Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Hi again!! Updates, News, Changes...

Hi friends!!  Long time no blog!  Actually, it's been quite a while since I've really truly been able to devote the time into my dolls that I'd like to.  In the past six months I've faced many rough bumps in the road of life, some shook me more than I'd like to let on.  But my family and I are finally in a really good place now.. Better relationships all round, new home, and a new sense of gratitude for my family, loved ones, home, and my dolly life too!:)

I'm super excited to get my dolly business back on track, and start making the improvements I've been wanting to make for aaages!  This page will be going through some changes and getting some improvements. And more frequent posts!!  Also the waiting list, which admittedly has been neglected, is getting improved right now.  So bear with me if you are trying to view the list.  I have been working on updating it and contacting everyone on the list. * If you have not heard from me it means I either do not have your current contact information or just accidentally missed you, so please please send me an email at:  MorganOrtonBlythe@yahoo.com

Which reminds me, I set up a new email account specifically for Blythe related things!  Again, that email is...
MorganOrtonBlythe@yahoo.com
Please feel free to email me here for anything!  :) 

I've also set up a Twitter account for Blythe related things and updates about commissions, dolls currently being worked on, dolly updates, etc.  I've only *just* set it up so it's bare right now, but please add me if you're interested in seeing future news from me!
Twitter name:   Morgan_Orton

I'm also reopening the waiting list in the next month or two. The list has been slow moving this past year, but I'm working on improving that and making the list get moving a bit more quickly!  So if you're interested in getting on the list please watch out here, my Twitter, or feel free to send me an email just to say you're interested and I'll make sure you get on the list when it reopens!

Last bit of news, I have a special custom in the works who will be available on Ebay, she will probably be listed this weekend.  She's a super cute popsicle themed RBL custom with one of my special Rainbow Sherbet blended reroots in a mixture of blues, greens, purples, and white.  Here's a sneak peak at her reroot... (*reroot only, the doll is just another custom girl who is modeling the hair:)






Sunday, October 23, 2011

*Ebay listing* 

Custom #74 
It's getting colder and the leaves are changing, but this little one is daydreaming of springtime memories...


She is a base doll Primadolly Aubrena Encore (RBL), with the following customizations done by me.. 
  • Alpaca/Mohair blend reroot in shades of sky blue
  • Stock makeup sanded away and given a new faceup with pastels and acrylics 
  • New faceup sealed with MSC
  • Nostril holes and philtrum slightly carved 
  • Lips carved, painted, and glossed
  • Natural sprinkling of freckles across nose
  • Metallic shimmer around her eyes for a dewy finish  
  • Eyes boggled, gaze corrected, and given sleep eyes 
  • Special new pull strings and pull charms including shimmering glass beads, vintage beads, and silver sparrow pendant 
  • Hand drawn flower eyelids, sealed and glossed
  • Bottom part of eyemech painted brown
  • Four new sets of eyechips , which are..
*Front facing: Hand painted brown/black
*Left facing:  Hand painted pale blue
*Front facing:  Smooth purple enlarged pupil
*Right facing:  Lined brown
  • Stock eyelashes removed and replaced with new soft black lashes
Given a quality Licca body (if winning bidder prefers her Takara body, please let me know and she can come with that instead) 


Saturday, July 23, 2011

BlytheCon 2012 in Dallas TX!



I'm very excited to be a part of the planning/fundraising team for next years BlytheCon in Dallas, TX!!
It's going to be a fantastic event and I hope a lot of people will be able to attend!!

If you haven't already, please check out the official BlytheCon2012 website for all the info and registration:
http://blythecon2012.com/ 

From now until the event I'm donating my photography prints on my Etsy shop towards BlytheCon fundraising.  All profits of prints purchased will be going directly towards making this event super special and fun!   I DO take custom orders, if there's any picture in my Flickr stream you'd like made into a print, any size, please feel free to convo me on Etsy and I can list it for you!

Please take a look at the shop, and a huge THANK YOU for helping out in supporting this great event!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MorganOrton






Also in the months to come I'll be working on an amazingly adorable rerooted cowgirl custom who will be auctioned off on Ebay.   All the profits from her sale will also be going to BlytheCon expenses and extra goodies at the event!!  So keep an eye out for her!  :D


Thanks and I hope to see ya'll in Texas on August 5th, 2012!  

