Bonding with your dolls

Personally, bonding is just whether or not I'm content with the doll(s) that I have. On the other hand, I'm very partial to my doll because he's shelling a character. But at the end of the day, although I refer to my doll as a "him," and sometimes hold small conversations with him (usually pleading for him to hold a pose) my doll is just what it is. A doll.

But I still get the urges to randomly hug him. So I guess I'm on the fence about the whole bonding thing. LOL

I guess I've bonded to my doll in the customization aspect. Through the face up that I've given him, and the clothes that I've made, part of my efforts and a chunk of my time have been given to this shell of resin. And therefore, a part of me exists in him (That probably sounds odd). While I don't have too many memories with him yet, the time that he's been here has have been good. c:

 

How do you bond with your doll?
I think I've bonded with my girl by changing her outfit and her hair and keeping her close to me. I don't know how it is for any body else but I like to have her on my lap or somewhere near me when I'm doing things, she makes me happy (if that makes sense?). By having her with me so much it seems almost weird and empty not to have her with me. That's how and why I think I've bonded with my girl.

How do you figure out your dolls personality?
Well, I usually already have a good idea about the personality of my doll before I buy them since I want most of my dolls to be the characters that I have in my mind. However, I think just by looking at them and thinking 'how does he/she feel and why' and go from there.

 

I think bonding is kind of hard honestly. There are days when I think "ugh I should just sell you" but then something as small as changing their eyes makes me love them all over again. I think that's why I constantly change their clothes and wigs, each change helps me decide if I really am attached to them or not.

 

This is an interesting thread I didn't think I would 'bond' with my doll because you know...in the end he's just a doll....but over time -- and I've not had him for long either - but I'm growing used to him and I think it's more of an attachment to a doll because when I thought about selling him to get more money for a doll I quite liked, I then realised I couldn't because he was actually really special to me and after I thought about all my time spending researching on what would fit him, his hair, his faceup etc, I actually started to care for him (is that weird?) and couldn't bear to sell him in the end!!!!!

 

Lol, I love this post.

 

A few months ago I got 2 Dollzone dolls: Ivy and Iris. When they arrived, I found that I was less than enthusiastic with both of them. After a couple of days, I listed them both for sale. Then after another day, something about Iris started tugging at me and I suddenly realized that I didn't want to part with her. I changed her eyes and soon after, I found that I dearly loved her and her long, flowing wings!! I'm so glad I didn't let her go. "Iris, I'm soooory I ever thought of selling you!!"

 

I think "bonding" could mean different things to different people. To me, bonding with a doll means when I look at or think about the doll I have an emotional feeling that is beyond admiring a beautiful or impressive piece of artwork. It's like visiting a gallery, you can admire the artist's skills and be impressed by the beauty and techniques of the works, but there are only certain ones you want to take home, have them near you, and feel like you couldn't take your eyes off of them. Does that even make sense?

 

That's a good point. Companies that build this kind of a home coming ceremony could really make a difference with how the new addition is perceived. I know two other successful companies that do this, Build A Bear have customers make a special pledge and wish while holding a heart then the heart is placed into the stuffed animal and they also get to make their own birth certificate. Cabbage Patch Kids also have an adoption oath and ceremony, I don't know the details but I have heard others talking about the experience fondly years after the fact.

Interesting point about the cat SD connection. I would have to check it out

 

I take my doll to wherever I go. It's like you know, having a friend to stroll around with. Even though she doesn't speak or something, I feel good when I bring her with me. I don't care if I get stares or something (which I don't often experience. I get pretty stares, though hahahaha) because what I have is something I really like and I did put hard-earned money in her so I am very proud.

 

It does, but to me, they are more like forever friends that you can change if you get tired of how they look. Artwork you can play with, as it were.

I agree, BAB's ceremony is very special to those involved. I got a bear for my ex, and he talked about the ceremony for months afterwards.

I think that's also what happens with box openings, it gives you a chance to start bonding with your doll. That's why everyone treats it like a birth. The birth of a new friend in your life.

I take one of my dolls everywhere I go as well. I don't mind the stares because being with my dolls is what makes me happy. I'm not hurting anyone when I bring them with me, so its all good.

Besides, you never know when a photo op will happen!

