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Doll Dyeing with iDye Poly

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elianti

Finally...!

 

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[DISCLAIMER(again): There aren't any serious dangers when using these dyes, but still take care! This stuff is INCREDIBLY messy(it WILL stain pretty much everything it touches--including you) and the smell is quite strong. And of course, the results I got are mine and I can't guarantee that you'll get the same result even when following the same recipe. Dyeing is very unpredictable! Finally, this post will be really long. (sorry!)]

 

This time I'll be going through my experience using Jacquard's iDye Poly to dye my main girl Elia. One very important thing I should get out of the way first: she is a hybrid DD. Her body is a pretty crazy mix of parts--a DDH-09 head, DDS feet and backup L bust, DD hands(most of which were previously shrunk), both DD and Obitsu wrist parts depending on the hands, Azone AZO2 thighs, shins, & I bust, vmf50 type A lower torso & type L arms, an Obitsu 60cm spine to keep her torso securely extended a little bit more than usual(that's an odd simultaneous up/downgrade right there lmao), and standard Obitsu 50cm for the rest of the internal parts. I ended up being quite ambitious with the part swapping. Because of this a lot of my observations below pertain to how dye affects non-DD parts. They're similar, but different you know? I hope it's still somewhat helpful anyway. I think dyeing a full DD would probably go a lot smoother than what I went through! XD

 

I'm using iDye Poly over RIT, which was previously the go-to dye for stovetop/dip dye customs, because apparently RIT changed their formula years ago and phased out the type of dye that used to work well on vinyl(and resin) dolls. Both the powder and liquid versions of the regular RIT dye are union dyes which are meant for all-purpose use. Disperse dyes on the other hand are specifically made for dyeing synthetic fabrics, and by extension should be much better suited for dyeing our dolls. There are several disperse dyes out there, but the ones I've seen being used most are RIT Dyemore and Jacquard's iDye Poly.

 

I'm sure I could've used RIT Dyemore, but it's more expensive and I wanted to get several colors so I can mix dyes to get different skin tones. Both iDye Poly and Dyemore's colors are different than original RIT and there doesn't seem to be a color mixing guide for either of them. Still, the color mixing guide for the original RIT could be helpful as a starting point.

 

The iDye Poly colors I used to start are Brown, Yellow, and Red. Most of the previous DD dye attempts mainly used brown dyes, sometimes with additional colors like yellow to get certain shades. I was considering getting orange instead of both of red & yellow because the RIT recipe I liked most only called for 'tangerine,' or only getting brown and yellow because previous customizers sometimes got a very reddish brown with brown alone, but decided against it. Good thing too because I actually really needed red dye, more than everything else.

 

Besides the dyes, I also used a large(10 qt) pot and a stove, 1 quart containers and cosmetic syringes for each color, a large mixing utensil, and a strainer. For union dyes, its important to use stainless steel or enamel pots instead of aluminum. However, I've read conflicting info about whether or not disperse dyes require it. I just got a stainless steel one to be safe. You definitely can't use whatever you use for dyeing for food afterwards. You don't want to ruin your best kitchenware for this! The quart containers and syringes are for extra precision when testing different combinations. First place a dye packet in each container, pour in a quart of boiling water, and stir very well until all of the dye powder dissolves. It doesn't take very much dye at all to dye an entire doll so you might as well save it for future use. The cosmetic syringes may seem like overkill but they made things much easier to measure with no splatters. I got them at a 100yen-type of store, but other ones or even measuring spoons or cups would work too of course. Dye is very VERY MESSY so anything to avoid additional spills is a win to me, plus it STINKS and the stench is not something I want to have lingering in the kitchen. For that reason, I did all of my dyeing outdoors with a portable stove. The natural light also helps make sure that the colors seen are accurate. Lastly, the strainer is for keeping track of smaller parts like hands in the dye pot. It is incredibly easy to lose tiny stuff in there so a net or something else that doesn't have a wide opening on the top would be better, actually. I had to fish out missing parts in a panic more often than I expected. .-.

 

The dye process is technically simple: after completely disassembling and cleaning your doll, you just fill a pot with water, add your dye/s, bring it to a boil, drop your doll parts in, and keep agitating the dye water and your doll parts until you reach your desired shade. You need to keep the water around boiling if you want it to work as intended. I have noticed that it may still work even if not at the optimal temperature, but the dye might not bond completely to the vinyl and that the dye color itself might not come out as intended or expected. After the color looks about right you should rinse the parts with water to remove any excess dye and leave it to dry. Even though the method is straightforward, several factors such as the amount of dyes and water, water temperature, total dyeing time, and the thickness, material, and original color of the object to be dyed can affect the end results. Every situation is different!

 

Dye Day 1:

Before dyeing Elia's actual body, I tested dye mixes using many spare Obitsu parts(cut/separated into smaller pieces.. be warned if that makes you squeamish..) and the very few DD headcaps I had on hand. These are most of the parts I prepared for my all of my dye tests.

 

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These are some notable results from my first day of dye tests:

 

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Admittedly, the daytime picture taken outdoors looks way overexposed. The piece in the middle is undyed Obitsu regular whitey vinyl, and everything else was dyed with different 'recipes.' As you can see, the color ranges from VERY RED, to an acceptable tan, to a dark olive green-ish shade. In this first batch of experiments, red was clearly the most dominant color. If I added red in similar quantities as the others, it would override everything and turn it red. @__@"" iDye Poly 'Brown' turned out to be less of a reddish brown, and more of a dark green/black-ish brown.. if that makes sense. I also got both iDye Natural & Poly in black(to dye my work clothes xD), and the Poly Brown dye bath looked the same as the black ones. Yellow barely showed up at all this first time.

