How can I put this in Lay-man's terms...

Well, I don't have much of an answer for quiestion one yet, but I can help you for question two

My dolls are beautiful and expensive pieces of art. They are customizable and so I can change them into fitting perfectly to my tastes. It's not like I don't have names for them, for I do, and they have vague connections to each other and a sort of "character" that helps in keeping a red thread in how I customize them. But they are objects, and I don't think they have feelings or desires. None outside of what I myself project into them.

 

XD I just am fascinated by them. I love how I can bring my characters to life.

Also they're more grown up looking then collecting Barbie's. I have ALWAYS wanted to collect dolls but got grief from my folks...Then I found BJD's and got into them......And now I got my doll collection as small as it may be but it's still a collection I always wanted. I just love dolls.

 

Question One- It depends on the doll! Meren's from Ancient Egypt, Sowelu... doesn't know when he's from, but he's visiting modern times, Meritities and her sisters are from a fantasy timeline, and most of my minis are from modern day. I have no idea when Mori-tan comes from yet.

 

Question one: Uh, present time. Since they're all "living" in their own present. XD

Question two: I like how they can look different in different lighting and also, according to my own mood. Luken, e.g., can look sly or annoyed or outright evil, depending on lighting and what mood I'm in. Mostly, though, I just like their looks and how you can customize them. Don't like the face-up? Change it! Wrong eye- and hair-colour? Change it! Not into elf-ears? Just mod them! Etc.

 

Most of my dolls are present day.

I completely agree with Li Chan on question 2. My dolls aren't alive and I don't have any dolls with a literal expression sculpted into their face yet. When my pukifee Pong gets here I'll have a doll that does have one...happy! Other than that any "feeling" or emotion is projection. The doll that seems to smile only if she's wearing skirts or dresses is because I really don't like how she looks in pants. Sad dolly is because of sad Holly looking for a way to cheer up.

 

1. All of my dolls are from modern time, except for Ay, who is in 18th Dynasty Egypt.

2. I don't feel that my dolls are actually "real" or possess a soul or anything, but they do have characters that I have created, so when I say my doll is upst or whatever, it's usually because of how he feels IC. Possibly due to a pose that makes him look a certain mood, but I don't actually think the doll itself is living, if that makes sense?

 

one - my doll (and planned future ones) is from modern-ish times (mid to late 20th century).
two - Li Chan sums it up perfectly, actually; I don't think I could put it in better words. They're an artisan craft and a beautiful one at that, and I love customizing them. For me, their emotions don't exist independently but rather in connection to the character I project into them.
That doesn't mean I don't occasionally notice a mischievous sparkle in her eye every once in a while, though. They are very expressive despite being objects.

 

My dolls are all characters from a story-line I created especially FOR them - present day, more or less, from a little (fictional) town near Atlanta GA.

I'm of the belief that we actually infuse our belongings with some sort of emotional energy (that I'm sure quantum physics will someday explain) and the more we project onto them, the more they absorb. In other words my toaster really doesn't have much, but my mom's babydoll has LOTS.

Also, for me, I tend to think of things with faces more as a being rather than an 'it' - not that I think the dolls are alive, but that they represent something alive or real - the way a painting does (ie I certainly don't look at a photo or portrait & think 'it' - I think of the person portrayed - or the character). I treat dolls & stuffed animals differently than pillows.

 

1) Actually, there are many people in this hobby whose dolls don't have characters or storylines. That's just a matter of personal preference. My dolls' characters currently reside in the modern world (i.e. 2013), but many of them are not human and have lived through long periods of history (e.g. Kazu's character goes back thousands of years; two of his children were involved in World War 2; that kind of thing).

2) They're super pretty, they fit an aesthetic I like, and I can do pretty much anything I want with them. I like the fact that they tend to have fairly generic facial expressions that can be made to look different (and to look like they express a lot of different emotions) through things like changing the faceup or photographing them at a certain angle. While I might sometimes joke that "Akira doesn't like the new wig I got him" or "geez, Siofra doesn't like it when I try to change her clothes," it's just a joke. The actual dolls themselves are just dolls, they don't have spirits or souls or any personality beyond that which is attributed to the characters they represent. That doesn't mean that I don't care about them or have some level of affection for them -- I have an odd way of getting attached to inanimate objects, especially things like dolls and stuffed animals -- but in my head I know that Akira has no opinions on his wigs and Siofra doesn't care if I change her clothes or what I out on her, because they're dolls and the characters themselves aren't real either.

 

1.) I don't really create stories for my figures, but create a mental picture of what I want the figure to portray. I create a "look" and I tend to learn toward a more period or historical look than modern.

2.) I find my figures beautiful and they make me happy. They are beautiful works of art, and what I like to think of as a "snapshot in time" as they pose around the house. I enjoy taking pictures of them and creating beautiful pieces of art. That is what attracts me to them. I do think that dolls have personalities on how they behave (kicking, not standing, ext.) but I don't look at them as if they were their own entity that can feel, show emotion or express itself outside of the pose I have put it in.

If you ARE one that emotes emotions into your doll, I have no issue with it... I think you should enjoy your doll in any way that brings you happiness!

 

Question one- we all have dolls that tell our personal and imaginative stories, so the question is What time period does your dolly take place?

I like a number of different periods, so my dolls change now and then to alternate characters in different time periods. I also like fantasy, so many of the stories are just alternate universes. But I've had dolls in Ancient Egypt, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Restoration England, 18thC, 19th.C... etc.

Question two- in my last topic I asked about "cheering a dolly up" However I'm curios, for those who feel their dolly possesses no emotions, or do not really see them as their own person What makes Ball Jointed Dolls so remarkable to you?

