Can you love them all?

Dolls for me are art pieces and creative outlets for tangential artistic things such as sewing and faceups so yeah display is their main purpose. I don't really understand what people do when they "play with" or "spend time with" their dolls but that doesn't interest me, if I want companionship I have a living breathing cat for that. I would be over the moon having a whole room full of dolls displayed on shelves and stands and I don't feel guilty fixating on some over others. They 'aint real or living. It'd be like feeling guilty for wearing one dress more than another lol.

 

I have, by pretty much any objective standard, a fairly ludicrous number of dolls in my crew... But here's the thing... I'm a *collector*. I enjoy having that entire ridiculous, sprawling tribe and, to me, that's what a proper collection IS. An assortment of related things that you enjoy having around. I can't say that I tinker with every single doll every single day (I don't), or that I don't have favorites (I absolutely do-), but if I didn't love the gang, I wouldn't keep them. The actual numbers are irrelevant.

All that said, I'm also one of those people who see their dolls as toys rather than resin children or little inanimate BFFs. Very cool and highly-valued toys, granted, but still Objects rather than Entities. That means I probably relate to my dolls a little differently than someone who sees them in a more animistic light. Like Nefla, I don't feel any guilt at all over one getting more attention than another, because they're just dolls. They aren't capable of jealousy or loneliness. They don't give a fig who got a new outfit and who didn't.

 

Currently I own two dolls and one is on the way, so one day I'll own three dolls.
I used to own five dolls but I got overwhelmed and decided to sell some of them. It just seems like a smaller crew is perfect for me

I prefer to make time for two dolls/characters to change their clothes, posing or eyes. But I still view them as art pieces and don't really feel the need to spread out my love evenly between them.
It's more like getting overwhelmed if I own too many dolls and I don't like to have too many dolls sitting on the shelves.

 

I currently have about 46 dolls plus some various parts that need to be turned into full dolls. I only have one doll I don't care for, and that's because I've just been lazy about selling him on, the rest are all dolls I like, and were all purchased because I like them.

Everyone enjoys the hobby in a different way, and just because someone has a different way of doing things than you do, that doesn't mean it's "pointless." It doesn't affect them if I handle them every day, or leave them in a glass case for a year, or leave them in a box in the closet for a year. They're not alive, and they don't feel; they don't know if they're in a box or a display case or being photographed because they can't know--they're objects.

It's fairly easy to anthropomorphize them because of their human appearance (and typically, a cute or attractive human appearance), but it's important to remember that they're still just objects. I invest my time and energy into my cats, not my dolls, because the cats are alive and do feel, and they all have different needs and desires for attention (like the one that's sitting on my mouse pad right now). The dolls do bring me joy to own and work on, but anything alive will always come first.

 

I found the majesty that is your social media last year, and I must say, I like the way you approach your collection. You get a doll, and if they don't click for you, you talk it through with yourself. You take some more photos, try new things, let it sit for a bit. Then you move them on. It's a process, and it can help you connect or disconnect. Especially if it's a doll you've had for a while.

 

I currently have six complete dolls and hopefully will be adding three more to my family this year. I feel that I'd like to stop at ten to twelve, but who knows. I don't see myself as having a giant collection though because I lack space and I'd also get overwhelmed, and I do feel that I wouldn't be able to give my dolls enough love.

Like @ekala said, for me my attachment to my dolls comes from them embodying my characters. The doll itself may just be a piece of plastic, but it has meaning to me because it represents Kestrel, or Aramy, or whoever; it's as close as having them exist in real life as possible. That being said, the great thing about them being plastic is they won't care if I'm not in the mood to play with them one day or another; they'll always be there waiting when I want to come back to them. But my fondness, or I guess I'll call it love, for them remains always.

 

Oh my life, I’m 100% the same! Mine live in my wardrobe and I can go months and months without looking at them if I’m busy or something, doesn’t mean I don’t value them and the OCs I made them from, but I also don’t want to manhandle something so pricey all the time!

