[Deadcraft.Com]: Dir En Grey: Kyo & X-Japan: Yoshikitty Dolls A few more Japanese rock-themed crochet dolls for your enjoyment! I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I've crafted quite a few dolls based on popular J-rock band Dir en Grey; well, someone specifically requested a couple more Dir en grey dolls; this time of an 8 inch high Kyo! To showcase the different looks Kyo has had throughout the years, one doll sports a pretty shiny tracksuit, while the other sports a little eyepatch, from his Vulgar era.
[Deadcraft.Com]: Pirates of the Carribean: Jack Sparrow
With all the yummy Johnny Depp characters coming up in movies nowadays (and let's not forget that he's also 2009's Sexiest Man of the Year? Take that, Brad Pitt!) it's hard not to want to make something based on him to some degree. So it's probably best to start out with the character that he is currently most known by - Jack Sparrow from the trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean!
This little tyke is going to be making its rounds frequently over at my deadcraft store in etsy. Bug me if there isn't one in stock!
http://www.deadcraft.com/2009/12/11/pirates-of-the-carribean-jack-sparrow/[Deadcraft.Com]: Dragonball: Son Gohan Crochet Doll A large 8 inches high Son Gohan doll that I had commissioned for a customer in the past, based on the character from the Dragonball series! And of course, being the absolute masochist that I am, also agreed to do Son Gohan's more complicated Chineseque suit instead of his regular martial arts garb. And let's not forget the monkey tail!
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
[Deadcraft.Com]: Twilight Crochet Dolls I'm going to be honest. I am not a fan of the Twilight series. When I think of the perfect, ideal man, my heart shall always remain entirely with Pride and Prejudice's Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. As an admitted bibliophile who grew up with monsters on the brain, as you can probably see with not only my dolls but in other artworks I've made / stories I've written, I like the writing styles of Umberto Eco and Jeffrey Eugenides, and am probably too old to be fully regaled with a four-book romantic story geared primarily for teens. However, I do have a lot of friends who are stark raving mad, crazed to the point of wtfness huge fans of the series, and I have eventually learned to deal with their moments of squee-ness if I am to maintain the friendship, despite their sometimes inability to deal with my poor fanpire-related barbed quips at their expense. They are also the same lovably exasperating people who had first requested me to make Edward Cullen dolls in the first place, so you also have them to thank for the series of dolls shown below. I have been making Edward Cullen and Jacob Black dolls for awhile now, and one out of every five customers who make the purchases inevitably asks me: "When are you ever going to make a Bella Swan doll?" While I could confess to a certain level of procrastination there, along with a truckload of other priority commissions and custom requests that took up most of my time for the better part of a year, one glaring reason it took me so long to make Bella was simply because she didn't have particular features that could easily be showcased in a doll and therefore easily observed to be a "Bella". Edward has his golden eyes and manly pomade. For the Jacob Black doll I settled for adding a tiny paw print on his lower back. But unless I stitchedthe word 'Bella' right across her shirt, I didn't know how people could easily discern her to be a Bella doll. A few people suggested Bella in her prom dress, or of her wearing an engagement ring. But she only wears her prom dress for a couple of scenes all in all and would have no further basis in later books, nor is a ring easy to do in miniature. The requests for her doll increased; in my Ravelry account, my Bella doll was still a work in progress, without any pictures to show, but four users had it listed as their favorite, and the entr viewed over a hundred times without my ever promoting or showcasing the attempt in groups. In the end, I decided to just make her without any "Bella" markings. I supposed that if Stephanie Meyer intended for her to look plain and normal and doe-eyed (and oddly enough, to also look a lot like Stephanie Meyer) then I supposed this would just reinforce the statement.
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
[Deadcraft.Com]: Dir en Grey Crochet Dolls I don't always have the opportunity to collaborate with a lot of other people in this crocheting business, so when you have friends over in Japan who also happen to maintain one of the best and most popular Dir En Grey websites on the web, then you tend to jump all over their offer to do something in tandem with the fandom. And so presenting, the current incarnation of Dir En Grey!
Given that the band look tends to change often in the same way seasons change, this is their current Autumn 2009 regalia. Of course, a few people who'd been with me way back when I was crocheting long before I'd had a website know that this isn't the first time I've crocheted Kyo.
Risu and Nao have been kind enough to promote these little dolls for me at their Dir en Grey site, http://www.orchestrated-chaos.com - and to my surprise, the dolls promptly sold out in a matter of days. So if any of you guys would like to purchase more Dir en Grey dolls, either with their current look, or in any previous costumes / wardrobes, head on over to their site and put in a request! They do a far lot better job at organizing these things than I could ever do!
http://www.deadcraft.com/2009/11/12/dir-en-grey-crochet-dolls/[Deadcraft.Com]: Odin Sphere: Gwendolyn and Oswald Dolls Odin Sphere was my favorite game of 2008. Okay, so maybe God of War 2 was my favorite game of 2008, but this was a very, very close second. Ingway is possibly the most adorable character that no one has ever heard of. So you can say that this was something of a labor of love, because I nearly broke my brain making two of its five main characters, Oswald and Gwendolyn. Not since my Valkyrie Profile Lenneth Valkyrie doll had there been so many details that I'd willingly made on something roughly 4 inches tall. I'm pretty happy about how then result is though, although Oswald's armor was harder to imagine than Gwenolyn's feather-and-armor affair.
Gwendolyn and Oswald
Gwendolyn
Oswald
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
