Tosakin Arrives (secondhand Forgotten Hearts doll)
Oct 18, 2014 13:50:35 GMT -8
Post by allurose on Oct 18, 2014 13:50:35 GMT -8
First of all, I want everyone to be prepared, this is not a pristine doll! I expected her to be well worn, and I got what I had expected. I bought her to be a makeover project. I want to show how to do maintenance & revival on an older porcelain BJD.
I bought her on ebay for just a few hundred dollars. I could tell from the pictures she would need some help. The previous owner said she was not the first owner of the doll and didn't have much information about her. I have contacted Aiis & Gamalier Bravo inquiring when she was made, if she was a custom doll, if they had the original photos, and if I could purchase a stand from them. I had suspected she was custom since she doesn't appear in any of the photos on her website, even of dolls that appear to be older than she is. They did not respond yet.
I learned from the engraving on the back of her neck that she was made in 2011, more recently than I had expected. If anyone has more information about this doll, please let me know! <3
That said...on to the box opening!
The wig is very disappointing. The hair has not been properly sorted, so most of the strands are just locked together instead of actually glued to the cap. You could pull the wig apart like pulling fur off a dog that is shedding, just by touching it clouds of furr float into the air. The locks were glued to this poor quality cap and the glue is fragmenting. The glue might be coming apart from age (only 3 years...), but the construction of the wig is just bad. I have seen recent FH dolls with much better quality wigs, so I know this artist has improved dramatically since this doll was made.
I will be making her a black wig to fit her character. I was not impressed by the cape either, but that's ok.
Did I mention she is a pregnant, tattooed doll?
You can see here one of the few flaws in this doll that I am not able to fix: her legs are strangely sculpted. The right leg can't point straight. If the lower leg and knee is pointed straight, as in this photo, the hip is askew (look at the position of the slit and pin). It will just have to be how she is. It might even have been an intentional to allow her to put her legs in a certain position, but I can't figure out what position that might be. I plan to pose her floating/swimming and give her a long skirt, so this flaw will not be noticeable.
This doll has tension problems, especially in her torso and legs. Her arms and lower legs are strung with individual pieces of elastic, and her upper legs, toso, and head are strung with springs. The springs lack swivels, and the hooks that attach the springs and elastic to the pins seem to be too long (?) and interfering with her movement. Most of the leather lining the joints is loose or missing, which is to be expected in a doll that has seen some play. The end result is she seems to fight every pose. Her legs are as loose and floppy as a rag doll! This is probably due to old, loose elastic, also to be expected in an older doll. I will be restringing her with fresh elastic, or (if I am brave enough) properly tuned steel springs and swivels.
She also has other signs of inexperienced sculpting, such as mismatched parts, noticeable asymmetry, and gummy ears. Again, I have seen a huge improvement in sculpting skill in more recent dolls, so this should not be judged as this artist's best work.
Her belly tattoo is very pretty and part of the reason I fell in love with her. The seller described it as iris flowers, but it is clearly two goldfish swimming in the pisces symbol. I am a pisces too! And as far as I know, Forgotten Hearts has only made a handful of pregnant dolls, and I haven't seen a single one with this body sculpt, so that makes her very special. <3
The red lines around her eye are lint that stuck to the glue from now-gone eyelashes. I think she might have been wrapped in red felt at one point. There is no red in her actual porcelain eye paint, it all came off when I cleaned her.
I cleaned the head. As you can see from the right eye, there was a thick layer of gluey gunk over her whole eye area left over from individually applied eyelashes that fell off long ago. All of the red lint came off, revealing more of her eyeliner.
Sadly, her eyes were not securely attached and fell out from me gently rubbing them with a cotton swab to try to remove the glue. I'll get her a new pair of eyes shortly.
The paint on the doll is very simple, like most of the early Forgotten Hearts work. I will be airbrushing the head and giving it a faceup.
The eyes are unlike any I have ever seen and are frankly bizarre. It is like someone had heard how to make an acrylic eye but had never seen one in person before. Usually the white of the eye would be part of the eye itself, but here the white of the eye is air-dry clay used as eye putty as one would on a resin doll. The air-dry clay did not adhere to the porcelain well, thus the eyes fell out. Perhaps this is partly due to age as well? I wonder how other artists secure glass eyes in the heads of their doll. You can also see the glue gunk on the right eye here.
