Skin Trade

Itroducing CWC Exclusive Neo Blythe Manuheali'i Paradise Girl !

Summer is finally here and we are ecstatic to give you some exciting news!
Hawaii's famous fashion brand Manuheali'i has collaborated with CWC to create an exclusive Neo Blythe!
She will be called "Manuheali'i Paradise Girl"!!

Manuheali'i is not only known in Hawaii but all over the world, starting in 1985, Manuheali'i 's use of color and unique print designs are so distinct to the brand and to the land of Hawaii.
People who wear their clothes look like they are wearing the beautiful nature of Hawaii.
Even a slight variation of color can dramatically change the look of their garments. We are bringing the wonderful fashion and image of Hawaii with this sun kissed Blythe!
Hawaii lovers will sure be excited about this Blythe!

Manuheali'i Paradise Girl is the most stylish girl in Hawaii!
Coordinating her accessories and clothes she just bought, she is off to the city and to the beach for another aloha day.
She has a long one piece dress with a halter neck.
The stylish cut of this dress gives Blythe a sophisticated look.
Manuheali'i 's original Coral Reef print combines a light green and brown pattern to give a tropical and earthy feel.
Put on her gold hoop earrings and she's ready to go!

Her second outfit is a different feel with a patterned one shouldered top and denim shorts.
Her one shouldered top has a rubber strap through the neck to keep the top in place.
This shirt has Manuheali'i 's original print for Ki Nehe.
Orange, red, and vibrant colors radiates from this Paradise Girl!

Her shorts are cool, white denim and she wears white beach sandals.
Don't forget her sunglasses and she's ready for a fun day in Hawaii!

She has long dark brown, wavy hair parted to the side. Her skin type is like "Heather Sky" and her face type is Radiance.
She has brown eye shadow, red cheeks, and tan lips.
Her eye chips and eyelashes are all special as well!

Please check back to www.blythedoll.com to see the final design!

*******

On flickr one the most rampant discussions of excitement over this new Blythe Doll center around her questionable complexion. People want to know if she is as described, as dark as Heather Sky who, lets face it, is really not that dark, but as the darkest Blythe doll ever manufactured, she has become the standard by which to measure any other dark Blythe Doll Takara and CWC releases. Which is kind of sad but no less fascinating. I myself flipped when I saw her although I have to admit to being just as excited about her amazing stock as about her skin color. It seems kind of crazy how color starved we doll collectors are. I mean I guess that's where all this customization comes into play. Not only are we color starved in doll land but also individuality starved.

I must say though, that while it is easy enough to do anything from dye Blythe's hair, carve her lips, give her beauty marks, tattoos, gaze correction, and all kinds of different hair, it doesn't have quite the same impact or social commentary as changing her color does. Much as I love Blythe and dolls in general, politics never seem to be too far behind when it comes to color in this country, but my fascination lies in discovering the things that Blythe collectors do in spite of this because it is different than what I have ever seen people do with any other doll I know of.

Manuheali'i Paradise Girl Blythe

dude..... i have 10 heather skys.... so, you know i can't pass this girl up! -- Manuheali'i Paradise Girl
Originally uploaded by cybermelli

Oh! OH!!! OH!!! OH!! OH!!!!!!! OH!! OH!!!
Okay. LOL!!!! I cannot wait to see what she looks like but her stock is freaking amazing. Oh, I can't wait! Oh, I love everything about her so far.
And no, she is not the first "Black Blythe" but yes, more on what I believe to be the strangeness of her description later.

Old Hat

Originally uploaded by Zanalee

Actually it's an new hat sent to us by Linda AKA Hollychan2 on flickr. It's from a Rement set she picked up at Kinokuniya. I hadn't even realized they sold Rement there until she sent me this set and I saw the store sticker on it and flipped. I'm not sure how to explain Rement except to say that they are these very detailed doll miniatures made in Japan that make excellent set production props for doll rooms or situations. I can't let myself get too crazy buying miniatures because I just could never keep them in order but I was delighted to get this set free. It came with this hat, a pair of black boots and a cute little leopardskin clutch. Linda says her Blythes are farm gals and couldn't use these items.

Thanks Linda!! I think I'll send her a card from Blythe Post to say thank you!

