Less than two weeks until Anime Central!

By
06
May 2013

Greetings everyone! In less than two weeks, Crimson Chimera will be at AnimeCentral in Rosemont, IL. We hope that you’ll come visit us at Table 70 in the Artists Alley.

What we’ll have…

Wa-loli

Rikka’s hand-designed wa-loli outfits have been revamped to better fit a variety of both SD and MSD sized dolls. New for this year, we now carry the outfits in YoSD size. Many colors of all will be available for immediate purchase. Also new, we’ve started making sleeveless, more streamlined versions for boy dolls. You can get the fullset with matching bottoms or just the tops or even mix and match colors.

Knitted Dresses

Kijin has been hitting the needles hard and has four different styles of dresses for you to choose from. Some are already pre-made and available for purchase at the table. Custom orders will also be taken at the convention. See below for further information about custom orders.

Knitted Hats and Scarves

They’re back again! Kijin will have all kinds of colors to choose from in SD, MSD and Yo size.

MCalhen Creations Amigurumi

They’re back and as adorable as ever! Stop by the table to snuggle some of these adorable little crochet plushies. There are more than just the tiny, doll-sized octopods to choose from! Cal now has all kinds of critters and new additions in a steampunk design. Pick up a cute little gift for your doll…or take one home for yourself!

Faceups, Mods and Aesthetics

Our studio artist, Sylvyr, will have open faceup/aesthetic slots available at the con. While she does work on ACen staff, she’ll be available in the afternoons on Friday and Saturday for ideas and commission work. Unfortunately, because of the enclosed space of the show, she can’t do any work at-con, but would be more than happy to work on your dolls after. Her portfolio, as well as dolls that she’s worked on, will be at the table as well.

Custom Orders

As we always do, custom orders for clothing items will be taken at-con. Come see the portfolio for ideas or bring your designs with you. Any custom commissions for clothing items taken at AnimeCentral will receive free shipping out to you when it’s completed after the show.

Hope to see you there!

Please feel free to reblog and share the word about our table! We love to meet other dolly owners and chat, so come on by.  If you have anything you’d like to talk to us about before the con, don’t hesitate to drop a message in the ask box, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

See you soon!

~Rikka, Sylvyr, Kijin and Cal

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Another of those drive-by updates!

By
27
Mar 2013

Things have been staying steadily busy around here as we dive into the chilly spring with all sorts of doll love. Many things have been updated, so I’ll just hit the punch list:

  • Kijin’s K’nits has updated with 4 different dress styles for MSDs that will be available at AnimeCentral
  • BJD Clothing gallery is up to date with all the most recent completed projects and current commission list
  • We’ve been getting connected! You can find our Twitter and RSS feed buttons in the upper right hand corner. But we are also on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and Flickr. Check us out wherever you like!
  • Commissions for faceups and aesthetics are open. You can find Sylvyr’s portfolio in the BJD Aesthetics section of the site.

Stay tuned for some more updates coming. We’re only just getting started with the dolly fun!

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Hark! A wild update appears!

By
12
Mar 2013

I was planning to go back to our regular Wednesday schedule now that things are attempting to calm down, but I just couldn’t wait to share some of what’s been going on.

The beginning of the year started out pretty rocky, with my main job pretty much exploding into insanity. It left me with little to no time to sew or blog or do just about anything but come home and be a vegetable. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been finding my footing again. There are lots of exciting things in the work for the studio at large.

Here are the highlights:

The weather’s finally been cooperating to use sealant, so Sylvyr has been at work blushing our Soom/Minifee hybrid, Oisinn. I won’t spoil the surprise, but she’ll be picking up a very special commission next week that we hope to have on display at AnimeCentral. But for now…have you ever seen a cuter rainbow deer?

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In the background, you can see one of the current Rikka commissions. I’m still working on the frock coat for Yuki_Cross. (Yes, I know it’s taking forever, but work… *flail*) Luckily, the girl that will receive this has been very understanding to my schedule. There will also be a new WIP log about what I’ve done with it since the last one. For now, here’s a preview of what it’s become.

