Isn't she gorgeous? It's hard to find resin dolls with darker skin colors, apparently the more pigment (be it natural or unnatural shades) they put into the mix, the harder it is to get them to come out evenly, so a lot of companies don't offer much beyond a pretty weak "suntan" shade (and they all charge extra for their trouble, natch). I'd never really jonesed for a doll until someone on my flist mentioned her own Iple doll about a year and a half ago, and I idly wandered over to their site. I was really impressed by their more realistic sculpts and lovely range of skin tones, and when I saw this girl I damn near fainted at seeing such a perfect AU ballerina!Katara.

I can't see myself getting a whole doll just for resale, even the basic versions that aren't part of a limited edition are still pricey, and bulky and fragile enough to be a pain to ship -- it'd be simpler and cheaper to mail just the outfit alone if folks are interested in commissions when I'm done. (She's almost two feet tall! Although that size is part of the appeal, the tiny pattern pieces won't be as annoyingly fiddly to work compared to doing Barbie-size clothes, which was my original idea for DIY Avatar dolls. Plus she's way more posable so you can set her up like an action figure for bending scenes!)

And I'm such a geek, I even got a braided wig so I can do an Egyptian cosplay of my girl Mara to go with that lovely brown skin and big blue eyes of hers, too...oh, my head's spinning with the fun crafty dress-up plans I have for this girl. XD