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Looking for new history to record ~

I can't even tell why but this is one of my absolute favorite sequences of Lavi we shot that day. Maybe it was me being geniuely interested in the art prints they displayed there (didn't buy any) it had such a vibe of culture and different forms of art, like an open book to absorb and inhale.

It was just feeling like not wearing a costume at all and that in one of the halls you really were stared at when you wore one (and had someone taking photos of you with a big camera and not just a phone).

Seriously having the courage just to enjoy myself without caring about my surroundings is something I worked hard on and I am glad photos feel as natural as I felt while they were taken.

photos by @adragonstale

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"It's dangerous around here to be on your own Timcampy, ..."

A little adventure with his new tiny friend <3

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POV: You draw a lot and also sketch a lot and somehow stuff piles up. I remember the first weeks in 2025 were I almost didn't draw at all. Now I feel incomplete when I didn't draw once a day.

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WiP - New Uniform for Allen - Pt 1

Long time no new Outfit for my OG Allen Doll. Well, ever since the 3rd Uniform. Somehow I never considered his Non Order Uniform as Outfit for Doll Allen (or even as Cosplay for me ....hum), but I decided to change that.

Hoshino has been drawing him in this Uniform several times over the last years, especially with the fact he is not an Exorcist anymore.

Anways I started with sketching down how many pieces are in the outfit and made pattern, using some of Allen's older pattern as base as I know they fit him.

First parts to be worked on are the pants and the shirt.

For the pants I decided to part them into two pieces as the longer part of the pants is darker and relatively thight fitting compared to the white pant part. Also I have my expierence with sewing similar pants for Lavi and ... I am not keen on puzzling around again.

The base pantyhose for the black part of the pants was done rather fast.

Then I decided to prepare the ribbons for the white part. Sew together a few pieces and then tested it against Allen and noticed...

it wasn't smart to use that fabric for pants as it's not a fine mesh and you can see the black shimmering through. I decided to scrap what I had made and recut pieces with a better fabric.

I was way more satisfied with the new fabric and continued. With the expierence from several other pieces (even the dresses) I made the best ever fly for pants, really proud here.

After I added the ribbons I even added smoll pockets and put together the whole pants. In the end I added a border and even a button for closure.

Yes, these are really some nice pants. Sure there is room for improvement but considering how much of a headache pants gave me in the past I am very pleased with the outcome.

Next to follow was the shirt. The base is the same as for Allen's blue outfit shirt but without sleeves. Though I know I remade the collar back then I am not sure where I put the pattern for that.

And as if it was called for the collar caused issues, I had to recut it and reattach it several times. I decided just to take a break here as I was clearly not able to figure out a good solution without getting frustrated.

After the break I was able to find a solution for the collar and fixed it. What was left was adding the buttons, I went for snap buttons here. The majority of the shirt will be covered by the waistcoat later on.

So here is the result of the first sewing day. I will aim to find a wider ribbon but I like the color, still I would like to have it a bit bigger.

For shoes I ordered these, sadly I was not able to find some in black/white (only in reverse OTL) so silver will hopefully do. I will swap the black for white lace and try to find some red fabrics to change the buckles for red ones.

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WiP - New Face up for Tyki

Do we have a theme for new face ups? Kind of. I made it my personal goal to repaint the ones with dark eyebrows first as I finally have an idea how to paint them.

I was working so fast on him that I forgot to take a photo of the blush only layer, on the right pic I already had started to do the deeper blush for one eyebrow.

Added stigmate and enhanced them.

Look at hiiim <3

Now to kick myself to take photos of him more often, I think he's more smug than before.

So far I am very pleased with the repaints (though Road lost a bit of her cheeky expression :C which is kinda sad).

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Firered sea of flowers <3

Maybe I got inspired by my own cosplay of Qifrey as I took those photos.

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Weekly Photo 25/2025

TITLE: YOU WON'T SURVIVE.

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Eishi - Modded Ling Tai Zhu Hong x Charmdoll V1 body - All mods & paintjob by me

This doll had a rocky journey. He started out as my first shell for Lavi but never really fit the character as I decided to reshell Lavi and had found a better fitting head I had to figure out what to do with the leftover doll.

I hate the hassle of selling dolls so my rule was I had to find an idea for this one before I allowed myself to get Lavi's new shell. The idea was found rather quick as I decided to complete the range of Akuma in this household.

The modding project started in November 24 and I finished him in April, had to wait for the perfect photo spot and all but he came together so quick, the majority of work on the body/armor was done within a week and I have no idea how I managed that while I had to work each day??

Anyways I am insanely proud how he turned out. Mission complete we have all Akuma, may it as doll or sculpture.

