Doll Dying Adventure 3! A year and change!?

Hey guys!

Whoa its been a while eh!? Don't be mad, I come baring gifts! LOL well not really but I come with a story, those are always fun right?

First let me introduce you to Moku (Mokuren)! If you recall my Christmas list, I wanted an Sqlabs L-Ksg and I finally got her. Now if you recall that I call myself a Bjd Alchemist, I'll take you on my 3rd crazy dying adventure..

I started off with the usual, taking her apart. Now when doing so I saw this crazy top hip joint that I knew would be annoying to reassemble but otherwise no surprises.

Once she was in pieces, I put cotton strings threw the pieces to help dunk them in dye. I had a small simmering pot in the background ready to go.

The pot was filled near the top with water (enough to submerge pieces). I used 1 teaspoon of Rit dye (powder). I personally had the best results with Rit dye power in cocoa brown.

The first drunk, I left the piece in for about 5 seconds then dunked it in cool water to remove any excess dye and cool it down. This was the result of the first dip. Afterwards I hung the pieces to dry on a clothing rack.

The next series of dips were about 5-8 seconds each. I did that about 3-5 times until I got my desired colour. Keep in mind that the dye will eventually fade. Shiera (Iplehouse Cocori) was also dyed cocoa brown and faded to a nice light tan colour. 

After all the pieces were dyed, they were all hanging on the clothing rack. Then when they're all dried (like 10 mins) I coated them in MSC. This helps the pieces all fade the same colour! When I dyed Tai (Dollfie dream) I didn't coat her body and only her face was coated for the face up so now her body has faded lighter then her face. Its not horrible but it is slightly noticeable. Its all good though, you live, you learn!

Here's a comparison of Moku's old colour to her new dyed colour. I though it wasn't dark enough at first.. Ha!

Here she is all put together. Man was that not fun!

What's next? I want to try to make her some Japanese styled slippers with Worbla.. Otherwise I don't know but I want to get back to doll meets.. I miss all the people and dollies! Until next time!

-K

Doll Dying Adventure 2! Vinyl Dying

Hey guys,

So I finally have some good news.. and some bad news! The good news is that I had some spare change so I ordered the eyes that I envisioned for my girls. They have arrived and I've taken a few photos. Overall I love all of the colours, Shiera and Tai's eyes really suit them but I think I would have liked Reily's eyes to be brighter. Regardless I'm glad she can get out of those terrible pale and lifeless eyes.

Secondly I finally dyed Tai! She is permanently rit dyed a orange-brown and ohh boy was it an adventure! I suffered some burnt hands and dyed nails but I feel it was worth it. The bad news is that I accident broken parts from her armature in both arms soo she's temporarily an amputee, a very cute amputee <3

I'll definitely order her a new set in the future but until then I found a temporary way to keep her arms attached and so far its working out. A lesson well learned but at least I know now that the ball joints WILL dye and are not difficult to take. The only problems I encountered were some parts of the ball joints dyed faster then others so it took some effort to match the colours. An important rule while dying vinyl is to always keep the piece moving in the pot so it can get coated evenly and doesn't get burnt on the bottom.

Well that's it for now, who know what I'll be up to next ;)
-K

(Tai laying in pieces)

 (Colour combo choices)

 (Recipe I modded, used pack of orange and about 3 tea spoons black)

(Tai strung and ready to go) 

 (Boiling the dye)

 (Getting ready to dip hip joint test piece)

 (First dip for 5 seconds)

 (The dye took right away, colour difference)

 (Second dip an other 5 seconds)

 (Third dip 10 seconds)

 (Sadly a piece from the elbow ball joint snapped while I was trying to get it apart)

 (Different parts of the ball joint dye faster)

 (A bit of progress, had to redip to get similar colours)

(White skin L-Bust and normal skin dynamite bust still came out the same colour)

 (Here are the results and comparison to old colour headcap)

(Thought I'd give her a slightly different faceup)

 (Me working on Tai's eyes)

(Closer look at me working)

(Finished faceup and new eyes)

(Back in normal attire and wig, yay Tai!)

(Made a new dress for her)

 (Now Tai can be a true gyaru <3)

(Sexy Shiera and her new eyes posing with pepsi)

(An other sassy photo)

(Reily's new eyes)

(Reily just there lol)

Doll Dying Update

Hey everybody!