Ryu

 

Back when my husband and I were in our dating phase, he bought me Marie right before he went back to school in Wisconsin. I was working a very difficult job at the time, so whenever I would arrive home, I would take her out of her box, prop her next to my teddy bear, and take pictures of them hanging out to send back to my boyfriend to show him how she was doing. At some point, I would have her sit next to me as I wrote my love letters to him. Whenever he would come back to California, we would try to make at least one trip to the Volks USA store with Marie and galavant around the area for a bit. Once he graduated and moved back to California, our doll collection had grown to the point where it would be inconvenient to bring them out. But if my boyfriend/fiance/husband was programming, or if I was studying, one of us would have one of the girls nearby just hanging out as we did our work while the rest would hang out in their couch.

When one of my best friends lived locally or was in town visiting, we would have dollie tea parties and birthday parties, which was fun because it would evolve into photoshoots, photostories, and would inspire us to write stories loosely based upon our dolls or characters we thought of for our dolls. My friend would also find dolly meet-ups too which was nice to meet other BJD owners as well as see what other dolls look like in person which was another way we bonded with our dolls.

In regard to personalities, it depends on the person and the doll. For my dolls, my husband and I kind of figured out their personalities pretty quickly based upon their sculpts and what outfits look best on them. Kunkun is the tomboy and adventurous types, Marie is the old fashioned feminine type, Naomi is the popular trendy type, and Charlotte is the elegant one. I think once you have your dolls in person then it'll come more naturally to you.

 

In the beginning of my BJD hobby i didn't understand what people ment with bonding with their dolls, but now almost 2 years in the BJD hobby....i fully understand :P

I have sold the once's i liked, but didn't liked as much as my others....after realizing...i just didn't bond with them >_<

 

Bonding to me, is dolls that I just want to play with, dress, and make come to life. They make me smile in the morning, and I often find myself thinking of them. It's not always immediate, but with some it is. Some have grown on me after I've changed the wig, or clothes. I've sold a few that I didn't bond with. But my bonded dolls, are dolls That I would never sell, because they are like my kids. I'd be lost without them

 

How do I bond with my dolls?
Keeping a doll at my desk gives me time to admire her, get to know her better. Physically interacting with them seems to be the biggest part. Holding them, posing them, dressing them up, doing their hair. There's also creative aspects like taking their picture and making them things like clothes or furniture.

How to figure out its personality?
A big thing for me when it comes to personality is their face, which is a combination of their sculpt and faceup. Facial expression is a universal form of communication. So once you get a faceup you like, just staring at it for a while can help you figure it out. Use your imagination. And don't be surprised if your dolls change. We change, they change with us, etc.

 

I love all my dolls! I suppose I bond with each of them differently. My first is my all around favorite. My second is a popular sculpt I admired (still do), My third was just so stinking cute and a good buy from the MP. The fourth was a trade and I made a friend with my trade partner! The fifth is a project doll and he fits standard 1/3 clothes the easiest. My incoming is my first girl so she has lots of girly kid stuff waiting for her. Each one is special and precious but in a different way. I even have a floating head that was my first resin to have and hold. He is special because I am free to face up experiment on him and a dear friend gifted him to me when I was brand new to the local group! My project boy doesn't even have a name but he's the only one I will keep in the bed with me if I fall asleep while posing and admiring him. I am not afraid of messing him up, but love him no less than the others.

My dolls have a personality based on my emotional attachment to them. I think it's influenced by their faces and my imagination. I don't have an imagination that lends itself easily to fantasy characters. My brain works best with creating characters with attributes from my experiences and people I have known. There are a couple fantasy dolls I like, but not enough yet to add them to a wish list. I'm also open to things changing for them. I sometimes think that the character for one of my dolls might just up and go to live a life on his own. I like the doll too much to part with him, so he might be reincarnated later as a different character! Basically, I make my dolls have characters that I would like in RL either from a time when I was younger, currently or someone I could know in the future. I just want them to be 'good people' but not perfect.

