How long does it take you to complete a doll?

It depends. My first one has taken many years to complete (only because I took a break from the hobby) but i'm very near to completing my second one (that i've had for a few weeks) right now.

 

Ehh... I have yet to complete a single doll and I've been in this hobby for 15 years. *cough*. My newest is currently still sitting naked. It's because I've decided to do a complete design overhaul couple of years ago and that - aside from the face-ups - almost all of the work will be done by me. Modifications, outfits, wigs. So I have been learning lots of new things, like embroidery. Add to that the fact that I'm a perfectionist and also have other hobbies that take up my time and you'll understand why things are going so painfully slow .

 

I try to at least have their eyes and wig ordered as soon as I order the doll and I do my own faceups, so in that sense, I have them ready within a week. That said, there’s always better, more character accurate wigs and eyes out there, some of them don’t feel complete without certain outfits. Of my 15 dolls I currently count count about 4 of them as done and finishing any of them took about 2-4 years

 

Honestly? Never.

Ryuichi, my very first doll has a hard-to-find shade of olive green hair, so the wig he's wearing now is still "a temporary wig." That's him in my icon pic. I also need to get him new silver earrings since he lost one...again. He needs more rings on his fingers, since the ones he currently has aren't nice enough in my opinion. I've been working on him since I got his final head and body, starting back in 2009.

I have others that are closer than Ryuichi to being finished. They may have their canon eyes, wigs and faceup, but certain ones *coughtheGravitationCrewandmyHellsingAlucardcough* I'd like to either make or commission certain canon outfits for them.

Not to mention being in this hobby for a long time can sometimes make things difficult. For example, Tatsuha had the perfect motorcycle jacket, but now, many years later, the vinyl has disintegrated, so the search for it continues once again.

For me, a huge part of the fun of having BJDs is finding just the right outfit, faceup, wig, jewelry, accessories, etc for each of them. So I'm forever on the lookout.

Ryu

 

I’m pretty determined, and once I get started on a doll, I’ll have it completed within a month. This being said however, the process actually begins a lot sooner than my actual start date. Because I usually buy on layaway (tight budget here,) I will work on researching and collecting for that character while I slowly pay off their layaway. This gives me a jumpstart once they actually arrive, and allows me to really focus on taking my time with their face-up and any additional artwork needed. Since I make most of their clothing myself, I’ll have my sewing fabrics already on hand for them, with wig and eyes at the ready, so I can color-coordinate everything. I’ve always done my art projects in this manner...I believe it works so well for me because I personally find tremendous enjoyment in the research and prep work of a project.

 

Oh god... Lysander probably took 2-3 years, so I'll hack a guess and say three years, but I have a couple of heads now, so I'll plus one and say four years on average but it's seriously because bodies are so much more expensive then heads! And I have a bad habit of snapping up doll heads, so maybe I should check myself better

 

I don't ever consider my dolls complete because they're constantly evolving in my head. I also give them my own faceups which oftentimes never meet a standard I want for them, so it's also a matter of trying to get my skills up to par for them to ever be considered perfect

 

I'm firmly in the "never"-camp!
I do have a few dolls that have not changed in a long time and I'm sort of happy with them as they are, but then one day I realize I'm now better at doing face ups, or that a new wig I see would be perfect for one of them, or I stumble upon a fabric that would make great clothes for one of them, or a new pair of eyes... your get the picture.
So even if there are usually a few that I work on more actively than others I wouldn't consider the others done.

 

My team is not such big yet, but those guys I have, i decide their style and character very fast, almost immediately they appear in my life.
I understood that I’m quite conservative, I don’t want to change their style at all. After character complete in my opinion, I start to keep my eye open on other molds.
Only one thing I decide for myself, I’ll never buy fullset dolls anymore. The most important thing for me it’s decide myself character and style. And they become more close to me then fullset doll, even fullset looking super gorgeous.

 

It depends how much I fear to make him a mess. My avatar doll is one and half year old, and I just can't start his face up. Now he is headless for a week, and still not do anything with him... just clean the head and take off the eyes...

 

If I didn't spam money on a particular doll, then not a few weeks or months, then closer to a year or longer. Even when the look of a doll is practically completed, they are still a long work in progress..... It hinges on my financial flow a good part of the time.

 

Years... If we talk about finding the courage to make a modification.

 

I've yet to complete a doll, but I look forward to finding out how long it takes me with the one I'm waiting on.