 

LinkInMyHead, I also think about avoiding manhandling my white SoulDoll Bebe Aku; he's white resin, discontinued doll and has the default pink body blushing from them -- so every time I take him out to take photos, I feel like I lose a few years off my life trying not to handle him too much, or trying hard to not break his tiny hands. I've modified my most expensive doll, and most expensive head sculpt quite a bit though; so I don't handle the others due to them being too valuable/cost-me-too-much, but rather because I don't always have the time (or energy) to do anything with them anymore. When I was younger I was always eager to make new clothes for them, take photos of them, or modify them but now I'm just older and lazier. DX

 

Oh thank you I'm not sure if I could continue with this method if I had, like, 20+ dolls. Maybe then I would struggle to love them all. It's hard to say when I've never had that many. But it's definitely working for me now. I do have a pretty long list of sculpts I would really like so it's possible in time I might reach a much higher number. I wonder if I could still connect this way with all of them. My process of collecting dolls is very slow now anyway, so even if I did get that many it would take many many many years.

It's been really interesting reading everyone's responses to this question. I guess it really depends what we want to get out of our dolls.

 

I have 5 full dolls now, and sadly no I don't love them equally. The ones I can't bond with, especially my 1st and 3rd dolls, I try to give more love, but it's not working very well. I might change their faceups to make them more fitting for the characters I want, hoping this would make me love them more. My 2nd and 5th dolls are my favorites, perfectly matching my OCs. My 4th doll (impulse buy and still no faceup) I have no feelings towards him at all, I feel like I still don't know him, but I hope after giving him a faceup it would make me find out his character and start loving him too.

 

I always ask myself this question, because I have 30+ dolls now.. To be honest I don’t love them all the same. There is a msd I really really like, I sold her at once but I regretted very soon. Luckily the buyer decided to sell her again so I bought her back and got three other sisters for her I would buy twin cloths for them but I do love her more than her sisters

 

Probably between 5-10, i feel like if i got more i'd be overwhelmed.

 

I can't, so I limit the amount! I feel bad when I have it but don't play with it.

 

I think 4 dolls I enough for me to manage, just like a child. I need to be able to give them everything they need, props, clothing, etc and just be able to enjoy each and everyone of them so they will not be left out of anything. When I got sick a couple of years ago I got rid of all my babies so I'm lonely now but will have some new dolls soon (fingers crossed).

 

I think it depends on the person! I haven't been long in the hobby (arround 1 year), but seeing how I'm doing I'll probably tend to end up with a large amount of dolls (I have 3 at the moment and 1 more coming home). However as I said, it varies for each person, I have friends in my local bjd group that prefer to have less dolls and spend all their time to spoil them, while others say they have "doll Diogenes syndrome" xD

 

There's always a favorite and I guess it is difficult to love them equally... I own a triplet of the same mold, but I spend my time and money mostly on a certain one of them and the other two (along with the rest of my doll families) are somehow less attended.

 

I've only got one, and while I am brand new to the hobby, I think I would be content if I continued to only have one forever and just pour all my affection and hobby energy into him.
If ever I did change my mind and decide to go for more, my max would probably have to be 3. Any more, and I'd probably feel overwhelmed. They take up a lot of space, and unfortunately, both my fiance and I have a lot of other very space-consuming hobbies...

 

I feel like it is impossible to love all the dolls, if the collection is huge. That's why I try to keep my collection as small as possible, and let go anyone that I don't have any feeling of

 

This sums up how I feel so well!

I see so many dolls that I find just stunning and I will look up pictures of them and think about adding more to the collection, but I got so much anxiety from adding the fourth that I don't think I could handle more. I grew up with a parent that hated clutter to an unreasonable extent and it seems to have done some work on my ability to actually collect anything. I like big dolls and the space they take up just makes me nervous, despite how much I love seeing them.

Plus there's the upkeep factor, which I'm only just starting to experience. One of them needs a new faceup and another needs restringing. I'm terrified! I'm looking forward to learning new skills, but when I think of maintaining even more dolls...

On the other hand, the small collection means that each of them is incredibly special!