 

How do you bond with your doll?
Well I do not know how to explain this feeling of bonding with my dolls. I don't really know what is meant with bond since for me is more like liking the way the doll looks. If I like how she looks when she is out of the box, then I bond with her, at least most of the times.
Sometimes it happened that I didn't like the doll as much as i thought i would when she arrived, so in that case I try to re-home her. Sometimes I have a bad feeling too when it happens, and try to get her a new wig that suits her or eyes, or even a new face-up that fixed that bond problem(in many cases it worked^^). I realized sometimes too that I won't like the doll no matter what, and if I have thought on selling her once, she will be going one day soon or later, so i try to sell her as soon as possible because if i wait too long I regret not having sold her before and there is always a feeling like "I think you should go", and this is not a good feeling, because I get attached emotionally to them somehow.

I realized too how important is to get a good wig for your doll or even the eyes, after changing sometimes the eyes I felt in love again with the doll I wanted to sell, so in a few occasions I just tried to give the doll one more chance, and it worked^^




How do you figure out your dolls personality?
To be honest my dolls don't have a well-defined personality, but I have to say that some of them just "tell" how they are only because how they look, more like one is very happy or sad or powerful or quite, but just because they look that way for me, not because I have thought about a personality or a history or background for the doll. Most of my dolls are friends or sisters, because they look similar or are from the same company. I am not very original at this, but I think this is due to my dolls itself, they look very "normal" now. When I before owned fantastic dolls(with fantasy parts), I did have a history, or something like that XDDD, but most of the dolls I have right now do not get me to think about a history, or at least I do not get the impulse to think about a history or characters for them^^.

 

You really bond with your dolls when you're waiting for them and looking at their sculpt online. I bonded with my doll when I created her character and story.

 

I don't really bond with my dolls, as bonding requires action and feeling from 2 parties haha

For me I suppose I just don't think of them as beings I can bond with, they're just objects and no offence to those who do bond with your dolls

I suppose I'm just too old for that lol

 

I've been wary of bonding agents ever since that time I tried to fix my glasses with super glue. On newspaper to catch any drips. Yeah, definitely not my brightest idea.

Emotionally speaking, I've never formed a bond with an object and dolls are no exception. I don't really see them as an entity or a person, I see them as a sum of the materials they're made of. I may grow fond of them and say I like or love them, but I don't mean in the way I can with a fellow human being or a family pet, or heck even my plants. Because I don't see them as living creatures there's a certain disconnect. If I had to give an example, I loved my old phone to pieces but that didn't stop me from upgrading to a smartphone the moment I had the opportunity. The only reason I keep my old phone at all is not out of sentimental reasons but because I feel it would be a waste of tech to throw it in a garbage can.

Simply put, I'm incapable of bonding with a non-living entity. I enjoy the presence of the doll I already have and I love the things I can do with it, but at the end of the day it's just another toy to me.

As for doll personality...
If the eyes are windows to the soul, then the face is an open book waiting to be read. I'll pick the face that matches the character I want to create.

 

How do you bond with your doll?

Bonding for me is more of an admiration of my doll's aesthetics, or simply having my doll as a therapeutic item (as a stress reliever). I don't always tend to handle stress well, or right now I'm in a major transition in my life. There are a lot of changes that I am not taking well--- and simply using my dolls for stress relief is a major part of my bonding process. The end goal of this process is to make a blank doll something beautiful; and taking time to put all my effort into that is therapeutic for me.

I do my own faceups, make my own jewelry, and have started to sew outfits for my dolls. Sometimes buying an item for my doll also makes me happy, but I tend to overspend so I have started to create my own things to expand my creativity and save some money. Taking time to do all of these creative things and keeping myself productive has made me really enjoy having my doll around. Saying to other people and myself "I made this, or did this" is a great feeling. Also, to be honest my friends are kinda impressed I can do so much, haha. However... I do need to keep practicing my sewing and photography.

So in a nutshell: I bond with my dolls by creating them into what they are. No matter what the process is, it is fun and extremely enjoyable for me.

How do you figure out your dolls personality?

I have trouble with this actually. I'm a very rational person, so at first I thought it was silly to give a doll a personality. I pick a sculpt before I make the design of my doll. I think there is only two dolls I plan on making my characters into. So most of my sculpt searching is kinda easy.
Recently I have noticed I am slowly building up character personalities for my dolls. I have just given my two dolls names and started to build up basic personalities of how I envision my dolls would act. They are pretty one dimensional right now.

However, the two characters I have plan on making into dolls are apart of a story-comic series I am creating. So the characters definitely came before the dolls, and having them as dolls is just something I would like to have.