 

I also noticed that scratches from unfinished or inadequate sanding will become VERY noticeable after dyeing. Granted, that sanding was my fault from the beginning so if I didn't try sanding down the soft vinyl at all or if I worked up to using higher grit sandpaper when buffing the ENTIRE surface perfectly smooth this might be a non-issue.

 

Dye Day 2:

A week later however, I noticed that pretty much all of the pieces that were dyed first faded a lot. According to Jacquard, their disperse dyes(especially red and yellow..) aren't as lightfast as their other types of dyes. This means that they are likely to fade in the sun and any other light. From other doll dye reports it seems like fading happened with the old RIT dye too so this is just something that is inevitable. It seems the only way you can prevent that from happening is if you keep them in a dark place 99% of the time.. which will NOT happen with my dolls, so I'll see what I can do to work with it. I was still surprised at just how much it faded though! All of those parts I thought were a very nice and suitable range of tans lost their vibrancy. The lightest tan I dyed even ended up reverting to its original shade, with a tinge of brown that just made it look like it was dirty. More testing needed to be done.

 

I know that one factor to explain why that happened was that I did not mix my dye concentrates well enough so the dyes were actually weaker than they were supposed to be, since there was still powder on the bottom of all of the concentrates. I noticed this on my second dyeing day a week later, so I don't know if that was the only reason. After re-mixing the dyes I noticed a very noticeable shift in how each dye behaved. Starting from my second day's batch of dye tests, I noticed that the green tint in the brown dye only became stronger, and that yellow was now much more potent. On the first day, my best results for tan skin were from a 10ml brown/30ml yellow/5ml red recipe(the dyed foot in the picture above), but the same combination turned my dye pieces unmistakably green! The green result I feared encountering with RIT Dyemore Sandstone was happening! This was when I was so glad I got the red dye after all. It took a loooot of it just to neutralize greenish brown and yellow. o___o"

 

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Not a very nice image to look at, sorry ><"! The green piece at the top followed the aforementioned recipe, while the brown ones in the middle were what I got when I added an extra 35ml of red dye and dyed the pieces for 3-10 minutes. An undyed Obitsu piece is on the bottom as a reference. You can see my pre-prepared paper plate in the bg attempting to keep my (planned) test recipe results orderly, but that all went out of the window once I got a GREEN result. I just kept adding red like a madwoman until I got it back to a natural-looking skintone. I think this new shade could possibly work for Mimsy, maybe...? By this time I was kinda running out of spare parts and natural light so I called it a day, lol;;

 

Dye Day 3:

Third day of tests was also a week later, and was when I finally was happy with a mix enough to use it on Elia! First, a check on the pieces dyed a week earlier showed a slight loss in vibrancy. After more tests I went with ~8 quarts of 90-100°C+ water with this combination of dyes:

- 50ml Red

- 15ml Yellow

- 5ml Brown

 

Super different compared to what I liked most on day 1! But it worked, somewhat. It appears that the Obitsu whitey parts, regular NS DD parts, acetone-shrunk NS parts, and SWS parts all take to dye somewhat differently. While this is potentially a nightmare for me and others with hybrids, most folks who keep their dolls on a body of the same skin tone by the same company may not have this issue, especially if all the parts are straight from the manufacturer and haven't been previously modded. My 09 head, basic hands(which weren't shrunk with acetone), and feet all dyed an extremely similar color. The SWS fist hands I had weren't shrunken down too and dyed a bit lighter than the normal skin parts, but it's still kinda close. Even the DDS L bust(which was dunked in acetone for practically A DAY) was pretty acceptable, just being a hair more yellow than the best looking parts.

 

The rest of the hands ended up looking the worst, but that may have been my fault. xD;;; Firstly, those hands were first shrunk in acetone, which may have affected how they took to dye. Secondly, I crammed six pairs of hands into one strainer in a pot full of dark dye. Some parts floated out or fell to the bottom, which ended in me panicking while trying to fish out missing parts. ><" It doesn't take long for the color to take with this recipe--I usually got my desired skintone in about a minute or two. So you don't want to have unaccounted parts hanging out in the bottom where the temperature is the highest or else they might absorb more dye than the rest or even get burn marks. You also don't want too many parts in the dye pot at once because it's hard to make sure everything is dyeing evenly. Slow and steady one pair of parts at a time wins because you can always dye a piece darker but reversing a dye job is not always easy(more on that later).

 

These are the parts that had the best results, along with a shrunken down normal skin 07 head and Obitsu/AZO2 white lower torso: >> click here (nsfw) And this is another one:

 

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I wanted to see how it looks with her eyes in so I just did a quick test comparison with my acetone-shrunk normal skin 07. ^^" This is a deeper/more orange-y tan than what I actually want for Elia, but it'll hopefully fade to what I really want. It reminds me of smart doll tea skin, so for Elia's sake I really hope it fades Can't have her darker than Arturo after all! I am SO relieved that her head came out almost completely perfectly. ;____;" It was one of the last pieces I dyed and at that point a few other pieces had some discoloration. There are two slight imperfections that I noticed.. A tiny darker dot in one of her eyelid folds, and a tiny lighter one on her cheek on the opposite side. It doesn't bother me though because that could be fixed with her faceup. I was really scared of there being a huge mark on the middle of her forehead or something lmao;;; If there was a big problem there I don't know if I'd have the heart to continue this project for a while tbh |||orz

 

Dye Day 4:

Another week, and I noticed that the parts I dyed earlier did in fact fade! I'm actually really happy with the parts that I thought look best a week before! Now it looks closer to what I originally wanted. Those dots on Elia's face mysteriously disappeared with the fading, which is awesome. However, the hands and some other parts still came out too yellow to really work, so I got a pot ready with only red dye added, as well as the parts to be re-dyed.

