During this quarantine what have you realized about your dolls?

Wish I could sew more for my dolls but my sister keeps using the living room instead of her bedroom for work from home and then invites her boyfriend over on weekends

Finally freshened up a face-up.

Put one of my dolls on the chopping block... but since it's a cheap resinsoul body snd a no longer available head, I think I will just box them up until the inspiration strikes.

 

How grateful I am to have the dolls that I have and that they exist. ❤️

 

That I'm so happy to be in this hobby and to have a hobby in general. So many people I know are utterly miserable right now. There is only so much TV you can watch or so many games you can play. I'm so happy to be able to take time to sew my dolls new clothing or to practice faceups and restorations. It gives me something satisfactory to do, to create something new for something that I love. Because I've just been so engaged with them, however, I'm having a hard time stopping myself from buying more and more stuff! My love for them has just really blossomed so I want to pour my all into it. It's honestly getting just a tad obsessive as I have nothing else to currently focus on, save for work.

 

As we were forced, due to Corona, to interrupt the cleaning-out of my parent's house, we could do some sorting in our own home. I started to sort a lot of boxes and stuff in a room formerly known as our "guest room". Sadly, as both of my parents passed away, it is basically useless. So I talked to my husband whether I could move into said room. During sorting and cleaning, I was a bit shocked of the many projects I had started and not finished.

I decided to put all of those projects into one side of a cabinet that will be put into my room. This way, there might be a much better chance to actually finish the stuff. After all, it a lot of dead money lying around. I do not use it, and that is sad.

So, when the room is fully set up, I will have tons to do. I tend to buy everything I need for a project already at the start. So...no excuses.

 

I don't know if it's necessarily due to quarantine, but I feel like I have a good handle on bjd as a fun (and not stressful!) hobby now. For the past 7 or so months I had a one doll collection (not including dolls for sale). Recently I broke that rule and was gifted a tiny baby dragon for my birthday and I purchased the other matching dragon myself. These dolls didn't have the usual issues that would contribute to igniting my depressive episodes, and thus end up selling them on and regretting my purchase.

I have a handle now on what I like in a doll and what to avoid. Any doll I get from now on is more likely to be a permanent fixture, and that's great! Instead of the revolving door it used to be, as that sure didn't bring me any happiness.

 

I realized most of them aren’t perfect right now, but I can make them what I want and list the rest for sale. Also that I am really, really in love with Twigling sculpts, and sometimes it’s more worthwhile to me to hunt those down and spend more than to have more dolls that were “within my price range”

 

I realized that one of my grails (a DZ Luke) who has been puzzling me regarding both his styling and his character works best with blue eyes--and not just any blue eyes, acrylic blue eyes. The rest of my crew (save for one) are fitted with urethanes, but he didn't look right with every spare pair I tried in him--including the ones I had in him all this time. Glass REALLY didn't work in his eyewells, so he has a high-quality pair of very natural-looking acrylics in and they just look... right. Perfect, even.

Realizing this, I feel like I'm finally on the right track when it comes to his look... and might even be able to settle on a permanent name instead of changing it constantly.

In general I've done a bunch of eye switching and refreshing. I had forgotten how relaxing it can be...

 

I feel like I’m finally putting together the collection I wanted. I’ve made a lot of purchase mistakes over the years, I’ve started all over twice. I’m sad I don’t have a doll I bonded with over the years.

I restarted my hobby last year, my husband gave me my first doll to the new collection as a wedding present. I will never sell her, not in a million years. So now I feel like my collection has more direction. I choose dolls that fit in with her, no more wandering eye for dolls that would never work out.

I’ve purchased three more dolls since then, every purchase I’ve made I’ve given a lot more thought. During quarantine I’ve been planning out my collection a lot better. Researching outfits, props, ect. So one day it will be one cohesive family.

 

For me it's made me want a few more dolls for my collection - and also brought out my desire to work on the ones I have more. I felt kind of stagnant for a few months, not really wanting to work on their face-ups or anything just due to being tired/not having as much time. But right now I am feeling my creativity and I hope it will help me bring out the best in my crew!

