Soom Petit Gem Discussion - Part 1

@juumou wow you did an amazing job! They look stunning.
(Now I regret nog going for rudy and just dying or blushing it as someone here suggested.)

 

Finished layaway for my Meipy and Leepy, should look at fluffy fabric for my poodle bunny's pompoms soon. And decide on her color scheme.

 

Aww, they look really cute
Good job!

Looking at the photo of your Oondine I begin to regret that I sold my. This mold is really adorable

 

Getting really frustrated. Need to vent a bit here. I don't really like how Soom acted in all of this at all. So I contacted them via email which it seems they don't check at all and got no response. I tried 3 times and at 2 different addresses. They only respond to the site form thing, which was my 4th attempt to contact them. I'm not at all a fan of this because it shows your personal information on the message preview and when they respond, it incorrectly redirects you too the wrong site when you click on the email link. First time I messaged them they basically accussed me of wanting free product. Pretty rude. Even though I explicitly stated I wanted to*order*.

Second time, after I worded it again clarifying I didn't want free product, Soom told me to pay via balance transfer, which frankly I'm not remotely comfortable with. After advising a friend, I ordered and paid via PayPal. Instead of refunding me the shipping cost via my PayPal payment, they gave me an excuse claiming they can't do so and just gave it to me in points. I'm pretty mad about this. I sent another message and am at this moment waiting for a response back. Demanding they give me a refund via PayPal. I mean, if they don't, I'm not sure this is getting to be worth it and maybe I'd just rather they cancel this order entirely.

It should not be this much of a hassle to combine shipping on 2 orders. All I want is literally 2 pair of 12mm eyes. That's it.

 

@Biff Maybe other DoA members in the Soom Company Service or product review threads have posted how they've resolved similar issues in the past. I agree, combining shipping on two pairs of eyes should not be that hard to ask for.

I'm hoping some of the 8mm eyes I have will work for my Meipy-Ondiin. And that my first dyeing project for mostly-Leepy will go well. I've already picked a Rit Dyemore color, just need to buy some and any other supplies.

 

Please show us your dye results ... that'll be awesome!!!

 

I've seen so many good results with Rit Dyemore Can't wait to see how yours turns out!

Some more picspam of my Pearl

 

OMG, she is precious. Those eyes

 

It was frustrating, but it's been resolved. They claim I should've waited to pay, but I don't see how to do that with the way their system is set up. Honestly left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth though

It does seem like 8mms generally work, the only 10mm that work are Soom's. I think you'll be good. Dyeing does sound fun to do. I've seen some good results and would be interested in seeing the result

 

I’m so excited! I just got a shipping notification for my Julie! She’s on her way!

 

Wow, congratulatе! Can't wait your photo. Julie's so super rare

 

@Potato Pancakes thanks! I am very happy Soom brought her back for the free choice event. I thought I’d never get one. Tracking says she could be delivered tomorrow. I really hope so!

 

I got the shipping notification for my Meipy I am so excited!
I chose the Leepy tail for them and I can't wait to dye them and make a proper bumble bear

 

I got my shipping notice for my mostly-Ondiin and sleeping Ondiin Leepy!

@Snow what color will your bumble bear be? I'm planning to dye one of mine blue.

 

@Snow congratulations! I’m very interested in your dyeing project too. I’m thinking my Julie needs to be a pale yellow and am quite nervous about dyeing her.

 

@Leo Pheonix Probably just yellow! A blue carpenter bee sounds awesome though!

@kurogane pale yellow sounds great! I've done quite a few dye projects now, but I understand that you're nervous. I am mostly not looking forward to unstringing and restringing such a tiny doll xD
If you take it on yourself, a good tip is to have a bunch of white resin buttons (I usually get a bunch at a thrift store, and different ones as well cause they can take dye differently) and test the dye times etc on those!
Most dye is removeable, especially if it's a light color, so if it doesn't turn out how you like, there's a high chance it can be fixed ^^

 

@Snow thank you so much for your reply! I find it immensely helpful, and using the resin buttons gives me the ability to control the color, so it’s not so much a guessing game. I feel much more confident I can do this now. I’m dyeing Julie a light yellow to make her into Isabelle from Animal Crossing.

 

Oh my goodness I love that!! Isabelle

I am very happy to have helped a teeny bit to make that happen!

 

Got to open my duo today after coming back from a short vacation. They're so cute! And there are so many magnets to glue in. They have 14 each.

 

Got my Ondiin today! I'll have to find some time for those magnets... (I'm trying to finish a costume before a con Thursday because I hate myself and also my hair doesn't match the one I have finished anymore.) And then I have to settle on what look to give her.

(Meanwhile, do these little guys fit any playline clothes? My only other dolls in this range are a naked Puki, two naked bats, and a naked dragon, so I have basically nothing in the way of clothes for her )

 

I’ve had luck with Obitsu 11cm clothes.

 

Got my Leepy and Meipy yesterday, the little poodle tail is stinkin cute! Messed up on Meipy's magnets a little but I'm gonna dye it so I'll fix that later.

