Uncommon/unpopular dyeing methods

This isn’t really a dying method but is at least tangentially related to the question as it is technically an unpopular method of changing a doll’s skin tone.

I’m planning to buy a vampire doll in white resin fully embracing the knowledge that he’ll yellow over time even if I keep him out of sunlight (a little funny that I’ll have good reason to keep my vampire well away from the sun haha). I’ve seen people seek advice on how to fix the ‘zombie’ look that yellowing can give to older dolls, and I can’t help but think that the vaguely unhealthy tone would suit an undead character just fine. So I’ll enjoy him while he’s pristine white, and won’t count it as a flaw when he starts to look a little sickly. It’ll just be a new part of his vampiric look!

 

I used to live in a first floor unit in an apartment building. When I was first practicing faceups, I bought an inexpensive practice head because I was scared to practice on my dear first doll. Did my first, maybe second faceups, no need for pics, they were very unsatisfactory... washed off my practice attempts and left the practice head magnetized to the side of the kitchen sink basin to dry. Went to bed, and straight off to work the next day, not needing to use that sink.

All should have been fine. But of course not.

On this particular day, while I was out, the building's plumbing system clogged and a whole LOT of nasty wastewater backed up into my apartment through none other than my kitchen sink drain. Filled the basin over the brim and spilled to the floor.. everywhere.

I don't know (or want to know) what all was in the water that came up and flooded my place.. but when I got home the kitchen and everything that had been in it, including the doll head, was covered in a layer of slimy black stuff.. maybe coffee grounds? I don't drink coffee, but I know those aren't supposed to go down the drain. All I know is it was other peoples' drain sludge. Nothing would ever get that nastiness out of resin. That poor head was officially a goner.

But to add to my misery, not only did I come home to a disgusting flooded kitchen and ruined doll head (RIP) but the fact that building maintenance had let themselves into my apartment to diagnose and resolve the drain problem without even calling me.. and moved everything out of my kitchen.. including the doll head. So they saw it and even handled it. I was mortified with embarrassment at the time! That had to be one of the weirdest things they've ever pulled out of a tenant's kitchen sink.

The plumber was a shameless creep in my later encounters with him though. I hope that the tiny, eyeless, slime-and-grime covered head he pulled out of my kitchen sink still haunts him in his "dreaming about work" nightmares.

So yeah. Drain sludge. No it was not intentional. My only comforts are that it happened to an inexpensive head I wasn't bonded with, not my precious first-ever doll who I was practicing to work on, and that in retrospect and after moving away.. I guess with time, the scenario seems a little bit funny rather than just plain awful. 0/10 do not recommend at all.

 

So not so much an accident, but i was trying to get a very specific stained look around some joints, so i used some spare parts to test out how it would interact with the resin. basically i was trying out how various inks would stain and it didnt go well. Weirdly enough i couldnt get the inks i had on hand to stain the parts. The only thing that came close was a copic pen, but even that ended up cleaning off in the end of testing.

After all the testing i ended up changing my plans and made really soupy acrylic to try and get the effect inwas going for. (Which also didnt end up working and peeled at the joints anyway)

 

How peculiar! Is your doll made of wax?!
I wonder, were you by chance using India Inks? My understanding is that they are not inks that sink into and dye the surface where they are applied, but are more like soot in emulsion. The "ink" sits on the surface without sinking in, and can be removed cleanly from washable surfaces. I've used it on a vinyl doll faceup - and later completely removed it all - with success. Curious if this was also your medium for this experiment!

If not, I'm still interested to know more about what you were using.. a removable dye job sounds like a nifty capability to have in one's artistic arsenal!