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

Nope, I wouldn't send out my dolls. There's too many risks involved (mail mix ups, mail stolen, damage during delivery etc etc) I don't want to put myself through all that headache! Especially if they are limited. I'd only have my sister do their face ups, or seek out a local artist that I know personally.

 

Living in Norway there's a limited amount of people doing faceups and even fewer doing faceups that I might want to commission at all. Even then Norway is a rather long country so chances are I'd be shipping through the mail none the less. So yeah, I did quite recently send my AQ Chloe out to get her faceup. I didn't venture outside of Europe though so she "only" went to Spain and having dealt with the artist I'd gladly do it again! It was the first time I sent a doll out and I was a nervous wreck before shipping her off, during the shipping, while waiting for her faceup to be finished and while waiting for her to get home. In the end all went well and she arrived to be safe as could be.

I might feel a bit differently towards limiteds, but right now, not being able to/not planning on learning how to do faceups and having few options locally... Well, I'm kind of out of options if I don't get the default faceup or have a custom one done from the company.

 

I actually remember on another site there was this lady who was talking about how uncomfortable and distrusting she was of face up artists that she said if she wanted one that she would FLY DOWN to wherever the artist lived and hover around their house while their doll was being worked on.

This person was REALLY nutty...OAe; A few faceup artists even told her how creepy that was and that they don't do commissions to get their clients hovering over their shoulder in real life.

 

I've sent out numerous dolls, usually to the United States, which is an international transaction for me as I live in Canada. Before I send a doll, I check the person's portfolio and DoA feedback. Yes, sending out a head is always a risk, but I'm actually more afraid of Customs or the postal service losing it than I am of what may happen to it in the hands of any artist. Most recently, I had five heads out at once for faceups. One has since returned and the other four are still with the one artist who's working on them.

Arashi, that lady must have quite a bit of money if she'd consider flying to wherever her artist of choice lives.... And yes, that does seem kind of extreme, but I guess everyone's entitled to feel the way they choose to feel about a situation. If she was that paranoid, I guess that's her choice. I'd be a little freaked out if I were the artist, though. O.o.

 

She was utterly insane, she started messaging people dissing the moderators including the OTHER MODERATORS and was calling all of our dolls ugly and saying: "Well that's just MY opinion but they didn't cost you very much right? They're ugly then." she thought cause she was spending 400 dollars on one particular doll that all the other ones on the site were inferior...Even SOOM was apparently stupid according to this loon. She even said if we weren't willing to shell out the money for Dollheart that we must be fools. She even said our small forum should be more like DOA and said how she'd make changes.

For her idea's how to improve the forum (in which she was rude and crazy about it) ....We talked about sporks. :3 It became the Great Spork Debate of 2012.

 

I'm afraid to send my dolls out too. I'm very attached to them and fear them getting stolen, damaged, or lost. Plus, I'm rather artistic myself and feel like I should be able to do my own face-ups and I would feel better about the doll if I did it myself. So, I've decided to just learn how to do it instead of sending the doll away. I feel like I'd have more control too.

 

My first doll won't have a face up until I have the materials to do it myself because I'm not willing to send her head to someone I don't know. I also don't know what style of face-up I want for her so I might absolutely hate whatever style she was given. I'd feel safer learning to do it myself.

 

I do send heads to artists as I want them to look as perfect as possible and I know if I tried them it would not be as good. I do feel nervous but I make sure I use well known reputable face up artists with lots of feedback. I also use the top shipping available with full tracking and insurance. I currently have 3 overseas and 2 of them are limited and sold out and the other is a limited IH sculpt. Sometimes though I figure you have to take the risk to get the desired result.

 

I've thought about it a couple of times but money is a real issue. Most of the people I've talked to about doing face ups want $50, $100 and up to do one and I rarely spend that much on a head itself let alone a face up for one. It's just not in the budget really. I'm not a great artist, not with a paint brush anyway, but I've faced up a number of vinyl dolls and I'm not too hideous at it anymore. Most of my dolls I'm happy to do it myself. It's just part of the process of creating their personalities and ultimately I don't want to give up that task to anyone else. The results may not be perfect but they're my results and I am proud of my work, even if I'm not exactly Rembrandt.

The one exception to this rule of doing it myself will be my Saint. I'm getting help from a friend who's art skills are far better than mine for Geordie because I wanted him to have a better face up than I could do. She might also be helping me with my Narae, for the same reason. Normally I would not go there but these are important dolls for me and I wanted them to look particularly nice. Nicer than I could probably manage on my own. She says I'm a better artist than I give myself credit for but I don't think so. I think I'm good with concepts but not so good with the execution. I know my limits, shrug.

I thought about sending Geordie out, expense be darned, but I'm glad I didn't have to. I'm very territorial with my dolls. I just don't like letting them go once I have them. I just don't want Geordie somewhere else for weeks, maybe even months on end while someone faces him up. I don't want to have to worry about whether or not they're doing him as I might like him the whole time. If I mess up, or my friend here messes up, that's one thing. We can laugh and wipe it and just start over. I can even give her suggestions as we go on. She can ask me "Do you like this color or this style?" and I'm right there to say "Yes" or "No" as the case may be. You can do that via email but it's a lot harder I think.

