Christmas

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Been so busy with work, a whole month seems to have passed by... how strange it is, I feel like I'm still in October. Crazy stuff though.

Some new news though! Hrist has launched her own Instagram site!
Been pondering the idea for a while and decided to go and make her one. Since time isn't really allowing any major projects at the moment, I am still planning to take her out for some photoshoots, along with Lidia too.

Hrist's Escapades

https://www.instagram.com/hrists_escapades/

Follow her along on her adventures!

Been trying to talk my friend into starting up one as well with his favorite Obitsu, Yui. He wants to dabble into photography a bit, and what better way to jump into taking photos, right? Always a lot of fun to set up a nice theme, shot, and go from there. 

Have a really nice Christmas everyone! :) 

News Updates

Been thinking about starting an instagram dollfie photo page for my photos, and shoots. Sadly I can't think of any names to use for a new page. Anyone got any suggestions? Probably just win up using this blog to photo posting to keep life simple. :P
Still, again not much new. It's been hectically busy with work lately. Planning on doing some photoshoot with Hrist's new outfit. but that may not be till December late, or early spring at the rate things are going here.

Pre-Halloween Post II

Pre-Halloween Post

Phew, has it been a long time or what??? I absolutely have no time for anything these days it seems other then work and attempt to sleep. Rather then turning this post into a boring rant....

Hrist's outfit, after a year in the making, is finally done. What's that you say? The Hat's missing the golden emblem? Well, that sucks. Hrist's funding got cut! :P Told her not to abuse those workers in her sweatshop to hard.
I'll get around to probably making that part someday. For now it's complete!
Sadly I was working and missed out on my favorite meet of the year, the Halloween one X_X Hopefully next year though. :)
 Hoping to post some more photos from the shoot by Halloween!
Till next time!

Lidia's Trip II

Phew, pretty busy lately, lack of projects, and posts. Got around to sorting some of the photos I took, almost a month ago? Already??? Wow... kinda sad how fast time fly's.

Still no portraits of Hrist. I'll get around to it someday! For certain! :P Time is just vaporizing before my eyes lately. 

At least, Lidia enjoyed her brief vacation. Really looking forward to doing something fun with these photos.

Lidia's Trip

Not a whole lot new here. Been pretty busy as usual. I did manage to take Lidia up north a bit for some photos. I may do a photo story out of what I did. Still need to take some photos of Hrist's outfit which is pretty much complete... I think. Hopefully I'll find some time to do that with in a week or so.
Till next time. :D

Hrist's Coat XII

Almost done! Just a few more things to work out. Hopefully some new photos up by next week if all goes well! :D Been pretty busy overall lately. Not much time to work on anything but try to finish this coat up.

Hat Work II

Hat is pretty much done. I might go back and add the gold detailing someday.... but for now, I'm not going to bother with them. It looks nice, to me, as is. I did wind up adding some detailing trim on the bottom. The black with black hair seemed to have this weird 'void' effect.  on my eyes.

Flintlock Gun V

One of the guns is finished!

 I'll have to take some photos of Hrist with it. Sadly I really need to get her some 'grippy' hands. sword holding hands don't work to well with these haha. Or borrow some of Poofie's tacky tack stuff.
Now I just need some more sealer and I can finish up the other gun!

Hat Work I

Not sure what happened to my first photo before I put the back flap on. Looked like Hrist was a soilder/helmet thing going on. Was most amusing for me to look at.

Hat work is going well... or was. I don't even care how straight those stitches are right now I was barely able to cram that thing in my sewing machine. I might rip them out later and hand stitch..... probably not, but I might. Working on stuff that's 5inches in diameter with my big ol'hands sure sucks... I might skip out on the 3D design for the forward piece. I'll see. maybe after a break, I can always go back. Wish I knew for sure though cause a red stipe has to go vertical if I do use it... it's be easier to sew that in now vs later.... hmmm :X

Flintlock Gun IV

Lots of work on this gun! Gotta put the double barrel one on hold for a bit, only have enough sealer for one gun atm and my sealers pretty $$$ that I use.
Been mixing up my own paints to get the color I want. The brown got rubbed right off after this photo was taken. Ironically the gun will have a lot of white coloring to it vs the usual 'black'

Flintlock Gun III

 Guns have arrived! Lot of prep work on these to do.

