Doll Plans 2023

Time for a mid-year-ish update, I suppose!

Dolls: No more! Or, if anyone goes in, someone has to go out! Which, that'd probably be Beryl, but I want to see if I can figure out if there's a way to make her click.

Since I seem to be horrible at going "no more dolls" to myself, I made a rule: I can only consider 1/4 cyborg/android girls. Ones that will fit in my cabinet (looking at you, Ji-Zero.)

Current: Well, I failed this one badly! I did find someone to purchase Beryl when they get a chance, but other than that...? I screwed up both the 1/4 and the cyborgs! There was a cyborg gal from Coral Reef Dolls who had a lovely long sale period... and I decided I didn't want her, in the end. Lovely doll, super cool, but I like dolls I can sew for. Instead, I ended up getting not one, but two new dolls thus far! I ordered the Dream Valley rabbit gal and got a secondhand Ringdoll Nikki, the only SD-size doll who's taken my heart as much as my 1/4s have. Whoops.

At the very least, I still have enough room in the cabinet that everyone should fit. Provided Nikki doesn't wear her boots and thus can actually fit in without sitting down. And that's the most important criteria of all. All other rules? Out the window now.

Projects: I definitely want to expand everyone's wardrobe and work through my yarn and fabric stashes. I don't have specific pieces I plan on getting, but I have fabric earmarked for certain things. Shoes, I'll need to buy. I think I'm gonna end up with two barefoot dolls at the end of this year, with how everyone has been snatching each other's shoes.

Within that, I want to improve my sewing skills, particularly trying stuff like buttonholes and zippers. I also want to expand on what I knit for the dolls, with more textures and such, or colorwork if I have the opportunity. At least some different shapes.

Beyond clothes, my big goal is to do weekly photoshoots. My current idea is to use one of those random word generators to spit out some words, pick one as the theme, and get a photo. I imagine some weeks I won't be able to do it, but I want to make the effort.

Current: I am expanding wardrobes and working through my stash! Alas, events keep happening that land me with more yarn and fabric... But I think I've been doing a good job at least making an effort to keep up with the monthly sewing challenges. I appreciate them a ton. As for improving, it's slow going. I've yet to (successfully) try real buttonholes or zippers, but I did learn my buttonhole foot wants nothing to do with tiny buttons! So I guess it's time to learn how to sew buttonholes by hand. I did just grab a pattern for OT dolls to sew today, and it has buttons...

Also, I have added a new sewing goal, and that is to make a doll bag for transport. Beryl's is gonna go to her new home with her some day, after all. I have some fabric options, I just gotta get off my butt and do it.

As for shoes, all the MSDs who need shoes have them! Woo! Multiple pairs, even, for some! Nikki was a fullset, so she came with her own shoes, leaving just my DearSD Megu in need of them. But I did find she can at least fit into Nikki's boots, which alleviates some of my fears of "what if I get shoes that aren't Megu's size?" Problem is that Megu and Nikki have totally different styles, but a start is a start.

Weekly photoshoots, eh, stopped happening. Not a surprise. Somewhat disappointing, but not a surprise.

Community: Maybe go to a con or a doll meet? I'd have to look at schedules and such. I'm not sure if there's doll meets near me, anyhow.

Current: I looked into some cons, and decided those bad boys are pricy and a lot of logistics. So, not this year. I did go to a writing con, though, so I went to a con! Totally counts, right? But that con isn't running next year, so this goal may have to move to next year, too. Build my funds up again.

I did find out there's a meet going on near my brother's city while I'm traveling next month to visit him, but the goal is to visit him, not do doll things. Plus, I'm not even sure my mother and I are renting a car for that trip! Even with public transport being much nicer near that meet than where I am, it still goes from an about 30min drive by car to I believe over an hour using public transport. Ah well. Ships passing in the night, etc etc.

 

Well

Well, well, well

I did get rid of my IG and other doll related SM accounts so plus one for me! I haven't actually sold anything... I might've bought more...

Since we're almost halfway through the year, I'm going to update my goals.