 

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All the parts that needed some color correcting, besides the foot, which is my reference for what shade I should be going for... sighs.

 

Cutting to the chase, this attempt to re-dye these parts didn't go very well. First off, it took 40ml of red to see any difference, which wasn't bad in and of itself, but once I *did* start seeing results, it seemed like the red just kept intensifying the yellow in most of the hand parts(with uneven red stains on them). The rest of the limbs ended up an even darker brown, which looks lovely(they looked really nice before too!) but it's not what I wanted. The loosely fisted hands looked the best imo... still very red compared to the parts I wanted to match it to, but it also reminded me of how the good parts looked when I first pulled them out of the dye so it may fade to a good shade.

 

Removing Dye

The good news about dye is that it IS pretty much just a surface treatment, so you could just sand it off completely. However, sanding is pretty labor intensive, especially when little nooks and crannies are involved like in hand parts. For me at least, sanding soft vinyl is also a lot more difficult than sanding down hard resin. Acetone + a magic eraser can help a lot to strip off unbonded dye when done right away, but in this case, the dye besides the reddish splotches had already set in so I wouldn't be able to remove it without using rougher sandpaper.

 

However, in one of my lazy yolo moments I tried dunking one of the pairs of hands into the leftover acetone from my previous experiment. Annnnd... it miraculously removed a lot of the dye! With no added frustration! ;___;! I didn't even need to keep it in there long at all--just 5 or so minutes of soaking while making sure that the parts are completely covered in acetone. I wouldn't go longer than 5-10 minutes because at the 15 minute point I noticed that the vinyl was getting softer, which means it's starting to go through the shrinking process. I thought that soaking in acetone for a while might loosen up the dye(or something) and make it easier to scrub off so I was so shocked to see it do all of the work for me. It didn't take it out completely--you can still see a faded tint of the dye--but I'll take it since now I can still redo it. This is what I got after soaking the pair of paper hands.

 

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I also put the other overzealously dyed hands, one pair of undyed(and unshrunk) NS large paper hands, and the basic abs loosely fisted hands that dyed the way I wanted. This is how the rest of the parts fared.

 

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It's still kinda zombie green-ish, but not as bad I hope... The green is probably from the brown dye. This time I also put an Obitsu whitey shin in the middle too to give a comparison of the dye-removed AZO2 legs and Obitsu arms with the original. It might be hard to see, but even though the acetone took a lot of the color out, there is still some unevenness. I think it might not be possible to bring THIS color back to the shade I want using just my red dye. The green/yellow is too strong. Using a color mixing website, plus reading up about particularities about the different iDyes on Jacquard's forum, I decided that I'll try overdyeing it with Pink to neutralize the color. iDye Poly Pink is more on the purple-y side of pink apparently so maybe it'll work... and if not, the website I'm buying all my dyes also stock the Angelus dyes that Noxxbunny has been trying out as well so that's my backup plan if all else fails.

 

Btw, this is how the acetone jar looked after this process:

 

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That's a lot of dye! It was completely clear before. Remember this is diluted acetone! I later did this again with a higher concentration of acetone than the 3:1 ratio from before with similar results, so a similar or even weaker acetone brew may give good results too. Since you don't need to keep the vinyl soaking for more than a few minutes, the acetone's shrinking effect shouldn't be a problem. You should really give your parts ample time for the acetone to evaporate though.

 

Going through dye-related threads on DOA, it looks like a W&N soak works similarly for resin dolls. I've never used it though so idk if it'll also work on dyed vinyl. Perhaps Remove-Zit, Dollfie Dream Rescue, and other stain removers may work at removing the rest of the dye after soaking in acetone? Dyeing after stain removal attempts has always been discouraged in my research though so this is probably something that should only be done as a last ditch effort to restore a doll after completely giving up on a dye mod.

 

Dye Day 5:

A week and a half later, and I have new dye, and some backup paints! A 1:1 dye ratio of red and pink ended up working perfectly to get the zombie green color back to what I wanted, which was SUCH a relief! It's not completely even if you put everything together, and there were still some uneven splotches on individual parts too, but it wasn't terribad, I think.. especially since I'm preeetty much derping my way through this now. The parts that came out the worst were her thighs and most of the option hands. It seems like there isn't much I can do to prevent certain areas from taking in too much dye.. The same areas as before became redder than the rest so I decided to just accept it. If the palms of the hands were redder then it would look even more natural but alas it had to be the opposite side.

 

The thigh's color came out okay overall, but there were extra red areas too.. that kinda reminds me of a rash. >___<" I wonder if some of the acetone hadn't fully evaporated in those redder areas. My saving grace is that Elia wears stockings most of the time so I can keep that problem out of sight, so I decided to just leave it as is.

 

Dyeing Hard Plastic Joints

Obitsu and Smart Doll(and DD, though I don't have 100% confirmation) joints and inner frames are made from two types of plastics: POM and ABS. These two materials take to dye very differently. POM dyes extremely quickly(seconds), while ABS takes several minutes to see a noticeable change. And even then, ABS doesn't dye nearly as evenly or vibrantly, at least from my experience as shown below.