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Alpaca Reroot Care & Styling Guide

I had a former Alpaca hair care guide available in my Flickr group, but with no pictures or anything, so I think it was still a little confusing to some people.  I've finally gotten around to creating a better one with photos!  For this demo I'm using Kirsten's dolly, a custom by Jess/Sookie with a reroot by me.  Her hair was in need of a good wash and style so I offered to give her a little hair spa time!
                       (you can click the images to view them larger)

Alpaca hair strands naturally have a sort of stringy look (though you can break that up with a boars or other bristle brush for a more fluffy look)
But if you don't regularly comb through your Alpaca reroot it will get a messy/dreaded sort of look to it.

 (This is how I wash and style an Alpaca reroot, I'm sure there are many other ways of doing it, but this is how I do it:)

★Step ➊  COMB THROUGH
Comb through your Alpaca reroot with a standard comb, using the part with wider teeth.  Comb it out as best you can, get out all the tangles.  I like to start at the middle of the strands and comb my way down to the ends, then get my comb into the top of the strands (closest to the scalp) and work my way all the way down.  If the hair is even the least bit tangled you probably wont be able to stick your comb in and pull it all the way down to the ends in one clean pull.  Don't try to do that if the comb gets stuck in the hair.  Instead use smaller strokes, comb and then remove when it's stuck, comb, remove, comb, remove.  This way you're not pulling too hard on the hair and any tangles will slowly come loose and you'll be able to pull the comb all the way down the strand of hair without being stopped.


Often times, especially if it's a thick reroot, you'll want to part the hair into smaller sections to make sure you get the underneath layers, especially since the areas closest to the scalp are the ones that will tangle or matte most quickly.

*You should do Step 1 about once every week or two, depending on how much play your girl gets.  You should regularly comb through your reroot in between playing so that it doesn't get too tangled.  If you do "regular maintenance" comb throughs then you wont have any real big tangles to deal with later on.

★Step ➋  WASH/CONDITION
Use warm to hot water, but not scalding.  Don't rapidly increase or decrease the temperature, you don't want any felting to occur.
Put the faucet on low to medium stream, you don't want to put the pressure too high or else you'll have water splashing all over your girls face.  Gently wet her hair.  Make sure to avoid getting water too close to the scalp line, if water soluble glue was used to attach her reroot (which is what most people use, including me) then you could loosen the glue, causing her scalp to come up a little.
Alpaca doesn't absorb water super quickly, so you might need to lift the hair up a little to make sure the inside layers of hair get wet.


Once the hairs been wet, add a little more than a pea sized amount of gentle shampoo.  I use Method baby shampoo because that's what I use on my daughter, but regular gentle/mild shampoo is fine too (as long as it's not labeled ultra "cleansing" which normally means it's a bit harsher to make hair cleaner)  Gently rub the shampoo onto the hair, but don't scrub or rub the hair too harshly.  I like to rinse a tiny bit of water onto the hair once I have the shampoo on, and then run my fingers over it a little more to help the shampoo saturate all the hair strands.  Then rinse the shampoo out the same way you wet the hair, turn her around to get all parts of the hair, but avoid getting the scalp line wet.

Then condition with a medium to heavy conditioner.  I like to start at the ends and work my way up.  You don't want too much conditioner in the root/scalp area, that will just make her hair look flat and be more difficult for you to rinse out.  Rinse the conditioner out, you might have to gently rub your fingers down the hair to help remove all the conditioner.

★Step ➌  DRYING/STYLING


To dry and style you'll need a towel, a comb, a hairdryer, and a boars bristle brush.  I recommend boars or another all natural bristle brush, but others can be used.  Here's a great, and short, article on why boars bristle brushes are so much better:
http://beauty.about.com/od/hairbasics/f/boarbristle.htm


To get started you'll want to gently ring out any excess water with a clean towel.  Then you'll want to thoroughly comb out the hair.  This can be difficult sometimes if the hair is tangled or matted at all.  (regular combing makes this process much easier!)  Just comb the same way I described above, in small quick strokes, until it becomes more smooth.  You'll want to separate into smaller sections so you can get the hair closest to the scalp/root area.  If this part is stressing you out just be patient and go slow, if a girl has super tangled hair it can take me 20-30 minutes sometimes to get completely combed out.  And a little bit of shedding onto your comb is completely natural, don't be freaked out by it.  Once you've got it pretty much all combed out you can begin blow drying.