• One doll in, one doll out
• Really for real this time no joke stop buying new dolls (trades are ok as long as they're near equal)
• Sort my clothing/etc. collection to see what I actually want to keep
• Find new and interesting ways to photograph my dolls
• Save up money and leave time specifically for either Dallas or Resin Rose 2024

 

• Put a ResinSoul doll on layaway and try not to go feral when I have to wait 4 months for it to arrive
• Buy some of those little 1/12 blind box BJDs (Penny’s Box & Simon’s Dolls)
• Sculpt my own BJD out of clay
• Buy wigs, eyes & accessories for my dolls
• Sew my own clothes for my dolls (I hope they like long sleeve shirts made out of socks! )

 

2023 Goals:
1. Actually purchase a doll so I can officially get back into the hobby [[Just completed!!!!]]
2. Get at least one of my grails on my wish list into my collection.
3. Start sewing again and start making my own BJD clothing (this also means I should probably buy a sewing machine)
4. Attend AT LEAST one meetup so I can meet local collectors (or at least semi-local ones).
5. Maybe learn to do faceups? This one is a big maybe.

 

Best of luck to everyone with their plans! I see a lot of incomming pretties and interesting creative projects I hope we all get to see pictures of.

My plans for 2023 was originally just to:

• Keep my eyes open for my #1 grail
• Check up on all my babies in storage to make sure they're ok
• And maaaaybe buy one new doll (this was a big maybe, because he was a new doll I only just recently fell in love with).

However with my best friend (and only irl doll friend) passing away a few weeks ago, I now find myself motivated to do so much more.

• I'm gonna search for more dolls on my wishlist other than just the one
• I'm gonna look for eyes and wigs for all of my dolls who still need it and I'll try making clothes for them as well
• And the doll I was debating whether to buy or not, I am most definitely buying!

All because I know my friend would have encouraged me to do it all. After all, she loved watching people spend money on fun stuff

 

This year I did what I said I'd do and bought some Bust Stands so I can make dolls of some characters without having to find shelf space for more SDs. I want to do more of that- they make nice little portraits, instead of me having to spend on or own a whole doll.

Plans, not concrete and subject to health:

I want to finish Gerry's outfit- he's a Dream High Gino, a little old gnome dude, and a magical creature veterinarian. If we get ambitious I wanna make his cottage interior.

Faceups for Bust heads

Faceup and body (on the way) and outfits for my RamCube Q-bi Head. Who needs a name. She's going very Holly Hobby/ cottagecore, very unlike my other dolls.

Faceups, dye and outfits for Two anime girls, one of them Black with Natural hair, the other in the usual anime pale Japanese look. DZ Pink Bear will be the pale girl, and we'll see about the other one. I started with just one and then knew they need to be a pair.

I want to find the right body for my Minifee Nanuri head I've got. She just doesn't strike me as right for the MNF body.

Faceup for Lane, a LTF event faceplate who will share a body with Selby. Maaayyyyyyyybe a LTF body for him if I find one.

AND, a ton of the original crew need maintenance, joint dye, de-yellowing dye, new faceups, etc. I like to gradient dye the joint areas on my lighter skinned dolls in redder tones so that they have more rub resistant blushing. I've done that to my PukiPuki when I de-yellowed her, and I love the effect. She looks great.

 

I cannot believe how fast the year has gone. We are already are in June.
My plans for this year was to grow my collection, I have been waiting on my preorders to arrive.
I have been searching for discontinued molds to add to my collection.
My other plans is to harness my crafting skills to make clothes and shoes for my BJDs.

 

Halfway through the year, but my main plan was to finally get my hands on a new bjd again after eight years, which I'm currently waiting on. Other than that, I'm looking to learn more about faceups and maybe get into making accessories sometime soon, too.

 

Checking in... updated my OP.

Not much progress on anything -- I've been a bit swamped IRL and haven't been in the headspace to work through the bigger projects that require more focus. (The downside of having ADHD-like hyperfocus: if I'm not in the mood, or hyperfocused on other things, the todo list kinda doesn't exist and never gets done. And who knows when I'll next be in the mood...)