Still need to decide on a paint scheme for them too. X_X Got 3 ideas in mind haha. Ah well. I'll get around to deciding eventually.

Hrist's Coat XI

Phew, the coat project that keeps on going!

 Lots of work! Sewing in the sleeves gold has so far been the most annoying thing I've done yet. I had to fish around for the holes in a very small cuff that I can stuff one and a half fingers up haha. Real cramped work space = Not fun. But it had to have been done, and it was! And hour later of course... and now I just have one left!

Slowly going together. Can't wait to put it on Hrist. If all goes well I might get my gun shipment tomorrow in the mail. If not, Saturday is looking to be the day for that. Still nervous about the scaling on them.... X_X If not I'll have to resize and re-order haha.

Hrist's Coat X

Most of the parts for the coat are now completed! Waiting on some of the sealer to cure and in need of a wire solution for the small hangy thingies that I need to attach.  Slowly but surely this is starting to take some shape! :D

Hrist's Coat IX

Notions arrived!!! Now, I can prep these parts and get ready to finish the coat part once and for all!

I do have my work cut out for me, most of the parts are real small, thin, and well, quite fragile. Surprisingly they held up rather well for small details. So why are the feather emblems so large then? Cause I wanted them to be! A personal mod on the original that I wanted. Same with the back plate. It'll be covering my wonky hand stitching where the liner and main coat all come together too! Haha!

Flintlock Gun II

Finishing up final details on both of Hrist's guns!

Few more things to go. Still waiting on those notions to arrive hopefully toward the end of this week if I'm lucky. Got a bad feeling Shapeways probably won't print these guns without 'alterations' though. Always something. I plan to try a full solid print first and see how it goes, with backup solutions on standby for the inevitable rejection...

Flintlock Gun I

Side project! I don't think Hrist's outfit that I'm working on would be complete without a pair of flintlock guns! Yup, quite a bit of project work has been going on this month, wish I could say the same for my sleep! Haha, Ah well, it can't be helped. :P

Lot of time was spent detailing. Not sure much of it will hold out on a 1/3 print, assuming I can even have this thing printed. I'll find out once I get to that point... there's always some snag though so I'm anticipating it haha!

I have one more gun to make, I'll be a double barreled version though.

Hrist's Coat VIII

Phew, what a week, quite a bit of work has been done, as far as modeling out notions and some sewing details coming to a close. Still a load of work to be done!

I need to start drafting up her hat too. I want to get some wood for a steam block but dunno if I will be able to do what I have in mind for it. X_X Or even make it for that matter....

In the mean time... I have some other 3D projects going on for this coat project as well. More on that later though... ;)

Hrist's Coat VII

Lots of parts being modeled! Lots of work to do, and lots more ideas up in the air for finishing this project. Once I get all the modeling, and detailing done it'll be nice. I have about 4 more parts for the coat to complete before I start getting them ready for printable parts. Always fun stuff that part is.

Hrist's Coat VI

Progress has been made! I've got a lot of work to do on this coat. Thinking I should have added an extra inch to the front flap. I'll just have to wing how it turns out. Seemed ok on my first build. but now I'm having second thoughts haha. oh well.
Almost time to figure out how this liner is going to work.... lot of odd shapes on this coat that are not going to make it easy for my amateur sewing skills X_X

Hrist's Coat V

Sleeves! Or at least one of them haha! Now to work on the corresponding sleeve. I did mange to get some work on the collar done as well.  Starting to slowly but surely come together. Hopefully find some time to work on this some more later in the week.