 

First, In an effort to hopefully get the most evenly dyed result possible, I completely disassembled the joints that were visible:

 

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Note that all of these are obitsu parts! I forgot to include the DDS ankle parts, and sorry that one shin peg/bone was dyed--I got a little excited and almost forgot to take a picture. xD I don't know how a completely disassembled DD frame would look, or how difficult/easy it would be to do so. On obitsus at least, I found it was a little difficult to remove the 'kneecap' parts on this body, but it was easy to do so on another for some reason. As long as you have a screwdriver handy though it's generally pretty simple.

 

Because of the strong yellow/orange undertones in the red dye, I first used red by itself. As learned from the tests, the harder(POM) parts of the joint itself took to the dye much faster and evenly than the peanut/round parts(ABS) that covered them. ABS barely shows any change. Even so, the end result was still very orange, even with just red dye. ><" It's not that bad though I want to make it better. One thing I noticed when dyeing the joints though is that the high heat(just above the boiling point) can cause tiny cracks and/or warping in ABS, and on obitsus the most vulnerable parts are the elbows while DD ankles crack really easily(I can't say anything for any other DD frame parts because I only have DD feet/ankles/wrist parts). I actually had to buy a new pairs of those parts because the dyed ones couldn't fit properly anymore. So be careful to not keep the water temperature too high.. ><"

 

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Dyed joint parts with one partially assembled obitsu knee. Note how some of the DDS ankle parts turned out very pink, compared to the orange-y Obitsu parts. My DD parts are Normal Skin btw, which was originally pinkish compared Obitsu whitey's peach undertone. Because of this difference they came out differently. I wasn't satisfied with the shades I got and I wanted to do more testing to get better results so I put the joint segment on hold until I got more dyes.

 

Pink dye obtained, and it actually did work to bring the orange-y Obitsu joints closer to the shade I wanted. However, there were some unevenness in the previous dye job so I decided to completely buff off the dye on every abs joint part with 1500 grit sandpaper. ...which basically took an entire afternoon and resulted in very sore fingers. Everything for Elia I guess. *sighs*

 

Once everything was buffed, the parts had a matte, smooth texture that was really nice. I think I may do this joint buff job even on future Obitsu girls who won't be dyed despite the tediousness. And of course the color reverted to its original whitey tone after this. At that point, I dyed them in a 2:1 ratio of red:pink dye in about 2 quarts of water. I think I might have used 60ml of red and 30ml of pink in the end, but I'm not too sure tbh. I tried to make the dye bath really concentrated because ABS is generally such a pain to dye, especially since I'm now being extra careful to not keep the heat too high. I think the light sanding really helps though! I started seeing noticeable change in a minute whereas before it would take 5-10. Also, something I noticed while dyeing the hard plastic parts is that, unlike soft vinyl, dyed ABS & POM plastic don't seem to fade much, or at all.

 

Dye Day 6 & Finishing touches

A few weeks after the last vinyl dye day and sure enough some of the yellow and much of the red tones continued to fade, making her look a lot less.. dark and vibrant than before. Harder Obitsu vinyl like the arms and legs faded but still looks dark overall. The softer vinyl in the bust and abdomen faded a lot more, but in fairness I only dunked them once for a shorter time so maybe the dye didn't bond that well. Or maybe soft vinyl just fades faster I'm not sure. I was pretty surprised that Volks vinyl fades a lot too. Somehow I expected the dye to be more stable in DDs, but they continue fading as well. I find it interesting that even though it's possible to dye vinyl the same(or very similar) color, it's likely that the color will fade differently after a few weeks/months. I noticed that the red in her feet faded more than the red tones in her head. TBH I think the difference isn't that noticeable, but my eyes aren't exactly the best and I tend to be accept the results of my mod attempts even if it isn't perfect(..at least I tried!)

 

What WAS noticeable was some cracking in he bottom of one of her feet! I suspect it's because I coated it with MSC after dyeing it the first time, and then I dyed it again, as well as heated it with a hair dryer to get it soft enough to put the foot frame back in. Here's how it looks:

 

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I first put a coat of MSC on the parts that dyed well on Dye Day 3 in the hope that it would curb some fading, but it didn't do anything for me. So I wouldn't waste any more expensive MSC for that purpose anymore. After removing the MSC I decided to retouch some of the parts. I also decided to get her some type L vmf50 arms in Obitsu whitey skin, so that needed to be dyed too. I wish I could have dyed her head again but I already did her faceup. Anyway, this time I went with this combination:

 

- 30ml red

- 10ml pink

- 5ml yellow

- 5ml brown

 

I used this on new arms, neck, shoulders, and the bottom of her shins to make it look darker. Basically, I did some very light blushing using dye. Pretty subtle since I can't even get it to show up in my pictures below lol Her bust and abdomen faded lighter, which I'm all for. The parts that stayed darker and the places I touched up are all areas where she'd naturally have a darker tan from daily life traveling the world. xD Her tummy faded out pretty light, but it's still darker than Volks normal, which is perfect for what I was going for! So with all that being said, here's how she looks sans her head:

 

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Everything has been dyed, including her underwear(it was originally cream)! And a more cute pose with those heart hands. It might be a little hard to see but there is some streaky discoloration in her thighs. The difference in how ABS and POM parts take to dye in the joints is pretty clear here. The wrist parts in all of these pictures are the Obitsu ones, and unlike the knees and elbows I cannot completely take it apart. The sliding wrist joint is super RED, because it took that much red+pink dye just to make the ABS part of the joints dye that dark!