I'd just hate to spend that much $$$ and hate the results. I've seen really great face ups on here, but I've also seen a lot of face ups that make me just go "WTH?" too. There are a lot of people out there charging a lot of money for face ups that just really don't appeal much to me. Taste in that is very subjective, and I'm very picky about what I like for my dolls. A lot of faces I see they're just too stylized for me. I have a particular thing about my dolls looking just so. I don't like a lot of tiny lines drawn on the lips or tons of gloss usually. I don't mind a goth face up but I don't like overdone goth face ups, hurt doll face ups, or dolls that look like they are anime characters. I don't like really stylized upper lid strokes or drawing tons of facial, chest or body hair the way some people do.

There are a couple of dolls that I am going to do fantasy faces for, and one doll I do intend to go all out and do a rainbow thing with, but overall I like a more natural look for my doll's faces. Their hair that's another story, rarely do my dolls have one colored hair, but their faces I tend not to go too overboard with the makeup. Even when I want a doll to look like a fantasy doll there's just some things that people do routinely for such projects that I personally don't like. So I don't know that I'd want to trust my dolls to someone else, at least not someone else that I can only contact via email.

Plus there is the trust factor. I'd never send a doll head to someone sans tons of feedback to begin with but letting go of a doll head that cost me a fair bit, risking my hard earned $$$ that way is just not easy for me. I really have to budget to be able to afford resin dolls at all so the prospect of losing one doesn't sit well with me. I'd much rather deal with someone local, pay a local artist to attempt a face up for me than risk sending a doll via mail. The PO isn't perfect either. They break things, even lose things once in a while. It's rare, but it does happen. If anything were to happen to a doll en route I'd just be heartbroken. I have a hard enough time waiting on a new doll and worrying about it, if it's been packed properly, shipped with tracking and that. I admit it I practically haunt the mailbox until a new doll arrives and I can see that it's okay. Last thing I want to do is risk it getting broken or lost twice. Once is enough for me. Once my dolls are home, that's it. They're home.

 

I'm ordering a spare head with my next doll as I really want a local artist here to do one of her famous horror mods to it.
I've decided I'm going to let her have full artistic control over the build. No ideas from me.
I'm excited to see what she'll come up with but at the same time I'm terrified of having a horror doll disrupt the harmony in my doll family.
Maybe the doll with never end up wearing the head.

 

I've been planning to send one of mine out for more than a year, but I just haven't done it. I'm mostly afraid I won't pack the head well enough and it will get lost or damaged. Silly, huh?

 

I was initially surprised when I learned lots of people send their dolls out for face-ups, thinking how comfortable they are with it, I thought the hobby was generally very comfortable with sending their belongings out for mods and such, but it looks like it's not always the case.

Personally I enjoy doing my own face-ups, but if I had to send one out to an artist (Probably someone really good and not just a standard looking face-up), I would be comfortable with it, but that's mainly because I deal with a good postal service that I can trust.

I guess for people who feel uncomfortable with it need to plan out and think about the two ends, the client and the artist. Make sure you choose a reasonably priced postal service that doesn't have a bad reputation for losing/damaging it's items, even if it is the cheaper option. Then, simply choose a reliable artist that has great feedback. There are a ton of professional artists who are extremely co-operative, like send you progress photos and such. Although a lot of them state beforehand that their aesthetics are different, and slots should only be bought if the customer truly likes what they see. If you look at examples and make an informed decision, I don't see how there could be room for worry

I understand it's not a nice thought of having a headless doll for a while, but it's worth it when it comes back and looks spectacular!

 

I have been waited more than 4 months for the face up, and the dolls were my favorite ones, at the end i felt i was going crazy. but fortunately i can do it my self now (after 4 years), the only thing that I'm afraid now is changing the face up for the whole family.... I'm too lazy to finish them....

 

I'm gathering some courage to send a head to face up for the first time.. I'm so nervous though. :'D

 

Sometime I do afraid to send doll head for face-up, especially when it is the first time commissioning the artistic.
Do research of the artistic, use the safest way to ship, these help to minimize the 'afraid'.

 

I'm comfortable with it, but I don't like thinking about the wait. I recently sent out my DD for a faceup, and waiting for her return was agonizing! (It was completely worth it in the end, though--and it took a while for a very good reason.) I've got to send out my favorite soon since his default is horrible, but thinking about waiting is making me hesitate even after the nice experience I had. I've actually been hesitating about this since I got him two years ago...

 

Like a lot of people who have posted here my main fear is for my doll to be lost in the mail. I know tons of mail is sent every day and the vast majority of it makes it to its destination with no problem but things do get lost and I'd hate to be one of those people who that happens to. Also it would be awful for the package to be damaged in the mail. But in the end I know I have to suck it up and take on that risk if I want my doll to get a face up so I will be doing that soon (with my fingers crossed the whole time I'm sure ).

 

Ahhh me too!! I wish I wasn't too scared to, because I'd love to get custom face up, but it seems so wrong to pack them up and ship them away! I guess I'll have to start doing my own...
Maybe there are people in your town who could give it a go?

 

Something bad happened to me: i sent a head out for face up. It came back- looked good. But then i added the backhead and the colour difference between blank head and blushing was extreme. I took some pictures of my doll and only when I touched the face to put another wig on her head, the face up splitted. the artist told its not his fault. I sendet it back to there- she only sprayed again with sealant. She did not remove the lashes before doing this. When it came back it was more ugly than before- what a bad experience

 

I'm afraid to give my doll somebody... I'll worry about it