This tan resin doll was the most suitable for my fox, however, I think she will need some mods done to make her more fox like.
Once again I was inspired by something real, the beautiful male Purple Emperor butterfly which shows an iridescent purple sheen when the light hits its wings.
My butterfly, Charity Daybreeze, will be a female made from pretty lavender resin with purple hair.
The ice or snow queen is in bright white resin and I chose to dress her using an ice blue wig. It was difficult choosing her name but I settled for Galaxy Frozenwhirl.
My idea of water. Unpredictable as the sea itself, water elementals shift without warning from tranquillity to tempest.
The element water is also associated with the moon, and I considered using "moon" somewhere in her name, but in the end Infinity Dazzlepool was my choice of name for her.
I've completed another wig, this time for the owl. I've no idea how she will come together, though I do have a vision in mind.
Considering that owls are nocturnal birds and hunt their pray by the light of the moon, I have named her Saffron Lunawood.
Another forest creature, this time in a beautiful charcoal resin, with a blue black wig.
This doll is going to represent fire, hopefully I've done the wig justice.
My third forest creature is a unicorn made from a creamy white resin. I made her wig using rainbow colours, later on I will make her a horn for her forehead which will be attached with a magnet.
Using a grey resin doll and another yarn wig made to look airy and cloud like, I've created my version of an air elemental called Velocity Cloudtwill.
Working on wigs using yarn and adding facial features, the intention is to make this doll into an earth elemental.
You may not know I have a passion for elves and other such creatures of childish imagination and although I have written stories for and about my "elvin family" of BJD's, I haven't ventured into customising any of them. It took a few days before the penny dropped and I realised the recently purchased recast dolls will enable me to do what I've always wanted to do . . . make my very own customised characters.
Have any of you read the children's book "Enchantment" by Gill Davies? It has some lovely poems and wonderful illustrations by Eric Kincaid. To quote the author "It was like stepping back into my childhood, reading stories by flickering firelight and really, truly believing in magic again."
I had been rearranging the books in my bookcase after changing our second bedroom furniture around earlier today, when the title of this particular book caught my attention. It had been many, many years since I'd first read it and I felt it wasn't just by chance that I held it in my hands today. I opened to the first page and read . . .
I chose not to reply to each individual comment on my other blog, because I'd rather continue my honest and fair appraisal of the recast dolls I purchased. I am not telling or encouraging anyone to go purchase one, I am simply providing an opinion and understand that it is subject to scrutiny and objection.
However, I must admit it may appear to some that I am being hypocritical by even venturing down the recast trail. One may think if I was curious, I should have purchased just one doll, but there were four different coloured resins and I wanted to see how each colour compared with the legitimate dolls I had in those colours.
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The one doll which I really wanted to look closely at, was this very dark charcoal one. Unlike the legitimate dark resin dolls, this doll has no seams showing, which makes me wonder if she was actually cast. Perhaps she is 3D printed or not in resin at all. I am not an expert in either and will leave that to those who are more knowledgeable about such things.
Personally, I'm not overly fond of the Popovy dolls as their elongated limbs and emaciated bodies remind me of people suffering from anorexia and I certainly would not like to experiment on a legitimate one, as their cost far exceeds even my own generous dolly budget. However, I do admit they make a great "clothes horse" and much like catwalk models, are wonderful to dress.
Furthermore, I'd like to think those critical of my four recast doll purchase, will take into consideration I have purchased well over eighty legitimate BJD's. More to the point, I hope those critics don't own any recast or fake dolls themselves . . . as the old saying goes "Those who live in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones".
NOTE: Legitimate Popovy dolls range from AU$1,200 for a blank doll plus shipping, up to AU$?? depending on what you choose (i.e. faceup AU$750, body blushing AU$750, eyes AU$75+, wigs can be from AU$750 to 3,000 ) and waiting time can be from 1 to 3 years.
Now you may be wondering what I mean by the Dark Side, well let me explain. After being Pro Artist for so long, my curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see for myself what these dolls that everyone complains about were really like. So I ordered four dolls from AliExpress and considering they look like Popovy dolls and were so cheap, I know full well, they must be recasts.
When I posted about it on my original blog, the reaction I got didn't really surprise me, most were positive as these people knew that up until that point in time, ALL my dolls were legitimate.
I knew some were disappointed with me, though little was said, but I wasn't about to be discouraged from doing something with the dolls. I knew whatever I did, I wouldn't be popular amongst the avid anti-recast doll collectors, it's a real "no no" to collect recast dolls and I fully understand why.
I hadn't paid a lot for them, but I must admit they are not as bad as I was expecting them to be, though their face-ups leave a lot to be desired. As it stands right now, they pose quite well and were certainly fun to dress, but who knows just how long their stringing will last.
The ones on this blog are the only recasts I own and were all purchased for my own use, and I had invested enough for me not to just throw them out.
Should I ever decide to sell them down the track, it will be noted they are customised recast dolls, so here am I baring my soul in the hope that all will be forgiven in time.
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Curiosity is one of my downfalls, it led me to purchase a recast doll. When I posted about it on my original blog, the reaction I got didn't really surprise me, most were positive as these people knew that up until that point in time, ALL my dolls were legitimate.
I knew some were disappointed with me, though little was said, but I wasn't about to be discouraged from doing something with the dolls. I knew whatever I did, I wouldn't be popular amongst the avid anti-recast doll collectors, it's a real "no no" to collect recast dolls and I fully understand why.
I hadn't paid a lot for them, but I had invested enough for me not to just throw them out. The ones on this blog are the only recasts I own and were all purchased for my own use.
Should I ever decide to sell them down the track, it will be noted they are customised recast dolls, so here am I baring my soul in the hope that all will be forgiven in time.