Hrist's Coat IV

Phew, lots of progress has been made lately! Got a basic crude muslin version made of the coat here, just to make sure everything fits smoothly. Thankfully this coat isn't made to close so that'll eliminate messing around with the right distance needed for the closure panels.
Excited to dive into the main outfit now though! I bought some strange new fabric I found that's gold. Experimented a bit with that tonight, sadly I didn't like the results of what I had in mind. I'll save this fabric for a later project idea though it's so nice haha. Having said that, the part I need for the sleeve will have to be 3D printed/made.

Etsy - SomonulsWorkshop

Somonul's Workshop is now Live!  on Etsy! :D

Hoping to fund a few of my dollfie projects while attempting to pawn off some stuff I no longer have room for, or no longer plan to use. I figure someone out there might enjoy what I've made. Rather then it collecting dust in the closet.

I don't ship overseas on Etsy by default. If you message me about overseas shipping I will get you a quote. Always so expensive to ship stuff out of country :(
Message for any other questions too!

Thanks for your support! :)

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SomonulsWorkshop

Dollfie Renaissance gown

$65

https://www.etsy.com/listing/250148114/dollfie-renaissance-gown

Neptune Doll Eyes 22mm - Hyperdimension Neptunia

$16 OBO

https://www.etsy.com/listing/250094386/neptune-doll-eyes-22mm-hyperdimension

SD or Dollfie - Winter Cloak

$32

https://www.etsy.com/listing/250093872/sd-or-dollfie-winter-cloak

Hrist's Coat III

Feels like a distant past to me, when I could grind out on the sewing machine, mindlessly plotting the completion of my next dollfie outfit. Hours of work, without a care in the world.

Such a slow process....

Happy to report though that I've actually worked a bit on the muslin version! Got the sleeves and collar sewn, up I think the sleeves might be to short though :X Won't know till it's fully integrated into the jacket body.
Hopefully I can find some time to do that before another week races by. With a photo too! :D

Hrist's Coat II

Patterns should be complete, at least at this stage. Now I need to make a muslin version and make sure the patterns all fit correctly.  This projects going to interesting for certain.

No time to work on those 3D buttons and other odd ends for this jacket since my last post. Stuff is going slowly X_X

Hrist's Coat I

Ok, time to revive this project! Still not 100% committed to this though, I have I feeling once I actually start, I won't be able to stop till I see it through. Studying the design for this coat, it looks like it's gonna be a royal pain in the tush. Could be a lot of fun though. Minus all the 'parts' I have to model for the coat. Quite a few custom emblems and buttons that go on this thing.

Some of the buttons I have to model out.

I might also rescale Hrists helmet a bit, and print out a mock liner template to see how well a re-sized version will be. I might be able to get away with not having to configure to much.... hopefully...

Lidia VN Project II

Two posts, two days in a row! Like old times! Well, not quite, but I got a little addicted on this project and sacrificed a few hours of precious sleep time in order to complete this way ahead of schedule... :3 haha-ha! Yes, that's the sound of a completely delirious laugh. Phew, I did want to expand on this project a bit, by making 2-3 shots of the 3D rendering I made for the back-plate. I wanted to include Hrist in this too. but that'll have to wait for another project/time, unless I do expand on this one.

I also played around a bit with some dialog boxes and other useless junk. Does this mean a new photo story brewing in the works? Stormy weather + a day off from work? Unlikely to happen for a while... But it's not out of the cards yet!

I do need to create my own chat/dialog box someday, hmmm maybe that'll be a easy side project I can do that shouldn't be to time consuming. :S

Till next time!

Lidia VN Project I

Finally some time to work on my project I've been putting off for a while. I decided to veer a way from my original idea a bit. Going to test out a silly idea I had for my next photo story using a visual novel approach.
Should have the final posted in a day or so. :)

Arizona Bike Week 2016

Another great year! This year, was one of the best I've had in a long time. Could it have been due to the amazing weather? Probably! Haha! The events seemed really small this year however, and the booths were more packed in. It just didn't seem as big this year as in years prior at West World.

