Dolls as momentos?

Well, it wasn't going out of my way, exactly, but I do have one who is sort of a memento of a dead friend. My Luts Wintery, Ian was gotten as a floating head by my friend _mouse_, planned to be a fraternal twin brother to my AA Er. After she died in 2009, having not had the chance to put him together, her mum gave him to me and I completed him (bought him a body, gave him a faceup and used the eyes and wig she'd gotten for him), and he's now one of the dearest members of the Menagerie to me. It still stings a little to look at him, sometimes, but I'm glad to have him as something of a reminder of her.

As for something like actually making a doll of a dead person...no. Maybe, *maybe* something vaguely inspired by part of their personality, but not an actual doll version of them. I wouldn' do that with someone who was alive, either. If other people want to remember someone that way? Awesome, good for them and I hope that th e doll turns out well. Personally, though? I could never do it.

 

Someone once asked me if it didn't bother me that I don't have pictures of them and I had to confess that I'm not. Since I don't keep photo's of people who are still alive, it somehow felt forced to have one of someone who's dead now. Same way it would feel forced if I made a reminder-doll - especially since the relatives and friends I'm talking about hated dolls. Imagine their faces if they found out I dollified them .

I don't need something physical to remember them. It's just not the way I deal with things, I guess. But I can imagine, if you're friend was into dolls too, that you would want to honour the friendship you had by making a memento.

 

No, I don't think I would. I'm not sure how I would interact with such a doll, and though I find dolls to be comforting, in this case, I think it might be uncomfortable.

 

No I wouldn't. I think it would creep me out too much to have a doll that looked like a dead relative. I still get upset looking at photos and home videos.
I can see why some people would though as we all grieve differently.

 

I have a doll whose character I have based on my mother. She doesn't look like her, but my mother (b. 1913) lived through interesting times and I remember stories she told me about them. She was a teenager during the "Roaring Twenties" and had lots of tales to tell about bootleggers and dancing the Charleston on street corners for nickles. I always admired my mother's spunk and drive and having a doll with her character is a fun way to remember her, to say nothing of the great fashions of the time. I even named her after my mother, but it seems ok to me since my mother never went by her birth name but made one up she liked better when she grew up. Very typical of her, by the way. My mother had a long life and I remember her fondly. She would undoubtedly think my dolls are silly and extravagant.

 

That's a cool story, linakauno-- some characters are so vivid they just bear memorializing somehow, in historical context, like legends. If I were to make an ancestor-character doll, I'd probably make one of my Great-Great-Aunt Francesca, who was a bootlegger on the Lower East Side during the 20s Prohibition, and made a small fortune selling moonshine out of a big bottle hidden in the pram she pushed all over the neighborhood every day. (I'd like to have been alive to meet her!)

But I think a personal memento doll is a nice idea, if that's the way you feel like remembering that person. Especially if it's somebody you know would particularly get a kick out of it. My flamboyant Uncle Toby, I know, would be thrilled to his blue suede toes from beyond the grave if I ever made a doll of him.

I don't have any direct memento dolls of actual deceased people, no... but I do have a doll who's sort-of-based on somebody I knew about 20 years ago, of whose fate I have no idea (I've never even tried to Google him ^^). He is most likely still alive, but who knows? I like that I "memorialized" him just as he was when I knew him, to capture the things I so vividly liked + disliked about him at the time.

 

I have one, yes...but he's not a person. And he's still not painted, since I want to make him perfect and wasn't sure I could last year. He's a momento of my late kitty, 'Fei. I raised that cat from the time he was 4 weeks old, went through hell keeping him alive when he was about 5 years old, and racked up some serious vet bills along the way, then lost him when he was 7 the day I brought my second son home from the hospital. Before I had my children, he was my baby. After I had them, he was still my fur-baby. He was a total mama's boy, who didn't know what to do with himself any time I went out of town. He did everything he could with me whenever I was home, including curling up on the floor in the bathroom whenever I took a shower or bath. He'd go nuts if I didn't let him in with me. I needed him as much as he needed me for many of those few years I had him. So I'm very happy to have a dolly of him, and that that dolly has been made on topic here as a pet/accessory for other on topic dolls (which is how he'll fit in most of the time anyway) so that once he's done I can show him off a little to the few who knew I was getting him, and WHY, without having to have another doll visible in every image, so I can show some close-ups if I get his markings right.

