A Change of Pace

With several new outfits and one new Monogram doll head, I had reason to photograph some 12" dolls this week.
This is Monogram Exaggeration wearing an HJ Couture top, FR pants, boots and jewelry. She's got a smouldering look on her face.

 

Elyse and Kyori, both on FR2 bodies, model VJohn dresses beautifully.  

Last, we have a  Mini-Avantguard doll who is wearing a NuFace fashion. I spend so little time with the IT doll world these days that I can't remember their exact names or the names of the fashions. But I'm very happy with the beautiful dolls I have kept and hope talented designers keep making affordable outfits for them.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

I recently purchased an NRFB Sybarite convention fashion called Viper Byte. I'd seen beautiful photos of dolls wearing the fashion.  I had to have it.  

The jacket along with the pants are the best parts of this multi-part fashion. The pants are very nice and fit beautifully. The t-shirt, which I did not photograph, is unfitted and the stitching on the stretchy fabric is poorly done. I took it off my doll.  The finish on the belt is very fragile and after closing the hook I noticed that a small part of the surface of the belt was scratched off.
The bracelets are metal and there's no way they could have gone on unless the hands were removed or the metal was spread open. I chose the second method knowing that closing them up again would probably cause them to break. One did break. The heels on the beautiful shoes are as thick as the lead in a pencil and as fragile. Luckily I did not break them. This is the first individually purchased Sybarite fashion to cause me such disappointment.

So last week it was Lawn and this week it's Viper Byte.
Update on Lawn...she's been sent back to Superdoll and they are going to replace her with a new doll. Postage at their expense both ways - as it should be.

My model above is a newly acquired Dionysis repaint by Yian wearing a wig by Cheryl Wood.

Review: Carmen, Mazarine Blue Doll

Review and photographs by Miriam Shepherd. 

Carmen arrived today and she is a very interesting doll. She comes tied and sewn onto a silk pillow with another one on top and she arrived in perfect condition. The worst thing I can say about this doll is that her stand is useless. It does not hold her up. I suspect that whoever manufactured the saddle on this stand did not understand how it was supposed to be used and turned it sideways as if it was supposed to grip her waist. It doesn't. As for the doll, she is true to her publicity pictures. She has a beautifully sculpted face I think. I am not sure I am completely in love with her face paint style, but that I think is a matter of taste rather than of skill. Her wig by Ilaria is just amazing - very sexy. The body on this doll is really rather different. She has detailed chest bones and neck tendons. I think whoever sculpted her body really studied the human body. Her legs seem to have much more detailing for muscle indentations than most dolls. The aesthetic for this doll's body is for a very thin person with defined hip bones. Her rear end is very rounded at the hips but is actually rather flat in the back. She has a long torso and narrow upper torso. Her hands are pretty, not paddles. Her feet are also pretty. Because her torso is long and her hips wide, I don't think she will fit Gene clothes - the one dress I tried wouldn't go over her hips. From my few experiments, she won't fit many Avant Guard, FR16 clothes either. But she does fit Tyler clothes very nicely which is great because I have more of them than any other doll and so many of the new dolls DON'T fit Tyler well. She'll probably fit Antoinette okay too - although she has a grown up bustline, her torso is narrow so it might even out. She can get her foot in many Tyler sandals and shoes, but her arch is a bit higher. She will not fit Sybarite or JS shoes as her feet are too wide. She will be able to share shoes with Ficon, Mods, Devon though. As for wigs, she'll fit most #5/6 wigs for Tyler and Jamieshow. Her hard cap wig fit my Sasha doll nicely. I don't know if I am completely in love with this doll, but I think she's quite nice. One thing though - I notice seams on her body here and there which I never see on other resin dolls. Perhaps they needed to be sanded down more carefully? Her resin is otherwise very nice quality, smooth and nice natural color and attractively blushed. 

Thank you to Miriam for allowing me to share her review and photos with my readers. 
You can see Miriam's beautiful work at:  http://www.yumyumcouture.com

Mazarine Blue Doll — 17" Ball Jointed Fashion Doll

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Mazarine responds to Miriam's review:

Hi, Miriam!
Thank you so much for your very honest review with details :-) Really appreciate it!!

I sculpted this doll myself.
As you wrote, I expressed a lot of muscles for Victoria's Secret look.
(Wide hips are for that, too)
And I actually matched her to Tyler size.
So she can wear a lot of clothes of Tyler, but as you wrote, she cannot wear AG or thinner dolls clothes.

And about doll stand.
It doesn't hold her waist up.
It's for leaning on.
When she's wearing shoes, she can be standing on leaning on the stand.
As you can see, the pole length isn't extended.
So we made waist stand that you can use for various shoes height.
(But we also think we need to develop doll stand in future)

And about Seams.
My duplicator is very professional and he's working for big Korean bjd companies like Dollmore.
We had talked about seams many times.
He tries make less seams, but as far as we make them from silicone molds, they happen.
It's natural among usual big tanned bjds.
Sometimes we remove them with sandpaper.
but this color resin cannot be sanded because discolorations. My own prototype has them, too.

I hope this explanation helps a little.
Thank you so much for your photos and review!!

Photo of the Day by Lisa @ Every Day A Dollie

Summer's coming to a very quick end. Here in PA it's mostly overcast and about 30 degrees colder than last week. Crazy weather is something that I've come to expect.
Lisa in PA has provided her blog's subscribers a lovely, final glimpse of summer in a blog post called Go Outside And Play.

"Hot Dots" Poppy Parker

I just love the dog toy being used as a tube.

Read the rest of this post and check out Lisa's excellent doll photography at this link:

Every Day A Dollie

Huguette Clark's Doll Collection "Empty Mansions"

http://emptymansionsbook.com/

Little could entice copper mining heiress Huguette Clark out of her solitary life in a vast Fifth Avenue apartment, except her love of dolls.
The recluse, who died childless at the age of 104, had a collection of china dolls, and perfectly scaled houses and accessories for them, believed to be worth more than $2 million.
And, although she was seldom seen in public, Ms Clark would come out of her lavish apartment if it meant adding to the collection. 
In their book, Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell Jr. reveal how the heiress attended a Christian Dior fashion show - to search for doll's clothes.

Madrid Fashion Doll Exclusive JamieShow "TOREADORA" Grace

A most beautiful Jamieshow Grace was presented in Madrid at the Fashion Doll event. She is LE 25 and is priced at $450.
I love the gold eye shadow,  red lips and raven hair.  It looks like the wig cap is a long pony tail. It's an excellent look for this resin BJD.

 

Available at Jamieshow Doll