Monday, March 28th, 2011

Introductions & Investigations (OMG! A Photostory!)

[info]alorian

Bellamy: Spring, my ass. It is freezing out there. Whoever came up the notion that English spring is some sort of magical season was obviously living in Majorca at the time.

In Which It's a New Photostory for the First Time in Ever, and there are New Dolls, Too! )
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Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

[gallery] Sunset Lake

[info]alorian


I had a stressful day today, so I came home and did something scary: I drilled earring holes in Issachar's ears. It's really only the start of the work he needs (his neck needs sanding so his head fits better, he needs new stringing, hooks, and kips disks, not to mention some faceup work and tattoos) but it's something I could do with quick results. I was really pleased with how it came out. Then I took him out to get some pictures while I still had some light. (There's twelve pics total; I'm too tired to pick and choose over different angles the way I usually do.)

+11 )
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Friday, October 1st, 2010

[gallery] Waiting at the Gate

[info]alorian


I took Nikolin out into the beautiful day today for a few pictures. There's no such thing as a bad one of him, but these are the best of this shoot. (And if you know me, you know I have something of a thing about this gate. If and when we move, I'm going to be stuck for a set. But not as stuck as I was today, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes while I took these. :p )

+3 )

Also, Kiriya's picture didn't win anything in the Ringdoll competition (and sadly neither did the picture I thought was best--and I don't mean mine), so here are the shots from that, as well.

+2 )


(Phew, I've got to get the stories all uploaded again. I had to hunt everywhere for those old pictures. :p)
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Sunday, April 11th, 2010

who's who!

[info]alorian
This isn't much of an update, but I finally managed to update the family banner for my profile. It's way too big now for DoA, much like our doll family is way too big to all sit on the dresser together. I don't know what we're going to do when Phoenix and Edgeworth finally get limbs.



tah-dah! It's not much, but at least it's up-to-date at last. Or at least more up to date, since Nikolin has an enhanced faceup, and Amandine, Issachar, and Zuzu all have different wigs. But I hadn't added to it since like, November of '08. O_O

I hope to go out and do a photostory today! :D Since I have this cast of thousands to work with and all.
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Monday, April 5th, 2010

I don't even know how this happened.

[info]alorian


This is Jack Knight. He's a Bluefairy Tommy on a dollzone boy body, and he lives with us now! Because our friends were phasing out their MSDs, because they're too generous, because we were too weak to say no, and because Valentine needed a friend.

More about Jack will be forthcoming in future days! But for now, have some pictures of him and of Valentine! We took them out to the park on Easter Sunday, so they could get to know one another better. ^_^ And so I could get to know the new camera better.

+7 more pics )
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Sunday, March 14th, 2010

new camera!

[info]alorian
I inherited a fancy-pants SLR camera from a friend who was upgrading, and I admit I find the thing very intimidating! Still, I'm hoping to sort the front end from the back end of it with a little practice. I've only ever owned one digital camera (which is slowly dying and wasn't great to start) so something this complex is a challenge. I just got a cable so I can get the pictures directly onto the computer, so here are my first test pics of the dolls.

I don't normally shoot the dolls just as they sit around on display, usually because they're not arranged to look fancy or anything and the pictures so often come out badly, but these were my first tries with my new toy.

three astoundingly sharp pictures holy crap )
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Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Heartstrings & Valentines [Janus & Ilium, 18 pics]

[info]alorian


Heartstrings & Valentines
Janus & Ilium
NWS for minor silly sauciness!


An on-time holiday doll post from me? The world must be ending! )
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Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Floating World - Kiriya's Introduction (17pics)

[info]alorian


Kiriya was [info]eider's Christmas present, but we've held off on sharing him for so long because he did not yet have his proper wig. Kiriya is a Ringdoll Dylan, and he was ordered from Denverdoll, as they had him in stock so he would be here on Christmas morning. He is an early Ringdoll (his ID card say's he's number 000007), which means he's the pink-tinted resin that I'm not sure they do anymore. Kiriya is a courtesan in the --literally-- floating world of Ukiyo, a red-light district on an artificial continent that hovers above the city below, free of the city's gravity and its jurisdiction.

He seems to do well with the luck of the random draw, as his perfect outfit came out of one of our Wicked Stitchery grab bags, and his wig (just arrived today!) was in our Leekeworld blind wig assortment. So here he is at last. I've been really impressed with Ringdoll's product, and we hope to be ordering again from them in the near future. After all, they just released the perfect mold for Kiriya's master last week.

