Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
Moderator: LoneRanger
- Koen
- Doll Artist
- Posts: 376
- Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 12:00 am
- Location: Arnhem - The Netherlands
- Contact:
Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
Strawberry, Stellai? (part 1)
Part 2
Cannot deny that some time after creating the Facebook account for Stellai I thought it had been a waste of time. Shortly after her appearance several persons had requested to become friend with her but except for me none of her new friends actually did chat with her. I still do not know what happened, but some weeks ago that suddenly all changed. Big fun for Stellai and her friends. A lot of extra work for me. But it would not be fair to complain, because one of her new friends is greengrocer and he offered to supply the fruit for the Christmas photoshoot, which was really very generous. So I went to visit him, we discussed what fruit would be best to use and I left his vegetable shop with two bags filled with fruit delicacies free of charge .
To create the element of surprise in my photo shoot I decided not to tell Stellai about the actual amount of fruit that had been donated. And while she was struggling her way into the long black dress I finished the scene for the photoshoot in another part of my workshop .
Because it looked great on last years photoshoot I wanted to use again the PU filler material I used for snow look-a-like. It is glass bubbles as big as dust and its weight is light like real snow. The similarity with scaled snow is fantastic.
To avoid that the strawberries would be covered with the white dust of the filler material I made the scene with the filler material first. But when I wanted to add the fruit a little problem popped up...
Once I gently put the first strawberry on spotless little snow hill it turned out that the fruit was so much heavier than the ‘snow’ that the strawberry instantly sank to the bottom of the little hill, invisible for the camera.
Fortunately I had been given a lot of strawberries. So, what you see is really only the tip of the fruitberg.
Old habits die hard
You probably noticed that Stellai did not had her grappling hook when she strode to the desk for the photoshoot (last photo of the previous series). At first I thought she had decided to leave it on the workbench but it turned out she simply had forgotten it. When I asked her about it she ordered me to hand over her grappling hook. I offered to lift her onto the desk, but as said: old habits die hard.
Thank God some things in life are still predictable. Stellai’s reaction was just I imagined
When Stellai saw the strawberries she completely went bananas. But as a result she completely lost track and strolled like an elephant through my carefully created snow scene. She even was totally surprised when I stopped her and reminded her of the fact that we were doing a photoshoot
I requested Stellai to go and sit on the little carpet that I created for her in the middle of the piles of fruit. She complied, but other than I hoped for, not with the carefulness that was needed. The elephant in her still was still fully in control and while keeping her strawberry safe she strolled and crawled onto the carpet, making such a mess that I was about to kick her out and get myself a decent barbie. It became clear to me that my plan to make a slick looking photo for the Christmas card needed to be postponed.
The original plan was to give her a little piece of the fruit to ‘eat’ after the photoshoot because of the mess that I knew would follow. Stellai does not have a digestive system and she is not hollow on the inside. She can put food in her mouth, but it cannot go anywhere else than the same way out. I told her so a thousand times, but in this respect she really is like a child. She has to experience it for herself.
Stellai is quite self-reliant, so I more or less had expected that once she realized that she could not swallow the food, she would stand up and find something to clean her mouth. Therefor what happened next came for me as a total surprise
Of course I felt sorry for her. But did you know that this was the first time ever that I hugged her ?!
It felt really good and it was great because that moment I realized that I had entered a new stage in my understanding of Stellai. My Christmas could not have had a better start!
Koen
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
-
- Senior Member
- Posts: 217
- Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2013 1:14 am
- Contact:
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
- netwit
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 7619
- Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 8:56 am
- Location: Ho, Ho, Ho-ing around
- Contact:
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
So brokenhearted; give her a hug for me too, please.
Maybe you can cheer her up by mentioning that there are benefits for those lacking digestive systems e.g. no fat, no waste...
