Poupée Mécanique

Working until early in the morning.

At that point I try to have a 3 hour nap and end up sleeping for 6 hours. This has happened one time too many now so tonight I won’t be sleeping at all.

Sewing for doll show.

Listening to the soundtrack from Hana and Alice.
岩井俊二　ー　ウヲアイニ・アラベスク

Yoko-san’s cute note.

Such a beautiful cover!

The first two pages of my spread.

My characters were U-noa Lusis as Alice and U-noa B-el (+sleeping faceplate) as the Twin Mad Hatters. I’m very happy to be able to introduce my work with U-noa through the publication that has supported them so much from the very beginning. I love Dollybird and this issue in particular is one of the best in my opinion.

One of my most favourite artists ever is featured also, Mr. Julien Martinez from France.

He’s one of the most talented and inspiring people I have met and a very sweet and kind person too.

His website: http://www.ozzdollsfactory.com/
His blog: http://intermundisleblogdejulienmartinez.blogspot.com/

I have some new work in the latest issue of Dollybird, out in a few days. It’s some of my best work yet! Nine pages with photographs and patterns for U-noa girl and boy.

I remember a few years back when U-noa started becoming popular, I was scandalised by the highly sexual connotations and hated them. Who would have known that a few years later I would grow to love them. This morning I was watching an interview with a wonderful greek personality and she said “One can never hate something so much if they don’t secretly love it or if they don’t fear they might come to love it”.

U-noas for me are not yet another bjd. They’re an entirely different entity of their own, they’re a whole new school. Their creator, Gentaro Araki, is an incredible artist with a vast quantity of work under his belt, in various mediums, from drawings to manga to sculptures to figure kits to dolls. His work is instantly recognisable and has this warmth and sensitivity in it that I haven’t seen in any other doll artist’s work. I was talking about this with a friend and we agree that it’s all about “that face”. It’s just…this face he does. It makes me feel something strange deep inside. Something that goes beyond “Oh, cute doll”.

I think his biggest success with them is that they look very unique and instantly recognisable, but they still give you plenty of room to add your own elements and make them your own. Bjds in general are supposed to be able to do this but personally, I find many of them look the same no matter what you do to them because they’re just sp stylised! U-noas on the other hand, in all their uniqueness, can really transform. They also somehow manage to look very anime-like, without looking anything like proper anime dolls like Dollfie-dream.

Araki has also been incredibly inventive with his doll design. I am not 100% sure about this but I think he’s the first that came up with interchangeable faceplates idea. When the first bjds with closed eyes came out I couldn’t for the life of me understand how anyone could be happy with a doll that sleeps FOREVER. But Araki came up with this simple but genius solution of interchangeable faceplates to make your doll wink, sleep, yawn or…have an orgasm. Not to mention the interchangeable soft and hard penis for the boys!!!

I took the big leap and purchased a U-noa B-El this past November. I found him in Tokyo, in Nakano’s Mandarake. At first I was so unsure how things would work out but I became attached to him very quickly. I named him Noeru, a name that stuck with me from this film, even though I hated that character.

The funny thing is the film is called Boys’ love and B-El is the initials of Boy’s love.

He sat around with no faceup for months. It took me ages to find wigs and shoes I liked. Bjd shoes usually look either 90s cyber goth or straight out of the sex shop and short wigs are sparse and usually emo looking. Luckily I can make clothes. :)

I quickly fell for U-noa Lusis too, those droopy eyelids and pouty lips make me melt. I got my Lusis this past March. I named her Mikako after Mikako from Gokinjo Monogatari, my favourite anime! I think they look so much alike and it’s such a sweet name.

The day she arrived, I popped her and Noeru’s faceplated in the mail to France to have their faceups done by the super talented Kesha and I am so happy with her work. She gave them such sweet, gentle expressions. I don’t like bjds that look mean or snobby, something we see a lot of. Their eyes are german glass ones. Noeru’s look a bit big, need to order them with smaller pupils/irises. Now the final thing that needs to be done is body blushing and sueding because they’re a bit floppy.

In my last trip to Tokyo I found an L-bi for such a low price I couldn’t pass. He had the MOST unfortunate faceup on! For now, I’ve just cleaned that up and he’s sitting in his box until I get some time to work on him. I’ll attempt my first faceup, wish me luck with that one.

I also got some faceplates from the Alchemic Labo booth at Doll show t o use for photographs.

This is the infamous akubi (yawning) faceplate that had scandalised me so much back then. I just love it now, it’s so unique.

Finally, the mohair girl I’ve been working on for months is ready. I hope you like her!

Here’s her auction page – 5 days only!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170449079678

She’s wearing the Veruca Salt dress I’d mentioned I wanted to make in the past. I’m very happy with how it turned out!

I’m behind with these! My designs lately have not been very suitable for mass production (if ten is mass) and yet they just keep getting more and more complicated! This one has broken the pintuck record, with 4 on each sleeve and 6 on the bodice, plus two more on the skirt for the variation I made. I love it though!

They’ll be all ready to go on Monday.

A new outfit available at the shop!

I’ve neglected my beloved blog once again. But really, October was hell. Earlier in the month I gave up on going to Tokyo for Doll Show 26 because of bad finances, then all of a sudden I could afford it, but had about 10 days left to prepare. Add to that having to make rent, a million bills to pay, studying japanese, and you can imagine my state. But anyhow, I did survive and it was well worth it, as it always is. I’m still in Tokyo now, having a wonderful time.

The Doll show was this past Sunday and it was perhaps the nicest of the three I’ve been in so far. My booth was put together quickly and it was quite simple. I sold three outfits, and they went very well!

I have uploaded lots of pictures on my flickr, so I’ll only post a few selections here.

Two of the offered outfits.

Poupee mecanique Misaki & Amelie with Dylan’s beautiful artwork

Life-size ad! They asked me to sign it. ^_^

And Azone’s display of my girls!

Amazing Korisu factory works

Satomi’s (aka Kitten) lovely booth.

Drawn thread dress, I wish I could have bought it – it sold out immediately of course.

I’m looking forward to Momolita’s new doll, Nano Mau, she’s adorable.

Japanese doll artists are always pushing the standards forward and I must say that I was mostly impressed with the Momoko works I saw. Two of my favourites:

Four leaf clover

Aline

As you can probably tell I really need a new camera. This poor Olympus I use is one of the first 4mp cameras that came out, so you can imagine just how old it is. I’m surprised it still works, I have to keep a tripod attachement permanently screwed on to hold the busted battery door closed – poor thing! I have decided not to buy the Olympus EP-1 I was raving about in my last post as it is rumoured that the EP-2 will be out before the end of the year and it will have a viewfinder! So once again, I shall have to put off the much needed upgrade. But hopefully not for too long.

It’s very late here now and I need to go to bed, must take a trip to the post office in the morning and then head to Nakano broadway to meet the lovely Yu-san, of Yu’s cutie dolls. That website is an institution among vintage japanese doll fans, hehe. So more updates tomorrow…

Pintucks and gingham set, one of the most detailed outfits I’ve done! There are two left at the shop.

Mod tweed dress, this was so popular, it sold out immediately. I really love tweed and its hard to find in the right scale. I got this in Greece and it’s 100% wool.