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Also, I’m finally sewing for YoSD size! After a couple of years of turning down folks looking for that size clothing, I finally stomped on my fear of working with something that small, and adopted Chibi. She is now my YoSD-slash-1/6 model. She’s doing a lovely job and was very helpful in creating the first YoSD wa-loli. I plan to make more of these in a variety of colors for AnimeCentral.

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In the yarn corner of the world, Kijin has not only been working on her cute little hats, but she’s also been making sweater dresses. Currently for MSD sized, here’s one of the versions that she’s done.

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She’s also been working on shawls for all sizes of doll. Here’s an example of the YoSD sized one.

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Also, as usual, we will also be featuring MCalhen Creations at our table! For your fix of incredibly cute amigurumi critters, look no further! This year, he’ll have even more to choose from…everything from cuddly squids to steampunk octopii.

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And there you have it folks! Thank you so much for being patient in all the craziness! We’re really looking forward to seeing you at ACen!

Stay tuned!
~Rikka

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Frock Coat Commission 02

By
05
Feb 2013

Doll: PopoDoll Jitian
Model: Valentin ~ Infinitidoll Justin
Clothing: Pants, shirt, frock coat

Continuing onward in the adventures of the frock coat commission, I definitely made some extremely satisfying headway this weekend. The first thing I had to do was cut the shirt to be a little bit bigger. I noticed that what really needed to happen was for the shoulder seam to be longer as well as the front lapels of the shirt. So when I cut it this time, I made the collar curve shorter in the back to give more room in the shoulders and lengthened the fronts. Once it was together and tried on, I made use of the most wonderful trim I think I have ever bought. It was a pre-sewn ruffle that was already folded at the edges where it would attach to a garment so all the seams are clean. I used this for the collar as well as the cuffs. The cuffs are a little tight, but Val has huuuuge hands, and with a little finagling, I was able to get them on without having to fuss with taking his hands off. I’m really keeping my fingers crossed that the person with the commission won’t have to either.

The next element to this is the coat. As excited as I am to finally be at this stage, I know that I could have worked on it long before now, but I wanted to make sure the basics of the shirt and pants were completed to the hand-sewing stage. In any case, I took apart the brown test coat so that I could use the pieces to base the actual one off of. Then I started assembling. The sleeves needed to be bigger to go over the shirt. But the front and back pieces are so far looking spiffy. That is a layer of lace on the two side panels, laid over the suede and incorporated as I sewed the seams. I learned a fantastic trick from one of the Gracefaerie patterns that has been a blessing here. After sewing the seams and then pressing them open, I ran a straight stitch down each side to tack down the insides. I can’t tell you how many crappy outfits and cosplays I have done where I didn’t do this step because I didn’t know that it existed. What a difference!

The lining has gone into the sleeves and they have also been tacked. Before I went any further, I put it on the doll to make sure that it would go over the sleeve still, even with the lining in. And they do! *happy dance* My last mission for the night was to put the two sides together and make one whole coat. I am ridiculously pleased. It fits in his shoulders and should be able to work with the 1-2 cm difference in doll sizes for the actual owner. There is plenty of give and oh-so-wonderful flare at the bottom. I’m so glad that this is finally working out.

Til next time!
~Rikka

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Frock Coat Commission 01

By
03
Feb 2013

Doll: PopoDoll Jitian
Model: Valentin ~ Infinitidoll Justin
Clothing: Pants, shirt, frock coat

Back in October, someone from Den of Angels commissioned me to make an outfit similar to the one the Popodoll Jitian was wearing in his company photos. Even though he’s shown wearing that outfit, it’s not available as a full set and there appears to be nowhere on the site that anyone can buy it. This was confirmed by a girl that I met at the St. Louis BJD con last November, who actually had one that I could try the WIP pieces on. Considering that the run was limited to only 50 in the world, this was pretty fortunate.

I don’t intend to completely copy the style. I’m not even sure I’ve got that kind of skill, but I’m working it so that it comes close. Fortunately, the person who commissioned it is an absolute saint because it’s taken me a couple of months just to work up a pattern that was actually functional. Boy, was that frustrating! I really thought that I was going to have to give up on the commission because I just didn’t have the skill. Add to that the stress of the holidays, and it was almost a disaster. But after the first of the year came the breakthrough.

