Re-Strung Out

So my dolly is finally restrung, despite almost losing the tip of my ring finger in the process... Elastic is violent!  Anyhow, she's now a full person, with eyes and hair, and a dress made from a sock.  She looks a bit... unfinished, but there's not much else to be done until her actual dress is done.  Like I said, I was completely unprepared for this hobby and feel utterly sad about her state of undress.  I'm a bad doll parent.  She doesn't even have shoes!  I found a helpful guide to make a really cute pair of boots, though, so hopefully she'll have footwear soon.  Then I'll only have to worry about the nudity.  Good thing she has body blushing, I guess.

New Hobby Shatters Remains of Student's Free Time

Okay, new topic, so new blog.  Approximately one month ago, my supposed friend gave me a free-time succubus in the form of a ball-jointed resin doll.  She's a Fairyland Minifee, Active Line, with a sleeping Miyu head.  What that apparently means (from research), is that the doll appears asleep unless you carve the eyes out, like she had done.  I made them slightly bigger and sanded away the seams, but there always seems to be something else to do.....

From that day I brought her home to now, she has been unstrung, cleaned, soaked (chronologically) in tea tree oil, non-acetone polish remover, Oxy-Clean, Windsor & Newton brush cleaner, and warm water, and very messily body-blushed with chalk pastel powder until she looked somewhat like my "vision" for her.  I did the face-up myself two nights ago (in pastel and watercolor pencil), around 1:30 AM, which is why she looks like a cartoon character (in my opinion).

Anyway, the point of this post, aside from putting the ramble into context, is to say that I never learned to restring this doll.  She's beautiful, with realistic shading on her elbows, knees and inner thigh areas, but no one can actually understand why some pieces are darker than others until she's put back together.  I have high hopes that someone at today's doll meet can explain what I did wrong and put me on the right path for this step, because until then, I can't even put up her photos (she's a head surrounded by lady parts... ).

Sigh.  I hope that  I learn how to be a "real" doll collector, not such a n00b, soon.  Next step, restringing!

edit: completed!!!