Aiya's OOAK Garden

[Aiya]

It's actually not much to clean up. Simply toss the paper you used for the glue, put away the hair dryer, and wash the glue off the brush. 

After everything's dry, remove the rubber bands. Then, remove the fabric and plastic wrap. The plastic wrap come out of the wig cap easily. Use sharp scissors to cut off the excess fabric around the cap. Try the cap on. Use a pen or a marker (I use a pen, bc it's easy to wipe away if needed) to mark where the ears/eyes are, and cut the cap, so your girl/guy can have eyes and ears again. Making wefts is something I will cover later, once my cap is dry. I'm going to use the wefts for Miku's legs (bc goat legs), but I'm simply just going to glue yarn on on the wig cap in a way that resembles Miku's hair in the video for Dark Woods Circus. But the last step is unfortunately, wait until your cap is dry. Once I come home from work tomorrow, I'll explain more/post more pictures.

 

[ShineCero]

Alrighty! That sounds like a lengthy process since everything sounds so technical haha. Can't wait to see your progress!

 

[Aiya]

Okay. So. This was difficult for me to word. 

Yarn is very versatile. Curly hair? You can do that. Long, short, smooth, etc. Any hairstyle can be achieved using yarn. Which is why I said that Yarn will be my main medium for doll hair. Yarn skeins are also a LOT cheaper than buying actual doll hair. Actual doll hair, you only get a set size in a hank of it, and with yarn, skeins are usually pretty big. There's also different textures of yarn. Yes, there's different doll hair. Nylon, Saran, Kanekalon, etc. But, as I said, Yarn is cheaper. The length that moth doll customizers get for dolls is 12.50 a pop! You can usually buy 3-4 skeins of yarn for that price! 

Anyways, back to what I did for DWC Miku's hair. 

Step 1: Cutting the excess fabric off the wig cap. In this picture, I have done just that, and I have also cut it to the shape of her head. 

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Step 2: I apply glue to the head, to attach the wig cap. Some don't do this, in case they want to change the hair. I do this, because it's my preference. 

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Step 3: I call this the Swimmer phase, because with the cap securely on the head, it looks like a swimmer's cap. It looks absolutely hilarious to me. 

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Step 4: I start heating up my hair straightener. For straightening yarn, I use the low setting. I don't to fry my yarn, or set fire to it. 

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Step 5: As I said, Yarn is very versatile. Each string of yarn is actually 4 very thin strings together. I separate these four into two and two, to make the yarn a bit thinner.

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Step 6: I stand the doll head in front of me, so I have it right there to work on. This might not seem necessary to you, but it is to me, because I have it right in front of me, there's no misplacing it, and it won't move around on me unless I move it. 

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Step 7: I folded the two and twos in half, then glued the fold to the wig cap, alone the hairline. I call this the Samara phase.

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Step 8: What I started to do was, once the glue was dry on the hairline, I folded it back ,and glued a section down. I did this for the other section as well.

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Step 9: I continued this fold-and-glue method until the entire wig cap was covered. 

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Step 10: I cut yarn into 18 equal strands, then separate them into 9 and 9 for the pigtails. I wrapped the end of them with a regular rubber band, and then I painted the rubber band the exact shade as her hair. Then, using the pins, I stuck the pins into the rubber bands, so the point was still sticking out. 

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Step 11: Jabbing the pins into the head and the wig cap was no easy task (remember. Six layers of glue for the cap itself. The vinyl of the head is squishy enough, but, yea.) Doing this gave Miku her signature pigtails. I'm not sure if she has her pigtails in DWC, but, beans to that because I had fun making the pigtails. I also trimmed the yarn around the pins, to hide them the best I could. I mean, it doesn't really matter, because you can't see them from a distance, and I will be keeping this doll, but, yeah. 

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This is just one of the many ways I have used yarn for a doll's hair. 

I hope this was an okay wording of what I did. I'll be giving her her faceup tomorrow, so, that'll be fun! I love doing the faceups for dolls. I'm going to make another signature feature for DWC when I get home tonight (going out later with my mother, so when I get back, it'll be dark outside. Not ideal for outside pictures)

 

[Aiya]

Easy tutorial for the leg fluff before tomorrow's faceup!

Step 1 is getting out your materials! You'll need yarn, a small sheet of plastic, glue, scissors, a clean dog brush, a hair straightener, and a plastic frame. I actually got two plastic frames from a plastic frame in front of a fan that didn't work anymore. 

