Doll maintenance you just HATE

Wow....I actually LIKE restringing dolls!

My biggest annoyance is cleaning. I have several WS dolls, and I handle all of my dolls a lot and it just really doesn't take much of anything for them to start looking dirty again. The absolute worst is when one of my tattooed boys needs to be totally wiped and cleaned and repainted. Mike and Axl are complete nightmares!! Their tattoos are all day jobs.

 

I love doing faceups, and I even like restringing (now that I'm good at it. But I still run screaming from one-part torsos...), but what I really really hate is cleaning. I love body blushing, and my dolls wear a lot of black...which means they're constantly a mess under their clothes. NS, WS, tan...all of them. Especially the ones covered in tattoos D:
Cleaning has become a normal part of redressing for me and I can't stand it because it never really works. Either I take off all the blushing, or they just stay kinda gross-looking.

I also hate gluing in eyelashes...worst part of faceuping. Which is why most of my dolls are lash-less.

 

Does cleaning her clothes count as maintenance? Restringing is cool, if annoying. Changing feet is fun. I like faceups. I don't mind cleaning.

But washing little doll clothes and turning the stupid little sleeves right-side out makes me want to burn them all.

 

Stringing I've never even fully restrung a doll and stringing is the most frustrating. I've attempted to take just feet/hands off for manicures and I've had an entire leg fall off as the accidental response. Then, for another doll, the S hook snapped back and dug pretty far into my skin.

 

This is the one that drives me insane. You just sit there forever scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing and it NEVER moves and sometimes I have been severely tempted to toss the head across the room in frustration.

I have a head I need to clean and mail out and I keep putting it off >.>

 

When I think I've finally got the eyelashes in nicely, but when I put the eyes in they get skewed The more I have to fiddle with them, the more I risk damaging the face-up...
When restringing ends up being way more difficult, painful, and takes way longer than expected. My first dolls were MSDs, so restringing was easy. Now I have SDs with many extra joints, it's not so easy anymore!
When blush for a face-up just won't go on even...
Annnndd, sanding down an entire SD doll as a nightmare! So was removing old bodyblushing from a secondhand doll. My hands were raw afterwards.



But what I love is when previously difficult tasks become manageable or easy! Recently I don't have any trouble painting fine, symmetrical lines for face-ups, including eyebrows ^_^

 

Another vote for removing faceups! (Especially when after liberal amounts of all kinds of desperate chemical measures the poor thing is so stained it needs to be sanded ... argh!) Followed closely by painting eyebrows.

 

I actually don't mind removing face-ups... I have my miracle nail polish remover; pour it into a cup, let the doll head soak in there for approx. 5 minutes, and poof! when you apply a cotton pad or a tooth brush (for the creases), the whole head comes clean.

 

restringing because I just can't get the tightness right as well as I don't really have the useful tools DX

 

Dressing, which isn't really mainenance, but I don't like struggling while trying to pull arms or legs into clothes. Even the dolls best at posing are so uncooperative in my hands when it comes to changing clothes. I now rarely change my dolls clothes.

 

wow! all the fun things I get to look forward to, when mine finally arrives. I love all your responses. I got several good laughs out of this.

 

1. Hot glueing, because it burns! and it often peels off anyway like clumps of sunburnt skin, urgh.

2. Painting eyelashes and eyebrows, especially eyebrows. Hideous and soul-destroying. I can never get the fine spider-like lines I want, so usually end up with ungainly lines through sheer desperation.

3. Restringing. Don't let go of that elastic, because it'll ruin your hard work AND take your nail off at the same time.

4. Positioning eyes. My dolls often have heavy eyelids that make it really hard to both show the iris and not leave gaps, and then the sculpy gets stuck under your nails and to your clothes and blah.

5. Dressing, especially in those fiddly little Dollheart numbers with the thousands of tiny buttons and laces.

OK, I'll be honest - I dislike MOST of doll maintenance, and that's why I hardly do it

 

Putting in the stupid tiny eyelashes! I always end up with glue everywhere, and they're always uneven

Also, eye repositioning. Its such a hassle to have to remove the wig and everything. I wish there was a lever that could move the eyes

 

Out of the maintenance type things I've done, I really don't enjoy a) eyeball adjusting, b) gluing lashes, and c) removing face-ups. I've yet to restring my dolls, but I have a feeling I'm not going to enjoy it. I've been putting it off as long as possible...but I know I can't avoid it forever.

 

Restringing which seems to be the norm!

 

Argh, eyelashes! -flips a desk over-

I don't mind faceup work all that much, though, yes, lower eyelashes can be frustrating. Installing eyes used to make me curse, before I switched to silicone ear plugs to hold them in. Combing and restyling wigs isn't all that bad. Washing clothes and hanging their miniature trousers up to dry makes me chuckle. I actually happen to enjoy restringing, and I find re-dressing them to be almost therapeutic.

BUT DAMN THOSE SPIDERLY LITTLE EYELASHES THAT WANNA FLUTTER OFF THE TABLE AND SAG IN THE GLUE AND STICK TO MY TOOLS AND THEN GET TWEAKED AND MESSED UP TWO DAYS LATER!

 

Restringing without another person's help is the reason why I live with floppy dolls.

 

I haven't had to do any doll maintenance yet luckily...I do want to try doing my own face ups but I'm intimidated by gluing eyelashes. I can't even apply fake eyelashes to myself. I can't imagine it being any easier on a much smaller doll's eyes.

 

Wiping off faceups and/or body blushing.... Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!

 

Removing faceups doesn't bother me... but I hate stain removal!! It is SO tedious, and you have to worry about accidentally removing sealant or faceups! One of my guys wears only black clothes, and I constantly keep him dressed, cos I know if I undress him, his stains will bug the crap out of me. But I worry about him becoming stained because I neglect him that way! And the only thing worse than stain removal on resin is stain removal on vinyl Dollfie Dreams!

I don't mind restringing, but I dislike it when a doll gives me trouble when I want to glue suede it (like if the sockets are too deep to glue, or if the ball is perfectly round and doesn't grip the socket anywhere!). And eyelashes ARE always a pain. Especially when they cover the eye instead of going up!

Linda S.
galatia9