: )

sold!

sold!
Originally uploaded by blythelicious♥

Sold to me that is! That's right! I've been in the market for another Blybe for a while now but I was looking on ebay for a dark curly haired one and could find none. Blythelicous contacted me about a few Blybes she has and wanted to sell and asked if I was interested. I was when I saw this one! I couldn't believe all that curly hair came stock. I think she will look fabulous as a brown Blybe and I am dying for a simpler custom right now and with Blybes, spraying the body which is usually a total pain in the ass is a total non-issue.

I really liked making Ramona Rae and feel that I need to have one in my family as well. She's coming all the way from the Netherlands so she may be a while in getting here but that will give us some time to work on completing Angora Lee and getting to know her better before taking in another family member so soon. I really do want to get to the point when i have a finite number of Dolls a point at which I can no longer allow the number to increase, only decrease or remain the same.

Faaaar From Done

Sleep it off
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

Had a bit of a freak out yesterday putting Angora together for the first time. I was tired, had a horrible headache and just no patience at all for the unfamiliar.

So first off, I lost the coil spring that goes in her eye mechanism which I cannot believe because I tried like hell to keep all her parts in one place for months while I was working on her but I think at some point I may have just left it in her face plate which is totally my fault but pisses me off nonetheless because I have to go searching the net for this tiny freaking spring coil and I really really do not want to pay for it. Oh God, just thinking about it is upsetting me. Ok. Moving on.

Her scalp didn't line up very well on her dome but I kind of didn't expect it too. I'll have to glue more of it down later.

Her hair really threw me off for a bit. I didn't know what to expect when I took it down. And it didn't really come down at all at first after being up in a band for so long all that time I was working on it. That freaked me out too. She was resembling a miserable luck troll for a bit there. But I wet her hair a bit and it seems to be sitting the way it should this morning. I guess I really should have tried to give her a part, but re-rooting a part still scares the crap out of me no matter how many times Sherri has patiently explained it to me.

Last but not least and perhaps even more irritating than losing the spring coil, is fool that I am, I didn't spray her scalp before I re-rooted so that the whole thing would be brown and she wouldn't have that beige band around her forehead! No idea how I'm gonna fix that. OKAY! I'm trying to look on the bright side. She looks beautiful otherwise. Her lashes look great but are giving me trouble as well. I may need to apply some sort of stabilizing adhesive to them but I need to do research on that because I do not want to muck that up.

Times. like these, I feel like I never want to do another re-root again but I know it's not always like this. The temptation to do it again is already lingering.

Debut Album

Debut Album
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

Molly's been trying to find herself, been feeling a little neglected, a little misunderstood. You know she's at that awkward sullen age. She wants to start a band. I'm doing her P.R.

Angora's Mohair Scalp

Last night I put on a bootleg series CD of Bob Dylan and finished re-rooting Angora Lee’s scalp. The 1/4 ounce of “brown sugar” mohair I ordered last week came in Saturday. It’s a bit lighter than the “Wild Spirit” hair she has but it really isn’t a big deal at this point. It really is just the rim of her scalp near the front. The length of wefts were also much shorter than the “Wild Spirit” but I expected that. This mohair wasn’t really meant for Blythes but I didn’t want to buy too much more hair when I wouldn’t be using all of it and Mohairhouse didn’t have small amounts on sale in the length I would have liked.

At first it wasn’t going that well. I couldn’t figure out why until I looked at the other end and realized I had picked up on the wrong side and my neat little loop hook was staring at me like an idiot. Once I took my crotchet hook out and switched to that side, the rest of the re-root went smoothly, hook, through loop through loop. I’m really interested in trying this new  “knot” method for mohair re-roots I’ve been hearing about and seen one tutorial about on flickr. It sounds easy and a lot faster perhaps that the lock and loop method.  As far as I understand, you still separate out the hair in strips and pulls them through the scalp holes, but instead of connecting them inside the scalp, you ties a knot inside so that it stays and repeat.

As for Angora, I glued her mohair scalp down on her dome last night with some craft tacky glue. I really was not careful about keeping the flanges in tact when I took her scalp off so I’m not sure the scalp will connect completely all around the dome. We’ll see. I’m a bit anxious but I’m not taking the bands off until tomorrow. I want to make sure, it’s good and secure. I did this with Reya’s scalp as well which was really shoddily done. I mean her hair looks nice on the outside but the inside is a mess. But her scalp has been on and stayed on perfectly for the last year or so. I can’t wait to see Angora whole. It’s been months!