I like to start out on the medium setting on my blow dryer.  I hold my doll upside down and wave my dryer about a foot away from her hair, I move my dryer back and forth lots and don't hold it on one area for too long.  Turn your doll as you go.  Her hair will naturally fly around some so you can reach some of the under layers as well as the surface layer.
I blow dry for about 2 minutes then stop and do a quick comb through.  Then I repeat with 2 more minutes of drying and then stop and comb through again.  Turn her upright and comb her hair that way and blow dry that part of her scalp.  Once the hair is feeling damp and slightly dry I brush through with the boars bristle brush as well the comb.  You'll have to start focusing more on the "roots" area, closer to the scalp, this area is the slowest to dry, especially in the part line where there are more strands of hair.  Keep alternating between drying for a few minutes and stopping to comb and brush.  Once it's nice and dry do one final comb through with your comb and then brush with the boars bristle brush.


And Voile! silky smooth fluffy alpaca hair!
Before/After:

Saturday, June 11, 2011

New

I have all my old photos back and my photostream is kind of back to normal now, yay!!  I'm trying to take advantage of having a new account, and changing up my sets a little and the way things are set up.   I'm juggling a bunch of commissions at the moment, but just wanted to share some recent works...

Linz's SBL custom.. she was one of the Faceup for Japan raffle winners.  She opted
to add on an Alpaca reroot.

Wembley, my personal dolly, got a new Alpaca/Mohair  blend reroot.
I'm calling this colorful style my Rainbow Sherbet reroots:)

Thanks for looking, have a great weekend!!:)

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Flickr account deleted ..update!

Just wanted to give a quick update that Flickr finally did take some pity on me and allow me access to my old account for long enough to save my images, yay!!  I've currently got all my old photos back onto my new stream, just working on creating sets now.  Thanks again so much for all the support!!

As most of my friends know by now, my Flickr account was deleted (by Flickr) yesterday, supposedly for breaking the rules and using my stream too commercially.  I did have photos of my latest custom (who is for sale on ebay currently) and had a link to the listing in my profile, as I thought that was allowed.

My account was deleted with no warning or even an email from Flickr, all my photos, sets, everything are gone.  I have written them and I am *hoping* they will work with me somewhat in getting some of my pictures back, at least ones of my daughter, but haven't heard word on that yet.

I will slowly be rebuilding my new photostream.  I think I may have some of my custom work photos on file or in a place they could maybe be recovered, but I know many are lost forever probably:(  Please be patient with me in getting photos back onto my new photostream of my custom work.  I will continue to work on commissions and post commission photos, I will just have to be very careful with my wording I guess.

Though this has me totally devastated, it's also made me realize that I have lots of friends in the Blythe world I cherish very much!  THANK YOU to everyone who has left me kind and concerned comments and messages, it's really helped me a lot!!  Hugs to you all!!

Here's my new photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63358792@N05/5765405877/in/photostream

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Newest custom available on Ebay!


Custom #71
This sweet girl has been wishing and hoping for the carnival to come to town, and now would like to come to yours to share it with you! 

 

      She is a base doll NickyLad (RBL), with the following customizations done by me.. 
  • Alpaca reroot in several shades including natural red, orange, yellow, pink, and white 
  • Stock makeup sanded away and given a new faceup with pastels and acrylics 
  • New faceup sealed with MSC
  • Nostril holes and philtrum slightly carved 
  • Lips carved, painted, and glossed
  • Natural sprinkling of freckles 
  • Metallic shimmer around her eyes for a dewy finish  
  • Eyes boggled, gaze corrected, and given sleep eyes 
  • Special new pull strings and pull charms including shimmering glass beads, vintage flower beads, and clown pendant 
  • Metallic painted eyelids with painted glittery star detail
  • Bottom part of eyemech painted to match
  • Four new sets of eyechips , which are..
*Front facing: Midnight blue
*Left facing:  Plum purple
*Front facing:  Amber gold
*Right facing:  Olive green
  • Eyelashes replaced 
  • Given a quality Licca body (if winning bidder prefers her Takara body, please let me know and she can come with that instead) 
      
Her Alpaca reroot was done via knot method, and has a loose center part, meaning that you can move it around or style it different ways if you'd like.  My Alpaca reroots have been featured on MademoiselleBlythe blog.  Alpaca hair is straight, soft, and has a very unique look and texture.  Alpaca hair can be heat styled just like other natural fibers, like Mohair.  It is easy to style, and I will be including my Alpaca care and styling guide for her new mommy or daddy. 


She will be traveling to her new home with all clothing, accessories, and toys pictured, including..
  • Custom made Fishknees dress made just for her
  • Lalaloopsy ferris wheel, doll, and doll's accessories
  • Lots of extra goodies for her and her new mom or dad



Thanks so much for checking her out!!<3