The only goals I'm actively "doing" are taking photos, and not buying dolls. Taking photos is easy with a smartphone! I just have to take the next step and get out the DSLR (one of my goals), which seems harder to do than I expected.

Not buying dolls has also been surprisingly easy: I've discovered I'm very reluctant to buy more dolls if I'm still waiting to receive some. And I've bought dolls that have very long preorder waiting times, so I've been able to exploit this and prevent myself from impulse buying more. It means the wishlist is slowly growing, but it also means more chance for something to fall off it. I'm getting antsy though - it feels like I've been waiting forever and I want my incoming dolls to come home!

 

Update. My Alice has a body now, the twins are complete. Holly still has her old body, at this point I'm not sure if I still like her all that much, unfortunately... Health issues are keeping me from doing faceups, so no news there. My Lake (Yur EID Iplehouse girl) has her complete outfit, hooray!
Edit August 20: Holly will get a new faceup eventually, and will keep her body after all, at least for now. I'll do more research on bodies when she has a new face. My Swan (Alice from AiL) had an accident, her facup got damaged so I removed it and hope to give her a fresh one soon...

 

Yeah, I failed The cap blew off.
But on the other hand, I have been sewing and crocheting for my dolls as promised so it's not a total loss!

 

plans...do not work out....got a puyoodoll kumako kuku on layaway and am eyeing a kumako body too....help.

 

As an update, I figured out my Dollfie Dream girl (June)'s style, and I restrung my SD girl! Yay! But the rest of my plans changed since I found myself in a better financial situation and became a bit impulsive. I bought a Dust of Dolls Roze Chae and then also bought a Resinsoul Tang body with a Resinsoul Shi head in the hopes of shelling a character I've needed to shell. My Luts girl is getting reshelled, too, bc I bought the new Yul girl in the Luts event (for my birthday).

Barring maybe the winter Luts event, I will not be buying anymore dolls. Instead I want to fill out some wardrobes for certain dolls, specifically my Argodoll Zet and Resinsoul Wu. I will also need to buy some accessories for when my blank dolls arrive, but I think that'll happen at the end of the year.

 

Well... i did make those orders. Also another vinyl (off-topic) girl, and considering another so i'll get used to taking them places and maybe eventually stop freaking out about taking my resin dolls places. Hopefully. But god after this i'm DONE for a while (unless those heads get put on the chopping block, please no, souldoll).

Also i don't recall if this was on my original list, but i have GOT to get rid of this one doll that doesn't match anyone else in my crew. I've thrown i think four characters at her now and none stick and since she doesn't match anyone it bugs me to have her with them anyway. ugh. Hopefully soon (and maybe that will make me feel better about all the orders i made this year, oof).

 

New Dolls: About the halfway mark and I already ended up with that additional YoSD and SD. However, I've ended up selling/am selling them both as they just didn't/aren't fitting in my collection and I've come to realize that I like more smiley expressions. I've also sold/am selling a few more in my collection because they just aren't cutting it anymore. I also sold that floating head. As far as my collection "theme", I've made my MSDs into Fairy Tale characters and my SDs into fantasy-esque characters.

Faceups: All the faceups I needed done are complete! Especially since I'm selling/have sold some of the ones that needed them. I'd like to get one to have a better faceup at some point though as it's one I did and while I'm happy with it, I want it to be nicer and more professional looking.

Accessories/Clothes: The minifees that needed custom outfits are no longer those characters and can work in more "generic" clothes and some I already have. Pretty happy about that! I need to get one more wig, maybe two, and am waiting on some foxy ears and tail. I also got one of my dolls some elf ears and an archery bow and she looks amazing in them (my F60 Miwa, the link to her profile is in my signature). I also bought a bunch of clothes for my F60 boy because he was seriously lacking in that department.

