Does Anyone Limit Your Creativity?

My boyfriend may have teased the way my dolls looked, or insisted I do something 'cool' to them (planned it and then been insulted when I declined that), but ultimately? I found a way to afford and purchase the dolls, I can do whatever the heck I want with them.

 

Only my boss ... by not paying me enough!

but seriously, no. I can't even imagine what sort of modification my husband might object to since he doesn't care much about my dolls really, other than for being happy for me that i'm enjoying them. If i wanted to pile them up in the front yard and burn the lot i don't think he'd bat an eyelash (lol, no worries, no resin bonfires are planned). Other than that nobody else would even know about my creativity or lack thereof unless i chose to share photos or take my dolls out so they couldn't really place limits. All of my limits are self-imposed, and by that i mean stuff i don't WANT to do rather than stuff i want to do but am preventing myself.

 

I'm an adult, I make my own money and have been on my own for many years, my parents don't control and aren't otherwise involved in my hobbies, and my husband really doesn't care one way or the other what I do with the dolls. So, no, my creativity is not limited by anything.

 

The only two things that limit my creativity are money and my own abilities. Money is obviously needed to purchase the materials to be creative (unless you have a lot of items with potential lying around) and I feel limited by what I myself can do with my dolls without lots and lots of practice.

My folks just stare and shake their heads, but as far as I'm concerned as long as what I do isn't glaringly offensive the sky's the limit. I've done some crazy things to my other toys in the past

 

8V Honestly, consequences are for the young, in the terms that you apply them. =u= Many learn to eventually sidestep those small interferences. We must, as it's a step forward in life. Patience to all those things you can't help, like money etc.

Not that I am trying to influence you negatively, but why must you report to anyone what you are going to do with your doll? I know that it is nice to feel a reciprocated excitement for a doll, but often in life people will not agree with you. Will you let that stop you every time? Eventually you will learn to avoid such a thing. I am not saying to disrespect your mother, but a sense of autonomy for a person does have its benefits.

 

Is you creativity limited by someone or something?
Who or what limits your creativity? Why?
Yes. Being a fellow younger doll collector I see this often. I absolutely love yuri stories for dolls, and since I have two girls, I'd love to do one sometime. But if my family ever saw me setting them up or anything they'd be so appalled and try and get me involved in therapy or something. It's really stupid, specially since I've dated girls before and my family totally approved of those girls and me dating them, but they find it disgusting being acted out by dolls, for some reason.

I'm just kind of biting my tongue and holding back for now, waiting until I can take them to a park or something by myself and get some good photos away from the house and peering eyes.

How do you feel about this and do you wish it to stop?
Of course I do! I think anyone who's being limited wishes the things stopping them would go away. I find it upsetting to some degree, but I know there are still other things I can do with my dolls, that helps a lot. Even if I can't do everything I want with them, I still have them. It's kind of like wanting to get a car and take it on a cross-country road trip, but your parents won't let you. Well, you've still got the car and can still drive it somewhere at least, even if just to the gas station. That means something, at least!

Do you feel limited because of the consequences that may follow if you do something for the sake of creativity?
Well, my consequences aren't as severe as yours, such as being grounded. But I certainly don't want to be forced to go to therapy for something stupid like this, so I guess I can say yes to this.

The most annoying way I am limited is none of the above, though. The most frustrating part of my limited creativity is that my family really don't like me taking my dolls outside to take pictures. And I have seriously gross, horrible-to-work-with lighting indoors. I have to edit my pictures to hell and back just in order to get the colors half-way correct. And since I can't buy a hotlight or umbrella right now, that's all I really have to work with. That is extremely frustrating, that and the 3-foot table top space where my photos take place... You can only take so many photos in a 3-foot space before they become repetitive and not at all artistic. Being outdoors would give all these problems, lighting, space and a bit of new scenery.

 

My main limitation at the moment is not a person but the almighty dollar.... a restriction which I hate on so many levels as there is a sense of being stripped of a certain degree of pride that at my age money shouldn't be a problem. However, I constantly remind myself it's only temporary whilst I'm finishing part time graduate studies this year and in 2011 things will be different.
However, I can sympathise completely with those of you younger collectors who feel their parents constrict and bind their creativity as I grew up with a very authorotarian ultra-religious evangelical christian mother who I butt heads with several times when it came to trying to explain the concepts behind a lot of my work as a University art college student in my late teens / early 20s...and she didn't exactly care for the gothic stage I was going through at this time.
These days we have a very limited relationship where I keep her quite happily at arms length and we maintain a civil relationship, but I laugh when I think of how she'd react to my soon-to-be demoness-like concept I have in mind for the blue resinsoul Ai I have on order. Mothers!