- Nescio50
- Site Manager - CoverDoll
- Posts: 23454
- Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:06 am
- Location: In TLC, The Low Countries, surrounded by dolls
- Contact:
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
Also thank you greengrocer
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
- deerman
- ~ Member ~
- Posts: 8376
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:52 am
- Location: Just past the pond, the last deer trail on the left
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
~ George Washington
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
- life-is-plastic
- Doll Mentor
- Posts: 1251
- Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 4:11 pm
- Contact:
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
great shoot Koen
Stellain never ceases to amaze me
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
- Staraway
- Doll Mentor
- Posts: 1336
- Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:00 am
- Location: upside down at 11:34
- Contact:
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
Posed FACE! What a wonderful doll! The expression is such a breath of fresh air around all these frozen Oh! faces and blank stares..
..She is very independent it would appear. She doesn't want help getting up to the gift and makes her own decision about the fruit even with warnings. Admirable.
The best posing I've seen after close to a decade of buying, selling, collecting and painting dollfies, Hot Toys, Phicen, Obitsu and other 1/6 scale dolls and figures! I wonder how fragile she is, as many of the newer, more realistic 1/6 scale bodies are basically ready to break right out of the box. Phicens are notorious for snapping at the elbows although they are very beautiful dolls, Obitsus can be fragile at the hips, and Volks are really strong, although not as maneuverable as the others that hold poses. EB Beauty bodies are my favorite from them.
Amazing work. I do stop motion and I think this doll would be a treat to film! Beautiful!
P.S.
Here is a piece I did as part of an ongoing project (off the topic of dolls and more on the topic of animation..)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhwdNgdM3kg
I have more toys now than I ever did as a kid, and more imagination. A Scoonim Doll would be a perfect toy for me..
Dreams are where life goes to die
Life is where dreams go to die
- Koen
- Doll Artist
- Posts: 376
- Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 12:00 am
- Location: Arnhem - The Netherlands
- Contact:
Re: Strawberry, Stellai? (part 2)
At some point I will be forced to tell her about the other side of the coin as far as the digestive system is concerned. And that point may be reached sooner that I prefer. Stellai is already for some time getting pretty much obsessed with the function of 'the little room' which I have declared as a no-go area for her. This mainly because my wife seriously objects, which I very well understand. But I am not sure for how long I can hold on to this. Stellai is getting more resourceful by the day!Netwit wrote:..........Maybe you can cheer her up by mentioning that there are benefits for those lacking digestive systems e.g. no fat, no waste...
Sounds like you got some nasty experience with that, Deerman . Wanna talk about it?deerman wrote:.......Looks like she really knows how to use that fork,a hot red head and sharp instruments should be avoided at all costs.
And I send you my sympathies, lenglel, because the mess you need to clean after Annie's attempt is probably a 100 times biggerlenglel wrote:Annie Ugly sends Stellai her sympathies, as Annie has a similar problem.
I have watched your animation. Fantastic! Making that must have been A LOT of work. You even managed to make the mouths move very convincingly as if they are actually talking. But I did not get any sound. Is that correct, or did I miss this? I have no doubt that you will be able to make also animation with a ScoonimDoll. And I think that several of us would love to see you try. But unless you are already for some time on my waiting list this may become a bit hard.Staraway wrote: ...... I wonder how fragile she is, as many of the newer, more realistic 1/6 scale bodies are basically ready to break right out of the box. Amazing work. I do stop motion and I think this doll would be a treat to film! Beautiful!
..........Here is a piece I did as part of an ongoing project (off the topic of dolls and more on the topic of animation..)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhwdNgdM3kg
I have more toys now than I ever did as a kid, and more imagination. A Scoonim Doll would be a perfect toy for me..
As for the fragility. I consider a ScoonimDoll to be fragile. Not the skeleton, but without proper understanding of the limits the soft skin is easy to become damaged. Therefor with every ScoonimDoll comes an extensive operating manual and video instruction to help you to understand the limits and how avoid any kind of damage. I designed ScoonimDolls for frequent and long term usage. Stellai is in this respect my personal testcase. And as you can see from the huge amount photos I have already made of Stellai, she is holding out pretty good. So, it is possible. But there are no guarantees.
I also would love to see some of your photoshoots. If you have posted them a long time ago, maybe you create a topic with some links.
Best wishes to you all!
Koen