Custom Blythe Project #1 Cherry PART 2

Yesterday I did some more work on my first ever custom Blythe. I realized that there were two things I could start with, even if the new eye chips and diamond files hadn’t arrived yet. I could remove the old eye chips and start the carving with the knife and the other carving tools I have and try to get the basic shape of the lips and nose done.

I started with the eye chips removal, following again the tutorials I shared the links to in my previous post. I managed to pop the eyes out of the mech with thin tipped pliers and then I set everything ready for the procedure:

*hot glue sticks

*candle & matches

*scissors and a knife

I had some hot glue sticks, which were quite thick, but that turned out to be a good thing. After a couple of impatient and failed attempts at it, I faced the reality, that YES, one must wait that 5+ minutes for the glue to harden. No point in trying before that! My glue sticks covered the entire eye chip and once the glue was really well stuck, it was easy to pull the chips out. I didn’t do any twisting. Just pulling them was enough and it did not seem like my Cherry’s original eye chips were glued there in any way. I did need to use quite a bit of force though. I had two glue sticks hardening at the same time, but it still took almost an hour get all four pairs out. Here’s a picture of the first 3 sets of eye chip I got out of there and a couple of them to show how they look on the inside.

How to get the glue stick off of the eye chips turned out to be a tricky part. I had to re-heat the glue stick under the hot water tap to soften it, before I could peel the glue out of the eye chips and even then I ended up with some scratches on a couple of the eyes. They scratch surprisingly easily even when wiping them with a tissue paper, so I’d recommend being gentle with them, if you mean to make use of them again.

I’m notorious for wrecking havoc with the hot glue, so this eye chip removal part was something I was not looking forward to, but in the end, it wasn’t that hard and I only burned my finger once during the process, so I’d say that was a roaring success! Yay!

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Well, the other thing that I’d really been dreading was the carving. I thought I’d take the bull by the horns, since I was in the game already, and just scooted off to do some carving as well right after. I used the tools I presented in the previous post. It took me a while to find the knife and carving tools that fit my hand the best and that I felt the most comfortable using.

Of course, all the while I had to be experimenting on poor Cherry’s little face. I felt like a toddler at first trying to take his very first steps. I felt so clumsy! I’ve never done any proper sculpting in my life really. I had developed an idea as to what I wanted to achieve, but I had no concept as to how to go about it, where to start, what to carve… It was awkward at first, but then at some point, I found the knife I liked the best and it started rolling from there. I did some cautious initial slices into it and it was rather easy to carve this plastic actually. Soon I abandoned the picture I had printed for reference and just went by feel. That worked out the best for me and I started to see what I wanted and how I could get the shape out of there. I kept checking with light through the head that I did not carve a hole into the face plate.

At the end of a couple of hours, I had the desired shape of the new lips and some first strokes at the nose too. I surprised myself with the carving, and pleasantly at that! To be quite honest, I’d expected the results to be much much worse! Hehe! I’ve always thought sculpting and carving would be something really next to impossible for me, but being the nutcake that I am, I can never resist a challenge. Turns out I’m perhaps not all thumbs at this after all. Cherry might yet turn out looking presentable! I’m much encouraged by the initial results and as soon the diamond file set arrives, I’ll be eager to continue with it and finish off this part of the project! :D

Here are the before and after 1st part of carving done photos:

Some more angles to my handy work:

Custom Blythe To Do list:

* Take her apart DONE

* do the initial sanding DONE

* remove old eye chips DONE

* do the initial carving DONE

* wait until the diamond files come and then finish off the carving

* finish off the sanding

* paint eye lids and widen the eye sockets if need be

* I’m hoping the new eye chips would also arrive soon à install those.

* Then it’s face-up time!

*Haircare needs to happen, hot water treatment at the very least and conditioning.

* sort out the lashes

* make pretty pull strings/ pull rings

* put her back to together with the new jointed body

Here are some of the new parts for Cherry!

I got this "buy 4 get 1 pair free" bargain from Ana Karina on Etsy for realistic eyes. I only mean to use one pair (H12) of them for Cherry though. The others (H18, H3, H25, H6) will go to future custom Blythes. ;) Yes, there will be a small army of them yet, I’m fairly sure. Cherry will eventually get a red hair of Coolcat eyes, but those aren’t even on order yet. I will leave a slot for them in her eye mech. The jointed body will be exciting to explore, but I might get Cherry a Takara replacement body for back up as well.

Ok, that’s it for now!! More to come soon!! :D