It’s hard for me to write this because I never dreamed that I would have to write a blog about how the end of My Chemical Romance was affecting me.
When I first found out, which, thankfully, was from my besties after a long day of work and not sitting alone at work in front of a computer screen, I was speechless. Mouth hanging open. Distraught.
The funny thing is.. they were like “You need to sit down. We have something we have to tell you.”
I was all “did someone die?”
“Worse,” they said.
“What? Like My Chemical Romance broke up? Or Blue October?” I joked.
Well I gotta say, I’m pretty proud of how my Stacee Jaxx commission turned out. He looks exactly like I was hoping he would. To be honest I wasn’t planning on the fur coat when I started him. It wasn’t an original ask in the commission, but once I finished hand-embroidering the tattoos I was preparing the pattern for a simple slinky black shirt and I just knew he had to have the jacket. (I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I admit, but I strive for authenticity.. well.. as close as you can get to authenticity when we’re talking about a 9″ plush version of someone. LOL)
I’m having so much fun doing my plushie shoots with the new ideas. See, I originally thought it was smart to have my plushie on display against a simple white or black background so that all the handiwork was clear. Then I read something on the Etsy Sellers blog about how people shopping online can’t handle your products and really look at them like you can in a store. The article said the best way to entice shoppers was to show your products in use – dishes with food on them, jewelry or clothes on the body, etc – and I thought that made a lot of sense.. but my products don’t really have a “use” that I could portray in a photo shoot. So I figured I would shoot them like I was shooting the character they’re based on. It turned out even better than I imagined! The first one I shot with this new vision was my Twilight Sparkle and the pictures came out brilliantly so I kept with that theme. I think I might actually go back and shoot some of my other dolls (a few of them were gifts for my besties so they’re still chilling around my house) so they have the same kind of display quality.
In case you’re curious at all about my process, I thought I’d share a little bit of how my brain works. I don’t have any trouble making the dolls of anime characters, but I have to kinda convert real people to dolls or schwoopies in my head to make dolls of them. So here is my sketch of Stacee Jaxx as a schwoopie that I used to make his doll.
Schwoopie Stacee Jaxx sketch
So he’s all finished and I’m on to the next commission on my list. Let’s see.. at this point I’ve got..
1. Toothless (from How To Train Your Dragon)
2. Rainbow Dash
3. clothes for custom Ciel Phantomhive Lalaloopsy
Plus various other sewing projects – working out making/upcycling clothes. And I’m going to be taking a break from commissions, most likely, because I want to build up a stock of plushies for Ramencon in September. (My 1st con!) I’ve still gotta figure out what I’m making for the con.. busy busy!
Happy Nakama 