How do you cope with waiting?

Yes, irresponsibly buying another doll from the marketplace, IG or FB whilst waiting. Stalking IG and marketplace for clothing and paying insane shipping because instant gratification is suddenly essential. Panicking and selling most of the above,(The indecision alone should fill in a month or two, a few doctors trips to check blood pressure from the stress of it all..That all fills in quite a lot of the wait, if not, repeat the process three times. Probably check the covid restrictions on delivery to hell before descending too.

Do not listen to me because I am not a sensible grown up. Then again, take comfort in the fact we all give our money to sometimes obscure artists/companies and mostly, at some point the whole trust and eventual material object that arrives is nothing short of a heavenly miracle and somehow more delightful for the waiting.

 

For my very first BJD I kind of tried to forget about it until it actually shipped. It's a long time ago and the complany I bought from was well known for taking quite a bit of time with no comunication, but things always showed up eventually and was as expected. That is exactly how it played out for me as well. Eight months of silence and then POFF! Shipping notice, package arrived and everything was perfect.
For every doll after that I use the waiting time to either make stuff for the incoming doll or to finish up things for the dolls I already have. I know that when the new doll arrives I will be mostly focused on that one for a while, so it's good to have older half finished projects out of the way. Especcially thing that take up a lot of space and things that will relate to the incoming doll such as face ups and clothes for the dolls that will belong to the same group.
I do make a lot of the things for my dolls myself, though. If it was all out of my hands and I had to wait for every single part of the hobby I have no idea how I would handle it. Making stuff is my go to coping mechanism for everything.

 

Mostly I just forget about it, once the transaction has gone through. I'll remember again in a few weeks and double check my order and any messages to see if everything is still OK, then forget about it again.

Teddy

 

@Teddy lucky duck

@redastor I see you, babe. The struggle is real

@AlexEllery Chatting around on here has helped a lot actually! That and making projects for my current doll, I'm almost done sewing a t-shirt and pants for my trial run. When I'm done I'm going to use the same patterns with different fabrics. Then I'll move onto sewing test outfits for my incoming dolls so when they arrive I can try them on to see if I need to adjust the patterns.

If you don't like sewing, you can try getting a doll furniture building kit to keep yourself busy while feeling productive towards your doll's arrival. Trick your brain!

I also do research for future "grail" dolls. More like compiling a list of aspects I want for my next doll and seeing what's available. I want to make my own BJD, so I treat it like learning.

 

I've generally spent time making or buying things. Clothes, wigs, shoes, etc. Going off the measurements on the website only gets me so far, but it's nice to at least have something to keep my hands and mind busy. Oh, and making faceup plans. I'm not much of an artist, so for me that was researching faceup artists as well as figuring out what I actually wanted, and what I wanted to leave up to the artist's discretion.

 

I always buy with a specific character in mind, so I use the wait time to really hone in on developing the finer details of that character and making firm decisions about their styling. I enjoy the trip my imagination takes me on and revel in every detail. I’ll also busy myself making choices about eyes, wig, wardrobe, etc. and get to work gathering what I need for their impending arrival. It’s sort of like “nesting” when you’re pregnant.

 

This was definitely how I coped back in the day. I think I doubled my number of dolls in 2011 and 12, just from waiting on one to get home. I'm also pretty sure I've sold most of them since then.

Now I just don't think about it. I have enough other dolls and hobbies to worry about, and IMO my important dolls are already home, so the new ones are just extras, and I have a lot of doll projects going at any given time, so the new ones will just get added to that pile. I get more excited/impatient waiting for clothes to come now! I need those things to pretty up the dolls I have! That's the worst wait for me.

 

Coping? What's that? *Goes buying 2 more dolls while waiting for my doll to finish faceup*

Now i just focus on one of my doll that i bring out everyday while worrying about how i can pay off my 2 layaways as soon as possible... I'm even halting all of my buying sprees till i get to bring them home

 

Binge the sewing patterns. All of mine are about the same size, minus one with really strange proportions, so they steal each other’s clothes. If it misses the new arrival’s size, someone else will fit it.
And I just ignore it. I prefer in stock or secondhand, so I’ve only ever waited on one (twenty something weeks- do not order a Resinsoul through DDE!) Once she was ordered, I was excited for a week, then calmed down and didn’t think about her too much. Then the normal wait time came around, so I got excited, then annoyed when she didn’t ship. I ignored it for a couple more months, although I did keep track of the weeks, and didn’t get too excited until she actually shipped. I never really forgot- the thought just didn’t cross my mind a lot.

 

I work on the character, gather clothes, shoes, eyes, a wig…then try to focus on my other dolls and hobbies while I wait. (Though this is much harder if it’s your first doll!) Sometimes I think the wait during shipping is worse than the wait for production! I’ve currently been waiting almost five months for my Impldoll Alisa, she shipped last Friday and hasn’t updated yet, she still has the dreaded ‘origin post is preparing shipment’ status. I accepted that production would take months and just kind of put her out of my mind, but now that I have a tracking number, I’ve been checking it far too much!

 

Omg, I’m really bad at this whole waiting thing too. I ordered a doll in March, and I’ve been checking the order page on the website just about every day to see if it’s been shipped yet.

While I wait, I’ve been shopping around for new doll clothes/wigs/accessories and miniature props. I’ve also been making rough photoshops of the new doll in wigs and clothes from online stores, so I can “try” it before buying.

 

I tend to layaway payments for my dolls - second hand or brand new - and then I just get busy with my job or other hobbies before they arrive. I used to be all about wig buying and clothing buying and eye buying while waiting but now those are their own hobbies within a hobby haha!

 

Right now, I cope by having too many dolls, and doing something with one of the others while trying not to think about what I have on order, and occasionally by ordering irresponsibly secondhand (but I'm trying to focus on better coping mechanisms than that, cause I'm such a revolving door collector otherwise)

Before too many dolls became its own coping mechanism though, I used to just write about my doll's character for hours on end whenever I was feeling particularly impatient!

 

I sit at my desk shaking my leg and tap on the watch on my wrist. Just kidding, I browse at other things to potentially buy to fill the void of waiting for something to arrive. Its just an endless cycle. When I purchased Eliot, I would look at his company photos or just plan things, like clothes mainly.

 

I will obsess and find everything that any other owners have done, make clothing ( at least welcome home pjs) so they are not naked, and then try to forget it or at least not fret, until something delays or goes wrong. I have never not received an item as of yet, but things have taken way too long and I have received a doll with a chipped leg by the ankle that took a year to remedy and get his new leg piece and now after I got over it still haven't restrung him to replace it, sigh.

 

Research and go haunt the forums mostly. Also work on (or at least try to work on) outfits and things for other dolls.

 

I'm saving up right now so I'm trying to draw some ideas for clothes or the doll herself and I imagine I already own her And also cleaning the shelf. Maybe I'll decorate it too.

 

I'm making a start on picking fabrics and practicing my hand-sewing. I no longer trust my machine with some fabrics; it chews a lot of them and makes some things difficult. And, I think, some details or seams would be easier to hand-sew. Due to their small nature.

The clothing intended for my incoming boys isn't complicated, per say. I'm just a bit of a novice still. I haven't really tackled top garments before either, only trousers, so I need some practice in before tackling the boys' garments.