for a Lumedoll Lumelight Mini Zero that I had back in June. [I initially called him Silencio, but I think that a gender-neutral abstract noun might be better: Infinity.] I find the half-finished facial features on Mini Zero very cool and evocative. I think a truly black version of him with stark white robes would be fucking amazing. I would need to paint his body…

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1574490.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

More salvaged and improved wigs for Isabel

More salvaged and improved wigs for Isabel published on No Comments on More salvaged and improved wigs for Isabel

I have finished salvaging all those earlier wigs that I could, cutting out the hot glue center parts and stitching in hand sewn ones. I have taken the opportunity to try various hairstyles. Some of them even came out looking good!
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Illusion Spirit Teresa!!

Illusion Spirit Teresa!! published on No Comments on Illusion Spirit Teresa!!

While I wasn’t looking, Illusion Spirit issued a new 1:6 scale mature BJD. I’ve already noted the existence of the sculpt named Spirit, who looks really blocky and amateurish. I am now reporting on the newest sculpt, Teresa, who looks much, much better than Spirit. For $165.00 excluding s/h, she’s a tempting prospect to purchase for some interesting mods.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1573878.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Tonight’s work on Sylvia

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I took out about 1cm of height from her thighs right below the swivels and about 1.5cm of height from her ankles right above the swivels. I hot glued her together at the thighs, thus sacrificing the swivels there, but I preserved the ankle swivels. She’s now about 10 inches tall, excluding some molded hair spikes.
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Winner of the Ms. Appropriation 2013 contest

Winner of the Ms. Appropriation 2013 contest published on No Comments on Winner of the Ms. Appropriation 2013 contest

Sylvia Blomqvist, Zombieville denizen, PWS and one of the people in charge of the Lakeside Community Co-op. New Agey syncretist par excellence and embodiment of the worst of cultural appropriation. 

  • Pissed off Prunella, who was out from the shop, lobbying in Montpelier for state recognition of the Abenaki tribe, by saying, "Indians are so spiritual!"
  • Pissed off Peter, who was interested in dating her, until she started treating him like a "gay best friend accessory. And I’m not even gay!"
  • Has a tattoo that she says is "Chinese for ‘life force,’" but Barrett says it’s gibberish.

I think I’m going to embody her in the Pocahontas doll that I got from Andrea, shown at left in the photo below. That doll needs some serious rehab.
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I Kickstarted.

I Kickstarted. published on No Comments on I Kickstarted.

…for the Scary Godmother doll by Jill Thompson because she is pointy [the doll, not the creator]. Also I like the artist’s style enough to purchase a book of postcards. Hmmm…

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1571841.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Further wig experiments for Isabel

Further wig experiments for Isabel published on No Comments on Further wig experiments for Isabel

I have refined my wig making procedure. I used to hot-glue both the hairline edges and the center part. Hot glue, however, is not that flexible, so it often rendered the center part blocky and unrealistic. I changed from gluing the center part to hand sewing it. The results are more flexible, and they curve around the head naturalistically. I’m still hot gluing the hairline, though.
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The Excessive school of decoration

The Excessive school of decoration published on 1 Comment on The Excessive school of decoration

This is how Jareth thinks:

If pink hair is good, fluorescent pink hair is better!

If two leather collars are good, two leather collars and a locking bolero/pauldron thing with chains and dangly accents is better!

If calf-high platform heels are good, knee-high platform stiletto heels are better!

If a black cape is good, a sparkly black cape is better!

[P.S. I’m not really sure what’s up with the glasses, but he seems pretty attached to them. :p ]

Behold him below in more clothes created by the inimitable, fastidious and brilliant Brenda/Isabeau/Pansy Fashions:

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[incoherent jubilation]

[incoherent jubilation] published on No Comments on [incoherent jubilation]

Jareth’s body and his ridiculous clothes have come home from Brenda/Isabeau/Pansy Fashions! I prepared tools and camera for the happy event, but neglected to bring wire so that I could string his legs. 🙁 Mr. Demandypants is temporarily Mr. Demandynopants.

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How to Live with Introverts

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Cyborgology posted an interesting essay by Whitney Boesel about the pop cultural popularity of introverts, and one of the illustrations was from a cartoon, How to Live with Introverts, by Schroeder Jones. The panel in which the grabby extrovert penetrates the introvert’s hamster ball, saying, "Come out! Come out!" and the introvert goes, "Hissssss!" is cracking my shit up.

Okay, gonna read the rest of that essay now…

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1570805.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Jareth’s body is on its way home, with clothes!

Jareth’s body is on its way home, with clothes! published on No Comments on Jareth’s body is on its way home, with clothes!

Jareth and his new wardrobe of gloriously silly clothes are en route from Brenda/Isabeau/Pansy Fashions and scheduled to land on Friday. Then I can put him back together and have him resume his usual post on the shelf next to my end of the sofa. Huzzah!

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1570341.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Stocking Isabel’s mess: art supplies

Stocking Isabel’s mess: art supplies published on No Comments on Stocking Isabel’s mess: art supplies

One Zombieville set that I will greatly enjoy making is Isabel’s room, including her mess where she customizes dolls. The accessories for this set will be easy to furnish since I can use many of my own supplies for Isabel’s. See:
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The neverending story of Peter’s walker

The neverending story of Peter’s walker published on No Comments on The neverending story of Peter’s walker

I’m going to ditch my current attempt at Peter’s walker. I need to start all over again with another folding chair. This time, I will do the following differently:

I will not cut down the seat depth.

I will use coat hangers as a source of wire for the frame, rather than 10 gauge solid core copper, which bends very hard.

I will not use Aves Apoxie Sculpt to adhere the pieces of the frame together, as it destroys the sleek lines I’m going for.

Bllllah. This project has caused me nothing but frustration. However, I am determined to try once more, given what I have learned from my initial mistakes. If this doesn’t work, I’ll commission someone to make one. However, it’s much cheaper and easier to make my own.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1569548.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

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