Small-time Hijinks

Dollshe Grown Bermann and faceup chatter

I always loved Dollshe Bermann, but the timing was never right to buy one - and then later, I heard that it became unwise to buy from the company due to long delivery times. There was a re-release of Bermann's sculpt with some slight changes, called Grown Bermann. I was lucky enough to find a Grown Bermann second-hand, and even luckier to find a matching body at the same time.

Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with short black hair with 90s-style bangs, thick spidery lashes and a very amateurish faceup.

I'm the world's most amateur faceup artist. Every time I do one I see glaring mistakes that seem like they should have been obvious at the time. But he has a faceup, and I finished it just before a week of rain where I can't spray the necessary sealant, so it's sort of a win?

My list of self-criticisms: the lower lashes are far too thick and there's too much dark shading on the outer edges - it's unbalanced. His mouth somehow looks smaller than when it was unpainted (too dark, maybe?). All the lines are generally messy. And are the eyebrows a tiny bit too high? I probably need to do this a few hundred more times before I get better.

Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with short black hair with 90s-style bangs, thick spidery lashes and a very amateurish faceup.

The eyes are nice, but I'm not convinced by the wig, which is really low quality and sheds if you even so much as glance at it. I'm actually second-guessing if he should have black hair, but that would really need a faceup change unless we imagine that he's wearing mascara. Maybe he is. Maybe he's going for a Brian Molko look from the 90s.

I've been finding it hard to find space and time for doll things, lately. And it's so, so, SO much easier to fall into easy consumerism, especially if you have to hunt something down, which makes it even more exciting when you find it, and then you have to wait for the parcel, following the tracking (tiny dopamine bursts all the way when it updates) and finally the item arrives and... you do nothing with it because you're tired.

I think I am at or reaching doll capacity, so I need to train myself back into the habit of doing all the other things I enjoy about the hobby (really, buying dolls is the smallest part of it, but it became the thing I do most). So while this faceup isn't exactly what I envisioned, I still finished it, and I am really pleased about that. (I even put in eyelashes, which is actually the worst thing ever.) He has a face. I took photos. And I'm knitting him a jumper.

(Does he have a name? Of course not.)

Pink knitted jumper for Rufus, and happy birthday to Volks!

I'm a bit late with this post, but on the 28th of February it was Volks's 26th birthday. To celebrate, there was a hashtag on social media where people were invited to share photos, and also some events in Volks shops in Japan. For those events, the dress code was pink.

I decided that for once in my life, I wanted to take doll photos for an event before the actual event itself. And I also decided to make something pink: a knitted pink jumper.

A piece of knitting in progress on knitting needles, using a ball of pink yarn and a ball of cream yarn.

I almost ran out of yarn, so the arms are a bit short for SD17 and the length... let's just call it cropped. I made up the pattern based on measurements - it's just a basic drop-shoulder jumper with cream stripes to try and make the pink go further, twisted rib at the neck, cuffs and waist, and a bit of shoulder shaping. I used light fingering weight wool on 2.5mm needles.

I did finish in time, but left it until the last minute (well, the day before) to take photos.

Male ball-jointed doll with pale skin and long ash-pink hair reclines on a pink and blue fur backdrop. He wears a pink and white striped knitted sweater and pale blue jeans, and is looking away from the camera.
Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with pale skin and long ash-pink hair. He wears a pink and white striped knitted sweater, and is looking into the camera. Male ball-jointed doll with pale skin and long ash-pink hair reclines on a pink and blue fur backdrop. He wears a pink and white striped knitted sweater and pale blue jeans, and is looking away from the camera. Close-up photo of a male ball-jointed doll with pale skin and long ash-pink hair. He wears a pink and white striped knitted sweater.

I like the finished result, but it is definitely a bit short in the arms. Luckily, I have smaller dolls who can wear this one, and I bought more pink yarn to make Rufus one of his own.

You can see photos from the Volks birthday hashtag on:

  • Instagram (you can't view hashtags in order anymore, so you'll see previous years as well)
  • Bluesky (I posted mine here)

And you can read about the day on the official Volks blog.

Hazel's new friend, MSD Hewitt

At the start of this month I officially introduced my first Volks mini, Hazel, a Coordinate model F-61 SDM, and I said something about her needing a small friend. Well, in all honesty, I'd already bought said friend when I wrote that post, but I didn't say anything more because I wasn't sure what condition he'd be in when he arrived.

He turned out to be in great condition, so I've already found him an outfit and taken some photos. Here's Mini Super Dollfie Hewitt (official name pending).

Portrait photo of a male resin ball-jointed doll (MSD Hewitt). He has a childlike face, pale blue-grey eyes, a red-brown wig, and wears a ruffled white shirt with pintucks and lace.

He also turned out to be something of a mystery. I found him for a really good price on Dollyteria, where it said he had a faceup by K. Mayura, who left Volks in 2016 or so. I also saw a one-off certificate in the photos, though couldn't read any details on it, and a very old-style Volks box (the one with a cardboard sleeve instead of a lid). Also, the MSD (Mini Super Dollfie) body isn't made any more - it was replaced with the SDM body (Super Dollfie Midis).

Dollyteria's photos were quite washed out, so it was hard to see how much the resin had yellowed, but from all this information I was fully expecting a very yellow old boy who would need some attention - maybe even an exchange for his head and a new body.

So when he arrived, it was a really nice (if confusing) surprise to see fresh-looking resin and a date of 2023 on the one-off certificate.

Some nice friends on Discord puzzled through it with me, and the most likely explanation is that he was originally an old one-off, but the body and head were exchanged at Volks (before they started replacing the MSD body with an SDM body, as they do now) and the head had the faceup redone by K. Mayura - this is a service Volks provides for one-off dolls, and there are previous cases of K. Mayura coming back to do faceups even though they have left Volks. And perhaps Volks issued a new one-off certificate at the same time for some unknown reason.

If anyone has more insight into this, I'd love to hear it - drop me a line on Bluesky if you do!

Anyway. Nice fresh new-ish Hewitt. I'm very happy. And now Hazel has someone of her own size to look mournful with.

Photo of two resin ball-jointed dolls, a girl (Hazel) and a slightly taller boy (Hewitt), standing close together. They both have red-brown hair. The girl wears a black school uniform with a white collar, and the boy wears a very frilly white shirt with lace. Photo of two resin ball-jointed dolls, a girl (Hazel) and a slightly taller boy (Hewitt), facing slightly away from each other. They both have red-brown hair. The girl wears a black school uniform with a white collar, and the boy wears a very frilly white shirt with lace.

Hazel's wig and school uniform are by Volks. Both pairs of eyes are by Lepus. Hewitt's wig is by Crobidoll (bought second-hand), and his shirt is by Melody.C.