The bond with dolls

It depends on how you define "bonding" XD. If it means that once the doll has arrived at my house, I don't want it to leave again, then, well, I "bond" with my dolls. If it means connecting on an emotional level, then - well, whatever my emotions are, the chances that a doll is going to respond to them are slim :p.

I am a materialist, I guess: I get attached to objects (pens, paint brushes, clothes, shoes... dolls!). This is not at all comparable to getting attached to people, but it is an attachment of sorts. I don't easily sell things and I don't easily throw things away. It stands to reason that when I have chosen, bought and received a doll, it isn't going to leave me easily. It's mine, you see. I get attached to it because it is mine. I feel responsible for it because I have chosen it, even if it has a few imperfections. It feels like my duty to learn and live with it.

At the moment I have sixteen and a half dolls, with two and a half incoming. That is getting to be ... a lot. I can't see myself dealing with much more than this, just because I doubt I'd be able to make clothes for everyone (especially as I have ideas for multiple outfits for some of my crew) and, frankly, numbers of 30+ seem flat-out frightening XD. With my almost twenty, I don't feel like there is a problem. Each doll embodies one of my characters and I feel they belong together (and with me!). Some of them have been almost naked for months, but that doesn't distress me and it doesn't mean I have lost interest in them. I don't mind them standing around while I wait for inspiration/time/fabric etc. I trust everything will come together at some point.

Even though the number of my resinoids is slowly reaching that of a small army, I feel no inclination to sell anyone. I also can't see myself selling one of my dolls in order to use the money for a new one. Never say never, but ... so far, no. This is mildly worrying because I still discover dolls that I would like to add to my group, but since nobody is leaving and I have kind of reached my limit, I really shouldn't be adding any more. We'll see how it all plays out...

 

I have 22 dolls (20 on-topic for DoA) and with the exception of one, I am bonded to all of them.

I think bonding has a different meaning for each owner. I know it's semantic, but I don't think of it as "bonding with" my dolls as much as I consider it as "bonding to" my dolls. I don't think I can bond with them, because that implies they can return my feelings which, of course, they cannot. To me, bonding to my dolls involves the level of affection and sentimental value I attach to htem. I'm attached to all of them, but I'll admit my attachment varies in degree depending on the doll.

For me, bonding has as much to do with the doll's character as it does with the physical doll itself. Most of my dolls are avatars of my original characters, and I find that I am most bonded to the dolls whose characters have the most meaning and importance to me. My absolute favourite doll is the avatar of a very special character that I created quite a while ago. He is the one I am most "bonded" to and the one who is the most important to me.

To answer the OP's question, I've never had the exerience where a new doll arrived and I decided I liked it so much better than the others that I wanted to sell the others. I like all my dolls, with the exception of that one I mentioned in the first paragraph of my post. I never did bond to that one. If I do manage to sell that one, I probably will use the money for other dolls, but that's more a function of practicality than intent. I'm not selling him because I want to get money for more dolls but because I think he'd be better off with someone else. The result of selling him would be getting money which I wouldn't otherwise have had. Therefore, extra unassigned money = doll money.

 

I have 29 complete dolls at the moment, and honestly I feel like I've got too many. I don't really bond with any of my dolls like many people on here do - to me they are just very beautiful pieces of art that makes me feel at peace when I look at them. The way I feel toward my dolls is nothing like the bond I have with my dog. With that said, I do have favorites, and I do "neglect" some of them. There are some dolls in my collection that have extreme sentimental value or are just breathtakingly beautiful, while with others I think something like "Hm. This is a really pretty doll, but I kind of wish I'd bought a different one" or "This doll isn't quite up to par with the others". Periodically, I go through my collection and sell some of the ones I don't feel as strongly toward, even if I like the doll overall. Or in some cases I just give them a makeover. I do have a hoarding instinct that makes it hard to sell anything, but I'm trying to get over it. Unlike many other items, dolls do retain some value, which generally is going to decrease over time. One of my goals is to sell the great-but-not-as-great-as-the-others in my collection so I can focus more on my absolute favorites. I even started a blog that just lists all my dolls and my feelings towards them to help me sort out which ones mean the most to me. Sometimes the number of dolls I have is overwhelming (in a bad way). Also, none have stories or even names. I'm not the creative type, but if I ever manage to thin down the collection, I might try to make some stories based around the remaining dolls.

So, I do feel like having a large collection leads to me ignoring some dolls and favoring others. Also, it makes it hard to afford to get them all new outfits/wigs, so they aren't "spoiled" like they'd be if I had under 10.

 

I think bonding means different things to different people, and different things in different situations.

If I say I can't "bond" with a doll, it usually means it didn't end up being what I'd imagined in my head when I ordered it. I don't base my dolls on pre-existing characters and I really struggle to even come up with names for them most of the time, but that doesn't mean I don't have an image in my head of what a doll's personality should be, or what I want them to look like. If I can't bring that vision to life, then the doll moves on to a new home.

