"Afraid" To Send Doll Out For Face-up?

I'm not really afraid to send out my dolls to people, it's the way the post office handles their packages i'm afraid of. It's always bad to wait that 2-3 day wait of my head getting to the person's house and then coming back. Just make sure to do your research before commissioning someone- make sure they have good feedback, and talk to others who commissioned them also and see how their experience was.

 

I was a little leery about sending Juno out for a face-up, but most of my fear was laid aside by finding a good customizer. Find someone with reasonable turn-around time, good feedback including frequent contact (if necessary), the kind of skills you're looking for, and who's willing to make sure your head has tracking and insurance on it before it gets sent back to you. I had Ardi right here on DoA do my boy's face-up, and the entire experience was incredibly low stress and exactly what I needed my first time sending out a head.

 

I recently got Tsukasa's head back from HK. And it all went well!
but I wouldn't advice you to send it to someone if you're not sure you can trust them.
I would first ask a lot of questions, ask for feedback and then ask to see their work.

 

The same here. I'm much more scared of spending lots of money on a faceup, then ending up disappointed because it's not what I imagined.
As for being away from my doll, I feel comforted knowing that she's in great hands and that the wait will [hopefully] be well worth the it [that's considering you're going to send her to someone you got recommendations/ feedback on and feel you can truly trust].

But personally, when it comes to waiting- I consider myself to be very patient. I keep in mind that most faceup artist have a lot going on in their life apart from doing faceups [in fact, most of them seem to only do faceups on their spare time- and as we all already know, there are times when there just isn't enough of it! >.<]. So as long as I am sure the wait will be worth it and that I'll be happy with the outcome- I just go on with my life, patiently waiting for the day I'll get the blessed e-mail notifying me that the head is ready XD.
Also, I live in Israel so I'm pretty used to waiting long periods of time for items to arrive from abroad ['cause unfortunately not everyone ship by EMS].

 

I havent sent one out yet and I'm not sure I could

 

there's 2 problems for me
1st : like every one said more worried of the artist who can fulfill our expectations of the make up
2nd : i lost my head , neither by male or by the artist it self ~
i just read few bad feedback yesterday and most of it because face-up between lack of communication or the artist just want to scam you at first place ~ (i know i'm paranoid but still better to prevent that to happen )

 

Nope, not afraid at all. I got a very reliable face-up artist here in Germany (where I live) whose style I really, really love. She usually gets all my heads for face-ups. She's done three, so far and gonna get No. 4 and 5, too (if she does scars, that is). I got more of a "problem" with the head maybe getting damaged or being lost in the mail than with sending it off and having a headless doll for a few weeks. So far, everything's gone very smoothly, so ...

 

Am so. It's not just that I'm worried that the head might get lost in the mail, or that the face-up might not be entirely what I expected. I just couldn't face the prospect of sending the doll away again once it has finally arrived!

Once I had ordered my first doll, I went on a quest for a practice head and learnt to do my own face-ups. They aren't as professional as, well, a face-up artist's, but I'm happy with them AND I don't need to send my dolls away.

 

Allura (my tiny) came with a very quickly and mediocre-ly done faceup. Thankfully, the company didn't charge for it, but it was poorly sealed and had faded dramatically after a year or so, despite how much care I took with her face. Eventually, I went scouting around the forums and found someone who was willing to do a faceup for me for the cost of shipping, and I decided it was time to have Allura's faceup done.

I was super nervous! At the time, Allura was my only doll and my first. I loved her to death and I took so much care packing her (I had her head wrapped in 8,000 layers of bubble wrap tucked into those little gatchapon balls, wrapped in more bubble wrap). I had seen the horrors the mail system had wracked on boxes and I was a wreck. I did it though, because I knew I didn't have the materials to try to do the faceup myself, and I knew Allura deserved a new one.

When she finally came back, I was thrilled. I found out she was at the local post office and walked over to get her (I live on campus, so I had to walk a few blocks). I even brought her body and a dress with and carried it all over to the library after I picked her shipping box up, flopped down in one corner of the library and reassembled her. I was so excited to have her back that I even did a tiny photoshoot in the library!

