How-tos, tutorials and the business end

Sharing knowledge is extremely important for a thriving hobby community; without the wonderful tutorials available on DoA and on other websites, the BJD world wouldn't be as interesting, innovative and beautiful as it is right now.

I love tutorials and find myself reading up on various dolly projects on a regular basis (face-ups, blushing, wigs, sewing, etc.). However, even though I do give many of tutorials I read a try, I by no means become an expert at the technique being shared!

For instance, a while back I decided that I want to try sewing basics for my dolls - T-shirts, socks, simple skirts and pants. I bought the supplies and started out with some basic tutorials offered on DoA. Result? I gained so much more appreciation for the wonderfully talented tailors out there! By following the tutorials, I realized that sewing is not for me - it doesn't excite me, motivate me or otherwise interest me. Maybe, eventually, I'll revisit this, but for now, I am happy to commission experts for my dolly clothes needs.

Blushing tutorials, on the other hand, made me enjoy my dolls that much more. I find that I like the process of blushing my dolls and have already found my own little tricks for getting the results I like. If it weren't for tutorials, it would have taken me that much longer to get to this point. As for the business-end of it, I never sent out my dolls to get full body blushing, so by learning to do it myself, no business was lost - I was never a blushing customer and never intended to be.

Right now, I am trying my hand at face-ups, but, I know that I will never be good enough to be happy with what I create, so I still send out heads to artists and will continue to do so. Trying out face-ups is simply a fun project and, since I already have most of the supplies from blushing, doesn't require any further investment. I'm very thankful for the wonderful face-up tutorials out there - they are very fun to watch!

Tutorials, on their own, will never create an artist - dedication, practice, passion and talent will.

 

Like I mentioned in my post before, I've seen people who do really nice face ups posting tutorials, and I'm not going to copy the face up in the video. I will say that I did see a bunch of video tutorials for face ups on YouTube by someone on DoA, and I still remember what she said to do because it was a very helpful tip.

I can remember one bit of information, and it was about the direction of your eyebrows. It is very important to get your eyebrows in the proper direction, and I learned why from her video. Granted, it's probably not going to lose her much money (if she did commissions) if I know know how to do an eyebrow, but it will save my dolls from looking too goofy.

 

While I enjoy the business end, I don't make it my sole source of income, it's more of a hobby then anything....or in my more crazier moods, an art-form.
In fact I enjoy making tutorials with my findings. It's not only teaching that I enjoy but the answering questions that arise......and for the most part seeing photos of the work that other people had done using my tutorial is very rewarding.

This, ^
Tutorials are only a stepping stone...

 

I think it's a fine thing to do! Showing your process might give some people the information they need to do the work you'd do themselves, but it also shows other people the kind of work you put into the work you do, which can attract customers who know they can't get the results they want even with a tutorial.

=^__^=
Anneko

 

Anneko, I agree with you

 

I would really like tutorials, but I probably will pay to get certain things done since I'm not willing to put in the time or take the risk.