The eyes are a printed sheet of paper with the iris pattern that is glued on a plastic/acrylic disc. There is a huge air bubble in each eye, which makes the gaze of the doll fuzzy and hard to connect with. The flaws you see here are part of the eye itself, it isn't the glue, which I cleaned off.
She has strange residues on her that cannot be removed, even with solvent, magic eraser, and lots of scrubbing. It looks like unfired clay? But it won't come off. Perhaps it is some kind of mold-release agent. I don't know enough about casting porcelain yet to know. Either way, it seems to me shoddy workmanship to sell a doll with these residues. You can see it here as a white residue on her ear.
You can also see the seam lines for the mold of the head, which are raised visibly and were not sanded down smooth with the rest of the head. These bumpy lines are visible on the doll's whole body. I know from seeing FH later work and the work of other artists that this flaw is preventable.
Tinyshirt said on flickr that the problem is probably poor quality porcelain. It might have been thinned too much with water or a deflocculant was not used.
You can see more of the strange white residue on her right eyebrow and the temple right above it.
More of the mysterious white residue on her cheek and around her lips and nose. You can also see another kind of flaw present on the whole doll, which is what appears to be specks of black dirt. You might have to view the big version on flickr to see the specks on her lips and nose. It is most obvious on the backs of her legs, as if the artist set her down on a dirty workspace and then didn't clean her properly before firing. The white marks are only on her face as far as I can see, but the "dirt" marks are on most of the doll.
I plan to cover the flaws on her body with her clothing, and I will be repainting her face, so I am not that bothered by them.
I hope you will not think from all my comments that I do not appreciate this doll! I do love her very much. Despite all these flaws, I see an elegance in her that cannot be hidden. I look forward to transforming her into her best self. I hope that by being honest about the doll people can appreciate how far the Forgotten Hearts brand has come in just a few years (compare her to the pictures of other, newer dolls on the forum!). Thank you for sharing my box opening and reading my thoughts about this lovely new girl!
I bought her on ebay for just a few hundred dollars. I could tell from the pictures she would need some help. The previous owner said she was not the first owner of the doll and didn't have much information about her. I have contacted Aiis & Gamalier Bravo inquiring when she was made, if she was a custom doll, if they had the original photos, and if I could purchase a stand from them. I had suspected she was custom since she doesn't appear in any of the photos on her website, even of dolls that appear to be older than she is. They did not respond yet.
I learned from the engraving on the back of her neck that she was made in 2011, more recently than I had expected. If anyone has more information about this doll, please let me know! <3
That said...on to the box opening!
The wig is very disappointing. The hair has not been properly sorted, so most of the strands are just locked together instead of actually glued to the cap. You could pull the wig apart like pulling fur off a dog that is shedding, just by touching it clouds of furr float into the air. The locks were glued to this poor quality cap and the glue is fragmenting. The glue might be coming apart from age (only 3 years...), but the construction of the wig is just bad. I have seen recent FH dolls with much better quality wigs, so I know this artist has improved dramatically since this doll was made.
I will be making her a black wig to fit her character. I was not impressed by the cape either, but that's ok.
Did I mention she is a pregnant, tattooed doll?
You can see here one of the few flaws in this doll that I am not able to fix: her legs are strangely sculpted. The right leg can't point straight. If the lower leg and knee is pointed straight, as in this photo, the hip is askew (look at the position of the slit and pin). It will just have to be how she is. It might even have been an intentional to allow her to put her legs in a certain position, but I can't figure out what position that might be. I plan to pose her floating/swimming and give her a long skirt, so this flaw will not be noticeable.
This doll has tension problems, especially in her torso and legs. Her arms and lower legs are strung with individual pieces of elastic, and her upper legs, toso, and head are strung with springs. The springs lack swivels, and the hooks that attach the springs and elastic to the pins seem to be too long (?) and interfering with her movement. Most of the leather lining the joints is loose or missing, which is to be expected in a doll that has seen some play. The end result is she seems to fight every pose. Her legs are as loose and floppy as a rag doll! This is probably due to old, loose elastic, also to be expected in an older doll. I will be restringing her with fresh elastic, or (if I am brave enough) properly tuned steel springs and swivels.