I think the dolls are just wonderful and beautiful. I love their miniature shoes and clothes. I love the cool wigs and eyes. I love dressing them up in outfits. I love how they can be made so unique just by changing eyes and wigs and outfits, or modding--but it doesn't take that much at all. I just love everything about them.

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I think they can be characters without an owner thinking of them as alive and feeling!

 

1) Their "story" is one I've been writing since before I was into BJDs. (I think it's novel-length now, but I haven't checked in a while.) It takes place in an alternate universe with mixed technology; it's rennaissance-flavored, but takes place after an apocalypse that destroyed most of a sci-fi-level, magic-tech based society. So I have no idea!

2) I see my dolls as objects. I love them because they're gorgeous and unite a lot of my crafting hobbies--sewing, embroidery, beadwork, sculpting, metalwork, woodwork--into unified projects.

 

I took a book making class and illustrated a small story about a girl who saw a star fall and made it her mission to scale mountains and put it back in the sky. That then evolved into the beginnings of a webcomic which uses the same character design and same concept. I modeled my doll after that character. I have a lot of aspirations for my character and love having a doll based off her. I think it's fun to have something you created 'come to life.'

I'm also an artist, I love knitting and sculpting, so it's fun and challenging to make tiny things for my tiny doll. For me, my doll is another creative outlet. To me, my doll is an object, she doesn't have "feelings" but she is a very valuable and important object to me.

 

Most of my dolls are not human and are either created species or mythological (i.e. demons, satyrs, cockatrice, draconian, Muse, god, fairy, etc). For the created species, they'd likely be considered far future timelines relative to 2013. They also live in a completely different solar system. Some of the Otherworldly creatures have been alive for literally hundreds or even thousands of years but their stories would be consistent with the now of 2013. And I have one storyline that is set somewhen in the likely distant past (I never actually say in the novel).

While I don't believe my dolls are living things, as a writer, their characters are very much alive in my head. I would say that it is a fair statement that I project things onto my dolls (consciously or not) because of the strong connection between the character and the physical form I've chosen to house that character. That lends to them looking happy/sad/mad/whatever.

However, I've got no explanation for how it sometimes seems they show emotions that other people see that is the same as what I see in a photograph when I say nothing of how I view the shot. It is uncanny when multiple people react the same way to a picture of what is quite obviously a lifeless object. Kinda one of those neat doll things.

 

Most of my dolls live in the 'real' world, or rather a parallel one. That is to say, they live in an identical world to ours, but as humans instead of dolls obviously. If the two were to somehow merge, nothing would really change except they wouldn't be dolls anymore. I have a few 'fantasy' dolls as well, and they seem to fall into slightly fantastical versions of our world as we know it. I have two little fae girls who live together in a tree, and a brownie\house faerie who lives in my house. They exist in a version of the world that is just like ours, except faeries and other fae are definitely real there. Also, I have a character who lived in our world like my modern-times dolls, but in the Edwardian era, and she died at 13. Her character is a ghost, and she now lives in a metaphysical place called Limbo with another non-human character of mine, Rot, who is the semi-physical form of the entity of Decay. So those two exist in a world that is neither here nor there, in no particular time period, which may or may not exist within a fantasy universe or a realistic one like my modern-times dolls inhabit. And I have one doll who mostly exists as a doll, in this exact world.


Now, I've said things about this before... I don't BELIEVE my dolls have feelings and thoughts and personalities. Not my physical dolls. But the characters that I project into them most certainly do, and because I project them so strongly into their physical doll shells, I can often feel like they have feelings or are trying to talk to me via vibes. I KNOW it's all technically in my head, but I like to pretend that the characters themselves are at least partially merged with the doll shells to the point of the doll having emotions, thoughts, etc. It's nice to pick up a doll, ask it how it's doing, and have it more or less tell you exactly how it's doing.

Sorry for the wall of text, eheh...

 

My dolls are all characters from a story that takes place in the future, because I am a total Science Fiction idiot.

As to the second question... I don't consider the dolls themselves to have autonomous "feelings" - they are representations of fictional people that I like to write about. In a way, I feel the same way about the dolls as I do about artwork that I create of their characters. I love being able to have physical versions of my characters hanging around the place - I find it wonderfully inspiring as well as helpful in the process of character design because it is so easy to change their appearance. I also find the artistry of the dolls to be absolutely beautiful.

 

1) I like my dolls to have back stories (although my off-topic ones don't). Eva, my 5Star Tong Tong, is a vampire that was turned when she was 12 or 13 in Victorian times. She originally had a big sister, but I ended up selling that doll and haven't replaced her. I usually have the doll for a bit before I come up with a back story.
2) I've always liked dolls, ever since I was little. While I don't feel that dolls have a soul or are real, I feel that they have personality. I got into BJDs because I think they're beautiful and I love that they're so customizable.

 

My group's story is set in the present day, however as we will eventually have a vampire or two I'm sure I'll be doing some flashback stories set in the times they were turned. as for question two, I believe everything as a soul.

 

What time period does your dolly take place?

The majority of my dolls live in Regency London, which is in the early 19th century.

Question two- in my last topic I asked about "cheering a dolly up" However I'm curios, for those who feel their dolly possesses no emotions, or do not really see them as their own person What makes Ball Jointed Dolls so remarkable to you?

I don't think my dolls themselves posses emotions, however, the characters they represent do. I enjoy taking photos of them and pretending that there is emotion and a personality there, but I know that it is a doll and an object. The reason they are special to me is mainly because of their beauty and because of the characters they represent.