Ganllon (Elf Jude)

 You could say I have a bit of an obsession with SartoriaJ's Jude sculpt. I have quite a few of them, although several of them are just heads that share bodies with other dolls. I did a fun collage of all my current Jude's this morning, just to see them all together and compare their differences. One of them, my first is in the larger scale, the rest of them are in the MSD scale. 

Interestingly enough, my original mini Jude head, the one in the bottom left corner with the LeStat face up, his head is a bit smaller than the other MSD sized Jude's. I imagine is because he was sized to fit the Iple FID bodies. He was introduced before SartoriaJ started offering their own bodies. Ryland, the LeStat Jude, is a firm 5/6 in the wig category. He has no problem wearing all my Monique 5/6 wigs. Once SartoriaJ started producing their own bodies they must have scaled up the head a little bit, as my 2 fog heads and Lobo, my amber beige Jude on the althetic SJ body all have heads that are more in the 6 range. My 5/6 wigs pop right off their heads. I have ended up using 6/7 wigs for them. But I digress, when I purchased fog gray Jude this summer during SJ's sale I opted to get both Jude's human and elf heads. I highlighted Joran (fog gray human head ) earlier. I'm now trying to finalize my elf Jude's, who I'm going to call Ganllon, final look.

I knew I wanted him to have a bit of an otherworldly vibe so I chose these Masterpiece Feather eyes. They certainly gave him the desired result of being a bit more "other". The first wig I tried is the gray wig in the bottom of the above photo. While I like the color on him, I'm not sure of the big rolled curls. The second look I tried is the Monique Paris wig below in a red brown shade. I love the style because his ears peek out easily and it fits his head well. I like the color, but I don't think the color would be my first choice.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other colors of the Paris wig in size 6/7, but I did discover while perusing the online dolly sites last night that Facets had a white blonde Paris in stock in the appropriate size, so I tried the wig below on him just to gauge if I thought I would like the color. I'm not a big fan of the style in the white blonde wig below, but it is a size 5/6 wig I shoe-horned on his head, so that may be part of why I don't like it. It just appears to look a bit

 too unkept. I do think I like the color ok though.

I have a couple other styles coming as well to try on him. I'm still trying to figure out how his character fits into things as well, so more experimentation may be in order, but experimenting is half the fun.

Figuring Joran Out

 I've been playing with Joran quite a bit today trying to figure him out. I bought a few Leekeworld wigs with him in mind.  The first one I tried on him was called blackberry with pure purple (the color). 

The Leekeworld size 6/7 actually fits his head better than most of the Monique 5/6 styles I tried. He has a bit bigger head than my Iple's in this scale.

I do love the blue glass oval eyes I got for him from SartoriaJ. The SartoriaJ dolls don't come with default eyes like the Iple and Raccoon Dolls do.

This afternoon I put the pure black wig on him. It is the same basic style as the blackberry/pure purple one above, but the style name is different. I think this one may be my keeper so far, although he may switch back and forth with the black/purple one.

And a shot of him with his uncle Grayson. Gray is his uncle on his mother's side and has basically helped his mother raise him.

Joran

 Last summer I went a bit gaga when SartoriaJ released their fog gray dolls. Jude is the first to arrive from that batch of dolls. I got both the elf and human heads. The human head came on the body, so he got my attention first. To be honest, he was the one I was looking forward to the most, as I got him with the Elf Dominic face up and I was very interested to see how he would turn out. I have to admit I don't think he could have turned out much better!! I'm so thrilled with him.

I do know his name is Joran, and he is part elf/part Misceo. His father his Elf Dominic, who I haven't named yet and should be arriving within the next month or so hopefully. My elf Jude will either be his uncle or brother, I haven't decided yet. Might be interesting for them to be brothers. I won't be able to take pictures of them together though until Dominic arrives.

I was curious to see how SartoriaJ's fog gray compared with Iple's gray, as I knew from the promos it would be lighter than Raccoon Doll's gray. I got Kalysta (Iple FID gray Mari) down to do a couple of comparison photos. Here are their hands together. The resin shades are very close.

And here is a shot of the two dolls together. My original thought was to pair Kalysta with the elf Jude, as he looks a little younger than Joran. I'll see how it all plays out. 

TIme in Her Chambers

 Just spending some time with Rhi, since we got a new dress and she hasn't had any attention for a while.

Maybe not weather appropriate, but this new dress finally arrived from EvaWorkshopBJD on Etsy and I just wanted to put try it on Rhi.

 

Learning to Relate

 I haven't spent much time with my Glade crew this year. Today I felt compelled to get Gray and Shy out for some new photos. It has been months since Nox tricked her into coming with him to Gray's lands. While she doesn't agree at all with his methods, she has resigned herself to the fact that she is meant to be with Gray. 

She is also coming to find there are many layers to her mate. Layers that she hasn't even begun to uncover. He is not at all what she expected.

Learning to trust has never come easy to Shay......learning to trust after secrets have been harbored adds another layer of difficulty to the process.

She is trying......

As she has come to realize her mate was only trying to protect her. Is there more he isn't telling her? She has begun to explore their mating bond more............letting him in, but she has a sense he never truly lets her in all the way. A sense that he is blocking a part of himself off completely.

Micha-Oropher Robes

 Micha likes the finer things in life and fortunately has the resources to obtain them, being a vampire who has lived a very long time.

I purchased the Oropher robe set from SartoriaJ with Micha in mind, and I'm really pleased with how he looks in the set. For those of you wondering if the Raccoon Doll men can share with the SartoriaJ51cm guys, yes, it has been my experience that they share quite well. Both the RD and SJ men are a little bit taller than the Iple men.

Genevieve-The Ice Queen

 Night finds Genevieve pondering life and her son's future. She knows they call her the "Ice Queen", and she supposes it is with good reason.  As night falls across the Glade she reflects back on a time when she was young and impressionable and excited to be Queen.  

Hers was an arranged union, much like Koehlon's to Hycis. A union made for political reasons. At the time however Genevieve was a young inexperienced girl. A girl who took one look at her betrothed and let her romantic nature run wild. He was so handsome. So tall and strong. She dreamed of happily ever after's, which would never come to pass, as her King's heart was already filled with love for another.

Of course she knew none of this when first mated. It wasn't until Laurion's birth that she discovered her mate had not only been unfaithful to her,  but that his heart resided with the mother of his bastard as well. The King "took care of it", and Laurion's mother has never been spoken of again, but he refused to turn his bastard away, and has raised him alongside their own children. The King was firm there would be no negotiation on that subject.

She supposes that was when the barriers first started being erected around her heart. She has done her duty over the years and given the King 2 more children after Koehlon, whose birth preceded Laurion's arrival by mere months. She loves her children, she truly does, but she has learned the lesson that those you love can hurt you the most, so she protects herself with a barrier of ice around her heart that even her children have felt the chill of over the years.

As Koehlon's mating approaches, she knows he is struggling with his duty to Hycis. She sees the looks her son gives the girl Nan. Nan is well beneath his status and not of elven birth. Koehlon however cares for her deeply if Genevieve's instincts are correct.  Her son is honorable, and has a strong sense of duty and she has no doubt he will follow through with his obligations to the realm. However, when she thinks back on her own past, can she sit by and let her son live the remainder of his hopefully long life living a life full of obligation and little happiness?