Here's a message about fabric from :iconsyleniscrafts:

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"So I'm based in the UK, and when I first decided I wanted to make a human plush, I had no idea what material to use for the skin. Well, ok so there are a plethora of materials, but my problem was the colours. I could not, within the UK, find a material like deersuede, velour or fleece that came in suitable skin colours.

The material I originally started buying was "chamois" coloured Doesuede from- you guessed it- America. This wasn't a problem until the shipping cost went up. I mean, it went WAY up. It doubled at least. And I could find no way to justify ordering that material again. The other problem was other than chamois and doll pink, there aren't a lot of colours to choose from.

I've spent months e-mailing different UK suppliers, scouring e-bay, changing my keywords, looking for good skin colours for plush dolls. Zilch. Nada.

At one point I ordered some minky from Igloo on e-Bay. It came from Korea but was not the colour I'd been promised. Instead of moaning and sending it back I decided to see if I could rectify this myself.

Several boxes and mixtures of dye later, I had a beautiful skin coloured minky, and a piece of tanned-skin minky too. And I'm not addicted. I've been buying Bamboo Velour, which is an economic and beautiful skin fabric, and experimenting with different dyes. I don't just want to make generic anime-character skin either, I'd love to go for different ethnicities, so I could make characters like Cyborg, Aisha Clan Clan or a couple of my OCs.

What I wanted to know was, have other doll artists had this problem? Have other artists looked at the available doll skin colours and shook their heads? I am a slow worker, and I spend more time prepping fabric than I do actually making dolls, so the amount of fabric I own is unreal. If I offered it to sell, for just the cost of the fabric and the dye, would people be interested in hand dyed skins?

I just decided to experiment by listing a 75cm X 50cm piece over on e-Bay (www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20106580087…) just to test the water. I know my audience is not the largest anymore, but I'd love to hear other artist's views on doll skin!"
If you enter the Favourites section of our humble group, you will notice a new addition - a place for commission journals.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS ONLY FOR COMMISSION JOURNALS. It's not for announcing contests or even requesting commissions. Members will be allowed to submit a total of 3 journals here per month to prevent abuse. I will also soon be linking this on the front page of the group page so commission information will be more easily found.

If circumstances require that you go beyond the monthly limit, I'll be glad to help you if you contact me. Please note, however, that I am not always around therefore I might not respond quickly enough. I hope you'll be patient with me since I just don't have the time that I once had to dedicate to this group.

Thanks everyone for continuing to make this small group wonderful, I appreciate each and every one of you guys! Special thanks to :iconangelsplush: for helping me realize that adding a new place for commission information might not be a bad idea after all.

EDIT:

If you do not know how to submit a journal to this folder, follow these steps.

1. Open the journal you want to submit (this can be done by going to your journals and clicking the title of the journal you'd like to use).

2. Click the button underneath deviantArt's suggestions for you ("More from deviantArt") that says +Add to a group.

3. Select the second tab - "Suggest to Group Favourites."

4. Select the group (Simply-Plush)

5. Use the dropdown box to select the correct folder (the commission journal folder).

6. Press submit.
Today I'm doing a bit of tidying up with the group folders. This is a very boring, often times frustrating process - why? Because there are so many cases where submissions are put into the wrong folder. I feel that this is probably due to an error on my part for not properly explaining each folder's purpose and what should be submitted. I hope that if you are ever confused or unsure where to place your submission, you will use this journal as a reference.

Also, a note: IF YOU DID NOT MAKE IT, PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT IT.

Here in the Simply-Plush group we sort deviations into 13 folders, 10 of which you can/should submit to. These are:

The Featured folder which you do not have access to. There are deviations here that come from artist spotlights and contest winners.

The INSTA-DELETE folder which houses nothing. This folder exists because otherwise those who are not paying attention will submit anything under the sun to the Animals folder. Things that are mistakenly submitted here are NOT accepted to the group and you most likely will not get a reason why. It may seem mean but the purpose isn't to discriminate against your work, it's to force you to pay attention. If your work is ever denied from this group, it's because you were not paying attention to where you were submitting it. We'd love to have your work included in the group - just try to pay attention next time and submit it properly.

The Animals folder. This folder is quite obviously for plushies that are of animals. HOWEVER, this is not for My Little Pony submissions (these should be submitted to the MLP folder). It's not for that one dog from that anime you like or a cat plush from Minecraft or Gunter from Adventure Time (these should be submitted to the Fanart 2 folder). And it's not for your dragon/yeti/cerberus/griffon/monster plushies (these should be submitted to the Fantasy Creatures and Monsters folder). Acceptable submissions include this gorgeous giraffe plush Georgina created by :iconshadowedporcelain: or this cute plush moth created by :iconsovriin:.