The pictures in this post will be links to the WIP shots posted on Instagram. When I have the chance, I will later upload them from the iPhone, but this will do for now.

The pants, while usually the bane of my doll-sewing existence, were actually the easiest part to come by. The original pattern came from Gracefaerie, but because this was a 68cm boy I’m sewing for, I lengthened them so that they would work for the extra cm of leg I had to account for. This worked out beautifully, since the pattern actually fit him well in the hips. The rise is wonderful when he’s standing, though there might be a tiny bit of rump showing when he’s sitting, but making the rise too long looks ridiculous (I know this oh-so-well), so I had to make the happy medium somewhere.

The shirt is also trial and error. I didn’t have any kinds of patterns for a 65-68cm boy, since I only acquired my first one towards the end of the year. Therefore, I drew a shirt pattern from scratch and mocked up a test run. It seemed to work fine, but when I started to use the actual fabric I’d intended for the shirt, I realized that if it was too small for Valentin, it was going to be too small for the Jitian. The Jitian is about 1-2cm wider in the chest and hips than Val. So, back to the drawing board! The back panel actually works well, but the front panels are too short.

And in the background of that last picture, you’ll see the pieces ready to be cut for the actual jacket. That was where I had the most difficulty, but it finally all came together. I had pieces that were too long, it had to be taken in, then let out. It was a little crazy for awhile going almost completely from scratch. I did follow a human pattern to get the basis for this one. Finally, i had it just the way I needed it to be, and with approval from the customer, the real deal is underway.

I think the part that I’m really looking forward to is glitzing it up. Once the basic structure is together, I’m going to enjoy putting the studs and the jewels and the ruffles and lace on. To make it up for taking so long, we’ve also promised a hat to her, which Sylvyr is going to work on. If you’ve seen the hats she’s already made… here and here, you’ll see why I’m leaving that up to her.

More to come!
~Rikka

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Construction

By
19
Jan 2013

Happy new year, everyone!

 

What better way to start than with a cleanup and revamp of things, right? The first week of January, Sylvyr and I did that to our apartment. Cleaned everything up, sorted it and moved furniture around. Well, that’s what I intend to do with the website. I went through at least 20 different layouts before I found something I even remotely liked, so now it’s time to tweak it. I’ve noticed that I have an issue with the galleries now, since they’re not in the order they were originally sorted. Boo. So bear with us while things might go crashing down, links might break, but hopefully, I’ll have it up and running smoothly again in no time.

 

Thanks to Kijin, our knitting studio-mate, we’ve stumbled onto Twitter, Flickr and Instagram, so I’ve been playing around with those as well. I feel like I’ve been living under the internet rock. I’ll get there. In the meantime, we’ve been working on commissions, some detailed clothing orders and new faceups. Time is just flying, but I’ll get us caught up soon.

 

We got our confirmation that we will be at Anime Central in the Artist’s Alley, so we hope to see you there! We’re working on the details of things and what we’ll have there, so stay tuned!

 

~Rikka

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From our house to yours…

By
25
Dec 2012

…Merry Christmas! May you have a wonderful time, no matter what or how you celebrate!

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~Rikka & Sylvyr

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It’ll be a long one…

By
25
Nov 2012

“From the beginning, I dreamt of holding a St. Louis convention for BJD enthusiasts. Over the years, I have worked on many science fiction conventions and many of my doll friends have too. We decided to start an annual St. Louis BJD Convention. Since many of us had Goodreau BJDs, we selected Paulette Goodreau as our first guest. We invited the St. Louis DOA meet up group and others to join us in the planning of the convention.”

~Jenny Evans – Convention Chairman

Everyone, I am spreading the word about this incredible event that Sylvyr and I had the greatest honor to be involved in. Since trade shows, expos and conventions are my 9-5 work as well as a hobby, I know that it takes a lot of effort, investment and a serious kind of love to create and host a convention. The St. Louis crew behind this event did a knockout job of making every attendee feel welcome, inviting excellent guests and presenting a wonderful variety of programming. Being a vendor at this convention was such a privilege, and it is not an exaggeration when I say that we were treated with such care and appreciation that it was hard not to be ready for the next convention before we even left the building. We were also able to meet such awesome and friendly people who love dolls just as much as we do. I wanted to extend thanks on behalf of myself, Sylvyr, and everyone in the Crimson Chimera studio. We can’t wait to do this all again in 2013.