 

I was going to say "money", but I realized that even if I'm flat broke there are always creative things I could be doing, as long as I have a pencil and paper. So money is really no excuse for me.

I have to admit that the only thing limiting my creativity is me being lazy. I should be sewing right now, but I'm sitting in front of the computer. I should be writing character stories, but I'm not. I should also be doing the laundry, but that's another thing altogether.

 

Is you creativity limited by someone or something?
The rents. Obviously. And my peers.

Who or what limits your creativity? Why?
My friends and parents say he looks like a girl, and my mom refuses to let me use her paypal account to buy my doll a 3-piece suit because she says "he doesn't need nice clothes, he's a doll, he can just wear t-shirts and shorts".... T.T This pisses me off SO so so bad.

How do you feel about this and do you wish it to stop?
YES I WISH IT TO STOP I look forward to living alone JUST so I can spend MY money on what I want to spend it on DX It makes me REALLY really mad

EDIT: Do you feel limited because of the consequences that may follow if you do
something for the sake of creativity?
Yes. I'd probably be grounded if my parents found out the character of my doll was gay, and my mom just gets pissed if I want to make him a mesh shirt DX
On top of it all, I'm not popular enough for them, so they think I don't have any friends. When I told them I had sewn a dress for my friend's doll during lunch -expecting praise- they got angry at me for not being with friends or paying attention during school >.>

 

Who or what limits your creativity? Why? Money to a major extent, competing hobbies/interests, and occasionally laziness or timidity. Also it doesn't help that I have to be in a crazy-creative-passion mood, have the funds and have the right doll or parts show up all at the same time. It's like being some kind of astrologer waiting for a great conjuction of sorts! But when it happens, it's awesome!

How do you feel about this and do you wish it to stop? Oh I don't know, the world isn't a perfect place, and creative energy is magic and I feel it's best let run wild and untamed. Crushing it down into plans and common sense takes the fun out of it for me. I play my hand the way it lays, or I wait for the right time.

EDIT: Do you feel limited because of the consequences that may follow if you do something for the sake of creativity? Nope! My philosophy is to Make It Work. If it doesn't turn out the way I wanted, I Make It Work the best I can anyway.

Raven

 

The answer to most limits in life always boils down to money. We are a capitalistic society where money drives just about everything, and I've yet to see any aspect in life that doesn't. I don't think this to be a natural order to a higher level of being, just what we've drowned ourselves in.

Money only lacks our creativity if we feel that everything must be manifested into the physical world, aka on our dolls.

 

my terrible sewing, photography and faceup skills. <.<''
also, i dont even have enough money to buy them clothes. and i cant make them any so there boring to shoot. but then comes the problem that i also cant take decent picutres.
i can live the faceups though... they are always WAY far from what i want but they dont look like a complete mess

 

My own laziness is mainly my limitation, though money is a huge factor. I'd never have gotten these dolls if I had been living with my parents still (granted, I didn't even know about them until this last year, and I've been out on my own for the better part of six years), much less keep them in the condition I do currently. My parents handled the discovery of them just fine, but they still are unaware of the price tag and teased me about being too old to play with dolls. But it's one thing having a hobby under their roof and another having it under my own. I remember getting in trouble for doing all kinds of hobbies instead of chores (which are always there to do, every day, waiting...).

Laziness can be overcome with industry, money issues can be overcome with creativity. Right now I am flat broke and without work, and my dolls look great because I've been able to spend time with them. I have fabric from old projects and old clothes, very little sewing experience, but I can learn and currently have the time. I did many things without telling my parents over the years simply to avoid drama. It was five months before they knew abut my hobby, and that was more out of chance than design. Was I afraid of what they'd say? No, they don't mind my hobbies (they're reenactors, for goodness' sake), they just want me to focus on "important things" first (bills, work, car repair, chores, etc).

