For Casper, Citrus, and this here website here (which might be a little slow, but gosh darn, you can look at it on your phone now)!
So what's been going down for Casper and Citrus? WELL-
The changes Citrus has endured are minor. All I've really done to him is add a bit of color to his faceup around the eyes and brows. The work is very subtle, probably a bit too subtle, so you might be seeing another almost exactly the same picture of his face sometime soon with a caption like 'yes! I've finally got it perfect! Maybe'.
It is Casper that's going through some major changes. Arduous, obnoxious changes. Changes that I hate.
See, Casper's body is almost five years old and has taken a lot of wear and tear over the years (for a ball joint doll, anyway). He traveled to college with me for two years, he was often the doll I took to conventions, he's really gotten around since that body came in.
Other than yellowing and loose strings, though, his beautiful body blushing from dollmore is now showing it's age. The sad truth is paint just doesn't last long - not unless you keep your doll behind a glass case in a dark room most of the time - and I've known for a long time now that if I want to reseal him evenly I'll probably have to remove all the blushing.
This is not so great for several reasons; of course I don't want to lose such pretty blushing and of course there's always the risk of damaging the resin while cleaning it, but the real thing I don't want to go through is the removal process itself. Please excuse the bitching, but -
IT IS SO MUCH WORK. AHHH.
So far I've been focusing on the arms and hands. I figured while I'm removing Casper's old blushing, I might as well re-do his old tattoos as well.
As I work, I'm trying to decide how much I really want to do at once. There are some really patchy areas on his chest and abdomen, but I'm thinking now that I'll leave his main body blushed for the next year or two. The limbs I'll probably try to clean and re-seal now, the legs especially (which - finger's crossed - hopefully haven't been permanently stained by a pair of leggings).
So far; the before-
and the after-
Removing all that black crap on his arms took two days. TWO DAYS. Well, really only about five or six hours. That's still a lot of time to be hunched over a doll with acetone and q-tips. And I've got more to do -in some areas I haven't even reached the blushing yet. *dramatic sigh*
My hope is that in a few more days Casper will be clean and newly tattooed so I can show off all my hard work on youtube. Considering how long it took me a full year to re-do a simple faceup, however, my hopes aren't through the roof. XD
Ahhh, friends.
Wish me luck.