Local BJD community

I know there is a "local" community where I am but because I don't drive and only have access to local public transit I can't get to any of the gatherings. I would love to be more active with the local group outside of my small friend's circle that is interested if only to just experience other people's dolls and creativity.

 

I don't even think there is one in the city where I live lol

 

There are but mostly keep to themselves. Even when i have a meet, i usually meet with the same few others cos its difficult to organise.

 

My country has a small community. Sometimes we get new people who come to our meetings, but it has mostly been the same people these last 10 years.

I love my local community, though. It's the only BJD one I know where there is almost no drama. I actually think there never really has been drama these last 10years. Most of us are ladies over 30. So maybe that's why

 

I have a feeling that the BJD community as a whole is full of elitists and drama (there are good people, deffenitly, but the bad apples make it so the rest don't enjoy it as much anymore) about certain sculpts, clothes, brands, wigs, ... yet at our community you can bring an obitsu of nendoroid to a meeting (because maybe they don't have a BJD yet) and people are accepting all the same! We are pro-artists, though. But we clearly state so and ask people to only bring legit BJD. So far never been any problems.

I don't know if a smaller community is better. It does help to get to know the members better and a bit more personal then having bigger communities. We all have been in this for about 10years and I guess it creates a bond. Even though we are very accepting of new people too.

I see equally small communities in neighbouring countries with drama though. For example: people asking for help with something or asking about the artist of a certain sculpt and nobody answering them because appereantly such information is such a secret? When I see these things I just answer. Artists aren't exclusivly for you only to enjoy. Just tell people what artist your dolls or clothes are from. Who cares if people have the same doll or outfit. It just shows your own good taste, right? In my community there was this girl whose doll had the exact same outfit as mine at the meeting. You can bet we took so many pictures of those two! I thought it was cute, instead of being grumpy of not being original or exclusive.

I think small or big communities don't really matter. In my opinion, most has to do with how the people are as a person and what kind of drama you accept as a group. We tend to nip drama in the bud.

I agree, I almost lost interest in the BJD community, like you said you don't like to join other communities and groups because drama. But my own local community keeps me sane and helps me love my dolls for how imperfect they are.

Edit because spelling.

 

I used to run the meet ups for our local area (or really anyone willing to drive there) and I can't wait for this pandemic to ease up so that we can start holding meet ups again. I'm really fortunate because I live within a very easy driving distance of one of the physical stores in my country (Fabric Friends and Dolls), so it was really easy to connect with other collectors. There has been some drama, but I think for the most part it wasn't with the main group of dedicated collectors that show up all the time.

 

I’m fortunate to live in northeast Ohio. There are a ton of us here! Even across the state, the Ohio BJD community is big and fairly drama-free. We have (well, when there isn’t a pandemic) several meet-ups a year and it’s always fun to get together and take photos of our dolls. Some of my favorite people are folks I met at doll meets.

 

Our state has a very good group! We move locations between 3-4 cities because no matter where we pick, somebody is going to have to drive 60-100 miles to attend, then that same distance back. But that’s pretty normal around here, imagining a group right in my city would be completely unrealistic.

our group is very laid back and relaxed, we allow all dolls at our meets as long as they’re legit. There really hasn’t been any drama at all. I found them in the meetup section here on DoA. I think the best thing to do if there isn’t one within an hour or two of your location is start a thread to see if there’s any interest! There may be interested people who just haven’t considered starting one themselves.

 

@shouie nah I do everything online. Newcloversinging has everything and if she doesn't have something, she finds it.

About commissions I follow some people on IG (some of which I met here) I know I can trust and who always delivers exeptional works of art. You just have to roam in the hashtags and you will find what you are looking for. Oh, when you get the MP access there is a section for commission, you can find plenty of formidable artists there as well.

 

I forgot IG existed and just recently started using it again. Might have to try looking there myself also.

 

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It depends on the meeting place and time of the year, most summers we meet up at Edgewater State Park in Cleveland so that’s outdoors of course, but we also meet at people’s houses and other parks sometimes so it varies

 

@shouie Well, the point of taking commission is working with the artist to reach the desidered final result. Of course you must decide what do you want, but then it can happen that when you talk with the artist the project changes. It's a lot of fun.

 

I'm not sure of state of the community in my area. All the "nerdy" hobbies (anime, lolita, video games) do tend to have an intersect in the small city I live in, so chances are that there could be a small community out there.

 

I know that there are other bjd owners in my state (Pennsylvania), but sadly I highly doubt there are any collectors in my town. It would also be hard to meet up with anyone even in my state due to travel times. I do know some people that enjoy stuff like anime and video games, but I know they'd find bjds creepy.

At some point I do hope that I can go to a convention or meetup sometime in the future.