Mistakes Made In The Hobby

Lets see...right in the beginning of the hobby I (months after I had gotten my first doll) I decided it was time to get rid of her factory faceup (It was not the greatest) and so my first faceup ensued for hours. I tried some paint on my girls headcap to see how I liked it on her skin. I went to take it off in the sink with Newtons brush cleaner and water.....andddd the headcap started to melt (it looked like invisible fire to paper!) and a layer or two of resin just started to melt away....I used too much paint thinner in the paint I was using. Luckily, about two years later, I changed her face again and the thinner must of had time to settle down and it didn't kill her face.

Another mistake is when I left a tiny in the living room only for the sweeper cord to whop up and kidnap my tiny and suck her in between the recliner and printer (mom was sweeping). She was ok, but that was traumatic. Watch your dolls people lol.

 

I don't think I've made too terribly many, but...

1. Joining a GO because of a friend's suggestion, instead of my own interest in the head, which did eventually get sold on because I had no interest in it.

2. Resisting changing a sculpt because of how hard it was to get the first one, instead of recognizing how it doesn't fit the character anymore and it's time to change.

3. Using old Milliput.

4. I once received a doll in parts, as a trade (it may have even been a trade for that first head). I blushed her, restrung her, felt she was a bit of an odd poser but just rolled with it. A couple of years later, I finally realized that it wasn't that she was an odd poser... I'd failed to check which arm went on what side, and put them on backwards.

Beyond that, it's been things like experimenting with different bodies (which I don't see as a mistake, since sometimes you just don't know until its in your hands if it'll work or not), mistakenly losing control of elastic during a restring (in one case resulting in some scratches, but I think they'll boil out whenever I take him apart again), and painting on unsealed resin (it stains pretty badly, but I'd meant to paint over it very opaquely anyway, so the staining doesn't matter). More along the lines of what a former associate of mine preferred to call "learning opportunities" than mistakes.

 

I don 't have too many but:

1) doing a face up without using MSC or any other type of sealant (I was a noob) Lucky me since there was no permenant damage

2) paying too much for a non l.e doll because you want it that badly and the seller moved him to ebay

3) Buying items (clothing) at random when I was still new to the hobby. Things for SD's will not fit MSD's

4) Buying items at random for dolls that are on the way. Those items will not fit your awkward sized dolls

5) Not learning from earlier mistake (see above)

 

1.) letting people gift me random dolls for chirstmas.
2.) dropping a doll and having an ear break off
3.) making the mistake of attending doll akon with my father. They were very mean to him. Sorry dad.

 

On my very first doll made the mistake of storing her head with a wig on it, without a protective wig cap. (very dark wig mind you) So later when I got her body, I was shocked to see the horrible staining from the wig. So now I always use a wig cap

 

I've done a couple silly things too!
First time I gave a doll a manicure, I looked back at my work, loved it, sealed it... then realized I'd forgotten a finger!
When Luts first released Pine on the female body - the perfect combo I'd been waitung YEARS for, I got so excited when I ordered her... that I ordered a 'he'! :P Luckily, it was before my payment was processed and I could switch things up!

 

1. Not sealing a Dollfie Dream head before I gave her a faceup

2. getting carried away with the hand drill and giving my DZ Helen (a discontinued sculpt) a septum piercing...oops

 

oh my I did some REALLY stupid things! here we go:

1. Ordering a doll from a company without doing much research that resulted in a crazy impulse buy and I ended up not even liking the doll sculpt. ( a massive noob mistake when ordering first doll)

2. When measuring my grail SD doll for pattern drafting, I stood him up on my glass coffee table and held on to one of his leg in hope of preventing him from falling (yeah right...) and writing down each measurement with my free hand. While I was writing and holding his right leg, my stupid doll decided to do the matrix on me and bended from his knees to his back and slammed the back of his head really hard on the glass. I was so lucky that nothing happened to him and the glass didn't break. I almost had a heart attack. It was really horrifying.

