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

2.) I think my dolls are more of a reflection of myself, so to say they have their own emotions is not true. They feel however I think they would feel in the situations I put them in. I love them because of their timeless beauty, something I'll never be able to achieve.

 

Well said!

 

The characters my dolls represent are in modern times but their world is blended with fantastical creatures.

One of my dolls is more of a way for me to display my infatuation of a color along with my creativity. She's an elf and that definitely expands my options on how to do her faceup as well as what clothes to make for her. Customization is what makes this hobby so enjoyable to me.

 

I was actually pressured to like dolls growing up, whether it' be american dolls or barbies. I had zero interest whatsoever, it was boring and kinda dumb to me. And then I caught sight of the most pretty picture of some model and I realized it was a doll, and whoopsie I was done for. I love the layers of how realistic or how fantastic the sculpt/clothing/wigs/character could be. Character matters little to me, though, it's formed through whatever accessories and sculpt I buy for them automagically.

 

I'm an author and my dolls are representatives of characters within my universes (which, I suppose is the answer to Question 2- it's like having the world's most awesome action figure for your novel), therefore, the age they live in can span a very long time. For instance, my girl Nancy is in 1920s Chicago at the beginning of my novel but by the end she is in the here and now, our present day. Paige, Salem and Maddox on the other hand are from a series of mine set on earth about 80-120 years in our future.

 

I just got my first doll a few days ago, and I've been used to reading posts here with people saying their doll will "tell me his/her real name", or saying that their dolls hate or really love a particular item of clothing (I've heard stories of dolls chucking wigs across the room - very strong dislike)

1) I don't have any particular story that my dolls are from. When my Resinsoul boy and girl get here, they may take on certain aspects of my characters, or take on one of my characters for a period of time, but I'm not specifically patterning them after any OCs. So, as for a time period, they're here in the present with me, although they sometimes may dress in historical fashions or items inspired by historical fashions.

2) I've grown up surrounded by plush toys, and as an only child those plushies were often my only friends. I have several hundred plushies, and each one has a distinct character/personality and voice.

This has transferred to my doll(s) as well. I do treat him as though he's a real tiny person, I actually try not to say the word "doll" around him or make him think that I don't believe he's real. And while I'm rationally aware that he's an inanimate object, and I have to pose him and that I'm really the one making his voice...I still feel like maybe he comes alive when I'm not looking, like he's thinking his own thoughts.

The first night he was with me, I made sure he wasn't sleeping alone - he has a guard-dragon and a guard-hippo. I know how I feel when I'm sleeping somewhere unfamiliar for the first time, and so I figured that he might be a little nervous or scared too. This afternoon he was formally introduced to a bunch of my plushies, even though he'd been sitting with them almost all morning.

 

I'm just now trying to figure out a story for my doll. It's going to be in the future but I don't yet know if it's our future or an alternate earth/fantasy planet's future.

They're beautiful, they're ugly, they have character and personality and they're so very customizable. Their remarkability is a reflection of ourselves and I think people are pretty fascinating.

 

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?
My dolls are all "modern" in the sense that all their characters exist in the "right now" time period. Their story, however, is probably more like science-fiction than just regular modern life. Along with my international cast of human characters, I have several alien characters (two of which are currently represented with dolls), an alien-human hybrid, a shape-shifter, a demon, and a sentient dog.


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'm firmly attached to the real world, so I know that my dolls are inanimate resin sculptures. I know they don't really have thoughts and emotions, and that they really don't do anything unless I'm the one making them do whatever it is. I'm one of those adults that forgot to grow up completely, though. My dolls don't know that they're dolls. In the world of my imagination, my dolls are very much each their own person. In my imagination, each character is as alive and three-dimensional as any human in the real world. They live their lives as freely and individually as they want to. I collect other dolls besides BJD, but it's only the BJD that have these distinct and individual personalities in my mind. I think this is because most of my BJD are physical representations of my original characters. Characters in other stories I've created are just as 'alive' and 'real' to me, even if they aren't represented in doll form. What makes BJD so attractive to me is how customizable and versatile they are. They can be just about anyone or anything the owner wants to make them into.