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Wip - Face up for Eishi (LAST PART)

Eishi is a modded Ling Tai Studio head, if you haven't followed the progress ...

This was a 'leftover' head I had after reshelling the character I modded a lot, basically I got rid of all features and sculpted on top.

Anyways here are the first steps for painting the head, after priming it I put on another layer of sealant and then gave it a base color. I let it dry for two days as I didn't have time to continue the next day.

While I was at that I painted his hands which I also modded to look more 'robot' like.

As you can see they match the armor way more now.

I tried to take as many photos as possible as I worked on the head but somehow it feels so quick and little steps. I first went for the teeth and the gums to give them more depth.

Then I added more shading and highlights. I kinda liked it like this but the sealant always dulls down the white a lot it won't stay like that.

So here is the painted face ... and of course....

Here he is all done. I have to wait for the perfect photo spot to be available soon. But damn I am proud he turned out so cool.

Finished by 13/04/2025.

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Travel Blog - Dokomi 2025 - Sunday

or: CARNIVAL

The last day came way too quick. Also it always already has this melanchonic vibe of "good bye" to it.

The day started with me forgetting a million things at the car and the clouds pouring water like there is no tomorrow. It was hiding somewhere until the halls opened.

My mission for that day was getting @adragonstale a Solo Leveling pin. Funny enough the artist recognized me as Allen and was really happy the series is still loved. In general I met more artists/vendors loving D.gray-man this time it was a delight.

The weather got a bit better and I decided it's time for tea as I felt a bit under the fact the last two days was me walking 50k steps.

Aftert that I went outside to get into the park. Hoping I would meet people.

And yes indeed I found some friends which made me very happy. We talked and had overall a nice time.

Then I got told there is a carnival and I headed towards it.

But not before I stopped by Hiwa's spot just to meet new people who were formely also D.Gray-man cosplayer and were super happy to meet me.

Then it was time for the Carnival! It was small but I had to get a candy apple just for having carnival food. I took some selfies there bc the circus kid needs photos, right?

I walked around with that apple until I found a friend who would take photos of me eating it. Hehe.

Then I went back inside again to find some friends. They searched for one of their friends and then we tackled the Seijin Area again .. I'm still not very comfortable with that hall it's just not my jam. I hoped there would be more adult art I like to look at (I later on found some in the general artist alley... spoiler it's in my haul later).

After we decided to split I went back in the artist alley to get some prints I remembered and found out there was a Witch Hat Atelier stamp ralley and was super hyped for it but ... the more booths I checked the more frustrated I got with it as there was almost none merch/prints from the other attending booths I liked so ... it was that stamp only :/

Somehow my mood slipped here a bit, I think it was the overall stress (even if it was mainly positive) and the overstimulation. I tried to find something to calm myself down and walked here and there.

Which resulted in me meeting this Allen in an adorable Tim Kigurumi! They told me about the Kanda/Alma the day prior. But I'm happy I have found at least one other D.Gray-man cosplayer that day.

After that I went back to hall 1 for the commercial vendors as I had a voucher for the one with D.Gray-man merch but then discovered I had skipped some rows the day before and found more artists and finally a booth with blind box bjd! I got one (the boxopening is already posted so I won't include it here) and this eased my mood a little bit.

After that I went back to the park, then back to the carnival for some (way better) churros. Hoping I would meet some friends. I was surely (sadly) feeling under the fact none of my close friends were at the convention as I needed a comfort person at this point but I was on my own.

It was getting late and I was kinda running in circles now. I decided to check out the last missing halls which was ... cars and the stage. I didn't visit the maid café/host café or the Matsuri games this time.

I stayed at the Dokomi until they closed down. Which was somehow 2 hours earlier than I expected.

Also german people have no idea about how the Reißverschluss for cars works and this annoys me so much.

But I liked this bus.

Here is my sunday haul C: as you can see it was bigger than on saturday.

Here is the complete haul from the weekend, I traveled back on monday after the con but was really beat. Now it's mainly repairing some damage, restyling wigs and deciding what my next line up for the next con will be.

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"This is how I remember you, you always protected me, Nea ... where did you go? You said Allen will be the sign but ..."

A melanchonic piece for this month's #monthlynea . Slowly I get the hang on how to draw Nea's hair.

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Questionable cosplay choices on my side, but we had the fun of our lifes, finding spots to put this horrible Cardinal into.

photos by @adragonstale

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Travel Blog - Dokomi 2025 - Saturday

or: Lero is the MVP

After a way too short night I was up pretty early and couldn't fall asleep anymore so I got myself ready after some breakfast and headed to the convention.

