Fire Emblem Dolls

[Aquantis]

I have recently been working on making some OOAK FE dolls, though I am not sure if I should make this one Tailto/Tiltyu (or whatever you want to call her) or Ishtar. She was supposed to be Tiltyu, but now that I have her re-rooted, I think she looks closer to Ishtar. I would like some other opinions to figure out which way to go with her (then I have to figure out how to make her outfit...that's the hard part)

I made her from an Disney princess 6 1/2 inch Bell doll and gave her lavender saran hair. I still have to paint her eyes purple. Sadly the purple shows up pinkish on the digital camera.

I also am working on (or have mostly done) Sety, Elincia, Myrrh, Linnoan, Tinny (though I think her hair is not thick enough) and Serra. I can post pictures of the half done dolls if you like (I still need to paint their face and make their outfits). I am also thinking of making Leanne, but her ears are going to be hard (unless I can find a doll that has pointed ears...)

Is there anyone else I should make (I may or may not, but I welcome ideas)?

I can re-root any doll (though sometimes the weird hairstyles are hard to get right), but I am not that good with clothing yet (still practicing making patterns that will look right on the dolls to match their pictures. Doll clothes and people clothes are sewn differently).

Note that is is hard to find male dolls that have hair, so I am mainly going to be sticking to the female cast to make it easier. Also, I think the armor will be hard, for I will have to make my own molds for it, so I will stay away from heavily armored one for now.

I am open to suggestion on how to make them look better too ^-^.

I will post the other doll pictures soon

Edited October 20, 2012 by Aquantis

[Agro]

I guess that one reasonably resembles Ishtar but Ishtar has a side-ponytail thing and Tiltyu's hair doesn't part in the middle

It'd be cool to get some clothes on her, though. It kind of looks a bit... creepy right now, is all.

[Aquantis]

I guess that one reasonably resembles Ishtar but Ishtar has a side-ponytail thing and Tiltyu's hair doesn't part in the middle

It'd be cool to get some clothes on her, though. It kind of looks a bit... creepy right now, is all.

good point about the pony tail, I think I'll just have to make another one with a side pony tail and then have both.

I can put her in clothes, but I am having trouble getting her outfit to look right, so I she will not be in her right outfit yet.

here's a rough picture of a few of the dolls in the works: (They all need thier faces re-done, but I can't get it my paints right now)

left to right: sarrah (mini kingdom barbie), Linnoan (mini kingdom barbie), tinny (face will be changed, sailor moon), tiltyu/Ishtar (bell), Elincia (Aurora)

...yeah I still have to cut some of their hair.

here's one of Tiltyu or Ishtar doll with some clothing on:

I was going off these pictures for Tiltyu's hair and outfit, which show's her hair parted in the middle. I tried to get her hair to poof more, but her bangs did not want to behave.

As a side note, Myrrh's hair is annoying me...I have one side done right, but I can't get the wire to work on the other side, so I will come back to her later.

[DarkMage]

Wow, I love your re-roots so far! ^_^

I've also toyed with the idea of doing an OOAK FE doll, as of now the only one I've started work on is Florina (using a 2011 style Disney Store Rapunzel doll- her eyes were JUST big enough! XD) I should be posting some pics soon, I've not started the re-root/paint yet, only the clothing draft patterns... the armour is gonna be a serious pain in the ass :(

I can't wait to see more of your work, so far it looks fabulous! ^_^ A quick question; where do you source your doll hair from? I have natural colours from a friend who used to create OOAK dolls, but no unnatural coloured hair, which I sooo need for these FE dolls... any tips would be wonderful if you can spare any! :)

Keep up the wonderful work! ^_^

p.s. I know what you mean about male dolls w/ rooted hair... I have a couple from my youth (old style Ken dolls) but nowadays all the hair is painted on... such a shame really! :(

[Aquantis]

Wow, I love your re-roots so far! ^_^

I've also toyed with the idea of doing an OOAK FE doll, as of now the only one I've started work on is Florina (using a 2011 style Disney Store Rapunzel doll- her eyes were JUST big enough! XD) I should be posting some pics soon, I've not started the re-root/paint yet, only the clothing draft patterns... the armour is gonna be a serious pain in the ass :(

I can't wait to see more of your work, so far it looks fabulous! ^_^ A quick question; where do you source your doll hair from? I have natural colours from a friend who used to create OOAK dolls, but no unnatural coloured hair, which I sooo need for these FE dolls... any tips would be wonderful if you can spare any! :)