She also has other signs of inexperienced sculpting, such as mismatched parts, noticeable asymmetry, and gummy ears. Again, I have seen a huge improvement in sculpting skill in more recent dolls, so this should not be judged as this artist's best work.
Her belly tattoo is very pretty and part of the reason I fell in love with her. The seller described it as iris flowers, but it is clearly two goldfish swimming in the pisces symbol. I am a pisces too! And as far as I know, Forgotten Hearts has only made a handful of pregnant dolls, and I haven't seen a single one with this body sculpt, so that makes her very special. <3
The red lines around her eye are lint that stuck to the glue from now-gone eyelashes. I think she might have been wrapped in red felt at one point. There is no red in her actual porcelain eye paint, it all came off when I cleaned her.
I cleaned the head. As you can see from the right eye, there was a thick layer of gluey gunk over her whole eye area left over from individually applied eyelashes that fell off long ago. All of the red lint came off, revealing more of her eyeliner.
Sadly, her eyes were not securely attached and fell out from me gently rubbing them with a cotton swab to try to remove the glue. I'll get her a new pair of eyes shortly.
The paint on the doll is very simple, like most of the early Forgotten Hearts work. I will be airbrushing the head and giving it a faceup.
The eyes are unlike any I have ever seen and are frankly bizarre. It is like someone had heard how to make an acrylic eye but had never seen one in person before. Usually the white of the eye would be part of the eye itself, but here the white of the eye is air-dry clay used as eye putty as one would on a resin doll. The air-dry clay did not adhere to the porcelain well, thus the eyes fell out. Perhaps this is partly due to age as well? I wonder how other artists secure glass eyes in the heads of their doll. You can also see the glue gunk on the right eye here.
The eyes are a printed sheet of paper with the iris pattern that is glued on a plastic/acrylic disc. There is a huge air bubble in each eye, which makes the gaze of the doll fuzzy and hard to connect with. The flaws you see here are part of the eye itself, it isn't the glue, which I cleaned off.
She has strange residues on her that cannot be removed, even with solvent, magic eraser, and lots of scrubbing. It looks like unfired clay? But it won't come off. Perhaps it is some kind of mold-release agent. I don't know enough about casting porcelain yet to know. Either way, it seems to me shoddy workmanship to sell a doll with these residues. You can see it here as a white residue on her ear.
You can also see the seam lines for the mold of the head, which are raised visibly and were not sanded down smooth with the rest of the head. These bumpy lines are visible on the doll's whole body. I know from seeing FH later work and the work of other artists that this flaw is preventable.
Tinyshirt said on flickr that the problem is probably poor quality porcelain. It might have been thinned too much with water or a deflocculant was not used.
You can see more of the strange white residue on her right eyebrow and the temple right above it.
More of the mysterious white residue on her cheek and around her lips and nose. You can also see another kind of flaw present on the whole doll, which is what appears to be specks of black dirt. You might have to view the big version on flickr to see the specks on her lips and nose. It is most obvious on the backs of her legs, as if the artist set her down on a dirty workspace and then didn't clean her properly before firing. The white marks are only on her face as far as I can see, but the "dirt" marks are on most of the doll.
I plan to cover the flaws on her body with her clothing, and I will be repainting her face, so I am not that bothered by them.
I hope you will not think from all my comments that I do not appreciate this doll! I do love her very much. Despite all these flaws, I see an elegance in her that cannot be hidden. I look forward to transforming her into her best self. I hope that by being honest about the doll people can appreciate how far the Forgotten Hearts brand has come in just a few years (compare her to the pictures of other, newer dolls on the forum!). Thank you for sharing my box opening and reading my thoughts about this lovely new girl!
. (I was thinking of doing a pregnant doll -in the memory of my first son- but I have to start the learning process with a "normal" belly, it is easier 
and 3 on her higher right eye. 