The Food folder. This is for plushies of  boba tea and cupcakes (:iconlove-who: and :iconyuki87:, respectively). This is NOT for that mameshiba dog, those little anime dango, paopu fruit, or mochi Hetalia characters (should be submitted to Fanart 2). If it's a normal dango or mochi, however, it's acceptable. Just think to yourself: "Is this from something?" and if the answer is "yes" put it in the Fanart folder.

Original Characters folder. This one is kind of challenging because it doesn't refer to your MLP/Naruto/Star Trek/Homestuck/Dr.Who OC. It refers to completely and totally original characters. It also doesn't refer to "Well, I made this octopus and it's not from anything so I'll put it in the original characters folder." And octopus, unless it's the evil Dr.Octostein, is just an animal and belongs to the animals folder. Think something like this very cute and totally original Fibu plush created by :iconpanda-prune:. This folder is very hard for me to filter so please make it easy on me and submit to the right places. Think: "Did I create both the character and the universe it's from?" if the answer is no, please submit to the Fanart folder unless the character is stylistically unique from the universe or exists wholly within a very different alternate universe of your creation. Ask me if you have questions and I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out together.

Fanart 2 this folder is for fanart of any character or object from something you didn't create/for plushwork of actually people like band members and such EXCLUDING My Little Pony and Pokemon which have their very own folders. Did you turn Johnny Depp into an ice cream cone? It goes here, not in the Food folder. But Jake is a dog, shouldn't he go to the Animals folder? No. He goes here. Toothless does not go to the Fantasy Creatures and Monsters folder. He goes here. What about Mary Sue, your Star Trek OC? She goes here too.

Fanart. You can't submit to this folder because it got so huge we had to create a second folder.

Pokemon. Pokemon go here. Fakemon go here. Those neat little combination pokemon creations go here.

My Little Pony. Ponies go here. Pony OC's go here. Rainbow Dash in the style of a real horse goes here.

Fantasy Creatures and Monsters. This folder is for things like dragons are the kraken. They're sort of animals but not real ones. Maybe they're mythological. Maybe you just decided to make some random monster plush. That goes here too. UNLESS they're fanart pieces like a Toothless plush would be, or Tinkerbelle. Digimon and Endermen don't go here. Slenderman I'm not actually entirely sure about but 80% of the time, I'd prefer him in the Fanart 2 folder. If it's a regular dragon but is actually from the Game of Thrones, it also goes in Fanart.

Tutorials, Patterns, Guides, Tips, and Tricks is for what it says. If you wrote a tutorial and would like to share it, it goes here. Or a guide on how to needlescult something. All sorts of how to's and diy advice are acceptable. If you'd like, you can submit a picture of the finished work and include a link to the tutorial/pattern/etc in your description. It is NOT for random journal submissions or a picture of an embroidery design you created (unless you're sharing the file for others to also use).

Misc Plush this is for plush that doesn't belong anywhere else. It's not for your plush of Vash the Stampede - that already has a place it goes, the Fanart 2 folder. This isn't where you put a picture of you with the plush you bought from Walmart either! Mustache plush? Yes, it goes here! Or a plush of a toilet or something. That belongs here. This folder is going to take me some time to clean out - please prevent this in the future!

Hats, bags, cases, etc. Non-plush stuff. Technically this is the only place there should be fanart outside of the fanart folder. Mlp zippered bags or hats, for instance. Even a poseable toy you created that isn't necessarily a plushie. Clip in cat ears. Pillows. THIS IS NOT FOR RANDOM JOURNALS OR 2D ART. This is still a plush group, these items must still be made of fabric at least partially!

Please don't break my heart by breaking my rules or by putting your submissions in the wrong folder. I understand that mistakes happen but when so many people are doing these things, it becomes a pain. I really hope this problem doesn't persist. If it does persist, I will most likely stop sorting the deviations into the correct folders and instead I will delete the misplaced work - don't make me do that, guys. I love your work! I just can't keep doing all of this sorting on my own every time.

Thanks for your understanding guys!
So today is the first day of my break from school. I've actually gotten to sit down and sew for once and now I'm posting something here! I'm going to try to push out a book review I said I would do ages ago soon so let's see how things go during my break. I might end up busy, I might not.

I also got a pretty interesting message all the way back on the seventh (sorry for posting about it so late, Mr-Offspring!) from someone who's selling minky in Europe. The prices seem rather fair (€14.99/meter which is a little less than $20 for all the American readers) and they ship to "Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom" according to their FAQ. The shipping prices are unclear but it looks like a great source for minky with 23 colours to choose from.

Check out this website here: www.minky-europe.com/

And stay tuned for more content.
Find it here! simply-plush.blogspot.com/2013…

Any specific questions about the book? Ask them here or on the blog and I'll do my best to answer - the review is rather brief so it you'd like to know exactly what techniques are shown or how long the lessons are or whatever, feel free to ask! I may not get to it immediately but I'll get to it as soon as I can.

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