 

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A few shots with (most of) Mimosa's body, which is also a mix of undyed Obitsu/AZO2(for now)/vmf50 whitey parts, besides the Smart Doll Milk Skin option hands, Normal Skin DD large paper hands, and DDS feet(I decided that Mimsy does need bigger feet too after all lmao).

 

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Mimsy's DD deka paper/outspread hands look HUGE when paired with smart doll hands! Just a reminder that Elia's paper hand was originally large as well, and that it was shrunken down. I think the difference is clearer here than in my picture in the previous thread! And here's one picture with her shrunk DDS bust, while holding up the Smart Doll tea skin vinyl chip.

 

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I couldn't really capture the colors accurately, but this comparison is kinda useless since every part dyed a slightly different color anyway. ><"" I had to borrow Mimsy's bikini since it's the only 'underwear' I have that stretches enough to fit an acetone'd DDS L bust. And sorry for all of the headless shots--I didn't include Elia's head in the pictures because she would never agree to participate in a photoshoot with that much skin showing(and have her face shown) but it wouldn't be right to write this much and not show my results.. ^^"" But the following is okay! I thought that my only Volks outfit was the Candy Pop dress, but I actually had a school uniform too! Elia's past high school age and she never would've worn a uniform like this anyway so I guess this is cosplay. xD

 

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This outfit is meant to (only) fit M/L Bust DD/DDS. The blazer it came with was the main reason why I bought this outfit(it looks 'business'-y enough for a sorta CEO, I guess) but the fit around her bust isn't that good, unfortunately, so I left it out of the picture. But the shirt and skirt fit perfectly fine! Despite being a monster of a hybrid parts-wise, her measurements are pretty similar to a regular Azone AZO2 I-bust girl, so this is a small confirmation that some DD clothes may fit! I also added an Azone(maybe AZO2, though it looks a little small) 50cm cardigan around her waist. I kinda wish I had more schoolgirl-esque socks and shoes but I guess it's fine for this shoot. Its weird--when I see Elia by herself I worry that she still looks too light.. until I put her next to someone else. I'm biased but I think she's really pretty.

 

That being said, when I received my order of Mimsy's smart doll hands and the tea skin vinyl sample I requested.. I was surprised that tea skin is so LIGHT! So I guess the tan I got on Dye Day 3 was actually darker than tea skin since Elia definitely faded since then.. I saw Crimson and other tea Smart Dolls at the Mirai Store last year but somehow I guess I kept thinking they were a deeper tan than they were while I was dyeing. Arturo will be a smart doll tea skin dude and I always intended him to be a bit darker than Elia so seeing such a tiny difference between them is not what I expected at all. It's still alright though! Tea skin is honestly EXACTLY what I originally wanted for Arturo(based on this tiny sample at least), and Elia may still fade lighter anyway.

 

Mimosa's the next dye subject! I'll be dyeing her even darker, after I get her a new pair of vmf50 Type A thighs and shrink that huge pair of deka hands down to be closer to her new small(!) SmD hands. Mimsy's also a complex hybrid(with a SQ Lab resin head, even) so I expect her to give me a lot of trouble! I'll be posting updates on how that project as it happens goes over here as well~ (If it's okay with forum rules---I know this is my thread but the only DD part of Mimsy are her feet and one pair of hands.. lol.)

 

Closing Wall of Text:

- This project was sooo stressful and tiring omg >__<"" It took me YEARS just to gather up the courage to finally dye Elia(she just didn't feel 'right' until now, even after switching bodies/heads/wigs/etc several times--which is why I haven't really posted pictures of her), and then the actual dye project stretched over months because I kept messing up and had to wait for new dyes and other materials to arrive in the mail before proceeding. To add to that, I kept breaking her new feet and macgyver'ed a fix for them, and I took really long when doing her faceup and making her wig(plus, I could only work on this on my days off xD) so all that also dragged on this project.. but it's so, so rewarding in the end! Her body is curvy as it should be, at 53.5cm tall she's juuust about 1:3 scale, and she now has her light tan! Obviously the results leave MUCH room for improvement, but I'm still really proud of how I was able to do so much myself. I still need to make her revised eyes and I want to redo her wig and especially faceup eventually but I'll enjoy what I have for now.

 

- Dye is pretty interesting! Throughout this project I dyed dolls, my clothes, my doll's clothes, yarn... and I also tried using stuff like Jacquard's dye remover and a synthrapol substitute thingie(dharma professional textile detergent--which is also where I bought all of my dyes.. and pearl ex powders.. and angelus paints.. their site is a fabric/dye/customizer's heaven lol). Lots of fun stuff to experiment with! I actually messed up and dyed her underwear above CYAN/NEON GREEN at first(too much dye.. ><""), so I used BLACK to tone it down before using the dye remover to get it to its current light teal color(thank goodness it worked! ;~;""), and then washed it with the professional textile detergent to make sure I got out all of the excess dye. No stains on Elia whatsoever! (Yet. Knock on wood--though I really doubt it'll cause problems after all the poking I did during the stovetop dye removal/washing. ^^) I'd really hate to use body stockings for her everyday wear(especially since I'd have to dye the body stocking anyway if I wanted it to match lmao) so I don't mind pre-washing clothes.