In the end, I understand how stressful it can be, but after the first time it gets better. Count down the days and remember how beautiful your baby will be when they get back!

 

Oh i am gonna be a wreck when i send my Baron head off O.O seriously... *cringes..* i just don't think i would go him justice, he's such a.. strange one to do.... *sighs*..... I am gonna have to send him BACK to the company to get him done....but then i don't have him yet, and that will likely be a while in the future before i have to worry about that.. but yikes, your topic just made me CRINGE.....

For my other dolls? ( to be) Well, i think unless i get the Frankenstein, i will try to do the face-ups myself...it woudl freak me out to send my dolls to someone i don't know....

 

I have only sent out two heads for faceups. The first was to a well known artist, and though she had excellent feedback, I was terrified of sending my most expensive head (at the time) away to a stranger. But I did it anyway because I didn't feel I could do the doll justice. She sent me pix, kept me updated and he was home in about 3 weeks. I was very pleased!

The second was to a friend of mine and it was less like sending him for a faceup and more like letting him go visit her and her dolls and just ending up getting a faceup while he was there. I wasn't nervous at all.

Now, I do all of my own faceups, but when I do a commission, I try to get the doll back to the owner as fast as possible. When I can, I'll do the faceup the day the doll arrives and send it back the next day so it's not gone longer than a week. The longest I've taken was about a week and a half.

I'm not too worried about anything getting lost or damaged in the mail, since I pack everything really well and always get insurance.

I have been worried about not getting what I asked for, but that's why it's really important to look at the artists' work first and decide which one's style you like best and be sure to send lots of pix and examples. There are some faceups that just cannot be done to make certain sculpts look a certain way, but a good artist should tell you that ahead of time. (ex. "I cannot make your green Bobobie tiny look like Johnny Depp.")

 

I know that feeling. I sent out my limited head for a face-up once and spent the entire time being nervous. :S I got her back just fine but I'm a very nervous person. And not having her around made me sad.

Because of that, I've decided to learn how to do my own. My biggest difficulty is eye-brows, but after 8-million tries you get the jist of it. Hehe.

 

I send them out to someone I trust completely, but I admit I have two here that are just going to have to live with my crummy faceups, because I just couldn't replace them if something happened to them in transit. And even though I know my heads are safe with the customizer, I do miss the dolls when they are gone! I understand perfectly about being anxious.

 

I understand the anxiety of this situation. Two of my dolls are limiteds, and if the heads were lost, could not be replaced. I would like to learn how to do face-ups myself, but first I will have to buy some MSC, and learn how to use it.

 

I don't send my dolls out for face-up. It makes me too nervous. So I struggle on trying to make sufficiently awesome face-up. I might give-in someday, but I'm not sure.

 

It's not the person doing the face-up that worries me - its the postal service... I'm learning how to do them myself, & I'm looking about for someone close (I'd much rather drive to drop it off & then pick it up, than trust in the Post Office)!

 

I'm a bit paranoid about it, I'm not sure if I would send my stuff out for faceups. Mostly cause it could lost in the mail, I've had a doll that I sold get lost for a couple monthes, it was horriable. I might evenulley because theres a couple of great faceup artist but right now its just cheaper/safer to do 'em myself...

 

When I sent my doll head to belladonna for a face up. I was not worried about her doing the face up I was more worried about my head being out of the country. Everything work out good but the week or so it took him to get to her was nail bitting and the return trip seem to go quicker then when I mailed him off.

I have one person locally who does face up for me so she is only like 30 mins from my house and a good friend. The one person on DOA who I totaly trust with my dolls Is Buff. Her face up are lovely and they are done fast. When you find someone you like that does a good job I say stick with them.

 

I can kind of understand being a little scared to send the head to someone you never even met. Or just in the mail in general.

That's why I would look for face-up artist who get a lot of good reviews from happy customers. Though, it probably wouldn't hurt to have friends that do decent face-ups either. I have a friend on here who's a fairly decent artist.

 

I check their commission thread here and see what the usual turn-around time is for them. If it is too long, then I reconsider, but if their work is what I really want then I'll usually do it. I do have a bit of a fear with sending my heads off though, and as such I prefer not to send them overseas or to people who don't have positive feedback here.