Embroidery Work

Lots of fun working on this stuff. Looks like total crap and epic fail after I saw these photos, must keep telling myself it's a learning process -_- At this point i'm starting to get that sick feeling I'll stick with the original crappy non embroidered version I made and chuck this current one. Hopefully I can stay focused to finish this one up to even make it to that point though X_X

The project was looking pretty decent here. Lost track of how much floss I've burned through on this.

Then I saw this photo and cringed X_X Hopefully it looks better once it's all sewn up X_X But I dunno. The top area will have some goldwork added onto it, as well as the base, I'll use my oldschool favorite gold trim for that part, might shine it up some I hope. Next time I do stringy stuff I'll use pearl purl for it. If only I could find a place out here that sells it, so I can see exactly what size I need. Seems to be sold overseas mainly X_X
Might be time to draft up a new gown for Hrist here soon with some embroidery >_>

Embroidery and Gauntlets

Spent some time recently resuming work on Lidia's V2 outfit. I decided to give embroidery a whirl. Kind of an addicting craft. I rather enjoyed it. Till I saw it in these photos X_X Now I'm not so sure...

The new collar I made had be redesigned with an entire new pattern which seemed to have fit even better then my old collar pattern.

I plan to try at least one more embroidery project if it's worth the amount of time involved in the process of making this.

In other news...
Hrist's Gauntlets arrived for the second time. Excited to open the package, only to find one of the gauntlets busted again, this time it was worse. This is the second time.... I'm not sure what's going on with Shapeways quality control team. I'm just at a loss for words at the moment. I am not going to bother contacting support again, since one of the gauntlets turned out perfect, and the last attempt one was good too, so now I have two good ones, and two bad ones in separate orders o_O

Shapeways attempt 1

 This was the original gauntlets I received from Shapeways, you can see the flap in the right most area is cracked in half, They were happy to issue me a re-print of the entire model after their investigation of the matter.

Shapeways failed attempt 2

Their second attempt yielded one good gauntlet and one bad again. This time the bad one was worse then the last... it was cracked on the flap further down in the tumbler. What was different is there is huge gouges that run throughout the whole print, making me think there was an issue with the printing since they all run in the same dirrection...
I've done a lot of printing with Shapeways over the past year + and haven't encountered any type of problem like this before. They've always put out great quality. But it certainly makes me worry when I get around to working on Hrist's body armor... X_X
This gauntlets experiance also left me wondering if they even check model parts before they ship them out? The broken flap parts were not included in the back, suggesting they snapped in the tumbler.
At least they were kind enough to do a reprint however. :)

Photo of one of the 'good' prints

The photo above in the good print shows the flap fully intact and no scaring along the sides. Very weird that one printed fine, and passed through fine, and yet the other did not...

Project Resumes

Been super swamped with real dead end job work lately. Haven't had much time for crafting lately. But I've recently had a chance to work  with Lidia's collar, and this time around doing a new ground-breaking project on it over the past few days. Ground-breaking for my skill level I should say. I'm hoping everything will workout for this as I definetly plan to use more of it in future projects... I'll have more information and photos to post hopefully by the end of the week if time permits it X_X right now it's just in the crude starting stages X_X
Still waiting on Hrist's new gauntlets to arrive. And wishing I had the time to get working on her bust armor.... -_- wtb a month off vacation! X_X

Hrist and Homura

Hrist recently met up with Homura!

Sure was an interesting meet-up for her. Super windy, with a storm approaching.

Hrist in a tree! :O On a really windy day!

This one reminds me of a music album art/poster

 Hrist finally met another doll she gets along with really well other then Lidia.

After the park event Hrist went over to Homura's place where they decided to try out some different outfits.

Double the hats, Double the fun.

Homura: Try this crazy outfit on Hrist!
Hrist: Get this thing off me! If Lidia ever see's this photo of me in this outfit... I'll never hear the end of it...  -_-

Homura and hrist trying on different clothing.

Hrist: This hat isn't to bad. But I can barely move in this skirt!

Trying out another outfit.

Overall Hrist had a great time and plans to get out again sometime.