Keep up the wonderful work! ^_^

p.s. I know what you mean about male dolls w/ rooted hair... I have a couple from my youth (old style Ken dolls) but nowadays all the hair is painted on... such a shame really! :(

When I started, I just bought craft store hair (normal colors), Halloween wigs and whatever I could find on e-aby (for the other colors, but it was not a good Idea, for they were not that nice of hair). The problem is that anything meant for a human head tends to be to stiff or too big of strands for dolls. I taught myself how to make the dolls, so I went through a lot of pitfalls, but then after looking around for better hair on-line, I found a site that wasn't too expensive to get hair from. I used to get my hair from restoredoll.com, but now for the most part I get my hair from dollyhair.com (slightly cheaper, and will send you free samples, plus orders over $50 but less than $100 ship free).

Now depending on the type of hair you want to use, depends on where you want to get it from (also where you live could factor into it as well, for shipping costs can get high internationally).

Saran hair - mostly get it from dollyhair unless there is a color that only restoredoll has (or if you like working with a 'spool' of hair, then restoredoll, which is great for blends [even distribution of colors] and keeps the plugs small, but can tangle easy, so doesn't always work as a 'spool'[i sometimes have to cut the 'spool' and then it's the same as from dollyhair, but not quite as much hair]) this is the silky shinny hair that tends to be on the collector barbies (though not all use it, and some of the play line ones use it too). This has to be heat styled and is a bit hard to curl (Tilyu/Ishtar, Tinny, Michaia and Sarra have this type of hair). This hair can be dyed, but it tends to be on the faint side.

Nylon hair - From what I can tell, dollyhair has the only 'real' nylon hair (restoredoll's nylon is really kanekalon, and a bit stiff, but styles well), and this styles much easier than saran. It is not as shinny, but comes in a lot of colors and is what I used for linnoan, Myrrh, Sety, and Elincia. Dollyhair does have 3 'sparkle' colors in nylon, that shine kind of like tinsel, but it is hair. I am going to do a tangled re-root with the color sunshine, for it is almost the exact shade of the original hair, but super shinny/sparkly (so great for her magical hair, plus I can make it really long). I have found that Nylon is stronger than saran, so it doesn't break as much and can withstand more heat when heat styling. Tends to dye well. I think the Nylatex hair from restore doll might be really nylon hair, but I am not 100% sure on that (it feels the same to me, but I haven't tried to style it on a doll yet).

Kanekalon hair - for a lot of fantasy colors restoredoll is great, especially if you are not going to use a lot of each color. If you are going to use a tone of each color, then http://www.plastikhaar.ch/ has the same hair type and colors, but in large amounts. I have not actually ordered from them, but it is the same hair. For doll-grade kanekalon, dollyhair is the only place I have found it. This is the stuff that is used on most of the barbie play line and is soft to the touch (my little 5" Rapunzel doll came with this type of hair). The only downside is that it is only available in normal colors. This hair styles well and can withstand more heat when styling (and tends to hold that style really well). Dyes well too, so I guess you could take Kryolie Blonde and dye it for other colors (RIT fabric dye is good for dyeing hair, but it can get messy).

Polypropylene hair - only from dollyhair as far as I can tell, and styles like really well with heat. This hair feels like nylon (slight difference in texture), but is slightly shinier, and is super easy to work with. The downside is that is is no-porous, so it cannot be dyed at all. I have so far done one doll with this type of hair and her hair styled amazingly well (I got some in dollyhair's random grabbag of hair, so I experimented).

Mohair - I don't really like mohair, for it pulls apart too much for me, but is good for ethereal dolls and clay dolls, for it bakes well (only other hair I know of that you can bake with is nylon, though you may be able to with polypropylene, but I am not sure). Dollyhair as a good price, but you can find it other places as well, like in craft stores.

do you use the knot method, the sewing method or the tool method? I find that the sewing method is the most secure and 'best' way to re-root a doll, but if you have the right type of tool (dollyhair has the only good one I have stumbled across thus far), the tool method can be almost as good and a lot faster. The knot method is the slowest, but it can let you have the longest length of hair, for it is the only one that you don't have to double the hair on.

If you like, I can talk to you more about re-rooting dolls, for I have been doing so since 2003 (one good thing about the blackout of '03 is that I taught myself how to re-root dolls during it). I can also put pictures up on non-FE dolls too. I have been working (slowly) on adding an OOAK section to my webpage, but it is taking forever to get right, so I have no clue when I'll actually put it up.

Edited November 20, 2012 by Aquantis