 

- Dye is crazy unpredictable--there is no one size fits all formula and it's easy to make mistakes. I always got different results every time I started a new pot of dye EVEN IF I used the same dye mix. Not all hope is lost if the color doesn't look right at first---after enough time a too-strong color may fade to a something you want, and if it's just plain wrong acetone can remove some(or a lot) dye by itself so you can try it again after giving the acetone a lot of time to evaporate. However, dyeing after that requires a tweaked dye recipe to account for the color changes. If you want to completely revert to the original color you'll be in for a LOT of sanding... Maybe Remove-Zit/Dream Rescue/etc would work too though I never personally tried it. A full body stain removal.. does not sound fun at all. I hope no one ever has to resort to that because of a dye mishap but it's not impossible. ><"

 

- Jacquard's iDye Poly Brown dye is GREEN-ish brown, especially when it is not heated to a rolling boil. Don't drop your doll parts into brown dye before it reaches a boil unless green is what you're going for. Welp, you may still get a strong green undertone even if it's at a rolling boil.. iDye Poly Red has a very strong orange undertone and is indispensable for getting a golden brown skintone when mixing with their brown dye. Golden Yellow is quite accurately golden yellow, and Pink is kind of Fuschia/Purple-y Hot Pink.

 

- Joints are reaaally annoying to dye. You have to completely disassemble them first if you want them to be evenly dyed, separate the POM parts from all of the ABS parts, prep ABS by evenly buffing the entire surface, and THEN dye them separately. ABS might be able to reach really dark shades.. but it'll probably take a lot of dye + time.

 

- Dye fades, especially in softer vinyl. The color you see right out of the dye pot isn't the one that will be there weeks or months later. With the usual fading the red and some yellow tones go first, leaving behind a more mellow brown shade. A stronger dye concentration/higher heat/longer dyeing duration could help the color stick better but some fading is still expected so you may still want to go a bit stronger than what you want. Even with the fading it probably won't ever go to the original shade though. When I saw all of Elia's dyed parts on Day 3, I panicked for a few minutes because she was darker than I wanted, but she did fade a lot. xD Dyed joint and frame parts don't seem to fade.. or if they do, then it is very minimal compared to vinyl fading. Still.. I find it hilarious that most of her should get lighter and less redder with sun exposure rather than the opposite! That's some reverse sunburn..

 

- That being said, BECAUSE of all of the inevitable fading, I'd say that this is a mod that is one that should be done by the actual doll owner, especially if they are going for a certain shade that can't be achieved with one color of dye. Maybe Elia is different because I was going for a sorta subtle(???? I think it's subtle.. but maybe it's not lol) change, but it does seem like some fading happens no matter what. Dye 'maintenance' might be necessary every few months or year or whatnot if you really care about keeping the dye job intact. However I think if you see and play with your dolls everyday you might not notice or even mind some fading anyway.. like how some people don't mind their dolls yellowing. The dye process fosters a LOT of bonding too in my opinion so that's another thing.

 

- Dyed doll vinyl feels exactly the same as it did before. No sticky/tacky feeling, and it won't rub off(unless you use sandpaper). I haven't noticed dyed parts staining undyed parts if they come into contact with each other too.

 

- About those Angelus leather paints, I have to say I think it is a pretty good alternative to dye if all this dye stuff seems too overwhelming.. IF you don't mind possibly staining the vinyl underneath)! I got these paints in Vachetta, Georgia Peach, Salmon, Vanilla, Black(for my work shoes lol), and South Beach(can't have too much aqua--even if I don't actually know how I'll use it yet). Georgia peach by itself is really close to what I was going for, just a bit too bright/saturated on the pink side. It's still way closer than some of my early dye test results, that's for sure. xD I haven't tried mixing them yet so I may be able to get a better match with what I already have. Besides that, the paints also cleaned up with 90% alcohol or acetone(only on soft vinyl ofc) super easily. The downsides are that the paint leaves a shiny 'painted on' texture(that can probably be fixed), using it on sliding joints is a no go because it'll just rub off, and most importantly I feel.. some colors could stain if left on unsealed vinyl for too long. I noticed Vanilla oddly left a (Georgia)peachy stain.. but Vachetta, which is darker, didn't. Weird... I don't really mind since I only tested on spare parts but be careful! Dyeing of course is intentional staining too so it may come off via sanding or normal stain removal methods. Going with the painting route means you can just cover it up with paint again anyway.

 

- I can't believe how much acetone I used in the past six months... what can it NOT do. .-. I still have about 2 liters of it left for shrinking Mimsy's large hands and for any dye removal during her and Arturo's (hand) projects..

 

That's it for Elia's dye project! Sorry for posting so much all at once yet again... I'd feel self conscious about posting about continually messing up her mod every so often. ><" This custom project ended quite happily despite the imperfections, is what I wanted to get across. I'm so glad I went ahead with it after all!

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F-15alice

I love all your experiment! I own one dyed len but I wish more hand for him. Also, would you have any recommendation of how to maintain the dye effect?


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galatia9

Elia is VERY cute! And thank you for sharing all the info! It is very interesting about the fading.

 

Linda S.

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elianti
I love all your experiment! I own one dyed len but I wish more hand for him. Also, would you have any recommendation of how to maintain the dye effect?

 

Thanks! Your Jazz and the rest of your crew look so amazing. I'm curious though--did his dye fade since you got him?? Granted, Ronronshuka is legendary as a customizer so somehow I doubt it would be much, if at all. xD Unless that very orange-y color in their dye custom auction pictures was more accurate than I first thought and it mellowed out to how your Len looks.