We had training at work this week so I doodled some rough sketches for the two in my notes. Decided to get a rough idea for Black Phillip on paper too.

Spoiler

 

Ok, so I haven't dyed a BJD, but I have dyed a My Little Pony yellow. My Little Ponies are vinyl, so plastic. If it goes anything like this, I want you to be aware that yellow is one of the colors that does not take well at all using regular dye. Some colors work better then others. Blue for example is one that works really well, yellow does not at all. It took me very literally 8-12 hours to get the color I was after. Basically, all day. I don't know the time exactly due to the fact I had to stop and eat. It's difficult enough that I actually temporarily gained some popularity due to this because no one had actually pulled yellow off yet at the time. The color I used, which is honestly a great color, is the regular rit daffodil yellow. I was happy with my result, but it was such a frustrating and time consuming experience, I can't really totally recommend it.

Due to how this went, I did do this again using Dyemore instead. I got about the same level of color intensity as I did the first round or so in a few minutes. I think it still took me 15-30 minutes though (which is still pretty slow vs some colors). However, what I discovered is that the yellow Dyemore color I bought was very much yellow, but almost to the point of being green. If I repeat this, I would absolutely add orange with the yellow. I actually at this time tinted over the yellow using the regular rit in the daffodil. This did work, but..... It took me a few hours.

So based on my experience, I'd say yellow dye is one of the safer colors to dye because it as a color does not take well to materials as well as other colors. It's a very good color to start with in the sense it's harder to overdo, but I would expect the possiblity of doing some back and forth to get it dark enough. Like those videos people drop something in and take it out, yellow may barely take in that time, even with the dyemore. The only complication is if I do this again I would absolutely use 2 colors for this if I did it: yellow and a little bit of orange.

So in short, rit dye daffodil is a great color but may not hardly take to the doll at all. If does, expect it to take a very long time.

So, before picking up dye, I'd recommend using the color chart on Rit's website so you get the proper color mix/shade. I think you'll see what I mean about the yellow shade being really yellow when you check out the swatches https://www.ritdye.com/color-formulas/?type=203&hue=0&collection=0&collaboration=0
Color Formulas — Rit Dye

For dyeing: I had 2 pots, one warm on the stove with the dye, and a second one of just water. I would drop it in the dye, stir pretty much constantly, and then move it to the water to rinse it to see how well it would adhere. Then I'd dry it or throw it back into the dye. I pulled the pony out using metal tongs. I'm not sure what to use for a bjd on this. If there's a YouTube video that may be a thing to check out. Also remarking I splattered a fair bit of yellow water around, so I'd make sure you have a bunch of room. Synthetic may not take the yellow, but other cloth things might.

Also a tip, clean the entire doll prior to dyeing like you're about to do a faceup. This will remove any mold residue that may have been missed and hopefully give you a better cleaner application. I saw a suggestion about this on Facebook. Previously I would suggest sanding to make an even surface texture, but at least cleaning the doll is a good idea I feel

 

White buttons are a great suggestion. When I did a my little pony, I used actually just a paper towel to check the color last time, but this wasn't as accurate as this would be due to the fact it takes extremely well to paper towels. A button would give you a much better idea of how long it may take for it to actually take on the color. One up side, paper towels however does still give you a very immediate idea of the color, you just don't bank on the same intensity. So if I do this again with a color mix, I'd likely check with a paper towel to get an immediate idea of where it was looking and then use a button if I was really concerned about how it was actually going to turn out

Agreed. I had an extremely frustrating time with this last time. I keep trying to tell myself: At least then all the buttons will be glued the same way on all the dolls I own but... i really did not enjoy this part of the process. I'm just glad they're blank so at least I can't chip the blushing

 

@Biff thank you so much for this information! I did buy some i-dye poly yellow and have not done anything since. I don’t want a dark yellow, so that is a plus, but I’m beginning to think I might just not dye at all and have a white Isabelle wanna be. I haven’t been inspired enough to do basic face ups and blushing for most of my time in the hobby, so I’ll procrastinate this out indefinitely. I REALLY admire everyone who has a vision and does what it takes to see it though (coming from someone who lacks this, lol).

 

Never hurts to start now if you want to try it. I'm sure others would love this custom too if you decided to do it, but I can't blame you for not wanting to. I've not gotten much of anything done lately either and I've done a lot of this customizing. It's a lot of work. No question. I will say I've heard using layered pastels as an alternative for coverage for doing monster high dolls, which would be an idea without dyeing, but that's still a lot of work

 

I got a bottle of Rit Dymore in Sapphire Blue today. I just noticed the one I'm planning to dye has some rough seam lines in a couple of places. If I sand them down will the dye come out uneven in those spots?

 

I got great results with RIT dyemore Daffodil, personally. I added a pinch of Racing Red, but I only had to submerge the parts for a minute or two before I got the shade I wanted.


My phone doesn't capture it well, but it turned out a nice warm yellow.

@Leo Pheonix You will want to sand them with multiple grits (going up in number, but going down in roughness), to get it as smooth as possible. If you just sand it with too rough sandpaper, it will definitely show difference.
You can get sets of sandpaper pads for very fine sanding, which are very helpful in this type of situation.

