So, I've been debating what kind of tail I ought to give Kitpandi. Here are the options I've considered so far: 1) Solid resin. Just a single piece of resin, posed in a curve. This is the easiest option, and arguably the most aesthetically pleasing, but it's also the least posable. 2) Jointed resin. This would be more poseable than solid resin, but less aesthetically pleasing. 3) Oversized chenille stem. The super fluffy kind -- I'd actually have to trim them down to size. This is the most poseable option, and aesthetically pleasing in its own way, but... it's not resin. And people expect their doll-parts to be made out of resin. I'm leaning towards #1. Or maybe #3. What do you folks think?
Really? It's working for me... drat. Can anyone else see my blog when they click the "Kitpandi" link?
That's a tough choice. I personally abhor resin tails since they are not expressive and that is the part of the cat that really expresses emotions and body language. A jointed tail would look a bit less smooth but means it can be posed or put out of the way. I get what you're saying about chenille stem too, but I think it is the best compromise between expressiveness and smoothness. Maybe give buyers an option, or make the attachment so that it's easy to convert from resin, if that be the primary option, to furry wire. I think I voted jointed resin, but in hindsight I'd prefer chenille stem.
Thanks guys! I guess maybe my site blipped out for a second. Twigling: I'm leaning towards chenille stem myself. I'll post a pic when I get a chance, just so people can see what I'm talking about -- it's really not much like the typical 'pipe cleaner' stems. I just wish there was a size half this wide. :P
Heh, figures, Sarah Seiter beat me to it. You can see one of her dolls with this style of tail here. Looks like she trimmed it just the way I'm planning to, too. Edit: And now I remember why I was leaning back towards resin after almost settling on chenille -- color matching, for anything other than white. Maybe I'll give RIT dye a go...
I chose other - mainly because you could make it an option..... one; the other; or both not dissimilar to Soom with their Centaur or was that Souldoll?? Anyways - a sculpted tail would look AWESOME... but then having the option to use Chenille would be super fun for photos etc....
Ooh, good point. I like "both" better than having people choose -- no chance of putting the wrong tail in the wrong box.
I like the idea of supplying both. Have you seen the chenille stems that get fat and thin in kind of waves? If the "wave length" was correct, you could have a chenille tail that was fat in the middle and tapered to a point, just like a real kitty.
I've seen those, but they're just a little too small for her scale. If she were Pukipuki sized, they'd be perfect... maybe at some point I'll try printing her out smaller.
Personally I vote for resin- not because I think a doll should be all resin- but when it goes from resin that is supposed to be fur to something else that looks more like fur there's a disconnect for me. It's the idea of two different materials trying to represnet the same real world equivalent.
I agree with issues like colour matching (and trying to paint a chenille stem...) and sudden change of texture and mass/density, it might feel weird. If flocking was used to add fuzz to the Kitty, that might balance it out but if anything that would be more something for the individual owner/customiser to deal with rather than something Morgan would have to apply to each doll. I made a jointed tail for my Baha and it's in two shades of grey putty (one colour for the ball ends and one for the socket ends) and it mostly just looks like a stripy cats tail, and not like a worm or anything like that. I mean the joints are there but they are no more distracting than the joints elsewhere on the body.
Flocking would be awesome... but I doubt that flocking and ball-joints play well together. :P Did you have the individual segments of the tail curve at all? I think that's what bothers me about jointed tails, you get these very visible straight segments. Although I imagine the striping effect helps.
Well, you know if you flocked everywhere but ball and sockets.. and stippled those parts to look like they're flocked and set everything with a nice matte aerosol.. it could be done. xD or at least it would be one fun experiment!
*resist the urge to Google 'flocking guns'* First things first, I've got to get the master sanded & primed... but I may have to come back to this idea. ^_^
Just went to check and I only curved the tip, but gently curving each segment would definitely look better.
Hmm. Jointed resin is still in the lead... maybe I should give it another thought. *ponders* Maybe with long-ish, slightly curved segments it could work...