 

Jazz seems to be darker than Elia so you'll probably be using more dye or a longer dyeing time to get a match. I actually recommend going a little stronger on the red/yellow because that'll fade the most, and going just a little bit darker in general. Hopefully within a few weeks or so the color will be just right and it stays that way. If it fades too much you may want to touch it up with a very small amount of red and/or yellow dye. Keeping dyed dolls away from direct sunlight might also help, and I also really recommend using a color mixing site first for some direction when figuring out how to adjust a dye mix. It's really easy to make mistakes when dyeing pieces more than once.. ><"

 

Elia is VERY cute! And thank you for sharing all the info! It is very interesting about the fading.

 

Linda S.

galatia9

 

Thank you! Cute is what I'm going for so I'm happy to hear that. Before I started, I read that fading just happens, but I'm surprised at how much it affected my project! Maybe because I use a lot less dye? idk

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buncho

I'm going to be reading this over quite a few times to make sure I glean every bit of info and advice from it I possibly can, but:

 

- I love your willingness to not only experiment, but share your results with the rest of the community. I feel like I'd be a little too timid to try something like this (though I have been known in the past to just throw up my hands and say "to hell with it" when contemplating the pros and cons with starting certain projects-- especially my most recent one), but your explanation of the process and consistent depiction of your results from each attempt make the thought of dyeing a vinyl doll a lot less intimidating. I come from a background where a lot of research is done and the way it's performed is constantly being scrutinized and improved, so I really appreciate the way this was presented. (sorry to sound so stuffy! )

 

2. I have never seen a doll customized to the point you've done it and I'm totally, totally blown away by Elia and Mimosa!!! Their proportions seem a lot more realistic to me but at the same time maintain that stylized anime look. Elia's skin tone looks super natural to me and I like the idea of you rolling with the fact that her tummy came out a little paler than the rest of her, considering that it works with her lifestyle Love her wig with this skin tone, too.

 

I definitely plan to keep up more with your customization process in the future

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F-15alice
I love all your experiment! I own one dyed len but I wish more hand for him. Also, would you have any recommendation of how to maintain the dye effect?

 

Thanks! Your Jazz and the rest of your crew look so amazing. I'm curious though--did his dye fade since you got him?? Granted, Ronronshuka is legendary as a customizer so somehow I doubt it would be much, if at all. xD Unless that very orange-y color in their dye custom auction pictures was more accurate than I first thought and it mellowed out to how your Len looks.

 

Jazz seems to be darker than Elia so you'll probably be using more dye or a longer dyeing time to get a match. I actually recommend going a little stronger on the red/yellow because that'll fade the most, and going just a little bit darker in general. Hopefully within a few weeks or so the color will be just right and it stays that way. If it fades too much you may want to touch it up with a very small amount of red and/or yellow dye. Keeping dyed dolls away from direct sunlight might also help, and I also really recommend using a color mixing site first for some direction when figuring out how to adjust a dye mix. It's really easy to make mistakes when dyeing pieces more than once.. ><"

 

Thank you very much! I actually didn't notice that much discoloring because Jazz is consider as a second handed doll since Ronronshuka made him last year and I only get him from her around March, so I think in the middle that might be some discoloring but since I got him he is very settle XD.

 

I'm the most concerned about the joints since they are the most easy to scratch of the paint though, so I had them mostly lol.


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elianti
I'm going to be reading this over quite a few times to make sure I glean every bit of info and advice from it I possibly can, but:

 

- I love your willingness to not only experiment, but share your results with the rest of the community. I feel like I'd be a little too timid to try something like this (though I have been known in the past to just throw up my hands and say "to hell with it" when contemplating the pros and cons with starting certain projects-- especially my most recent one), but your explanation of the process and consistent depiction of your results from each attempt make the thought of dyeing a vinyl doll a lot less intimidating. I come from a background where a lot of research is done and the way it's performed is constantly being scrutinized and improved, so I really appreciate the way this was presented. (sorry to sound so stuffy! )

 

Thanks! I think there's some interest in dye customs so I wanted to do a write-up about my project, especially since there isn't much info about vinyl dyeing with iDye Poly. I was afraid that the way I had it written out would be really confusing since I kept trying different things as I went and it just kept going on and on before I got a result I was happy with. I thought about cutting out a lot of it to get to the final results quicker but I decided to leave it as is, to show what sort of troubles could happen when dyeing and my thought process when trying to fix it. I'm very much a noob so if more experienced modders have insight on better solutions I'm all ears.

 

2. I have never seen a doll customized to the point you've done it and I'm totally, totally blown away by Elia and Mimosa!!! Their proportions seem a lot more realistic to me but at the same time maintain that stylized anime look. Elia's skin tone looks super natural to me and I like the idea of you rolling with the fact that her tummy came out a little paler than the rest of her, considering that it works with her lifestyle Love her wig with this skin tone, too.

 

I definitely plan to keep up more with your customization process in the future

 

Ahhhh, thank you! ><" Elia and Mimosa are precious characters to me so I wanted them to look as 'themselves' as I can manage. I probably could have had a simpler custom experience if I hybridized a DD upper body + DDS lower body and shortened the shins a little to get a similar effect and be completely DD(that would probably end up being easier on the wallet too, maybe), but Elia had been an Obitsu from the very beginning so I wanted to keep her Obi at heart, even if I would be adding a lot of DD parts into the mix. Dealing with all of the inconsistencies in a dye mod just came with that decision. xD I made several mistakes but being positive about it helps.

