Photography: Gina Garan
Introduction: Junko Wong
First Published: November 2005
Publisher: Chronicle Books
160 Pages

Click to read more of this entry.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I didn’t have smart phone, I had to go through the process of finding cables and turning on my computer and actually remember to upload photos in order to photos of my Blythes up onto the internet. Since joining the modern era, back in 2012, the majority of my doll photos have been courtesy of my smartphone and the exorbitantly priced data package that I pay for on a monthly basis. While I don’t have a problem with spending money on Blythes and other dolly things (hello, doll boots!), I greatly enjoy the fact that many app makers make them available for free, or associated with their websites where they run ads. I’m going to go through a few of my favourite apps, and why I enjoy them! Because I have an Android device only, and no Apple devices, I’m only going to be going through apps that I’m 100% sure are available for Android. Most should have an Apple-equivalent though, so don’t despair!

Instagram is a fairly popular one already. I take a lot of my doll photos with the Instagram app and then apply filters or edit them as I wish. Instagram did recently have a major update with a lot more features for finer control over the photo editing process. New features included changing the contrast and highlights, as well as adding a vignette or sharpening the details of the image. Bonus points to Instagram for the fact that I can choose to directly upload to Flickr, as well as other sharing places like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter or Foursquare. You can see what other people have uploaded via Instagram by searching tags – a good one is #blythe.

Flickr is the website that everyone now loves to dislike, especially since their major revamp of their website. However, I must give them props, because their (Android) app is so much nicer to use now. The app nicely mimics the website, but the functionality is more present when it comes to the app. I greatly enjoy it and I find that the app doesn’t lag for me like the website does. There’s also more options now when it comes to uploading photos via the app. Previously I found it nearly impossible to tag photos or to make them private when uploading via the app, now I find it’s a lot easier and more intuitive to use. These days, I’m more likely to go onto Flickr via the app than the website.

Aviary is a fun photo-editing app. There’s all sorts of things you can add to the photos – borders, ‘stickers’, effects, and more. I like Aviary because it loads pretty quick, and you have the option of adding on more ‘packs’ of effects, stickers, etc. The thing about the add-on packages is that some of them do cost money, while others are free. I can’t talk about the paid packages (I’m sure they’re nice!) as I’m still quite happy about the free add-on packs that I’ve downloaded so far. One cute bonus is the ability to ‘meme’ your photo, just by adding text across the top and bottom of the image. I’d recommend looking through all the add-on packages before downloading them, you may find that you don’t need (or not won’t use!) that may additional filters.

Pixlr-o-matic is one of my favourites when it comes to editing photos on the go. It is very easy to use when it comes to applying effects, filters and borders to your photos on your phone, or even a tablet. The other great app by Pixlr is Pixlr Express, which is fun for doing collages, and more editing magic. The nice thing about Pixlr is that both of their apps are also available as web-based photo editing websites! So for those who do not have Photoshop or another photo editing program on your computer, this is an option for you.

What are your favourite apps to use when doing Blythe-related activities?

1. They make me smile when I see them.
2. They’re (generally) unforgiving if I accidentally or intentionally put them in a bad or clashing outfit.
3. The handmade (by others) clothes with tinier than tiny stitches.
4. The shoes. All the shoes!
5. How creative Blythes make everybody – photography, sewing, etc.
6. Making new friends where we have Blythe in common
7. The changing eyes. The oversized head. Her features, in general.
8. That old Kenner smell.
9. Getting packages in the mail, even if I have to buy it myself.
10. Taking photos of  dolls and sharing my love of Blythe with others.

What do you have to add to this list?

When I first saw custom Blythes, there were two very obvious groups. The ones that were customized lightly, still had their original hair, and some light carving for the lips. And then there were the ones that were completely overhauled. The ones with wefts or another kind of hair change, vampire teeth, body changes. Now there is a huge variety in the type of customs that pop up: sassy little girls, the dolls that end up on Pure Neemo bodies and look a bit like pin-ups, and then there are the vampires, monsters, girls with braces, cross-eyed dolls, and then the ones with severe carving (of which monsters, vampires, cleft palates, open mouths, full set of teeth, and scarred on the faces all fit in).

Lately I’ve seen a lot of vampires and monsters, and more extreme customs that often pop up from time to time. Overall, there always seems to be a good mix of styles – some are lightly customized, some extremely customizes, but the majority are somewhere in the middle. Like most things in life, the spectrum of customized dolls rests on a bell curve.

What is your least favourite custom trend? How about your most favourite?

As I took a little looksee through some active sale postings for custom dolls, I found that quite a few had reroots (usually mohair, although there are some alpaca), usually all custom chips (many gorgeous handpainted ones!), mostly Licca over stock Takara or even Pure Neemo bodies. Most of the dolls that I see selling have minimal carving. Perhaps the mouth, nose and the philtrum, but the majority of dolls don’t seem to have more than that. Teeth seems to be a factor that can, depending on who the customizer is, keep the doll on the market for longer. For some more popular or well-known customizers, dolls with teeth or other more ‘extreme’ carving gets snapped up quite quickly. For those unknown, they just seem to linger longer – or maybe that’s just because Facebook will bump up the post every single time someone bumps it, and it’s like I’m seeing it all over again for the umpteeth time.

Kitty Brighton is the only Middie currently living at the BlytheLife Headquarters. She is a stock Jackie Ramone (I don’t trust myself to do very much customization on the big Blythes, I’m not able to fiddle around with the innards of her little Middie head!) and she has a woefully small wardrobe. So one of my (new?) goals is to focus on building her a wardrobe. Some things that I’ve have decided that I will do include:

• Knitting and crocheting her some cardigans, hats, and/or dresses.
• Sewing her some clothes (e.g. pants, dresses – the thought of sewing sleeves puts me off)
• Finding her some more shoes.

I know that there are some amazing creators of tiny Middie-sized clothing out there, but it’s sort of a personal challenge for myself as well. As she is my only Middie, I don’t have to worry about clothing more than one doll – which is a blessing in itself. While I’d love to get my hands on that adorable Yellow Marshmallow Middie (who doesn’t have yellow hair…?), it’s just not in the cards for me at  the moment (unfortunately…). So instead of thinking of the Middies that are being released, that I love, and that I cannot afford to bring into the family right now, I focus on wardrobe building for the Middie that I do have!

This is all that Brighton has right now, seriously:

And the poor thing doesn’t really get her stock boots all to herself because they also fit her big sisters. I will hopefully have an update soon of how much I’ve been able to make for her! Hopefully a few little projects here and there will start to add up to a cute little closet full of custom-made goodies for her!