Dolly Craze

Lately I'm crazy over 1/6-scale dolls. You know, Barbie dolls and similar. Not in the sense that I like playing with them, but more related to my interest in costume design.

It all started years ago when I saw some OOAK (One Of A Kind) dolls in Chinese wuxia styled costumes being auctioned on Ebay and I thought they looked absolutely fabulous. At that point of time I had the thought of doing the same myself, by repainting, rerooting and creating costumes for these dolls, just that it remained only as a thought. It was only recently, when I had to do costume design for "Medea" as a school assignment that the thought came to my mind again. The difference is that this time round, I really put that into action. Here are 2 costumes I had designed for the title role of Medea.

Medea in opening of play (top) and during the finale (bottom) when she was dressed similar to that of Goddess Kali. Model is a Volks Dollfie 27cm doll.

I still have 7 roles in which I had to design costumes for, and I'm not sure if I can finish them by the start of next semester! One thing I can be sure of, is I'd certainly be blamed for "spoiling the market", because doing mock-up costumes is not part of the assignment's requirement, but I did it anyway because I felt it can better aid me convey the kind of costume I wanted to create. Having said that, I don't think I'll do that again, if there's another costume design assignment in future for class, because it's simply too time and energy consuming!

Not forgetting making Chinese opera costume for my doll as well!

Bumping out for Lucky Stiff 2

Bumping out for Lucky Stiff

"Adiós" to Long Hair

I had not had my hair snipped for almost a year, and I finally had it cut yesterday. It was a very tough struggle for me; I always wanted to have long hair, but it is very hard to make the hair dry after washing, and the increased frequency of hair dropping made me having to constantly sweep the floor under my computer desk at home. Hence, after weighing various factors, I decided to have it snipped. Not without a big change, that is! Some of my friends will know that I visit the hair salon at least once in a few months, and everytime I leave the salon I'll usually spot a very big change in hairstyle, and this time is no exception too. Not only did I had my hair cut short, I also did a twist perm as well. However, I don't quite like the results; it wasn't as nice as what I had done before 2 years back, although it was done in the same salon. But, I think I will just have to stay with it for a few more months before I change my hairstyle again; I don't wish to visit the salon again and have all my hair shaved off!

One last look before snipping; I may not have a chance to grow hair this long again!

Intricate steps to prepare the hair for twist perm (they call it the "caterpillars"!); it is very painful!

Resulting effect