One thing was already set: I would need Lero a lot. I am glad I decided to prepare a fitting umbrella, the people loved him and were impressed by the fact you actually could customize an umbrella.

It was still quite too early so I sat down and worked on a drawing I had brought along. It started to rain buckets though, so Lero was truly the MVP.

As the halls opened I went and continued with the artist alley, I didn't manage to finish it the day prior. Also I got contacted by Laquaza if we could walk not so much for our meet up and I suggested meeting inside as we could sit down. So I decided to go to the park after our meet up.

As I finally was finished with hall 3 (artist alley) i went on to visit hall 4, which was the Fashion/Crafts area. Again with a lot of artists and very different crafts. But the very big trend this year was amigurumi, almost every second booth had it.

After hall 4 I went into hall 1 which had the publishers and commercial sellers (and artists as I learned on sunday as I somehow missed some rows).

I found a vendor selling D.Gray-man merch and found two figures I was looking for for a while now.

it still was a bit of time and I got myself my favorite bubble tea that day, brown sugar milk tea with tapioca <3

After that I decided to tackle the ... Seijin Area. The "adult only" hall and .... I am not sure what I expected but I don't want to go into details. Some things were rather disturbing for me and I just didn't feel comfortable in that hall. I left it rather quick.

It was time to meet Laquaza anyways <3 we had a really nice conversation and I am glad we were able to meet again.

Then it was about time to head to the park! Spoiler alert: I didn't meet any other D.Gray-man cosplayers this day q.q I got told on Sunday there were a Kanda/Alma couple but I didn't spot them.

My time in the park was mainly... hiding from rain. I met some friends and we talked but it was just very wet and I am very good in forgetting to ask for selfies. But sometimes I think of it being a thing. Like here with Clavis =)

As I was alone and we have an incredible japanese garden I took some photos with Lero. It would be the perfect location for an Edo photoshoot TwT

Back inside i got myself some food (yes you maybe noticed it i didn't get myself food the day prior. I did have my little bento box though, but I took too many photos :') ). It was a falafel bulgur salad situation and very delicious.

Next I decided I really want to explore ALL of the halls this time. Hall 9 was next which had Games and also Cosplay! You could attend different games, from Just Dance, TCG (there was a pen & paper roleplay area too but in another building), there were walk in workshops, you could try out the new Nintendo Switch 2, take photos in photo set ups, etc. it was really cool, I enjoyed this hall. And had a nice talk to the manufactor of the cosplay make up type I use.

Right behind hall 9 there was hall 10 which had a huge bring & buy area which I checked out but didn't find anything interesting.

The hall also had VTuber vendors(?), and the meet & greet tables for Creators and Cosplayers. Nothing I am interested in though.

I liked that they had an area to calm down if your mental health was messed up.

Here is the map of the location by the way :) and it still was pouring more and more.

At the end of the day a big thunderstorm went over the convention, I got myself some churros and headed back to the car where Tim was waiting for me.

I got recognized quite often and I am thankful people still love D.Gray-man <3

Back to the hotel and here is my (small) Saturday haul C:

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One of my very favorite motifs to draw, I drew the original back in 2021 and redrew it several times. It still means so much to me. The original one is framed on my wall.

But I think this one here has a similar vibe, it'd not as stiff as some of my redraws. Plus I like my solution with the fence to add more depth.

Old version under the cut:

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Travel Blog - Dokomi 2025 - Friday

or: no sense of direction

The con friday started not that well for me. Not that the journey to Düsseldorf was hard or something but there was an incident on the way which turned my mood into mush :C

That I was able to check early into the hotel and got a huge REALLY huge room made up a bit for it.

After I had that done I headed to the convention got myself dressed, put make up on and ... walked.

... and walked. And then ended up at the other side of the location and noticed I must have lost the direction right from the start. It's somehow a magical thing that happens to me once I wear Allen.

As I finally entered the halls I wasn't even in for 5 minutes and I met the first other D.gray-man Cosplayer :D which made me really happy.

And I found some merch, met people I knew online or from former conventions and my mood improved. I tried to tackle the artist alley first but damn that thing is huge.

Also one booth had so much D.Gray-man merch it made my heart jump (haul at the end) and people were happy to meet D.Gray-man fans.

And it was super full. I arrived shortly after 2 (the con had open for 1 hour now) and it was really full. I needed some breaks outside as I was a bit done from the drive too.

Back inside I met another Allen and found kyomaru_ko again whom I met last year at the Dokomi and got inspired to wear his Wisely Cosplay again it was so nice to meet him again (and we had some more time later that day to sit down and talk more, I really cherish that!).

More artist alley impressions, I partially took photos of booths I wanted to revist later or where I bought merch at. It was so many pretty things!

