#decoder chats

[marinedecoder]

been pondering a second outfit for Blu Brooks the past few days, and i think i've settled on something like this:

excuse the extreme sketchiness, doodling with phone and finger will do that. thinking baggy, scuffed and frayed jeans in her signature teal-blue colour, with a seatbelt style belt referencing Blind or similar 90s skate style brands. shoes based around retro AirWalks (the comfiest shoes i ever owned back in high school), a plain boobtube, and a split-pattern/tone shirt. it's hitting the 90s grungey skater vibes for me. not sure if it's exactly the vibe they were going for with Blu, but don't give the girl a skateboard if you don't want me riding it down those kinds of avenues. now to...not make it for over a year at least because my sewing skills are out of practice and i have zero clue how to draft patterns!

[marinedecoder]

got around to designing a second outfit for Karla as part of my quest to ensure all the RH/SH dolls get two sets of clothes to mess around with.

since Karla is apparently based around Karl Lagerfeld, which becomes real obvious once you know anything about how he dressed, i decided to take some elements from his designs, and combine them with her, like...office girl chic. the corset-style body suit is based around this mesh corset, the boots (whose colours i may inverse, looking at them now) are based on these boots, and her bracelets are based on this and this. the necklace is just based on the guy's propensity for layered necklaces.

not super sure about the suit jacket, but one feels necessary to tie stuff together, and i think the kind of...bewjewlled look RH/SH enploys on certain pieces would suit the other choices here.

the design choices here absolutely Do Not reflect my feelings towards Lagerfeld, but i'm trying to design second outfits from a couple of points of reference. one of these is trying to adhere to the style references that are implied by the first outfit's designs for each doll, which limited me a tiny bit to the Lagerfeld style here, and is why i pulled from 90s grungey skater style for Blu. the second point is that i want the pieces to allow for the mix-and-match elements of the earlier dolls' clothing, where each outfit worked as a solo set or could be blended.

the bodysuit would be a semi-translucent or mesh, pearly white tone, with sparkly signature-pink toned corset boning. the original piece is basically see-through barring the boning, but given that the RH dolls are teens, i tried to make it a little more modest while keeping the high-fashion elements, so the fabric and cut are a little altered, and it's a bodysuit instead of a corset to help keep it under her other clothes. the coat would be lined with satin, and...honestly, might be different in colour and exact cut when my mind's done rotating the concept and i get closer to being able to, uhh...actually make the things i'm dreaming up.

[marinedecoder]

search engines are horrendous sometimes. i feel like it shouldn't be that hard to find the answer to the question "what are doll shoes made of" without presenting one hundred and one "here's how to craft your own doll shoes" articles and videos 🙃

does anybody know the answer..? i'm fascinated by the different plastics use in the creation of dolls, and how different parts of dolls and their accessories can feel so different despite all being plastic. like i'm aware there's different varieties of plastic, but don't know much about them, and don't know how to go about finding out these things.

[marinedecoder]

genuinely how i look every time i look her up on ebay

[marinedecoder]

ASDA apparently have their own blind box style toy now and i got it purely out of amusement and curiosity (and the fact it was like £2)

oooh, a transforming basket! fun!

can't imagine where they got the idea for the stand lol, but i will say i love how little packaging waste there is! like the stand IS the shopping basket, the card part of the wrapper is also the list showing you what items you can get, all you really need to bin is the small plastic wrap on the outside

tiny orange juice! tiny peanuts! the shopping basket works as is, too, which is fun! pretty fun overall, glad i got it!

[marinedecoder]

finally, i am free of Layering Paper

it took so long, god damn. i am not feeling compelled to do anything like that again lmao. the edges need trimmed, but i'll leave it a day or two to dry first.

speaking of drying, i also used some air dry clay to form some ivy and a couple of rocks for the walls and the river bed.

excuse the funny angle, it's a side view. the bits with the feathered look are the ivy, the three plain flat bits are rocks. once they've dried they'll get glued down, then it's painting time, baybee.

[marinedecoder]

progress is being made! i am fully going to need to put on another top layer of 'paper' around the edge when i'm done, but we've got out first layers of paint on! just got a dark wash and a highlight dry brushing to do next, but that's not a today job.

some close-ups!

[marinedecoder]

slow progress, because i kept forgetting to buy white paint, but it's progress all the same!

i've added the dark wash and the dry brush highlight where it's appropriate, and tidied up the inner frame of the book. the paint along the inner edge is going to crack with use, but that's fine, it's made to he used.

next steps include:

painting the front and back covers and the spine

cutting out an inner blurb page and writing it out

and finally, trimming in another top 'page' or two to cover the paint slip ups, lol