 

Heres my Meipy/Ondiin she's the third in a bunch of 6 Petitgems that I got from the FCE. Shes mostly dyed with some carefully placed putty to keep parts white/yellow

 

Thanks for the advice @Snow ! I already have some superfine sanding blocks I got for another project (and a particle mask) so I can hopefully get her sanded and dyed this week.

 

Snow this is just perfect since I was planning on using that exact color. Yours turned out great, can't wait to get the time to do mine.

So far I've taken it apart, need to attach strings next. Holy moly the parts look even tinier when separated!

Was gonna do everything this weekend but I had reoccurring headaches and migraines the whole time, oof.

 

I got a secondhand meipy with oniidon parts in white from the pick your own event! I'm so excited to get them!

 

I forgot to take photos but I got my dolls!! Yayyyyy!

I have a question! Has anyone checked Lati yellow 1/8 with the Petit gems?

 

Are you asking about clothes or how they look together? Σ(￣。￣ﾉ)

 

Clothes but... How they look together would be cute! Either are good

 

I tried a Mattel Kelly dress that also fits a Puki Puki on one of mine, and it fit well on their narrow shoulders. Stretchy pants fit too, though they're snug. I'm guessing Lati yellow clothes would be much too big.

I dyed my Dreaming Ondiin face Leepy today, and while taking the pieces out of the left and right envelopes I'd put them in I dropped a hand and couldn't find it I swapped out one of the hands on my other FCE one, since the resin's the same. I was hoping I'd find it later today, but I didn't . I hope I find it soon, the undyed one currently has a paintbrush holding the elastic I place of the hand and its S-hook.

 

I have a TTYA Yellow Latty jacket and it looks too big for a Petit gem.
It is large even for Ringo from Pipos (it is also 12 cm), and it is wider than the Petit Gem.
In my experience, they are well suited for clothes for obitsu11. But not all pants, PG's hips are bigger.

 

My newly blue rabbit is restrung with the original elastic and all the magnets glued in place, but is now so floppy she can't stand up! The tension in her arms is fine, but her torso joint is so loose her head and upper body keep drooping as far as the elastic will allow.

 

Oh, this doesn't sound good
Perhaps gluing and tightening a new knot will help?

 

Tightening is always the first thing I do on Petitgems - also had to do that on all 6 PGs I got recently - pulling on a leg and getting 10cm of 'useless' stringing is really annoying :,)

 

I got a shipping notification for Rato. I don’t think many ordered one?

 

Oh yeah while dyeing my Meipy I dropped an ear down the sink like an idiot, so now I gotta buy a new one because I did a stupid.

 

Is it possible to order extra Petit Gem hands? I still haven't found to one I dropped.

 

Soom let me order another horn that I dropped and lost somewhere in the back seat of the car.
They charged me twenty dollars for a new set and it took about two months to be made.

 

Yeah what kurogane said, I already messaged soom and everything and I was waiting for payday to pay for it. They will ask for your order number too.

 

My Rato arrived! He’s so much cuter than I was anticipating. Our power went out, and is back on, so I’ll work on glueing in the magnets tomorrow. I got the smiling face and he has chubby cheeks!

 

Luckily I found my dropped hand today! And I tightened my dyed one's elastic. She's still a bit floppy, but its better. Now I need to take pictures of my duo!

 

A quick pic of Rato. I think he looks much cuter in person.

Temp eyes by SD Hampton, on Flickr

 

So with these, are you kinda just gonna have to get lucky to order one? Should I keep an eye on the marketplace? They never seem to be in stock when I have the money.

 

Soom does not sell dolls in stock. All of their dolls are limited releases that are sold within a 2 week timeframe You can check their release scheudule at the beginning of each month to see what dolls they're going to sell -> Doll of the Month - The Gem

 

I want more PG release
I was really hoping for a Christmas Rudy since there wasn't one last year... I know there was one during the Free Choice event but it's not the same!

 

Posted about my Rato a little while ago, thought I should come by and post a picture finally haha.

 

@Kiotaro your Rato is cute! Those ears are huge! Did you make the outfit or is it from Soom?

Here's my Nyx, dyed, before I tightened her elastic so she can stand.
Nyx

 

@Leo Pheonix

I made it myself, I'd be mad if I got something of that quality from Soom sigh.

 

I haven’t been back on DOA in a long time but I absolutely adore the petite gem line from Soom Definitely keeping an eye on their monthly calendar

 

Anyone know where I can get some s-hooks for Petit Gem? The 6.5mm tiny ones... I lost 2 of them *sweatdrop*

 

I make my own super tiny hooks out of pins. Use a pair of pliers to cut the sharp end and then bend it into the shape I need.

 

Is there any kind of pattern to when a new or returning Petit Gem would come out? I'm obsessed with my Rato, Oliver, and I want to get him a friend so badly.

 

No pattern at all, unfortunately. Best bet is to check the new doll release on their page at the beginning of each month

 

Dang, that was my current plan but I was hoping I wouldn't have to drive myself crazy lol