Needle Felting: Mokona

With the completion of my custom Yuuko doll, I thought it would be really cute to make some little props for her, too! I decided that the first thing I'd make for her would be something needle felted, as I really wanted to improve my skills at needle felting, and I figured that Mokona would be perfect! I actually ended up making the White Mokona, as I had lots of white wool on hand and I wanted to use it as a test to even see if it was possible for a beginner like me to make something that wasn't from a needle felting kit before going out and buying all the colored wool that I would need to make Black Mokona!

To my surprise, it was actually a very easy project. Mokona's body is essentially egg-shaped, and his hands, feet, tail, jewel, and ears are all very simple shapes to make! I actually feel that the most difficult part was getting the face right, to be honest. Despite that, I feel very confident to start working on Black Mokona now! He's already in the works, and the base of his body is just about done! I'm considering posing him a bit differently from White Mokona just so he doesn't seem like an exact copy. Yuuko will have her little companion with her, soon!

Pullip Youtsuzu: Pullip Makeover - Ichihara Yuuko

Roughly a month ago, I got the idea in my head that I wanted to buy Pullip Youtsuzu for the sole purpose of transforming her into CLAMP's Ichihara Yuuko! I picked Youtsuzu because I thought the accessories and even parts of her outfit would really come in handy, plus, I thought that the way her eye makeup was painted was pretty close to Yuuko's eye shape! I just felt I had to do it no matter what, and so I got started on her right away, and just a couple of days ago, I had completed her! For comparison purposes, here are some pictures of her before I got to work on her!

As you can see, she is a very beautiful and elaborate doll! She's absolutely perfect to keep on display. I was actually almost hesitant to start this project when she had arrived, but I'm glad that I decided to go through with it!

There actually weren't too many changes I did on her to achieve Ichihara Yuuko's look, but it was still a time consuming process. What I had to do was change her wig and style it a bit, replace her eyechips, give her thicker and longer lashes to help make her eyes appear more narrow, remove her blush, and of course, re-do her lips! (The lips were actually the most challenging part, as I used acrylic paint on them. It required a lot of going back and forth painting on multiple layers and then sanding it down to create a smooth, clean, and even appearance, and it was so hard to do all this while trying not to ruin the shape I had created for them!) Also, you guys may not be able to tell in her current outfit, but she was also re-bodied with a large bust 27 cm Obitsu body! I felt it was necessary, considering that Yuuko is fairly busty, but still really slender. 

If you are familiar with Yuuko, then you can see how close this body is to her body type! The only thing it's missing are those long, willowy limbs that CLAMP characters are so well-known for!

I'm actually really happy with the outcome! I personally feel that she quite accurately portrays Yuuko's character! She's already become one of my most favorite customized dolls so far!