During this quarantine what have you realized about your dolls?

I'm in the Healthcare field, so I'm still working during Quarantine. However, I have done a lot of the same things as you have! I just listed a ton of stuff I've gone through and am trying to sell. I have re-evaluated the dolls I have in my collection. I have done more face-ups to try to find the "spark" in dolls that I have. I have also spent way too much money on buying new things, some items in my collection were so old that I realized I was just keeping them for no reason.

I think that sometimes it's good to take a step back and really look at your collection and decide what you want from it. I think that once you're done, you'll find that spark again.

 

I realized how GLAD I am I got into this hobby recently! It's kept me busy and joyful in this weird time.

 

I realized how impatient I am when it comes to shipping

 

Sigh. I realized that they are luckier than I am, because they get to stay home and away from the madness, while my job is considered 'essential,' and off to work I go every morning. (Seriously, I am exceedingly grateful to still be employed right now, and offer my heartfelt sympathy to all who are struggling to get through this craziness financially. If only the two trillion dollar package were aimed more at the people and less on the big business bailouts. [/rant]) But on the bright side, since there's nowhere to go and nothing to do anymore, they have become a major source of entertainment. It has actually helped me to remember why I fell in love with them in the first place.

 

I'm with @wanderingstar: I'm boxing up a couple of dolls that aren't that attractive to me anymore and will put them up for sale at some point. I'm also knitting for my bjds, waiting out the stay-at-home order.

 

Sadly, I haven't realized anything new about my collection during the COVID-19 pandemic. I enjoyed giving one of my dolls a faceup for spring break, and I love all my dolls the same even now, but I still don't have much time to spare on them.

I will be transitioning to virtual education as a teacher starting Monday, so I won't be able to spend time with my hobbies until the end of May.

 

I'm starting to realize I might not sew anything. I love the idea of sewing, but I can't seem to bring myself to, even with all of this downtime, argh!

 

Amen. I subscribe to text message notifications and freak out during the whole process. My husband forgets he ordered anything and then it shows up and he's like oh, cool while I'm panicking in the corner lol.

 

Hmmm... A good question. I was home without work for about 2 weeks before I was sent work from home supplies... So I've kinda experienced both the excess of time and just generally being stuck in the house. I'd say I've realized the role my dolls play has shifted. I realized that I used to carry my only full doll around the house with me a lot more. She would watch TV with me and take naps and so on. I still do that a little, but I've realized she's shifted less into a buddy role and more into a piece of art. When I was in art school I had plenty of creative outlets, but no time to really talk to or visit friends. But now that I'm working in a call center, (turns out I was majoring in a really sexist industry that rarely hires women, whoops!) I have slightly more free time, (normally I'd complain about the hours, but, right now I realize I'm lucky to have a job so), and am able to keep up with friends more, but less of my day is spent expressing my self creatively. So now I pour a lot of my free time into curating and creating for my dolls. I realized more than ever that my dolls are an outlet for needs, but those needs have changed with time and my dolls easily adapted with that. I can't say I wouldn't have realized this otherwise, but having 2 weeks where I was wondering my home all day, and yet not carting my doll room to room certainly hastened the revelation. I spent a lot of that time modding and creating instead.

 

I've realized I have a clear favorite out of my crew. All I've been doing is sewing clothes, making jewelry, and props. Just. For. Him. (Lol)
I also see a couple of dolls I may sell, especially if my financial situation doesn't change soon. :/

 

I've learned that I've neglected them for a long time... Now that I have more time at home (I'm still required to go out to work, but I don't go anywhere else for the most part) I've started a few more sewing projects and really started to make plans for the unfinished ones. Here's hoping I can at least refine my collection through this.

 

I'm just glad to have the hobby as a side-line project during my free time.

I work in food-retail, so we're kind of the cavalry in all of this. Keeping the country's pantries stocked and loo-roll supplies topped up... I'm also doing a degree through a distance-learning university, so I'm not off the hook there either. I have one assignment due this week, so I need to finish that off before getting stuck in with doll stuff.

However, being shut-up in the house with little else to do at times of leisure, I've looked to my dolls. I'm crafting for them, getting in supplies to do said crafting through the post. I'm photographing them [that's died down a little now, after flooding my Instagram over about three days after nothing for weeks]. I'm glad I can change up their looks with wigs and clothes, so they don't look the same every day. It's one small aspect I can change in this situation, and I'm glad for it.

 

That I miss them. :c

I’m quarantining with my parents in another state and I left my collection behind. I only brought one of my tinies with me.

You don’t realize just how much you enjoy working on them or simply just having them around until you can’t.

 

I need to redo the faceup on one of my dolls. The cat jumped up on me as I was painting the eyebrows and I jerked making one stroke longer than intended. It's not super noticeable, but I can tell and it's getting to me. I just have to find where my face-up supplies got to when we moved.

 

Getting to spend even more time with my dolls has made me realize that my collection is finally complete! It was a funny and startling feeling after 14 years of slowly and meticulously hunting for resin! I always knew, going in, that I never wanted to be buying new resin forever (that was never the goal, filling my life with amazing characters was.) But spending so much time at home, I looked around and was totally surprised when the realization that I was finally done and all my characters were shelled actually dawned on me!

 

I guess I have realized that I need to focus on completing the dolls in my collection rather than going out and buying more floating heads and random parts. In terms of dolls I have been very fortunate to have my grail doll but I really want to spend more time finishing the dolls and sorting out new clothes, wigs and faceups. As I have had to take now a forced break from work and university I feel more able to tackle these things I had been putting off a bit.

 

I've always found them companionable in a less demanding way than companion pets like cats. I used to feel guilty for not 'doing' anything with my dolls but now I think if this is their sole function, even if they just sit there naked for months with a bit of cloth wrapped round them - that's fine. They make great, undemanding companions and are kind of comforting just to have around. If that's all I ever 'do' with my dolls then that's a valid reason for having them too.

 

I'm in healthcare tech, so I'm still working, but working from home (and express all my gratitude to those who are "essential" and have to go out, I've lost track of how many of them I've thanked). I've realized that I'm starting to feel more comfortable again about pulling my dolls out to work on, with the "new" cats around. The two older ones are calming down from their kitten crazies, and the young one is chilling out a bit more, too, so I feel like I could sit in the living room with a doll and work on stuff, instead of having to fully lock myself away.