Welcome to The City of Desire.

"I found a nice one!", a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

Maybe? I know that the more doll and flower pictures I post, the less impact they'll have. I'm mostly keeping this blog as a way of motivating myself to keep up the yard/write/finish doll projects/finish everything I start, so I figure I can post as much as I want. XD

Meet Lucy! She's a Secret Wonderland Himeno that Kristen rerooted for me as a favor with Restoredoll Saran in Looking Glass Blue. I've had the doll for two years; I posted pictures of her a while back with her old frizzy blond hair. I've always liked her pink eyes, but her hairstyle was pretty badly done. Now that I'm in the habit of either having my dolls rerooted or doing it myself, I figured I shouldn't have to stand for frizzy curls any longer.

I named her Lucy because a long time ago I made a custom elf doll named Lucy that had a similiar hairstyle and color. I'm considering this Himeno to be her reincarnation.

Emalie in the rain., a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

Didn't I say I was going to give her curly hair? Well, in the end I thought that Emalie, my rerooted Bluebird's Song III Miu, looked too cute with straight hair to go curly. Her hair is a blend of Restoredoll Saran in Lemon Blonde and Cotton Candy. Outside it has a lovely apricot-y sheen.

I finally broke down and rerooted this doll. I wonder how my of my dolls will have their original hairstyles in the end? I don't have any real regrets about this one. She was too hard to redress with her original red hair, and I don't think she looks so different now that I should be in shock.

Meet Lili., a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

So I finally took the plunge and gave one of my rerooted dolls bobbed hair. XD

This little girl used to be Volks Nakoruru. Remember her? I was always in love with her wistful expression, but her hair quality was, frankly, the pits. I still can't believe I made her into a blonde. Her hair is actually a blend of Restoredoll Ash Blonde and HiHo Silver saran. It turns out that navy blue eyes are about the worst to match with a complimentary hair color...

I renamed this doll "Lili" after Leslie Caron's character in the movie of the same name. Of course, that Lili had brown bobbed hair. Close enough...

Sorry for the big image. Flickr appears to be down for the moment, and I can't wait!

::snickers:: Nao is the player's character in elan plus, the Japanese PSX simulation game I've been squawking about for the past two weeks. There is both a male and female version of Nao, but I always choose the female version when I play. Obviously, I've had to take some liberties with the doll. Girl Nao's hair is a little shorter than my rerooted Limited Edition Aya's, and she has a pink candy-striped ribbon instead of a black one. Also, she isn't wearing a nun's dress, but this was the only outfit I had that suited her:

This is truly My First Topknot. I don't think I did too badly. Sometimes I wonder if Aya was the right doll for this project. It's hard to find dolls with gray eyes, though...

Who says a lady can't go hiking?
Originally uploaded by Leenechan

EDIT: By the way, her hair is Restoredoll Limited Blonde.

I've mentioned before that although I've customized many, many 1/6 scale dolls, I've never been satisfied with the results outside of the actual concept and the hair. I have neither a steady hand nor an eye for detail. I have a lot of enthusiasm, but I don't think I was born to be an artist. So, rather than flail around trying to come to terms with the fact that after several years of experience I still can't paint a professional-looking doll, I decided to try applying my weird ideas to a medium guaranteed to give me satisfactory results.

A few years back, I made a custom Obitsu doll named Delphine. She had pretty odd coloring (purple hair and blue lips) that was inspired by a certain Kazuma Kaneko Megaten demon design (I have no idea how to romanize her name). I don't think the doll turned out that badly, but no matter how I look at her she still looks like a kid's craft project to me. I still liked the idea, though, as weird as it was. So I decided to try it out again on a Jenny doll. Meet Delphine the Second!

She's a Calendar Girl Kisara (the one in the boys' school uniform) that's been rerooted with Noix de Rome #72 violet hair, a color I've never seen on a commercial Jenny doll before. I started off rooting her myself, but the hair was hard to work with. Kristen had to bail me out again. I think she did a great job!

I repainted her lips myself, though. I didn't use the same color that I used on the Obitsu doll--lighter hair calls for lighter lips! I put a pearl finish on them, too. Repainting the lips on Jenny dolls is fun. Kisara and Naomi in particular look good with weird lip color. ^_^

She's wearing the dress that came with Omoiataru Special II Sahra. I don't think I'll keep it on her forever. I think gray is a good color for her, though. Maybe she's odd for some people's tastes, but at least she's unique! I liked her original lip color, too, but she had a ding mark on her upper lip when I deboxed her. I didn't want her to look like every other Kisara, anyway.