3. Being impatient and putting a homemade alpaca wig that still isn't fully dried on my grail doll's head.( my poor grail doll gets tortured a lot ) I thought the wig was fully dried, but nope! After leaving the wig on for like 2 days later; when I decide to change his eyes and realized that the wig is glued to his head! A drop of mod podge actually ran down along his forehead to his temple. I am so fortunate that it didn't go on his faceup. I managed to separate the wig without damaging it and cleaned his head with magic eraser. ( magic eraser is a life savor!)

 

I'm still really new to the hobby, but I suppose...

1) Face-upping without sealing the head first (thankfully there was no lasting damage)
2) Thinking body blushing an SD boy (with full freckles too!) would be easy and not time-consuming at all *insert empty laughter here*
3) Thinking with my wants instead of my pocketbook...

Other than those, I think I'm doing okay for a noob, lol.

 

I haven't made too many really bad ones yet...

1. Trying hard Stacy shoes on my first doll a second time- it pulled a foot off I had to restring her leg.
2. Zipping said doll in her carrier with bulky boots on. Part of the seam near the zipper split.
3. Drawing on the felt I was using to make a vest for a Real Puki with Ultra Fine Sharpie. Fortunately, there is only a barely visible mark on her arm and a dot on the back of an ear.
4. Super gluing my Banji's wig on. I tried it because the damn thing wouldn't stay on her head! It pops off by itself and even hot glue only seems to work temporarily. But now there's super glue in her hair and stuck to her wig cap.

Live and learn!

 

I've only really made one major mistake so far - buying a full doll on impulse, not doing my research, and winding up not being very happy with her at all. I still need to sell said doll. She's gotta go.

 

I used gloss sealant on my doll. And the wrong kind (bad for resin kind). But she's fine xD

 

You know, I've had fairyland dolls for years, but I never realized that the magnet hands clipped on a certain way... or that they'd clip off a certain way, too. The tan pukifees from 2013 don't have very forgiving resin, either. So, while switching out hands for my pukifee (and complaining that the hands I had received had very thin resin) her wrist joint broke. I wasn't being rough with it or anything, but I didn't twist the wrist to appropriately remove it.
I think that was the dumbest mistake I made. ^^;

I also botched a dye job. My roommate and I had dyed two dolls successfully, so I went to dye our third, but his face didn't catch the dye no matter how long I boiled him! It's because in my early faceup days, when I was still learning, I used Magic Eraser heavily during the faceup removal process, and it polished his face u_u...

 

I left an event head on a shelf next to a window and forgot about it for about a year and a half. Decided to finally shell her so bought a body and booked a face-up slot. When I gave her a clean to send her for the face up, I realised her resin had totally yellowed and looked nothing like the lovely pink inside the cap. T_T It was only after that that I read about yellowing after doing some research. So sadly the body's skin tone did not match her head at all and I've had to use a high collared choker to hide the difference... But she is still gorgeous to me. Live and learn eh?

Also strung two of my yo-sd's with their arms backwards the first few times.

 

I don't have my dolls yet, so I haven't made a mistake! I will just learn from this thread.

 

stood my girl up on top of my bookshelf the day after I got her and turned around to leave and get stuff from the other room, within two seconds she took a nose dive straight into a pile of books. I was so panicked luckily she didn't have any lasting damage although I ended up having to re-glue on one of her eyelashes XD

 

I did few mistakes when I was still new with my doll :

1) using acetone instead of thinner to erase his failed face up --> Thank goodness, that it wasn't so concentrated and I washed it with water quickly.

2) again, using non-water based color for face up (cosmetic things) but thank again that there had no damage

2) paying too much for a non l.e doll because you want it that badly and the seller moved him to ebay

3) buying size clothes and eyes

 

Biggest mistake: Letting people tell me what I should do with my dream doll, instead of letting me enjoy the idea I had for her initially. (She would've been a Resinsoul Mei but I reshelled her character as a Bei who is now my little Vala) I'm still saving up for my dream doll, I just need to find a good name for her... A name makes it more "real" of a goal.

Recent mistakes

Leaving black pants on my boy for months. He owns dozens of black pants but now he looks like he got kicked in the stomach. ^^;;;