I’m also excited to share that Mahaya won a crafstmanship award during the banquet at the con.

If you want more information on the convention from this year and continual updates on 2013′s progress, you can check out the main website or follow their Facebook page.

Things have just kept right on moving since we returned home from the convention. Two of the three dresses being done for one of my commissions are almost complete.

My second commission, which is a frock coat similar to the one pictured on the PopoDoll Jitian, is coming along well also. I happened to be working on that while I was at the St. Louis convention, and while talking to one of the girls there, I found out that she had him! So she brought him to the table and I got to try it on and make sure it fit. That was incredibly awesome, considering that there are only 5o being made in the world. Even finding user photos of him to use as reference was difficult. It was definitely a big help, and I’m hoping to have that finished up within a week or so.

Sylvyr has had some new faceups added to her Aesthetics gallery. Actually, she’s had them done for awhile, but it was really hard to keep sewing for the convention, my commissions and have hands free to resize pictures and such at the same time. Ah, but a second pair of arms would definitely come in handy sometimes. Check out what she’s done!

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On my list of things to do in my spare time, I intend to get the Crimson Chimera Etsy page up and running, hope to get an aesthetics commission page for Sylvyr going on DoA and a whole host of other things that I will try not to lose track of in the holiday rush. Last but not least, I’ll leave you with our showpiece from the convention.

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Take care, everyone!

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We are not dead!

By
12
Nov 2012

We’ve just been extraordinarily busy! This Friday, we embark south to the first annual St. Louis BJD Convention! Sylvyr and I have been hard at work preparing our stock and our showpiece for this event, and we’re totally excited to go. Some awesome people are going to be there, and it’s a weekend with BJD lovers. I’m also trying to knock out my two big commissions so that I can get them out before the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s been tough with family already starting visits and just trying to stay on top of things at my office job. Aren’t things supposed to slow down when winter comes? Will we ever get to hibernate?

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Ooops!

By
25
Oct 2012

Well, I feel a little silly. For some reason, after doing this regularly for almost a month, I forgot that I was trying to do blog posts on Wednesdays and ended up thinking I wanted to do them on Thursdays. So I’m a little late, but I have some good stuff, so hopefully that will make up for it.

First of all, I realized that awhile back I had forgotten to share the awesomeness of Sylvyr getting a commission that asked her to paint two Hujoo dolls as Twi’leks from the Star Wars: TOR MMO. One was supposed to be a Jedi and the other was supposed to be a Sith. I think if you know anything about the game, you’ll probably be able to tell which is which.

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That’s not all. She’s been working on a handful of awesome aesthetics projects, including the face for our newest arrival. This past weekend, we received our InfinitiDoll Justin. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier. He’s now the largest doll that I own, and the sculpting is quite incredible. He stands taller than my Delfs, even when they’re in heels and I love the proportions to both my 60cm dolls and my MSDs. A very happy acquisition here. Welcome to the family, Valentin!

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That dress that Mahaya (Delf Dreaming Vampire LuWen) is wearing was something that had to be whipped up prior to Val’s box opening. She was sitting around in that grand wedding gown, which was a little much. It only took me about a day to make, could use a little bit of tweaking on the pattern, but I’m still pleased with the results. You can see more of the dress in the Clothing gallery. I will work on getting the doll family updated as well as incorporate Sylvyr’s most recent work.

I’m sincerely looking forward to this weekend, which will be mostly focused on dolls. I’m ready to start two big commissions that will be fantastic challenges. Valentin was needed for one of them, as his measurements are much closer to what is needed than any of my Delfs or my Doll in Mind. Mahaya will be my model for the other set of clothes, as they will be for a Volks SD13. The three dresses that are for that commission are super-cute. In the meantime, Sylvyr will work on some more aesthetics, including the painting for her little sister’s newest doll, a MNF Rheia.

Fun times ahead! Have a great week, everyone!

~Rikka

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