I also previously considered myself a selective person, and that's definitely heightened now, because of how many things I own... but the stuff I want to sell isn't my dolls, it's stuff I want to sell so I have more room for dolls.

 

I had been neglecting my dolls before quarantine... but now I'm glad they are around, and I know I need to pay more attention to them and get them sorted out--not to sell any, but just to get them in better order so I can do more with them, like take photos and such...

 

I realized which dolls in my collection needed to move on. And there are particular areas of the hobby I am digging more research into and I feel like staying at home to plan out instead of impulse buy is going to improve my experience in the hobby from now on!

 

For me, it was how much I enjoyed them. I had a pretty bad bout of depression in 2016 and, up until the end of last year, I was very, very scarce in the hobby and in our local BJD community. But! I rejoined, aaaand we were all made to stay inside. :'D In that time, I've found other ways to connect with people in the hobby and potentially setting up spots where I can photograph my dolls, since that's one of my fav things.

 

I realized they are all probably going to stay blank and naked and some even bodyless until I find my grail of grails or get a job...

How do I keep liking discontinued sculpts? Hello? Is this the Discontinued Doll Despair Hotline?

Other than that, I've taken time to rethink my doll plans and focus on what I really want by thinking about how disappointed I'd be if I missed the chance to get one.

 

I learned that sometimes you spend an entire day taking sales pics and getting quotes and it ends up being worth it, because it’s so liberating getting dolls you have no plans for out of the house, and dolls you had a plan for in. Also that selling 6 to buy 2 isn’t weird if those 2 are dolls you love and thought you’d never have. Nothing in this house is finished at all, but modding isn’t so terrifying, I have a local friend now who’s willing to help teach me to do faceups and has an awesome style, and my girlfriend thinks my hobby is really cool. I’m reinvested in it again. Hopefully I sell 1 more before the 22/23, so I can buy that Lillycat... I want to be in this hobby. I want to enjoy my dolls. Even if I also learned that everyone’s eyes are one size too small, which is driving me bonkers.

 

I’ve realised that I currently hate their backstory and what to change all of my characters haha

 

I've realized how much I really enjoy my girls. They're all a similar size so they can share clothes, and I've been redressing them pretty frequently. I love the male dolls that I own, but I don't interact with them nearly as much. I was feeling guilty that I had so many more options for the girls when it came to outfits, but I've kind of moved passed that and resolved to spoil them, haha.

 

I realized I gave way too much importance to "being a good owner" (in terms of doing things with my dolls in social media or so) and now I'm just happy with the way I deal with my dolls even if I don't sew for them nor photograph them much.

 

I was off work for most of the month of March. I had started a Tudor dollhouse for my Reakpukis last September, but not really accomplished much with it. Just the two ground floor rooms. After I got to feeling better( I am still not certain if I had a mild case of coronavirus or a really truly hellish flu) my best friend started teasing me about my unfinished dollhouse, and I finally decided I had enough energy to do something other than lay in bed. I really got to work on it. I finished the second floor and at last got the roof on. I have all the exterior trim on it and all the stucco done, it is completely painted, the fake stonework is done on the fireplace and chimney. All I have left to do is the windows and doors. It was so great to have such a rewarding project to work on! Now that I am back to work, and have an income again. I am having WAY too much fun ordering cool stuff for it! The stained glass is on it's way from England and the chest is coming from the Netherlands!

 

For me it meant taking the plunge and spending money on my first dolls. I hadn't bought myself anything out of the necessary things in years. I realized that I needed a creature comfort on my own and a focus for my creativity. Homeschooling all of the children that live with us and alternating working from home and away means I really don't have any hobby time. Though I take them out early in the morning and manage to take a few quick pictures every couple of days.

@rosalynmouse Please post pictures of your house! Ready or not!

 

That I really like my larger dolls better, they are so much more fun for me to style and photograph. I made clothes for the 1/4 size and smaller ones, dressed them nicely and put them on a shelf, and while I like looking at them, I don't have much desire to do anything with them. I have a ton of props for them as well, but I just really like the bigger dolls.

They are kind of like little mini roommates. That don't have a designated spot, just places for them to sit, and I move them around freely posing them to do odd things around my room. I want to make some great backdrops for them and take a lot of pictures.