He is 43 cm and his head diameter is about six inches, he's very slim. He is our first doll in translucent French resin, and it really is lovely glowy stuff. Anyway, on to the pictures! Which contain some artsy stripping and body shots and are not safe for work. ♥ Someday perhaps I will paint on some tattoos for him, as he should have them.

the chrysanthemum, with petals like sharpened steel, turns red as hearts bleed )
body shots and comparison pictures )
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Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Nutcracker Suite

[info]alorian
I just now realized, in all the hoilday rush, I totally forgot to post the Nutcracker pictures here! I posted them on DoA and on our advent calendar, but forgot to do it in the journal!

This was my Christmas present to J, recreating her favorite holiday story with our dolls. It took a whole lot of sewing but I'm super pleased with the outcome (so much so that they are still in these outfits, though I'm probably going to change everybody today).

Nutcracker Suite - 15 pictures )
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Ilium in the snow

[info]alorian
I picked a bad time to start the doll pic of the day, as the holidays derailed me. :p I have tons of things I ought to do pictures of, like the fantastic new kitchen Diderot got for Christmas, and the contents of our Wicked Stitchery bags.

For a start, Ilium wound up with a t-shirt, hoodie, and scarf & cap set (though the cap's a bit big on his pin-head), and today I sat on our front stoop in the fresh snow taking pictures of him until my fingertips went numb. Which happened very fast. I know he needs new eyes and his body isn't one of the fancy-pantsy new DoD ones, but damn I love this boy.

just three pics! )

Although, speaking of new DoTs, that Code 02 guy of theirs certainly fits the bill for Verlaine, an H&H character we came up with as a joke only to have DoD release the perfect shell for him like the next day. :p phew.

He'll have to get in line behind that little Illusion Spirit boy I want, though, the one that goes with the pretty thing that J got for Christmas. More about him (and pictures) will pop up once we manage to get him the proper wig. :D I'm really impressed with Ringdoll's product, I just wish they'd wrapped him better so his eyelashes didn't get crushed. And Denverdoll should have posted his wig size! Because the ones we got were way too big. Just as well Amandine looks great in lavender hair. :p
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009

Halloween Display 2009

[info]alorian


four more under the cut! )
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Friday, October 23rd, 2009

Doll Photo of the Day #6 - Ilium

[info]alorian


Ilium is a Dream of Doll Sha, and he arrived to us in April of 2006.

Ilium was the first doll who had a separate storyline from Diderot & Co. He was purchased as a compromise, actually. We both loved the DoTs when they were introduced in late 2005, and even went so far as to design characters and a storyline for a Shall and a Lahoo, a story we called Highwater and Holtsclaw. But after being in the hobby for not even a year and already having four dolls, we really couldn't lay out $1200 for a pair of DoTs. When DoD introduced Sha a few months later (having the Shall head on a boy body) we knew he was the perfect compromise. Instead of getting the characters of Nikolin Holtsclaw and Tzeitel Highwater, we got their son, Ilium Holtswater, and adjusted the story accordingly.

When Ilium arrived, his resin was amazingly pink, his lips dreadfully orange, and he clashed with his default wig something fierce. He also had hardly any clothes. We had ordered a pair of jeans for him from Wicked Stitchery, and because Brandon was delayed in sending them out, he very kindly included a skull-print batik shirt as a gift. It was a great shirt but we thought Ilium, a prissy little priest, would never wear it. But in spite of our plans, Ilium had his own ideas. He chose a brown wig rather than white, he watched Advent Children far too many times, and when we weren't looking he fell in love with Janus. Eventually he even got his lips repainted, and it turns out he's the sort of guy to wear a batik-print skully shirt after all. Along with semi-automatic weapons and his father's motorcycle goggles.

...I don't know what they're teaching them in seminary these days.

The suit he's currently wearing belongs to our un-bodied Edgeworth minimee, and will someday be dyed magenta. It's Guessdoll, by the way, fabulous quality for the price, and fits DoTs like a dream. Protip. ^_~

Ilium has suffered the only real doll damage we've ever had to face (*touch wood*), and as a result, he has replacement hands. The new DoT resin has a different tooth to it, but it's mellowed and matches his old resin perfectly.

Ilium was our sixth doll.
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Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Doll Photo of the Day #5 - Vltava

[info]alorian


Tonight's photo is Vltava! She is a Resin Soul Ju in white, and her arrival story is much like Issachar's. While she is the spirit of a tiny forest stream, Vltava is in fact named after a large river. Finding clothes for her is difficult, because she has a distinct style and a very slim figure. Currently, she's wearing handmade things, but she's a wild spirit, and doesn't like to keep her sandals on.

Once upon a time, when the world was younger than it is now and yet older, far older than we believe it to be, there was a deep, green forest. It was a forest unlike any sort that exists now, a forest so deep and ancient that its boughs still sang with the first breeze of the world. This forest was so broad and vast that it was an ocean of trees, carpeting the tumbling, careworn mountains of a quiet land. Such a forest has more stories than one soul can tell, and this is merely one of them.

