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Oct 08, 2014 - Review of Textile Doll (Latvia)

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Kate Kane
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Oct 08, 2014 - Review of Textile Doll (Latvia)

Post by Kate Kane »

Textile Doll (Latvia) Review - Original topic: http://www.dollforum.com/forum/viewtopi ... 26&t=56757

Why Textile Doll?
I have shared my home for the more than 2 years with two Teddybabe Deluxes and have always found them to be wonderful companions and perfect for night time snuggles. However, I have always hankered after a more visually realistic doll for photography, but an old spinal injury and 2 lots of reconstructive surgery have left me unable to cope with the considerable weight of a full size silicone or TPE doll.

I first came across some mentions of Textiledoll, in this Forum and on TDF, around January this year, about the time that the venture was starting up. Frankly, it all seemed a bit too good to be true, a poseable realistic looking doll with real-girl proportions at about the same weight as a Teddybabe Deluxe. I wasn’t sure whether to take the claims seriously or not. Then, when in May this year I had determined to order a new doll I looked again. The gallery on Textile Doll’s website - http://www.textiledoll.com/en/home - which presented a collection of tantalising images and specifications which seemed to fulfil my needs precisely. Also by that time, two members on TDF, LWhisperer and Topchef, had taken delivery of their new dolls from Textile Doll (the gorgeous Riga and Alise respectively). So now I had independent opinion and photographic evidence to back up my choice and I decided to contact Textile Doll about placing an order.

Contact, Specifications and Ordering
Textile Dolls are designed and hand created by a brilliant artist and craftsman called Jury in Riga, Latvia. Jury says that around one hundred man hours of work goes into the manufacture of each doll.

For all enquiries and orders you should contact Jury via the ‘Contacts’ tab on the Textile Doll website http://www.textiledoll.com/en/home . Jury responded to my initial enquiry within a few hours and all subsequent emails received responses within a similar timescale. Jury was an absolute pleasure to deal with, happy to answer my queries and discuss specification options. He could not have been more helpful and accommodating.

The website lists a range of available options for your doll very similer to those you would be given if ordering a silicone doll. Two body size options, 150cm or 165cm tall, are currently available with a third option apparently in the pipeline. These can be made with a choice of four different skin tones.

There is a choice of six different head sculpts, which can be specified with one of seven different eye colours and ten different lip colour shades.

As each doll is made to custom order for her purchaser it is possible that Jury may be able to incorporate any special requirements you may have. For example, Lwhisperer wanted a slightly smaller than standard foot size on the 150cm body for his Riga to enable him to use shoes he already had for his other dolls and Jury was able to accommodate this request.

After a series of email discussions on specifications and options I made my final decisions and placed my order with Jury in June 2014. I was aware that he had a full order book and that there would consequently be a long wait, but I mentioned to Jury that I would greatly appreciate it if my doll could be ready to take to the UKLDF Meet in September and he said he would do his best. Jury did not require any payment up front, but said he would contact me just before he began work on my doll to confirm that the specification was unchanged and to request a deposit payment of 50 Euros, with the balance being payable on completion.

Payment and Shipping
On 12 September I received an email from Jury to tell me that my doll was ready and attached some photos of the finished lady to whet my appetite. I made a payment for the balance of the price Jury had quoted me in June and which included the cost of shipping. On 16 September Jury mailed me to confirm that my doll (who I had already decided would be named Signe after a very pretty Latvian girl I had once met) was on her way and gave me the shipment tracking details. Being shipped from one EU country to another, Signe’s journey was both quick and uncomplicated with no additional charges for import duty or VAT and no delays for customs processing. After a few days of doing very little other than staring at the shipment tracking web page hitting the refresh button, a big box arrived fro Latvia on 19 September. An amazingly quick journey.
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Signe’s head was packed in protective wrapping within a separate cardboard box inside the main one. Here she is after unpacking and fitting her head and the supplied wig, wearing the lingerie set she was supplied with.
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Construction
On her body, Signe’s skin is made from a Lycra fabric covering polyurethane foam ‘flesh’ over an articulated skeleton. I am not sure precisely what materials the skeleton is made from. pressing the ‘flesh’ of an arm or leg it is possible to feel a substantial ‘bone’ within. I would guess these are formed either from wood or perhaps plastic tubing. From the way the joints operate I would guess that they are probably articulated hard nylon joints of some kind. They are certainly not the bent wire familiar to Teddybabe partners. Wire and plastic formers are used in the hands and feet for appearance and articulation.
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Both fingers and toes have wires and the hands can be positioned to hold light objects.

