Smart Doll Harmony

Introducing Smart Doll Harmony - the first soft vinyl dark skinned doll to be released in 1/3 scale.

The soft vinyl color sample came back today and we are doing the faceup as we speak - I will update this post regularly as we progress with the faceup, wig design, T-shirt color etc.

Without makeup, the details on the face are difficult to see which is why I've increased the exposure a bit - in real life she is much darker.

Harmony's skin is very difficult to work with. For Mirai, we can use microfine sandpaper to remove blemishes. For Ebony we can do the same but it takes double time.
The problem with Harmony is that sandpaper leaves the skin surface white which we need to dampen down with water and blutac.

The slush casting process by nature leaves blemishes on the surface and Mirai and Ebony are all released with a correlate amount to balance out the wabi-sabi (which you read about in the Design Philosophy post) - for Harmony however, to achieve this level of dark soft vinyl, more blemishes will be noticeable - just like the human body.

Do note that neither Ebony or Harmony are white skin with darker paint sprayed on - both have color mixed in at the vinyl creation stage.

I'm sure there will be folks complaining that she is not dark enough - I say to complainers to stop letting manufactures (like me) make stuff you are not happy with and make your own - you can start out like I did by working in a restaurant. Unless you are too good to work in a restaurant...

I will let you in on a trade secret - the Harmony Color Mirai Frame is not done yet - it won't be until I decide on the final color of the outer shell. In the meantime I'm using Ebony Color Mirai Frame but it looks really odd which is why I cover up all the joints like this for preview photos.

By the way, this "Doing Something" Frill Tee will be available on the Culture Japan Online Store in October.

No other Japanese doll manufacturer of soft vinyl doll have bothered to make darker skinned dolls and is probably due to the fact that they are only focused on the Japanese market and also due to the costs involved in making dark skinned outer shell.

The vision for Smart Doll has always been to be a global brand of fashion dolls and thus the importance to represent the colors that make up the population of the world.

Speaking of which - we must also not forget the red skinned folks - meet Smart Doll Ruby!