Custom Perfume Blends

One particular crafty project I'm working on that I'm very excited about is custom perfume oil blends. I am slowly amassing a small army of single note fragrances and have been playing around and day dreaming about what I want to create! There are so many scents I want to try to create, inspired by so many different things. So far, I'm really enjoying this craft project, how could I not? I get to sit around and smell pleasant things all day (beats smelling E6000 all day!) and trying to imagine what unicorn glens and vampire crypts might smell like.

I hope to eventually have at least a couple scents for sale in my shop, once I work out some kinks and get some unsuspecting test subjects friends to help try out some scents and give me some feedback on them.

I've always had a fondness for perfumes, but I often find that commercial perfumes all tend to be a bit boring and all smell the same to me after a while. Personally, I don't really crave smelling like a purse manufacturer, or a tacky former pop star, there's no imagination behind that! So a few years back on a search for something a little different, something a little more me, I stumbled across the infamous Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs and was delighted to find a world full of perfumes inspired by dusty libraries, ancient goddesses, and witch's parlors. There are literally dozens of other artisan perfume shops out there, and I've sampled around a few of them, and now I think it's turn for me to try my own hand at creating the scents that I've dreamed about. Does the world need another artisan perfume oil vender, aren't there enough already? Probably not, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to experiment a bit with a craft I would love to try!

New Resin Molds and a Glitter Extravaganza

Whenever I get a new resin mold I tend to "test it out" by making a batch of glitter filled pieces. Which, generally, is a pretty bad idea because that means the next time I want to use them I have to carefully make sure I get every single piece of glitter off, which I never can manage. But this time around, I bought a set of molds specifically for filling with rainbow glitter. An alphabet mold!

 

Fresh out of the mold, and full of extra bits that need to be carefully removed!

A while ago online I stumbled across an alphabet mold, and by the time I realized oh God, I need that, it was all sold out, so I had to hunt down another place selling the same one, which turned into a much bigger task than I imagined, as nearly everywhere only sold a significantly larger and fancier alphabet mold, while I wanted the small, simple letters. After several days of searching and actually emailing and messaging some sellers who had previously sold the set, I found a shop that was just so happening to make an order of molds and was going to add on the alphabet set for me. Awesome.

The letters came out pretty great, but were sort of a pain to fill. I had to carefully "paint" the resin in with a pour stick, and even a single drip out of the mold created a big pointy mess just waiting for me to have to file down later. Oh well, hopefully it's worth it!

What do I plan on doing with this ridiculously glittery letters? Inspired more by the fairy kei side of things, and this awesome little Hello Kitty cell phone strap that I am saving for just the right moment, I want to make some purse/phone straps with words on them. Hopefully it works out, hopefully the little letters are strong enough, and hopefully I can find my awesome little hand drill, because I have been doodling the different things I want to make with these resin pieces in my notebook for a few weeks now!

Supply Spotlight: Brick House Fabrics

I'm always on the look out for amazing fabrics that I can hoard away until that illustrious day in the future when I'm good enough at using a sewing machine that I can sew my own clothes (Fun fact! Bonnets pretty much can only be hand sewn! With the exception of a few details I sew all of my bonnets by hand) So I was very pleased to stumbled across Brick House Fabrics on Etsy. While the prices are a bit high, around $20 a yard, and you're probably going to need about 3 yards if you plan on making a dress or a JSK in the Lolita style, making the material costs a lot higher than normal, the fabric choices are all wonderful and the shop is filled with prints I have never seen before! These are certainly all fabrics that would make even the simplest design something truly unique and elegant. The best part about these fabrics is that nearly all of them are large, ornate designs, not all over tiny calico prints like so many interesting themes seem to come in.

This is a fabric so unique I don't think I've ever seen anything like it! It's such a Victorian idea as well, exotic wild life combined with beautiful familiar roses.

Here's something that's a little bit Dolly Kei, the tassels on this print make it perfect for something that could work with both Dolly and Lolita.

