There’s a headless body about the house!

Basically since the day I purchased her, I wanted to have Mimi’s face repainted. Mimi is a Volks Super Dollfie Nono “2008 Renewal” version. She has Zoukeimura airbrushed makeup in tones of peach and brown. As far as factory face ups go, it’s not all that shabby–but it didn’t really appeal to me in the sort of way that I wanted it to. I wanted to look over at my doll and think, “Wow, she’s perfect!” but instead I’d always look over and think, “:3 Yessss, a Nono of my own.” Not a bad thought, but not exactly what I wanted. The factory faceup is versatile and simple–both things I like–but it was exactly what I would have asked for if I were having her painted on commission.

Finding an artist that seemed right for the task was not easy. In my opinion, Nono can be a difficult sculpt to work with. Her face has very dramatic proportions and features. Her huge eyes are spaced pretty far apart. Her nose is narrow and pointy. Although I looked at the work of many artists, I didn’t see any examples that fit the type of look I’d like or seemed well suited to be painted on Nono’s head. I also kept putting off looking seriously into having Mimi’s face repainted due to the cost. There are face up artists all along the cost spectrum, but when I reflected on the dolls of others that I most admired, it started to seem like I’d be paying for a pricier artist. Pushing the commission of a new faceup to a future month was easy every time I moved it; Mimi already had a decent faceup–I just wanted an upgrade. Upgrades can wait.

Just this morning I finally bundled up Mimi’s head in a box and bid it farwell on the journey to new makeup! ♥ I cannot wait to see what she’ll look like when the artist’s work is complete.

Currently Mimi’s headless body is tucked away in Claire’s box for storage–without her head, it’s easy to fit her body into the Mini Super Dollfie box! (I was very surprised–I did it on a whim. I plan to move her into the doll bag for storage in a day or two; I’m just so amused at seeing her much larger body in the little box.)

The elastic in Mimi’s body is very strong, so I worried that the S-hook would dig into her body’s neck the longer it rested there. Rather than completely unstring her, I fashioned a cushion (of sorts) from thick cardboard. I cut a large square-ish piece from a thick cardboard box. I wanted to make it a large piece to preserve more of the internal corrugated structure for strength and form. Then I cut a channel from one side to the center, making it just wide enough to fit the elastic. I lifted the S-hook to slide the elastic into the channel all the way to the middle, and released it. The cardboard is just enough of a barrier to prevent the S-hook from causing damage to the neck.

Without her head, Mimi’s body can be stored in Claire’s box, even though Mimi is a Super Dollfie and Claire is a Mini Super Dollfie!