 

I'm not sure if I'll be able to start Mimsy's dye project this month, but it'll happen sooner or later. xD I'm unsure if I'll reconsider using an SQ lab head for her and might make her a DDH-06 instead. Thankfully she's the mad scientist of my group and she'd be a-okay with updates about how she's doing as it happens. Unlike Elia, who shies away from the camera if she's not completely ready.

 

Thank you very much! I actually didn't notice that much discoloring because Jazz is consider as a second handed doll since Ronronshuka made him last year and I only get him from her around March, so I think in the middle that might be some discoloring but since I got him he is very settle XD.

 

I'm the most concerned about the joints since they are the most easy to scratch of the paint though, so I had them mostly lol.

 

Oh, that's nice that his dye seems to have settled since you got him~ ^^ I remember some of my dye tests came out very light orange-y in the beginning and have faded to a more normal peach tone. I think I may try for a dark orange/brown for my next project..

 

Regarding the DD wrist joints at least, I only dyed the POM plastic sections, and I actually just blushed the ABS ball shaped part with.. pastels. Since the DDS ankles I had cracked when dyeing I was afraid I might mess up the wrist parts too. The wrists at least had some 'tooth' already and took to the pastels quite nicely, though that's not a permanent solution.

 

EDIT: here's how she looks with the DD wrist parts. I tried to leave it unedited as much as possible.. I just sharpened the image a little. Not too bad at all for just pastels.

 

Ns7is8O.jpg

 

The line/hook joint part was the only thing that was dyed.. and at the time that reddish color was a GREAT match for the rest of her(that's also why the Obitsu joints are also pinkish)! It just shows how much red fades. Also, her arms are posed that way because I still didn't try to fix the loose-DD-wrists-in-Obitsu-arms problem I had. They'd fall off if I put them in a lower position.

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mosaicwolf

Hey so, quick question! I have dyed some parts of my Vindoll with Rit Dyemore. Do you recommend sealing the joints with MSC? (basically the areas with the most wear) Or do you feel it's not necessary? For context, I dyed black, so I am working with a dark color which might end up showing wear more quickly.

 

Thanks!

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elianti
Hey so, quick question! I have dyed some parts of my Vindoll with Rit Dyemore. Do you recommend sealing the joints with MSC? (basically the areas with the most wear) Or do you feel it's not necessary? For context, I dyed black, so I am working with a dark color which might end up showing wear more quickly.

 

Thanks!

 

I never sealed the joints with MSC, but I haven't had any problems with any dye chipping at all on Obitsu joints at least. I've never seen a Vindoll in person though and I don't really understand how their jointing system works and what material it's made of. From K2's report in the off topic doll section it looks like Vindoll joints are pretty clunky but I think that as long as the joints were completely disassembled before dyeing it should look really uniform without undyed parts showing? Unlike with paint, dye affects the actual plastic parts instead of adding on another layer on top that can get worn down through normal use. If anything, since you dyed him black it shouldn't be too hard to touch up. Unless the joints are made of ABS, and then it'll be a pain for it to take dye. xD;;

 

(This reminds me I should really make an update here for my next dye project, even though it'll still take more time until I can continue with it...)

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Ie-Aster

This is a very cool project, and I really like Elia's final look! Her expression and glasses are very cute and the hair-eye-skin colors look great together. I'm also super impressed with the amount of work and experimentation you did to make her look just as you'd imagined.

 

p.s. Mei has tagged Elia in the DD 20 More Questions game going on in the Photo Games section, if you hadn't seen that yet


At home: Mei (DDP Lucy custom), Aku (DDB Takane custom)

 

En route: L. (DD Matoi)

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elianti
This is a very cool project, and I really like Elia's final look! Her expression and glasses are very cute and the hair-eye-skin colors look great together. I'm also super impressed with the amount of work and experimentation you did to make her look just as you'd imagined.

 

Thanks! I didn't plan on being this meticulous with her custom project when I first got her as a 60cm Obitsu years ago, but in the end all of the part swapping and experimenting was really fun. This dye bit was really stressful tho, no lie. xD

 

p.s. Mei has tagged Elia in the DD 20 More Questions game going on in the Photo Games section, if you hadn't seen that yet

 

I saw that! Elia's currently en route to a certain tropical island region right now, but she'll find the time to post her responses in the next few days(hopefully, as long as nothing happens on my tropical island)! ^^""

 

This looks so cool! Thanks for sharing. i can't wait to try myself this "recipe" to make a custom doll!

 

No problem! Good luck with your own custom project! Make sure to do tests before dyeing the rest of your doll though! You may need to make some adjustments to your dye mix.

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Amara77

Thank you so much for one again taking the time to extensively share your experiments. I really appreciate it! There is a bit more on resin, but vinyl not so much.

You're very brave as well! I think the risk certainly paid off though. Elia looks great

 

The joints in particular have always bugged me with the discoloration, but yours really don't look bad!

 

Adding the red dye is something I may not have thought of so I really appreciate all your notes. I'll be trying a small scale dyeing project in the future (a pure neemo) so all of this will be very helpful.

Thanks!!


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Spoke too soon....

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IpLemons

This is really neat! I think this is a very refined look for a young franken-part lady!

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KingyoNingyo

Oh my gosh, you answered my biggest question/worry about getting into vinyl modding! I've dyed resin dolls a couple of times but never vinyl. I knew that plastic would take different than vinyl, but not that some dolls even used different kinds of plastic in the same structure. Thank you so so much for your detailed notes and photos, when I'm ready to tackle this project myself I'm going to be a bit more confident!

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