One thing that all dolls of all types have are seams, whether they be mould seams on a silicone/TPE doll or the sewn seams of a Teddybabe. Textile Dolls are no exception. Seams are unavoidable where the ’skin’ panels are joined together, but the difference is that these seams move. The skin fabric is not fixed to the polystyrene ‘flesh’ below and moves around on top of it, particularly when performing major limb movements or removing tight(ish) clothing, so you need to be prepared to pull affected seams back into their intended and least obtrusive positions every now and again, especially chefking position of the seams when photographing. Its a bit of extra faff but does it detract from the Textile Doll experience? Not really, its just part of making sure your doll is properly maintained., like powdering your silicone doll or massaging your Teddybabe’s packing fibre back into position to avoid protruding skeletal wires.

Looking inside Signe’s head shows that it is made from strips of fabric (and perhaps paper) soaked in a resin or glue over a mould or former which then sets hard. High quality glass eyes and their sockets (looking rather like plastic bottle tops) are glued in from the inside of the head. The eyes are movable, adjusted from inside the head by small plastic levers on the rear of the sockets. - a simple but highly effective solution. It is not necessary to remove head from body to adjust eye position as it is possible to insert fingers sufficiently far into the head cavity to reach the adjustment levers by just tipping the head back slightly.
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The head is attached to the body by simply sliding the elongated neck section into the head cavity. The neck extends fully into the head right up to the underside of the hardened ‘skull’ where the head and neck are mated by glued Velcro pads. Frankly, these are not really necessary as the sheer bulk of the neck section within the head joins the two so securely they would be unlikely to separate except with the most extreme of movements.

The head is hand painted in oils to highly realistic effect and has flock eyebrows and eyelashes glued in place.
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Heads are supplied with ear rings permanently fitted by having the prong designed to pass through the ear lobe fixed by glue into the doll’s head. This is one aspect of construction I would criticise. Apart from restricting the lady to one style of ear ring, this method of fixing is flimsy and easily damaged . Hair and clothing are easily caught in the ear ring and will weaken the fixing or pull the ring out altogether. I have removed Signe’s ear rings and blended in with acrylic paint where this has also removed a little paint around the fixing. I have some ideas about how construction could be modified to allow temporary but secure fixing of alternative ear rings of choice and will be making this suggestion to the manufacturer.
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Textile Doll (Latvia) Review - Part 2

Post by Kate Kane »

Movement
Signe’s articulated skeleton allows her a range of movement close to that of a real human and able to achieve some positions not possible with some high end silicone dolls. Hip and shoulder joints replicate the movement in those real joints, legs pivot at the knee joints (which have knee caps) ….
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…. arms pivot and rotate at the elbows, wrists pivot the hands up and down.

Her spine has a good degree of flexibility (certainly more than mine) and will allow her to bend forwards and to a lesser degree, backwards. Touching her toes is a straightforward matter.
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Arms will stretch out fully from the shoulders
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Legs can be spread wide
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Or can achieve a natural sitting position with ease
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There is very little movement at the ankle which is a largely fixed joint but this does not detract from realistic positioning of the feet
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Her neck allows movement from side to side and back to front
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I was surprised and impressed by the range of movement Signe can achieve. For additional pics showing her posing abilities see the photo sets here …..
http://www.dollforum.com/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=56643
http://www.dollforum.com/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=56617
http://www.dollforum.com/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=56721
http://www.dollforum.com/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=56698
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Textile Doll (Latvia) Review - Part 3

Post by Kate Kane »

Vial Statistics and clothing sizes
Signe’s body is the larger of the two currently available from Textile Doll, the 165cm ‘Big Bertha’ body. In actuality, she is 162cm (a shade under 5’ 4”) tall. Such variation is to be expected in a hand made product and is perhaps desirable as no doll will be wholly identical to another. She weighs 8 kilos, heavy enough to give the impression of substance and mass but light enough to be easily portable and pose able.