For those people who are strictly practical about their dolls and see them only as emotionless objects, I don't understand it but I accept that not everyone sees things the way I do. For me, the fun of this hobby is the creative aspect of it, and that includes photographing my dolls, writing about them and creating stories for them. For someone else, the creative aspect of the hobby might be all about pure art where the doll is nothing more than a three-dimensional canvas. That's okay, as long as those people are loving what they do with their dolls. Personally, I like to play with my dolls; I have them to enjoy and not just admire.

 

To answer the first question; my dolls are all modern in a way, they all live in a very very near future of three-four years ahead of us. However, if you stop to consider that the story revolves around a multiverse the "when" becomes slightly more complicated. All five worlds that belong in the system have their own "right now" periods and each resembles a different one of the real world's in a sense and at the same time not at all.

The architecture of the Nether is reminiscent of the middle East several hundred years ago but at the same time they use highly advanced hypertechnology that would make the people of Gaia (or the regular world if you will) rub their eyes in awe if confronted by it -surprisingly enough though, they have no advanced weaponry, probably because they don't need it having all sort of bizarre powers varying by individual. Similarly, the Caelum owns quite advanced technology although its origins are quite bizarre, but its architecture is mainly Gothic. Terra Orbis is an entirely organic medieval-like almost world where there is minimal advanced technology available if any, and its usually used sparsely here and there. Elysium on the other hand consists of several fortified Victorian-era inspired grand cities that run on a mixture of arcane tech and regular steam and gear power; the second greatest conflict on Elysium revolves around magic versus science because of this. And lastly Gaia is almost exactly as our world is today, they don't appear to be much more advanced with few exceptions.

As for question two, I'm fully aware that my dolls are dolls and they don't have 'actual' feelings but they are shells that embody my characters so in my mind they have three dimensional personalities, they are fully fledged little human (or whatever xD ) beings and I have little to no control as to how they'll develop in time. Sometimes I think I know a character well enough and yet they'll still surprise me. I've been roleplaying for the longest while -fourteen years now- so it makes sense (to me) that I would think like that. I can't be practical about my dolls, I can't bond or do things with dolls I don't feel I can connect to their characters. Even when I do try to do it for convenience's sake I find it impossible to! My newest doll is void of name and a pre-made character because I wanted to let it develop later and will refuse to attach his name and character before he's completely here (he's a strange four-part hybrid project doll) and yet snippets of his personality and who he is are already attaching themselves to him even when I try to fend them off...

I think its fine when other people do it, when they treat their dolls simply as blank canvases to be manipulated to their will, I'm just unable to act that way.

 

Let's see here...

Question #1

Kaetalya is the oldest of my characters so far. She has been around since the early medieval era. Joshua would then be next. He was born in the 1980s. Nell and Ellie are about five or six years old. And Lizzie is a four year old cat.

Question #2

I'll be honest and say I haven't been too in tune with my dolls lately. I'm slowly working myself back into the hobby again. Last night I found myself actually putting a lot of clothes and shoes on etsy into my favorites for not-too-distant purchases. But honestly I'm with a fellow member on this one: These dolls only have the emotions that I consciously and unconsciously want them to have. So in that case, these dolls represent to me one of the few ways that I can get my inner creativity illustrated. I'm not a drawer, and I'm barely a photographer. The only way for me to put what's in my head into something others can see is through these dolls.

 

Question 1:

They all reside in the present day. Some of my characters have been "alive" for for hundreds (and others thousands!) of years.

Question 2:

I don't think my dolls have emotions or feelings, but sometimes they appear to have a grumpy expression on their face. If I haven't taken a doll out for awhile, I joke that they look mad and have them sit out with me for awhile. I think they are remarkable because they are beautiful. They are a creative outlet for me. I love how most (if not all) of my dolls have multiple expressions just by taking pictures from different angles. The realism drew me into the hobby too

 

Since #1 is actually off-topic for DoA, which is more about the dolls themselves than their backstory or role-play aspects, I'm just going to skip to #2...

I like them because they're pretty to look at, fun to tinker around with, make excellent photography models and due to their ease of customization, are very easy to turn into physical avatars (read: overgrown action-figures ) of my favorite MMO and tabletop RPG characters.

 

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?

Not me! My doll has no story

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?


Their beauty, their variety, and their ability to customized.