Crafting: I don't have the room for dioramas anymore so that's going to be a permanent cancellation and I'm really bummed by that

Hobby Involvement: I've been taking more pictures but haven't posted many on my IG yet because they're not as good of a quality as my standards dictate


Right now, I'm trying to not buy any more dolls unless my big boy sells and I can get the mermaid tail that Fairyland released! I'm eyeing a Fairyline Celine to be my Little Mermaid in my current collection of Fairy Tale MSDs.

 

My list from earlier this year:

1. A couple Resinsoul sculpts I want more proportionate bodies for. Here's hoping the Guard Love bodies on order do the trick!
Resinsoul Li is now on an old style Doll Leave's body. The wider shoulders and taller build really suit her and the hands and heel feet from RS match close enough. The Guard Love body is a near perfect fit for DIM Flowne.

2. Move to the metaphorical back-burner any doll projects that have stalled out. Not every idea needs to happen. Some character ideas got shelved entirely, some just changed shape.

3. Research photography backgrounds and/or diorama walls. No diorama, but do have a sort of doll clubhouse/doll furniture shelf that's functioning as additional display storage.

4. Draw or collage ideas for character outfits and acquire and or alter some patterns for the ones that still sound good. Nada zip zilch, no progress here at all. Sustained energy has not been happening.

5. Buy or make shoes. So many shoes. Around a 1/4 (or more) of my crew don't have any shoes at all. Made an order with Alice's Collections for many, tiny shoes and so many more dolls have shoes now! Yay!

6. Actually re-home any dolls that just aren't working out. Buy less clothes that don't go with existing pieces and aren't part of a character's outfit. Yeah, no. No full dolls left and I totally bought clothes from Mobinjo's closing sale. I'm not sad about it because supporting artists is cool and the clothes are so cute!

7. Pick out bodies for the remaining floating heads. Work on project dolls. Hard to catch up with this one when three different companies had sales on discontinuing sculpts. Doing the body shuffle with older doll bodies after swapping the existing head to a new body is working well to get most of the floating heads at least on some kind of body.

8. Get my in-studio storage better organized and thin things out. Re-organize what's left. Did sell and or pass on some things and re-organized some other things. Still more to do.

9. Build a spray box with a filtered ventilation fan so doing faceups in bad weather is possible. So much re-arranging still to do but acquired a vent fan and some tubing. Version 1.5 of sealant spray stand made from random stuff from around my house is done. Research + materials gathering on Version 2 has started.​

And doll community projects in no particular order: make process posts about how to research hybrid dolls, make something about how to rough-calibrate display screens for comparing resin color samples, post more doll profiles for the dolls that are complete enough, maybe plan another one-off doll meet, register for doll convention(s?). Registered for the local-ish doll convention and pretty much nothing else. Doll stuff requiring sustained energy or creativity has taken a backseat to life and general health stuff. Brain fog and intermittent fatigue suck so much.

TL;DR summary for the Half-year Check in: Some of the things got done! Yay! : D

 

I'd like to sell one of my dolls but I've never sold anything on the internet before! I'd like to purchase another doll or two but not until I sell that doll. I know I could throw him up on the market here but without any feedback I'm not sure how successful that'd be. I'm probably just overthinking it.

 

Updates till now:
1) Done!
2) Not Yet
3) In Process
4) Done!
5) Done!
6) In Process

 

Late in the year to be making plans, but I wasn't actively in the hobby at the start of the year, so why not start now?

1) Make each of my doll a unique complete outfit
2) Properly sort out storage for wigs/eyes/clothes etc
3) Get the materials to try my own faceups
4) Start on a doll diorama section of my room
5) Give all my dolls a proper and thorough clean
6) Learn to restring dolls so I can fix the floppy ones and suede them if need be

I'm unfortunately going through tough family circumstances right now (both of my parents have come down with different serious health issues) but doing things with my dolls gives me a break from things and keeping things tidy and meeting mental goals is good for my mental health

 

1. wigs. god, please, wigs! i know that faceups, eyes, clothes and shoes are expensive, etc. (cause i can try to "solo" only clothes), but it's not this hard to make a wig for me.
2. get my love, michelle, something to wear. she has great body, but with clothes she will be ok too.