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Step 2, cut a long length of yarn, and loop it around something. I ended up holding one end, while looping the yarn around my arm, hooking at my elbow. I cut the loops at the two ends of the loops, and got some good lengths of yarn from that. Take three strands of yarn, and tie one end to one of the loops of the plastic frame with a small knot

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Step three, start brushing out the yarn with the dog brush. You'll soon get very fluffy yarn pieces like this. I only made a few yarn wefts for what I'm doing with them, but you can make as mush as you need!

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Step 4, set your hair straightener to low heat, and let it heat up. This could be step 1, but if you forgot like me, it doesn't take long at low heat. 

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Step five, straighten the wefts. This is necessary, otherwise you'll have wefts that are honestly too fluffy to work with. 

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Step six, cut the the wefts close to the knot, and glue the end to the sheet of plastic. Let them dry fully. This process iis sped up if you have a hot glue gun. I only have cold glue atm, but, when I can finally invest in a hot glue gun and a silicone finger protector, this process will be a lot faster

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Step seven, while the glue is drying, make flocking. Some stores/websites sell "official" flocking, but it's really easy to make. Just take your scissors and chew up yarn until you get a sizeable pile. I obviously made a lot more than this, but, this was just for the picture 

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Step eight, once you have a lot of flocking, and your wefts are dry, start gluing to your doll! It'll take time, and a lot of trimming down, but eventually, your doll's legs will be covered in it, and finally look like actual goat legs lol. 

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Before I started this thread, I already had a majority of her legs done. Turning them so they bend the way I wanted them to, supergluing the joints in place, chopping off her feet, and using air dry clay because I'm poor I can't afford apoxie sculpt at the moment, and painting her legs a light brown. With this, her body is finally complete. Tomorrow, I'm going to do the faceup, and finally give her clothes. I'm so happy her body's done, though.

 

[Aiya]

Face-up and reattachment time!

First, we're going to mask off the hair from the face, so it doesn't get anything on it. Some use fabric, I use a freezer bag xD. If you didn't attach the wig cap like I did, you can just remove the wig cap, and set it aside until the face-up is complete

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Getting out the next materials, they are a face mask and Mr. Super Clear. You NEED a face mask when using MSC. MSC is toxic, and can cause significant damage to your lungs if you do not. Get a face mask with a respirator on it. I bought a two pack, just in case. Go to a well-ventilated area (I just go outside to my yard), and spray MSC on the face. Only a light layer is needed to add tooth to the vinyl so we can draw on it. After spraying on a layer, leave the head outside to dry for 30 minutes. If it scares your neighbors that here's a disembodied head outside your place of living, that is normal. While the disembodied head is drying, gather the rest of your materials: Watercolor pencils, and soft pastels. I use Mungyo soft pastels, just like other doll customizers do. Cotton gloves (Or, a single one in this case xD) are worn when working with the head. These are watercolors, and chalk pastels, so sweaty hands can ruin a lot of work. I use one to hold the head, and my uncovered hand grips the brush or pencil I am working with. I've tried brushes and q-tips for applying the pastels, and for me, brushes work better. Find what works for you. Also, some artists take the color right from the pastel itself in the box, some scribble a workable spot on a piece of paper, and lift it from the paper. I tried that method this time, and it worked wonderfully for me. Again, just find what works for you. A kneaded eraser also helps with shaping and erasing away pastels when working with the face. 

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Once the head is dry, I brought her back in, and using reference photos (aka me googling 'Dark Woods Circus Miku'), I start making her face. When color stops building, or you want to 'save' your progress, give her another layer of MSC, and wait 30 minutes before working again.

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Second layer. I couldn't get white of the sclera too build up this time. Maybe it's because I painted the skin color? Hell if I know. I usually use 2-3 layers of watercolor pencils and pastels, before I bust out my acrilycs. 

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After I made the colors better with my acrilycs, I brought out some flowers I prepared last night. I have a pink flower ribbon, and cut off five flowers, and painted one side two different shades of yellow. A very light yellow for the center, and a better yellow for the petals. In DWC, the flowers represent acid, and I wanted to put that on my doll somewhere, because it ties in with the song. The fifth flower I glued on her arm, near her shoulder. 

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I made some other things with materials I had. I made small beads out of air dry clay, painted them a very light pink, and I strung them on a plastic string I cut from a barbie doll's waist accessory. I also made Miku's signature pigtail hair bands out of air dry clay, painted them, and put them around her pigtails on the wig. I glued them all to her hair, so they'd stay in place. 

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Plug in your hairdryer, put it on the highest setting, and heat up the neck hole of the doll. then, squish the head back on the doll. The heat makes this very easy. Honestly, I've had her head separate from the body so long, It looks kind of cool to finally be reattached. 

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Tomorrow, I'll make her dress, and she'll finally be complete! 

