Wednesday 16 January 2013

Renewal


I've been having some bonding issues with Jonas over the last year or so. She's gone through several style transformations and nothing has really stuck. Add that to her less-than-stellar posing ability (I have to turn her lower arms backward to get them to stay straight...) and small size and I was just feeling lost.

So, when I made her a dress from the fabric I bought at Liberty in London as a pattern tester for SM, I wasn't really expecting much... but it has completely changed my feelings for her. I now know exactly what her style is, which makes it so much easier to clothe and photograph her.

Jonas - Bisou Ai Bonbon

Her character has been modified accordingly, and she's now a mix of the Jonas character and another I was initially considering for the Bonbon: Aria. This new style is very much how I envisioned Aria, so I'm hoping it will be easy to continue to come up with new pieces using the old sketches I have of her.

She still poses pretty terribly, so I'm considering buying another Bonbon in the future and having the body modded to be more stable and posable and the head modded to be a sleeping head for Jonas. :)


Tuesday 15 January 2013

Commissions are Open!


I have three commission slots open for January if anyone was wanting to order something. :)

Wednesday 2 January 2013

New Camera!



As you may or may not have known, I've been pining over a DSLR camera for years, but could never justify the expense.

This year, however, my awesome mum bought me one for a combined birthday/Christmas gift. :) It's the Canon Rebel T4i, if anyone is wondering and I'm quite excited about it. I had been looking at some Nikons, but when we went to pick it up today, the Rebels were on sale and the Nikons were not... so it became a very obvious choice.

I'm looking forward to getting back to my photography roots since I grew up with viewfinder cameras and a black and white SLR and have never really adjusted to not having a viewfinder or a hand-adjusted lens on the digital cameras I've had since.

You can hopefully expect new doll photos as I practise with this camera... and probably also cat photos (lots of cat photos... I've missed having her around).

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Looking back



I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year's Eve. :)

Looking back on 2012, I'm certainly disappointed with how much I've accomplished, but I think given all the moving and adjusting to different countries I did this year I can cut myself some slack.

I don't make resolutions per-se, but I would like to keep working on the goals I set in September.

More specifically (in a vague order - warning!, long post),
  • Subtle Memory
    I would like to get proper samples for everything done and photographed soon so that I can be ready to fully open my shop in April.
    I have most of the patterning done, but the prototypes I have need to be tweaked, so re-sewing them is necessary.
  • Commissions
    I really like doing most commissions, meeting new people and trying new things. Unfortunately, while I love doing them, I find commissions always take longer than I think they will and, as a result, I get very stressed and can't take very many at a time.
    This year, I would like to spend some time working on ensuring I have commission slots every month. It may end up only being one or two, but I would like to make sure they are available.
    I have plans to restructure how I take commissions, but that ties in with another goal, so I won't list it here.
  • School
    While this isn't specifically doll-related, it does affect everything I will be able to accomplish doll-wise.
    Switching continents was both good and bad for my school career. I got to experience new ways of doing things, some good, some bad, and meet a lot of new people. Unfortunately, it also caused me to be unable to meet many of the deadlines for my school in Ontario, so I will be spending the first week of classes sorting everything out.
    I would like to make a concerted effort to get my work done early this year (I always do it on time, but finishing early would take a lot of stress off) and make a decision on whether I am going to go to grad school or not.
    I think overall this is going to be the biggest challenge I face this year, dealing with university bureaucracy and 18 years of ingrained academic habits, so I'm hoping I can do it.
  • Anime North
    I didn't get a chance to enter the theme competition at Anime North last year, nor did I end up getting enough stock made to sell at the market.
    This year, I have grand plans... so I'm hoping they don't fall through again.
    I'd like to get all my stock made before the theme is announced so I don't have to worry about trying to make them both at the same time.
    It's going to be a TONNE of work, so it's a bit low on the priority scale. I don't think I'll be going to AN in 2014 though, so I'm really hoping I can make this work.
  • Blogging
    I'm still dissatisfied with both the quality and quantity of my blog posts, so I'd really like to work on that again in 2013. I think I got better after all the moving stress died down, so hopefully starting fresh in Ontario will help.
  • Photography
    One of the reasons I first got into BJDs was as photography models. I'm pretty average at photography right now though, so I always get discouraged from practising.
    I've been collecting materials to build some photography sets over the past two years and I think I finally have enough to start and not be fretting about not having this or that. There will be a lot of waiting for things to dry so this project will be worked on in-between sewing and school, but I hope to have at least 2 rooms finished by the end of the year.
    I would also like to start getting into photostories. I have lots planned, but have been waiting for sets to be done. I think I can thank mendokusai for spurring me on in this as she unknowingly does for many things.
    I'm seriously considering joining flickr and getting involved in the community there, but I have enough trouble with this blog, so we'll see. XD
  • Web Design
    Finally, I would still like to work on getting a cohesive design done for my site. I have plans to add a bunch of sections and change a lot of things, but while I think I've managed to get my technical skills up to par, my design and layout skills leave a lot to be desired.
    I think this will be worked on throughout the year, with little tweaks here and there. Ideally I'd like to get a 'new and improved' fully integrated (store, galleries etc.) site up by the end of the year, but looking over the list I just typed, I'm not going to be too disappointed if it doesn't happen.
I'd still like to get better with speed and time management overall, but those are more nebulous goals that really only come with practise.

My plan is to make these goals visible around my house so I always have something to remind me of them. Last year, I found the things that weren't visible got ignored and I don't want that to happen again.



I hope everyone is doing well.

Do you have any specific goals you want to work on this year? :)