 

IMySD: I hope I don't sound weird or anything, but your post really made me want to give you a hug. I know how frustrating it can be to not be able to express yourself the way you want to. My suggestion to you, for now, would be to learn Photoshop as best you can. That way, until you can physically add faux cigarettes and paint on tattoos, you can add them digitally. This also give you leave to see what tattoos would look best on him, you know? And if your mom asks, you can tell her you are just seeing how it would look, as I'm wondering if she freaked out because of the idea of modifying something that expensive, or that you might want to smoke yourself because you think it's "cool"... Not that I'm trying to encourage bad behavior! (I'm sorry if it seems that way! )

Is your creativity limited by someone or something?
Only myself and my own ideas and not being able to accomplish the end results I want. I think the only real limitations I put on myself are what I share with others and what I keep for myself because I don't want anyone to think less of me.

How do you feel about this and do you wish it to stop?
Yes, I wish I could show everyone pictures of my dolls and have them think they look amazing and that they are as cool as I think they are, but I find I don't share my hobby with almost anyone I know because I know they just wouldn't care and I wouldn't want to force them to partake unless they wanted to. Most of my friends know about my dolls solely because they have been to my house and seen them on their shelves, but most don't even notice them really, and I don't take them out to show them off.

Do you feel limited because of the consequences that may follow if you do something for the sake of creativity?
Sometimes I do. Sometimes I wish I could cart a couple of them along with me to a public place and take hundreds of pictures of them without being interrupted by passersby (especially Disney and Sea World) or feeling self conscious about what I'm doing, but I don't because I'm tired of the questions and the stares and the interruptions while I'm trying to be creative.

All in all, I would say, for now, try working on your dolls' character and appearance on your own, and work on achieving the aspect you want that your mom does approve of - learn to sew, sketch out your ideas, write out your stories, and find another way to tap into your creativity.

 

Is you creativity limited by someone or something?
No person can limit my creativity because I live alone and I'm an adult. I'm limited only by funds, and the fact that being in very small student accommodation means that there isn't enough space to be doing things like mod work, especially when involving dangerous chemicals.

How do you feel about this and do you wish it to stop?
There's nothing that I can do about it, and there are benefits to studying in Japan that I feel outweigh the financial and practical problems. When I'm back in the UK I'll have more opportunity for more creative doll activities.

Do you feel limited because of the consequences that may follow if you do something for the sake of creativity?
I would be a little wary of photographing dolls in a public space, although I've done so with anime figures before. Also I can't spend too much because I need to be able to eat and pay the rent, and that's a pretty serious consequence!

 

I dunno how strict your mom must be, but why do you ask her in the first place? Anyway ...

Is you creativity limited by someone or something?

No. Maybe money but there's cheap alternatives.

EDIT: Do you feel limited because of the consequences that may follow if you do something for the sake of creativity?

Maybe but I always find a way to get around the consequences

 

My mum really likes my dolls and calls herself a dollie granny. She doesnt do much to limit my creativity but when she doesnt like something I do with my dolls, she says so and sometimes she truly irratiating about it xD And once she had her way and I ended up doing not what I wanted but what she requested.

I had bonding problems with my Miho kid, so I decided to give him new faceup, absolutely different from what he had before. For it to be more extreme, I decided on very cute maskish faceup, with clown-like-red nose tip, and was also planning on blond-with-blue-bit mohair wig. Image in my head was srsly cute and I found an amsing faceup artist here on DOA to make it for me in great quality. But when my mum found out what kind of faceup I wanted, she was VERY MUCH against it. She kept telling me 'dont dooo it to hiiiiim' every chance she could get, with stuff like 'if you'll do it to him, I'll steal him and wash his face' or 'if you dont like him, then sell him to me, I'll take better care of him' and my insisting that boy is mine for me to decide what to do with him didnt help at all. In the end all her whining made me nervous about new faceup, and I started to worry that faceup will turn out not as cute as I expect it to be, and mums whining will drive me mad along the way, so, in the end, I comissioned simple cute boyish faceup for him. I still think that my previous idea was srsly cute and I would have loved it, but his boyish faceup he got turned out so absolutely cute, I dont regret it at all. My bonding problems washed away completely And even if I am a bit irratiated at mum for forsing me to do something, I forgave her since final result is good enyway.

But it's not like my mum can always forse me to do things she wants. Now she tries to force me to change tomboy look of my Ninomiya to something more girly and elegant and no way in hell I'll go her way. My bonding with Ninomiya is excellent and I wont change her just because mum says so.