Right now, she still looks a little like Mr. Tumnus xD. What do you guys think?

 

[LoopyPanda]

She's looking great so far! Though I'll be honest, I always thought DWC Miku had ostrich legs... I never saw them as goat legs, but maybe it's because her silhouette kinda resembles an ostrich.
Goat legs makes more sense... :lmao:

I don't think I could become a full fledged doll maker (I was the type of kid who cut up the clothes rther than the hair), but it's neat being walked through the steps! It makes me want to dig up my old doll clothes and fix some of the ones with rips. I still have my Bratz dolls, so maybe I can stay tuned and learn how to hand-sew clothes and vicariously experience the process. Also your commentary made me laugh.

My dolls did suffer a little wear and tear though, some have scratched paint on the eyes and others have mysterious scuff marks on the face I'm afraid to remove with rubbing alcohol. Would that remove any random colored marks without removing the factory paint on them? Or maybe I'm confusing it with acetone... either way I'd love to know your opinion!

 

[ShineCero]

This is a very informative tutorial. I'll show them to my little sister since she love'd to make a doll on her own :lmao: since she got a box full of dolls she'd collected over the years.

She looks very damn good! As I said before, it looks legit like you're creating a new life under your hands. Can't wait to see the dress!

 

[~ Z ~]

I love how this looks! You really have a nice craft for making these! This is a great tutorial, especially for beginners since I kinda want to go out and do this myself xDD I don't have my dolls anymore but, to be honest, I would like to make my own now since it looks like a ton of fun to do. I probably should get the stuff first but if I ever need help (or designer tips, lol) I'll be sure to let you know Aiya!

 

[Aiya]

@Loopy You might want to try just soap and water to remove colored marks. 100% acetone will remove factory paint, so, I recommend just using soap and water to clean them up. 

@Shine Another good source is watching the playlist I compiled together of Dollightful's tutorials. It's how I got started, bc I am not in anyway a professional here. 


Okay, so!

In the dollmaking process. Things don't always go as planned.

I will explain what I mean xD

Step 1: Some use regular doll clothes patterns. Some make their own patterns by using a seam ripper, ripping apart generic doll clothes, making patterns from them, and using those. Some simply find someone on social media who professionally makes doll clothes. 

Me? 

I start by laying the doll on a piece of printer paper, spread eagle with her arms. I trace the design I want to make right next to the doll sometimes, then drawing extra lines farther from that to allow ample seam allowance. Sometimes, I just trace away from the doll, with the seam allowance built in. I do this because it works for me. find what works for you and roll with it!

As such.

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Step 2: I cut out the design from the paper, and I use my white chalk pastel, and trace the design on the fabric.

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Step 3: Cut out the fabric

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Step 4: DWC Miku's dress isn't really a full dress. It has an open front, to show off that she was mutated to have goat legs. To show off that she is not normal, hence why she's in the circus. So, I cut out a longer t-shirt-ish looking thing to sew to it. 

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Step 5: having the pieces together, I finally sew them together

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Step 6: EXPLANATION TIME! As I said, sometimes plans don't always work out. What ended up happening was, because of the way I superglued the joints, and because of the way one of her arms was molded bent, the dress would not go on right. In anger, I ended up cutting the dress so it would finally go on her. My mother graciously gave me this instant fabric adhesive stuff, so I used that to try and fix the dress. 

In a way, it did. 

I'm thinking that this doll is what DWC Miku looks like after a performance in the circus. She messed something up in her performance, that luckily the audience laughed at, but the Circus Leader did not like that she messed up. He and others who work on 'taming' the 'mutants' got together, and abused poor Miku for her mistake. Pouring the acid on her, ripping her dress in several places, pulling fur off her goat legs. When Miku started bleeding from her mouth did they finally stop, and let her go. 

After all, there's another performance in a another town soon. 

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[Aiya]

Workin on another doll, now that Miku is done. 

Okay, so, these are not the EAH hands. They are MH hands. BUT. This is how I got the doll. I just trimmed the nails off, and painted them the same blue to hide the glitter. EAH and MH dolls can mix and match parts easily. 

Praise the Gods that you are now being worked on

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Removing the head is easy. Heat up some water in the micro (enough to submerge the head, or on the stove in a kettle, submerge the head into the depths for 30 seconds. Lift doll out of water once they're properly drowned, use a towel to protect your hand from the hot water, and tug off the head. This ensures that you won't damage the neck peg. 

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Impale head for wig making

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Suffocate doll properly

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As the cap was drying, I had the body sitting on a tin on my desk. The body fell sometime while I wasn't in my room. I came back, and it looks like the body is having an existential crisis over not having a head. 

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