Where the fun and experience was slightly lacking at West World, the event rides sure made up for it! Friday was the annual charity ride I do, and wow what a day, the weather was just perfect! On my way through Pine, we got hit by a hail storm, followed by some of the heaviest and biggest rain drops I'd ever seen. Upon arriving at Strawberry, Rose looked like a hot mess, muddied out and wet. I'm sure I looked no better. So much fun though. This year I spiced it up and broke off from the main group to do my own photo thing, and even managed to get in some hiking too. I really needed the time to relax. Don't think I'll be having any more days off for quite a while so making the best of what time I had, sure was priority. Haha.

I'll probably post some photos in a week or so, need to find time to sort through over 1000 photos.

Till next time! :D

Harley Clutch Assembly Blue Prints

Bit of a personal project for my, I was restoring some small illustrations of the clutch assembly for my Harley. In a slow process of creating a series of pdf files to use on a tablet I can pull up when I'm working on my bike. I got a little creative on this project and turned it into some blue prints. I might have to get a actual print made and framed for hanging, as I kind of liked how things turned out.

Nice crisp lines all in vector art done in AI.

HDoS Visit

Did a little bit of photography fun before work this weekend at the dealership. Some big events were going on. I also needed a quote for a new tire.

Neat women's jacket.

Lots of interesting new bikes, clothing and loads of other odds and ends. Stuff that made for excellent opportunity to photograph.  I lucked out with the sun shining through the top windows a bit today.

Interesting paint job. Golden fire.

 I didn't stick around for the event of the weekend though. Didn't have much time, but there's always another time. ;)

But then, it quickly became time to head out, and go to work... luckily Bike Week is right around the corner!

New Clutch Cable

Well, today was a fun day. I wound up finally replacing my clutch cable with one of the cables made by Magnum, in black pearl. Never took Rose apart so much before. Sure was lots of fun. Even with the joys of apartment living... and lugging tools downstairs. Really wish I had a house!

Removing the slip-on exhaust was a bit of a pain at first. Once it was removed carefully by hand, the rest became pretty straight forward for the dismantling and removing of parts.

The old gasket was cracked on the far side, not enough to cause a leak, but it was a good split down the side.  A few other signs of replacement needed were shown throughout the gasket.

Having the transmission exposed and opened was a good opportunity to clean any gunk and residue out.  With everything cleaned and ready to go. I reinstalled the clutch cable cover. Oh, I should mentioned I used some 'big' Craftsman ring pliers to remove the snap ring on the ball/ramp assembly. What a pain... I think it was the tool. Sadly I couldn't find any Knipex in my area. I'll probably return these pliers as I felt they were... But they did the job... and in the end it doesn't matter.

Then came time to reinstall the lever handle to the clutch cable... this is where it all went south rather fast for me. For some reason I couldn't get enough slack to get it back on the housing. At it's loosest I was still unable to get enough slack. I wound up reopening the cover and manually feeding it through. I wasn't expecting this to happen. Not really sure why, but it worked in the end. I wasn't pressed with time I'd have examined what was going on a little better. Darn work... in 30 minutes.... time to call in "I'll be running slightly late!"

Tightening everything back down, and double checking my torque specs and steps to make sure everything was back in place, things went real smooth afterward. .Even the slip-on exhaust slipped back on hassle free. Might have helped that I cleaned all the contacts off prior.
Note to self: Get a set of deep sockets! It would have come in handy on the ring clip for the exhaust.

Sadly with all the rush at the last bit of this project I was unable to work on polishing the cover like I had planned to do. I'll be doing that in the next day or so. Haven't really had one day off from work this month. Bike weeks around the corner though and I've requested it all! Can't wait!!!
Very fun and relaxing project. Hoping for more down the road.

I'll post some photos of the new cable when I get a chance, as mentioned earlier I had to haul it to work and didn't get a chance to do so. After a test ride, I must say the braided cable vs stock OEM is a world of difference, a lot smoother, and more responsive. I need to make another adjustment to the cable to bring the sensitivity to a similar feel to what I was using prior. Or just get used to the new feel haha.