This beautiful seashell print is like the Classic Lolita's answer to all of those mermaid theme prints that have popped up in Sweet Lolita over the years.

This print is just lovely because it's a unique take on an old familiar print. The big, delicately detailed pottery makes a lovely, but a bit boring, background print really unique.

If there is one thing I am a sucker for, that is wide vertical stripes. This print features lovely muted colors and a medieval styled print of deer and elephants.

Quite possibly my favorite fabric on in the shop! This is just gorgeous in a very over the top and opulent way. It is also a bit reminiscent of a cherub print I mentioned that I would love to see in this post on F Yeah Lolita.

Adorable animals are often a staple of Sweet Lolita prints, but put them on something like this and you have something instantly Classic and elegant.

There are a ton more beautiful and unique fabrics on the shop page, 4 pages worth! I've definitely got my eye on a number of these for when it comes time to commission my next dress. I seriously am in love with big, bold, Victorian-esque prints like these!

Special Photo Shoot

I've updated my shop with a number of things, most of which are completely new things that I hope to make a regular item in my shop!

First up is the Sweet Garden half bonnet. This is a simple, all pink, half bonnet decorated in a very OTT Sweet Lolita manner with lots of extra roses and a scattering of pink chiffon bows.

The first of my shop's new items are mini tricorn hats. I've been wanting to get into making mini tricorns ever since I learned the art of millinery, and I made this photo shoot as an excuse to finally get myself in gear and make some. I found it a really fun experience! I'm still trying to get the technique down, but so far, so good! I've made two for sale, a gothic black mini tricorn, and a sweet blue and white one.

I also am starting to stock cake slice hats. I really love making things out of felt, and I love the silly over-the-topness of the cake hat, so I couldn't resist making my own version of the Lolita classic. The first cake slice in stock (that sold out within an hour of posting!) is a super sweet pink and blue slice.

Another new thing for Ophaim is jewelery with a sweeter style. I really enjoy making cute and pastel jewelery, my favorite to make at the moment are little polymer clay teddy bear themed pieces.

To keep with the theme of a few new, sweeter, pieces being added to Ophanim, I've also included some small deco'd tins. I've discovered decoing to be a really fun hobby. I don't know which style I like more, the cabochon and rhinestone kind, or the whipped cream and sweets kid!

I recently got together with some lovely Lolita designers and models, check out my Lolita blog for pictures from that awesome event!

A Little Lolita Dolly

I have had a craving to make dolls for a few months now! Every time I see a really great cloth doll or art doll my fingers get itching to try it myself. The kind I usually like, and am familiar with (although I haven't made anything in years!) is the kind that involves clay, but despite my itchy fingers I've been a bit too lazy to bust out some clay. But, while browsing around the other day I was lead, once again to tanpopo0118's DeviantArt page. Now, I've been to her gallery before and admired her work, but this time it really inspired me to bust out some material scraps and get to sewing! So, inspired by her little Lolita dolls with painted faces and real hair, I made my own sort-of-version of her dolls. I ended up going with a blobby chibi body because that looks more like the big eyed, big headed, Lolitas that I like to draw. In comparison to her dolls, mine looks like a really lame copy XD But, really, I wasn't trying to copy her dolls, and I hope it doesn't look like I was.

She has a stray thread on her face!

Some changes I will do when I next attempt to make little Lolita dolls? Because oh yes I do plan on it! First, I will pick a different fabric. This little girl is about 3" inches tall, so I made her out of felt, which is a pain to paint, and impossible to paint smoothly on. So, next time, I'll probably try flannel. Next time I'll also nix the mohair hair. I haven't used mohair since I got into BJDs several years ago and I forgot how much of a pain it is! It gets everywhere and sticks to the felt like crazy, next time I will probably use felt, embroidery floss, or maybe even hair wefts like tanpopo0118. I'll also probably make her a bit bigger and make her some simple clothes out of something that isn't lace scraps! But overall, I'm pretty happy with this little dolly, mostly because it felt really good to finally get around to making a doll!