In a small part of this forest, there was a stream. Like most streams it had a changeable mood, at times a deep pool of thoughtfulness robed with a mantle of fallen leaves, at other times a dancing, giggling rush through jumbled stones. The stream's name was Vltava, and she ran from the lap of her mother-spring to the arms of her father-river, where all her brothers and sisters joined in together. Somewhere, far down her father's reach, lay the great-grandmother Ocean. Vltava had heard of this river, a forest made of water, from the birds that nested above her waters. They sang of it to their children, who would someday need to know the way there. How Vltava listened! She gathered her banks thick with moss to hush the sound of her running, she sang the birds' song to herself beneath the bubbles of her pebbled bed.
Down, down, over and down, far beyond the forest crown, through dell and den and fen and free, to find the roaring reach of sea.

Time passed, and birds came and went, and more and more Vltava longed to see the sea for herself. She would never do so, not unless she became a great river someday, and she was impatient. Her pools became less thoughtful, her fleet rapids more wild. And one day, when she could stand it no longer, she left her banks. The water still ran, but it was only water, and Vltava put bare feet onto the moss and lifted her eyes to the boughs of her wood. For a time there was only delight, as she could roam where she willed and not where the stones curved her. Her river-weed tresses dripped on the upturned faces of wildflowers, and she scattered droplets all around the thick towers of the trees. For the whole day, she ran free.

Soon the forest grew dim with night, and Vltava thought it best to be on her way. She had always known which way to go to reach the river, but now, she could no longer hear the sound of water. through the night she wandered, trying to find her way, but it was hard now for her to hear the words in the birdsong, and the forest rustled with inarticulate whispers. When dawn came, Vltava did not know the trees above her, or the carpet of leaves under her feet, and the birds did not know her name, though they sang what comfort they could.

She was lost.


Vltava was our eleventh doll.
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Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Doll Photo of the Day #4 - Issachar

[info]alorian


Issachar Fado is a Resin Soul Song, and he was purchased as a Christmas present last year. Because of their really affordable prices, [info]eider and I were each able to get a doll "of our own" at the same time. (All our other dolls are pretty much shared ownership and we come up with their stories together.) He's also our first (and only so far!) tan doll. which is a shame, because I adore tan dolls!

Issachar is my homage to Link from Legend of Zelda, though you can't really tell! He does have dark Link's coloring, though. ^_^ His last name, Fado, is the name of one of the two sages in Wind-Waker, and his eyes are Link-green. I love the RS boy sculpt and though I know the curved hands are subject to much contention, I think they're perfect for his sword.

Issachar and Vltava have a story separate from any of the other dolls. It is a fairy-tale about a lost river spirit and the elf-boy who finds her, and of their journeys together.

...Now in this same forest, there was a boy. He was an elf-child, or so he had been told by the old widow who he had called his grandmother. But she was no flesh-kin of his. She had found him, a crying infant alone, tucked into the hollow of a lightning-sundered oak tree. In the tree's bows there hung a sword, and a tasseled flute, but no note or message from whatever poor souls had abandoned their wailing infant in a tree-cradle. The old woman took him home, and called him Issachar, after a boy in a song she had loved as a child, and Fado, for the sound the tree had made in the wind.

Issachar Fado grew up at the same speed as all children, and it was quick in his grandmother's eyes. He was a sturdy, serious boy, and very helpful around his grandmother's cottage. But sometimes, in the spring and the fall especially, Issachar would stop and listen to the wind for hours on end, staring at the blue sky as if there was a story in it he longed to read. As he grew older, it was harder and harder for him to turn his face from the sky, though he had no wish to trouble his grandmother and did not speak of it to her. But she knew, all the same, and on the fifteenth anniversary of the day she found him, she gave him the flute, and the sword, and told him to follow the wind to his fortune. In his belt she packed him good things to eat and the few coins she had, and after a tearful farewell, Issachar set off on his journey.


~

Issachar was our twelfth doll. In this shot he is wearing a DoD wig, and Dollmore acrylic eyes in 14mm. Someday, I'd like to get a blue mer-boy Jun to join their fairy-tale. ♥
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Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

Doll Photo of the Day #3 - Triska

[info]alorian


Today's doll photo is Triska! Triska is a Resin Soul Yu, and we got her for free when we ordered Issachar and Vltava for Christmas. We didn't even know we would get her until after we'd placed the order, and really weren't expecting her to come to us with faceup, and a carry bag, and a pile of personality! We had thought perhaps that our unexpected doll would be Gink (short for Ginkgo) and a little tree spirit. But instead, our thirteenth doll became Triskadeikaphobia, or Triska, for short.