As you know I recently dyed my Iplehouse Cocori (which I now renamed Shiera) cocoa brown. I gave her a face up which I thought was alright but a little dark. I wasn't sure if I could remove the face up without removing the dye so I let it be for a few days. Here's how she first looked:

(Shiera's first official face up)

As you can see it's pretty dark around the nose and eye area as I rubbed off a mistake and it made a light patch. I tried to cover it up but it turned out pretty noticeable. I also heavily applied black eye-shadow which looked okay but I'm not sure if it's right for her character.

After a few days of wondering, I recalled that rubbing alcohol could remove the face up supposedly without removing the dye. With a q-tip, I tried a bit inside her head and it worked! After some scrubbing with added force, this how she looked with a bit of  make up removed. As you can see the pastels were really layered on as her undertone is very light.

(Face up slightly removed)

I liked her lip colour so I scrubbed around it which worked fine. After scrubbing for a while there were some stubborn areas like around the nose and forehead so I used a small piece of magic eraser and a bit of windor and newton. It works really well if you scrub lightly but be careful not to scrub too much because it will start to remove the dye. Here's her face wiped:

 (Shiera back to square one)

After a quick rinse in water, I began to redo the face up. Everything went well this time except I'm terrible at applying eyelashes so I'll have to send her out to get them done. Here's picture of the finished face up:

(Finished face up)

(Back on her body)

One of the main reasons why I like gentle cocori is for her eyes and I felt the first (well technically the second) face up attempt did not do her lovely eyes any justice! I'm much happier with this one and now know that the face up can safely be removed.

Hope this helps, until next time!

-K

Doll Dying Adventure 1

Hello again!

Today I set out on an adventure to dye my Iplehouse Gentle Cocori tan. To learn how to dye a doll, I read the doll dye thread on DOA and got the basic understanding of the steps and materials required. Yesterday I bought 3 boxes of Rit fabric dye (two tan and one cocoa brown) as I was hoping to mix some tan and brown for a nice tan colour. I got the dollar store version of Mr.Clean magic eraser as I heard that one works better and some rope to hang the pieces.

(Rit dye, magic erasers and cotton rope)

I began the process by unstringing and scrubbing down the doll. Once I was done I put the pieces in water and strung each piece with the cotton rope. After stringing the pieces I put a pot of water on to boil and once it was hot I added the dye and mixed with a wooden spoon.

(Doll pieces in water strung with cotton rope)

(Tan Rit dye bath)

When the water came to a slight boil, I turn it down a bit and gave it a quick stir. I decided to dip a pieces that you wouldn't see on the outside of the doll. Unfortunately the tan dye was expired so I got the nasty faded blue colour. I dumped the dye and tried the other pack of tan dye and got the same result. It was so disappointing!

(Getting ready to submerge the first piece)

(Unfortunate outcome of both tan dye packs)

Feeling a bit discouraged, I wanted to try my last package of Rit dye which is cocoa brown. Followed the same steps, dipped the same piece and this time I got some colour! I continued to dip the rest of the pieces for about 2 or 3 quick dips each and I got a chocolate milk colour which I love.

(First successful dyed piece)

(Cocori head fresh out the pot compared to her NS head cap)

After I dipped each piece, I dipped them in a bucket of water to get off the excess dye. Before I hung them to dry I used the magic eraser to brush off some grainy dye residue which caused dark little spots. After the brushing I hung them to dry on my clothing rack.

(Doll pieces drying on clothing rack)

The pieces are pretty much all dyed now but I'll leave them over night and coat them with MSC in the morning. Here's a picture of Cocori's head all nice and dry.

(Cocori head dry compared to NS head cap)

That's the end of my crazy Rit dye experience. I'd say I'm please with the outcome and the only challenge was dying the torso pieces since my pot wasn't that deep and there was some dye sitting on the bottom that made a blotch on her lower back (which I will make into a tramp stamp lol). Otherwise the dye turned out nice and even! The only thing I would do differently is get a bigger pot next time!

I'll do her face up tomorrow and I've been meaning to post some doll meet photos which hopefully I'll get to do soon. Until next time!

-K