For a person...well...if I had the ROOM in my collection to do so, I would very likely make a memorial doll of my paternal Grandmother...and possibly my paternal grandfather...when younger. I love them, and I miss them very much...and a doll of each of them from the time when they met would make a handsome dolly-couple. We'll see if it ever happens, though, because that set...would not only have to look right, but are ones that would be 'shelf/cabinet babies' instead of among the ranks of my 'played with' dolls.

 

I could never have a "spitting image" doll of a person but to have a doll inspired by some aspect of the person may be a different story. Not sure for myself though.

 

I've lost a friend, and even though I love them dearly I wouldn't recreate their image in a doll. I just don't think I'd be able to attach myself to a doll as much as I would need to. The memory of them is all I need.

 

I could see maybe creating a doll of a character a friend came up with, but never wanted to create a doll from it. I don't think it'd be worth my money to create a miniature person who happened to be dead. What would I do with it? I can't really do any photostory because that would seem sort of bizarre to me.

 

This is a little twist on the subject, but is related.

When my daughter, and only child, got married I made a porcelain doll doll to represent her. The doll doesn't really look a lot like her, but has the same skin tone, eye color, hair color and hair do that she has. I recreated her wedding dress for the doll using the same fabric and trimming I used to sew her wedding gown, down to the petticoat, panties, garter, shoes and bouquet.

It will be passed down to her son, her only child, and hopefully stay in the family for generations. So some day the doll will represent a deceased person. I don't know how the recipient will feel about inheriting the doll, but hopefully it won't creep them out! LOL!

 

Yes, i'm doing it right now...one of my dear friends is dieing. so i'm making a doll with his eyes, hair and all of his tattoos. after he's gone i'll have something to hug.

so am i(dieing)...i have a doll that doesn't look like me but is me...after i'm gone my doll will go to my best girlfriend, along with my boy doll.

 

A heart-touching and really hard to answer question, it truly is for me. I have never thought exactly about it before nor it is in my plans either, but I think it is really up to the person who wants to make it. The last BJD I got while my dearest friend Linda (A mix of Collie and Basque shepherd) was still alive usually brings her back to my mind (Where she always is), but it was not intended. Everytime I think about the BJD I got for my mother I assume her personality is truly similar to my mother's one so the bad time she is gone, in a hopefully really far away future, it would be kind of it for me, although they are not alike physically. About my own BJD, most of them are already given characters I absolutely love, but I identify myself with many aspects of their personalities and even habits and human skills so the time I am gone for good from here every of them, like pieces of a puzzle, in the whole of a crew will make/represent the one piece I am.

 

This thread got me thinking as I look at my Zhile. I guess in a way, even without meaning to, he is similar to a friend I have lost to leukemia a long time ago. He was my best friend, my older brother, my confidant, my mentor..etc. Coming from a different country, i had a hard time adjusting and he was the one who stayed with me all the way. Losing him was probably the hardest thing I ever had to go through. It's like losing a part of yourself. Zhile's personality is similar to his. I guess that's why even though I might end up with several dolls in the future, my Zhile, will always stay as my favorite.

 

I don't have one that represents a dead relative/friend etc, but I have one or two that are considered a sort of "tribute" to my favorite person(s), although they don't really look 100% similar to the real person. I am not really against the idea of such a momento. If it is someone very dear to me, I'd consider the idea, but I might not make it 100% alike.

 

About a year after I first got into BJDs, a close friend of mine died very suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. His widow asked me if I could customise a doll to look like him, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it; it was far too unnerving.

 

I don't think i could have a doll like that. looking at it would make me feel so sad (:

 

No, I think it would be difficult to look at a doll like that. It would just make me upset.

 

I could never re-create a friend or family member in a doll. I would have a hard enough time with something in the house that was a gift from that person or that reminded me of him or her... But to actually have that person's splitting image right there? I couldn't do it.