Her dimensions are much more in proportion with those of a real woman than are those of a Teddybabe Deluxe, so that purchasing clothing to fit is not such a haphazard affair. Suitable clothing sizes are:

Dress size 8-10 (UK), 36-38 (Eur), 6-8 (US & Canada)
Bra size 32D (UK), 70D (Eur), 32C (US & Canada)
Underwear, t-shirts etc - mostly Small, Medium for some closer fitting items
Shoe size 4 (UK), 37 (Eur), 6.5 (US & Canada)

Smut - or - The Beast With Two Backs Rears It’s Ugly Head
Ok, first the factual stuff. Textile Dolls are supplied with a plush insert, very similar to the Teddybabe standard plush insert. It is recommended that this is used in conjunction with a female condom and one of these is also supplied - handy if you really can’t wait fresh out of the box :twisted: . Otherwise, much like I imagine the majority of Teddybabe partners with their standard inserts, I suspect the majority of new Textile Doll partners will discard this immediately, although it could be used as a sleeve to aid positioning of another insert.

The vaginal cavity is of an adequate size to take the majority of third party inserts such as the Fleshlight range. Signe is currently fitted with a Doc Johnson ‘Vicky Vette UR3 ‘Pocket Pussy’ that I happened to have available (“Honest guv, I just opened the drawer and there it was, no idea how it got there :whistle: ”) ….
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.
This is ok in the short term but I will replace this with a Meiki or Fleshlight insert which I feel will be am improvement in both practical and visual terms.

The vaginal cavity is not quite anatomically correct, being set a little too far back from the pubis. I think this is probably a consequence of the skeletal requirements which appears to incorporate a pubic ‘bone’. However, in practical terms, this makes very little difference. It might potentially make make some missionary style positions a little less easy, but it also means that the lady’s equipment is perfectly positioned for ‘doggie style’ - definitely her speciality move. As she is largely self supporting, this also means that she can perform ‘standing doggie’ with aplomb …. or so I am, ahem, told on the highest authority ( 8O get the smelling salts, Granny has just passed out). Cowgirl, both ways, is pretty darned good too - or so they tell me :whistle: .

Signe’s skin has a smooth silky warm feel which is highly erotic when you snuggle up to her. Her breasts are full (but perfectly in proportion) and pert but highly squeezable at the same time. Her bum is (sorry but here objectivity goes out the window) is exquisite. Unlike a Teddybabe’s slightly ill defined mound, she has two distinct full buttocks which are beautifully defined but softly squidgy at the same time.

The range of movement available to Textile Dolls makes a veritable smorgasbord of positions available to the athletically inclined. She does great sex and great snuggles too. All in all she is a bedtime companion of a very high order indeed - and as a bonus you get to wake up to this ……
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Summary & Conclusions

I couldn’t be happier with Signe, she fulfils all the requirements I had in mind when I ordered her, and more. The price I was quoted when I ordered her was 700 Euros, including shipping, which I think is ridiculously inexpensive for a doll of this quality, innovation and labour intensive manufacture. I understand that Jury has increased his prices since I placed my order. I think this is perfectly reasonable to revise a launch price to place a product correctly in the market in relation to other related products. I will be ordering from Jury again and will not quibble to find that my next Textile Doll is priced to allow Jury to make a fair profit for his endeavours.

So, are there any downsides? I have already mentioned the need to regularly reposition seams and hand-in-hand with this runs repositioning and folds of skin fabric that have bunched together after a radical limb repositioning but that’s really no great problem and just part of keeping your doll in good order. The fitting of the ear rings does need looking at and I will be communicating with Jury about this. However, with his introduction of the moveable eye facility six months into production, he has shown his willingness to develop and adapt his product so I have no doubt that this will be addressed in due course. These are minor issues. Overall, the experience of ordering, and best of all, receiving and getting to know my beautiful girl have been as positive as could be.

Textile Dolls are a highly innovative and beautifully made product made by an artist of great skill who also offers a high standard of customer care. Jury and his dolls thoroughly deserve every success. Do yourself a favour and order one as soon as you can - just let me order my next one first.
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