Noctarcana Realness

The doll meetup this past Sunday had a  "Masquerade" theme. I wasn't sure what to make, but I found this fabric & knew it would look great fashioned into a tight shirt stretched over the hotness that is the Iplehouse Superhero body.

As I was working, I realised that the look has a bit of Noctarcana Circus in it, which makes sense, since I've been smitten with Akando since the Pierrot edition was released as the premiere doll of that series.

The shirt is still kind of "unfinished" in a few ways, but I like the way it looks thus far, & it served its purpose at the meet. A few passers-by even stopped to take pictures of Ismael! Yes, that is a cool feeling!

It's uncommon to see BJD's with dark eyes in general... in fact I think they're almost a rarity, but I think Ismael's gaze looks extra smoldering with dark eyes.

Boots, jeans, belt, & wig by Iplehouse. 

Shirt by me

Eyes by Eyeco (12/13mm "Ebony").

There's something very intimate about this last pic. Whenever I see closeups of faces like this, I think of them as a "lover's close up".

Now, We Wait

I created this blog URL a while ago, partially at the behest of a friend of mine who (I'm assuming) got tired of hearing me rant & gush about dolls I was excited about. I always had an idea of the kinds of things I'd want to post here, but never got around to writing any actual content. About 5 days ago, I submitted the final layaway (or 'ransom', as I tend to think of it) payment for my first resin ABJD!!! I ordered a Special Edition Realskin Akando from Iplehouse.

As I mentioned, he will be my very first resin ABJD. I have a Hujoo Wings, who is also very cute (& who deserves his own post...soon-ish), but ordering Akando is sort of on a whole different level...for several reasons! LOL! There are the obvious differences in material & size: Hujoo Wings is plastic & about 10" tall, where Akando is made of resin, about 28" tall, & will weigh about 7#!!! THAT'S A LOT OF FREAKIN' DOLL!!! LOL! Aside from these differences, though, I'd had a 'doll crush' on Akando since the Akando Pierrot Limited Edition doll was offered in 2008 as the first installment of Iplehouse's Noctarcana Circus.

Needless to say, I wasn't able to order him at the time, for various reasons. I was glad that he continued to be available as part of the standard line of dolls, though in the usual "Normal" or "Rose White" resin/skin tone option. These are lovely, but what I really wanted was the creamy realistic almond-y toned "Realskin" resin that Iplehouse used for the first incarnation of Akando. Either way, I figured I'd add him to my collection eventually, even if 'only' in a "Normal" resin/skin tone.

Not that "Normal" skin Akando is anything to sneeze at, but I was truly smitten by the warm creaminess of the Realskin doll. Imagine my delight & surprise when Iplehouse announced that he'd again be available in Realskin as part of a Limited Event. Imagine my further delight & surprise when my tax refund came through right before the end of the deadline to order this handsome guy!

Call it kismet, call it luck, call it an 'interesting' way to spend a tax refund, I'll call him mine! LOL! A few things: I didn't like the brown tones in the default faceup lips on this round of Special Edition Realskin dolls, so I ordered him without a faceup. I'm contracting a local BJD pal to do his faceup & some additional aesthetics, & I ordered a black wig for him, rather than the grey one he's wearing in the pic above. Same style, just black instead of grey. Also, he'll have green eyes. I really liked the faceup on the 'regular' face that came with the Akando Pierrot set (below); I'm hoping/asking for a lip color close to what he's got there, though I think the eyebrows will need to be darker to look reasonable for his hair color.

And, again, he's all paid off now, so there's nothing to do but wait. Is he here yet? sigh I'm not gonna like this part. Not one little bit!