 Received the new armor gauntlets the other day with a print issue. Happy to report Shapeways got right on the issue and are doing a reprint! So I'll have to wait a bit longer for the new gauntlets but they should be good. :) Can't wait! Other then that nothing to really new sadly :(

Hrist - Armor Work II

Phew, got a bit busy and spaced out on taking photos as usual X_X I did manage to correct, and get the order placed on the new gauntlets using the correct, or hopefully correct length this time.  Darn long forearm dollfies! :P

Didn't realize Hrist's arm has some dirt on it that needs cleaning... :X

I could have just let it go as is... but it would drive me completely insane knowing it should be longer X_X

Heres some photos in this post of the armor! Some people, have random doll heads in mason jars, while me... I just have random doll arms laying around. ;P 

Again, I'm not planning on painting these anytime soon, but on a good note, the gauntlets I can use to experiment with, on other methods of painting, or casting, and what not since they have no other current, or future use, better to find some use for them I think. ;)

Arizona Bikeweek 2014

Bikeweek this year was another blast! What a great time, especially with all the charity rides this year. The weather was perfect. Unlike last year where it was miserably hot already, this year was nice and cool with a storm a few days prior that left behind some snow up north! Made me wishing I had brought Hrist along for the main ride just for some snow photos...

Over roughly 3000 photos I managed to take covering Thrusday to Sunday, the bulk of the photos being on Friday with the charity ride, and the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert later in the evening.

Lynyrd Skynyrd concert

The weather really made it a perfect event. As for the Charity ride it was a nice relaxing day. Really need to do stuff like that more often, makes me realize how I hate the big city sometimes, and just seeing natural wonders is such an amazing and refreshing thing.

This year I'm planning to do two photo books for the week, mainly as I took so many photos... it was a toss up between event stuff, and over doing it with photos of Rose this year, so one book will be Events and the other Scenics... with Rose >_> Managed to get her all cleaned up and polished, but by the end of the day she was covered in bug road kill :P

This years bikini bike washers came from Twin Peaks. They did an amazing job washing the bikes this year, last year, a different set of girls were rush jobbing the wash. Sadly this year I didn't have Rose washed at the event, but I got pleanty of photos ;)
Also ran into the gal that placed 3rd place at the AZ Autumn Bikini Contest. Was surprised to see her washing the bikes. Real nice gal to chat with as well.

Then the final day of bikeweek I was feeling bad for Hrist, so I took her out for some action. I think she was pretty excited to finally get out, and do something really fun for her, unlike the monthly  Dollmeets that she dreads. ;)

Maybe for next year I'll get a chance to bring her along for up north, maybe.... I would like to do some photos of her north of Payson though perhaps in the fall or during a storm.

Hrist getting ready for a ride!

Needless to say she had a wonderful time ;)

In other news... Gauntlets and upper armor arrived. I'm not planning to paint these till I get most of her armor in, then I can just sit through and paint it all... sadly I may have made a miscalculation on the gauntlets though. they fit... but they seem to small for my liking, I'm not sure why I made them as long as I did, feels like they need to be 1 cm longer o_O I really need to make a new proxy model for Dollfies before I begin on her main body armor though.  Hopefully have a post of the armor in a day or two.
In the mean time I need to finish up these photo books, and get the photos printed and delivered out to various people.

Till next time! :D

Hrist's Armor - Gauntlets

Finally got around to starting on some of Hrist's armor parts again. Think I'll just suck it down and dive into the main armor hopefully this month. I need to do a lot of preparation work for that though. Not something I'm looking to forward too just yet... But it's got to be done. X_X

3D Gauntlets ready for printing.

So I've sent off to the printers the gauntlets and her upper arm armor. Hopefully by late April I'll have them in my possession. Unlike Lidia's gauntlets with a working flap. I was unable to make Hrist's flaps work... Due to printing restrictions with sizing. the pin size needed would need to be drilled out and the main hinges made thicker to support the print. I didn't want to make it bulky so I opted for a more realistic look rather then a resize just to make it work which would have made it look 'fatter' So I angled them using Lidia's range of motion as a template to find what worked best.

As mentioned above, main body armor will get started on soon hopefully. I do want to experiment with some custom hands too. making armor plates for the thumb area might be waste of my time, and just printing an entire new hand with the gloves and armors built in similar to what Volks does. will probably be the most efficient way to go about it? :S Hmm...

Bike Week Arizona 2014 started! I'll probably be wrapped up a bit with that for a while... after which I can resume work! :D

Till next time! :)