Resinsoul's pictures don't do justice to their dolls, and that's certainly true in Triksa's case. She's a little sweetie. Her posing was tricky until we put white pipe cleaners in her arms and legs, now she holds her poses like a dream. Triska never really attached herself to any of the other dolls until Valentine came along, and then she decided that he belonged to her. The mysterious, quiet magician and his tiny assistant are inseparable now, keeping their secrets. Sometimes I think Triska fell out of one of Valentine's cards, and sometimes I think Valentine came along because Triska wished for a friend. Someday, maybe they'll tell us just what their stories are, but for now they're happy to have each other.

Triska arrived in January of 2009. Our tiny queen of hearts, lucky number thirteen.
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Monday, October 19th, 2009

Doll Photo of the Day #2 - Arouet

[info]alorian


Tonight's doll photo is Arouet! Interrupting the studio shots for this one. It was a gorgeous evening so we went out for a walk, and Arouet came along.

Arouet is an Angel Region Present Jade Version one. (Link is to basic version)

Arouet belonged to two different people before he came to us. In his original incarnation, he was a little fire spirit that I adored to pieces. When his owner sold him I was heartbroken because I couldn't afford him at the time. As luck would have it, he was bought by a good dolly friend, so I got to stalk him a little more. When she in turn was ready to sell him, we were able to sell Amandine's original body for part of the cost and pay off the rest. (Leading to the saying that poor Amandine had to sell her body to get a boyfriend. :p) Arouet was the first doll I ever did a faceup on. The version he has now is his second one. The full story (minus photos) is here.

Arouet is Bellamy's human twin brother, who his mother carried back to the mortal world. He was raised in France in the mid-eighteenth century, until a random loop in time flung him out of danger and on to Diderot's doorstep. His relationship with Bellamy is still a little rocky, but he gets on very well with Diderot and someday hopes to ask Diderot for permission to marry Amandine. He wants to find out more about his past (and make sure he's staying put) before he does that, though. He's adapted well to living in the future, but he can't quite get used to the music.

Arouet was our seventh doll. He arrived in August of 2006.
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Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Doll Photo of the Day #1 - Moth

[info]alorian


Welcome to the Doll Photo of the Day! Hopefully I'll be posting a doll picture every day, though it may be dodgy on weekends. I realized, gathering pictures for the website (still not up :p) that the pictures I have are really uneven, both in quality and in which dolls have shots. And this way, I can lavish some attention on one doll at a time, and share information about each one. Considering our number of dolls, it'll be two weeks before we hit repeats! We're starting this off with our smallest doll, Moth.

Moth is a Dollmore Elf Elly White Banji Boy. He was purchased in January 2006, and he has his original default eyes and faceup. At just under six inches high, Moth is our smallest doll. Even though we have the replacement knee parts dollmore made for him, we've never put them in. He's simply too daunting to restring!

Moth's real name is Parvanah, which means "moth" in Persian. He is a Djinn, and he belongs to Nicodemus. Nicodemus is very fond of his little servant and never makes him stay in his bottle. When Nicodemus (at the time ensorseled into the form of a bespectacled cat) realized that Moth's powers could not return him to his true form, Nicodemus instead wished for Moth to stay with him as a helper. (There's a lot you can't do when you have paws instead of thumbs.) Moth is a very young Djinn, being only a few thousand years old. He is absolutely devoted to Nicodemus and does all he can to please him. However, his eagerness sometimes gets him into trouble. He also is a bit mischievous as well and likes to play tricks. He dislikes wearing clothes, but does so because of Nicodemus' sense of propriety. He's much happier running around in a thistle-down loincloth.

Moth was our fifth doll.

Thanks for checking out the doll of the day! ^_^
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Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

[photostory] Duty & Distance

[info]alorian


In which Bellamy can't find the right words or the right time. )
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Mountains Photos, Part two!

[info]alorian
Moar pictures! Lots of them, and big ones.

Nikolin, Tzeitel, Ilium, and Zuzu. ♥

family photos )
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Mountain Photos - part 1

[info]alorian
I know, I haven't darkened the door here in ages. All my doll-energies have been focused on doing the Minimee Order for Edgeworth and Phoenix, and it hasn't left me much time for actual dolls. :p But I did take a bunch of pictures on our trip to the mountains last month, and I've finally gotten them uploaded. :p we didn't take everybody, just the H&H family (including Janus) and Valentine and Triska because I grabbed them at the last moment.

I look forward to more pictures, and maybe *gasp* photostories in the future! I just got a sweet tripod for my birthday and I can't wait to work with it. I'm hoping for a new camera in the coming months, too. *crosses fingers*

There's a crapton of large photos under the cut here.

So, without further ado:

Janus, Valentine, & Triska )
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