Iron Lace

Bonus pic of the eyes and Link's eyes (previous post) before they were domed

It started in March 2023. I see Angell studio just released a new doll, Kelly on taobao. She came out in a Queen version and a knight version. The moment I see the queen pics, I show my SO being like, omg, I must have this. I mulled it over for a hot minute. The doll was fine, but i was in love with the fullset. My SO was already resigned to the fact that I was going to buy it the moment i showed it. So while I had never used a proxy before, I get the link to send to a proxy. The next day I look, and it's sold out. ༼⁠;⁠´⁠༎ຶ⁠ ⁠۝ ⁠༎ຶ⁠༽ It had sold out in like 24h and before the proxy had a chance to get back to me. Seeing how quickly it had sold out on tb and how limited it seemed, I had little hope that i would be able to get one through WTBs, but i dutifully put them up all around in the english speaking places.

Then I learned about xianyu. I knew NCS could do some proxying and had heard about another bjd proxying individual, so i poked around on xianyu and I did find the fullset doll, but they would have been like 2 or 3k usd with the bjd proxy fees. While I did love her, i could not justify that cost to myself. another time i found her being sold but as a bundle with several other dolls being like 8k or something. I resigned myself to continue the search. Through it, i learned more about general chinese proxies rather than bjd specific proxies which had much lower fees.

Then late 2024, i see someone selling the queen outfit, no wig on xy. it's kind of pricey at like $400~500 and still too steep for me. but i kept refreshing it and watching the listing day after day. the price eventually drops a bit. but still too high. later it drops again. then in december it drops down to an imo reasonable price ~300s. I did the mental math and found that the xy outfit cost + new nude doll straight from AS cost would be less than my WTB budget. It was in striking range now. I threw it over to the proxy and bought it. It was glorious. Until 47 came in to power and fucked up the global trade... that was a stressful time, but luckily the outfit came through without any additional charges 3 months later (sea mail 🙈).

Now I'd resigned myself to the fact that I I wouldn't be able to get the updo fullset wig as it seemed most people I saw on xy only had the long hair down version that was the other wig option when the fullset was being sold. So I thought I'd get a lace front wig and try to do an updo myself. Never quite got around to doing the braids and curls and such and just clipped up the hair. Then late 2025 I run across a listing for the wig!!!! I had been aimlessly browsing xy styled wigs and it just popped up and less than $100 too, which imo was reasonable for a style that elaborate and I apparently would not be able to recreate anything similar anytime soon lol. I threw it at the proxy asking for seller pics hoping the condition was still good. And it was! Color turned out to be more reddish than I expected from the company pics, but it was still acceptable. It arrived at the proxy along with a purple dress I was looking for Rapunzel (the main reason I was searching xy). Out of tariff fears and cost saving desires, I decided to have it sent over to a relative in China who'd bring it to to the US when they came back for the holidays. So it along with the rest of the tb/xy haul became this years Christmas present. The wig was even more elaborate in person than in the photos, and I realized after receiving it I had no chance of making it with my skills and supplies lol.

I hear that the original volks Rapunzel wig was like 80cm long. I searched for a while, but the longest i could find was 70cm long, so i just went with that. The color is more yellow than gold, so i might try dying the 2nd one i got, but if it doesn't work out, we'll still have this.

I went for about 3 thin braids that'd be incorporated in the big braid and then did a 5 strand braid. The straightening the hair first probably took me the longest, then the trying to divide hair into 5 equal parts took the next longest. Actual braiding is pretty simple. I then bought a few sprigs of fake flowers and just kind of stuffed them in the hair. (if you move her, several will fall 😅) I'm half tempted to glue them in, but i suppose the proper way would be to sew them in or something. But that's a pain. She's not going out, so i'll leave it as is for now.

I like the short brown wig, but it has a bit more vertical swoosh in the front than i expected, so still a little iffy on it.