Back outside I met a Lenalee! I was told there was a cosplay pair having Steampunk outfits of Allen & Lenalee but I sadly didn't find them.

No Dokomi without Bubble Tea. I miss Bubble Tea. That day I didn't go for the milk tea but a green tea instead. Also I went to the cosplay repair as one of the fingernails said good bye (luckily noticed it before I lost it).

More artist alley impressions, so many skilled artists and all so very nice to talk to.

I decided it was time for an emotional support Beagle. Also Allen with a Beagle Plush? Perfect.

I just notice in hindsight that I didn't revisit a lot of booths and did miss out on some prints but I bought enough. Also this circus themed booth? Perfect.

That was also the booth @renieule and I met up. We had such a nice talk it was great to meet you, to get to know you a bit better. I hope we can meet up again in the future with more time in our hands to talk! (Reminds me I need to clean the red off the coat :'D ).

After I later on sat down with kyomaru_ko and talked to him & his wife about fandoms and how everything developed the past years I headed back to the hotel.

But before I left I met a group of Witch Hat Atelier Cosplayers and one recognized me from my photos here on tumblr and told me how much they love the Qifrey photos, I am so grateful you told me that it really made my day! With happy butterflies in my stomach I went back to the hotel.

Here you can see what I got that day, it was so much but I adore every little item and print.

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WiP - Boots, Hair and assembling Eishi

So we have little left to do now. Wings are painted, Face is prepared, Armor is basically done.

He needs hair, he needs his boots (or feet cover) and his face up, then he's done.

You know me I like to work on several pieces at once so I prepared the wefts for the hair as they were done drying as soon as I was done with the boots.

I made a pattern and precut all parts, I decided to use the same technique as I used for Qifrey's boots, Fabric and Foam combined.

It had been some time but I got the sewing machine out again to sew the fabric parts as I decided the seams would be more durable like that, as much as I like handsewing.

Then I glued the soles onto the boots and I have no idea why I didn't take a photo inbetween.

After that I made the other parts for the boots to resemble the Akuma design more, I had prepared two loops for them with leftover apoxy just to notice I need 4 not only two. So I made new ones with foam.

Then it was time to paint, shade and coat the boots. I later on corrected some bits here and there but didn't take photos.

Then i glued the wefts onto the headcap which was ... quite fun to do and quick. Skipping a wigcap here as the head itself should be visible and it was just easier like that.

What was left was attaching some magnets to the wings and the body.

And here we have the finished armor with wings. Because of the magnets they can be removed and I have yet to figure out if I want to display them or not as they eat a whole lot of space in the cabinet.

... so ... face up left.

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Boxopening ConariumDoll Suyu

FINALLY. Seriously this parcel did cost me a lot of nerves. UPS held it for 2.5 weeks until I was able to file a claim (i had contacted them several times, gave them all the documents but silence) and then they told me they were missing the address of the sender (yes). Then it was finally out for delivery but shortly before the delivery window they cancelled the delivery and postponed it to the 24th June. You can imagine my frustration. Another very furios email and a day later Mom texted me with a photo of the parcel OTL

I need to recover from this ride but here he finally is.

I just love the wooden boxes from Conarium they are so elegant.

The way the doll is stored in it isn't though :'D

He will be a grumpy (old) man I am looking forward to make his wig and paint him, for sewing clothes I have to improvise what I want to make for him as we don't really have references for the outfit under the cape but I think I will find something fitting.

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WiP - Little Props for two Dolls (Timcampy & Staff)

I like to resure material from projects when I have leftover pieces. I had a Timcampy in YoSD size somewhere but I have no idea where.

And I decided I needed one for my Travel Buddy Allen.

Also I had apoxy left here and there and put it towards a second staff for Lavi.

As you can see I first made a little ball, added wire to it for tail and wings and then baked it. After that I worked on the tail and the wings.

And madea little spot for a Magnet to be added. After another round in the oven I painted the little dude.

And here is the finished little friend! I used cosclay for him =)

I think he's perfect for this variant of Allen.

For the staff I had put together two wooden sticks and had to work on top of that that's why the middle piece is thicker than the one of the first staff.

I then added the end pieces.

As it cured overnight I painted it the next day. Maybe you noticed this time I didn't sculpt the pattern into it but decided to paint them.

It worked kind of. The extra details that somehow pop up every time we see this staff were a bit washed off as I added the final layer of gloss.

And here we have the end result with Lavi and the other Staff in comparison.

The new one is a bit smaller and the doll can hold it better due the thicker middle piece.

I guess it was worth using the leftover apoxy I had from two different projects =)