There's a certain level of emotional attachment, I definitely value them more than my other possessions because I put so much personal work into them. I do all my own faceups and sew the majority of their clothes. They're a form of expression for me in the way that a laptop or cellphone or other knicknacks aren't, so I think that's where the emotional component comes in to it. But do I love them the way I love the people and pets in my life? No, because they can't return the love!

When it comes to number of dolls... I think I do better with a smaller number (I currently think I have too many) but that's because I put a lot of pressure on myself to make them all perfect. And sewing for that many dolls takes a lot of time that I really don't have! If I start to feel guilty it's mostly because when I look at dolls that haven't been getting a lot of attention I'm seeing $$$$ that could have gone into savings instead. Not because I think that the dolls are feeling neglected.

That said, these dolls have such expressive faces that seem to scream with personality. I like to joke around sometimes as if they do have characters and feelings. It adds a bit of light hearted fun to the hobby for me

 

Well I have 38 dolls at home with 19 more ordered. Yes, that's a lot of dolls for not even two years in the hobby. But I bond with every single one of them and could never imagine to let just one of them go. Of course I always neglect one of them, I don't have much time for my dolls but I rotate them, I always play with different dolls so all of them get attention. I also try to display all of them around my bed so I can always see them, I miss the dolls that I have not on display due to space problems^^

 

I used to have more dolls than I do now (still not MANY, but 5-6 rather than 2), including many which were extremely rare and expensive, and I knew that if I sold them the chances of ever finding another one are slim-to-none.
But for me, especially when we're talking about dolls that are worth many hundreds of dollars, I don't see the point of sticking with dolls I'm not MAD about. When we're talking so much money, I try to keep my doll collecting compact as compact and practical as I can.
After a lot of thinking, I sold most of my dolls- including the super rare ones, which were "holy grail" dolls for me. The two I'm left with now are the ones I simply COULDN'T bear the thought of parting with, which is a very rare feeling for me when it comes to dolls (I may not be happy about parting with a doll, but it's rare when I simply CAN'T bring myself to thinking about selling it). Whenever I need money urgently and think about selling my doll, one look at Anna's (CH St. Mina)
face- and I'm off the idea. She is so expressive and special to me, and she looks exactly the way I imagined her in my mind's eye.
And I sold all of my other dolls (except for Anna) so I can buy my Supia60, which was a dream of mine for years.
For me it's about keeping a small grain of dolls you have an extremely deep bond with, and not settle for anything else. It does mean that I ended up selling many of the wonderful dolls I had over the years, but it leaves me more time and money to spend on my "chosen" girls .

 

If I don't love a doll I don't buy it. I have hundreds of dolls of all kinds. The resin BJD's are a recent thing but I have 7 low end ones so far. I love them all. I have dolls that stay out all the time and I have dolls I rotate several times a year. Everybody gets some love eventually. I'd have them all out but I simply don't have the room here yet. I'm working on that. Every so often I add more shelves. Actually right now except for my resin BJD's which are on my bed and which get covered with a thick blanket when necessary all my dolls are boxed away. I am currently raising a Red Point Siamese boy kitten and he's still too little and too rambunctious to be trusted as yet with the dolls. He wasn't an expected addition to the household. I lost a much beloved boy cat in Feb and I had absolutely no intentions of going there. I was just going to keep my girl cat of 7 years and leave it at that. But then I met him and he just love bombed me and I ended up bringing the little mutt home. I rather miss all my other dolls being out but until he's a bit older and more well behaved that's just how it's got to be. He's got a bad case of "I see see it and I must chew it!" and rather than risk him chewing on little dolls that can't defend themselves I put them all away in storage for now.

 

I have over a hundred (gulp) dolls. I would say there are 50 of them that I have a real bond with.

 

i only own 1 doll at the moment she goes everywhere with me she is NEVER out of my sight

 

I find that I certainly get more attached to some than others like my very first dolls I don't think I could ever sell.

 

I agree with this. I only have one doll at the moment (and have only had one doll since the end of 2011), but I have put so much effort into her that I have come to realize that I have a deep attachment to her. I would consider this a "bond" with my doll even though she can't return the feelings. To me, "bonding" with a doll is like "bonding" with a book, movie, song, etc. It's a different bond than one might have with another individual or pet. Just my thoughts. ^ ^

 

I couldn't agree more!

I took a break from the hobby, maybe 6-8 months, this year and am in the process of selling a few dolls that I didn't "bond" with. My dolls are all pre-existing characters I've written for for many years and when I say I can't "bond" with them, it means the work I put into them didn't equal the image in my head. Most of the time, it's the doll's structure that I can't "bond" with, meaning their body or how their face is sculpted. That being said, I have more of an attachment to some versus the others but if they absolutely cannot work out to be what I have in my head, then I try to sell them and try again. n_n There are some, like my Doll-Love Alina and DZ Tulip that I can't part with because the Alina was my very first doll and the Tulip was my first SD and is a very near-and-dear character.

Starla said: "But for me, especially when we're talking about dolls that are worth many hundreds of dollars, I don't see the point of sticking with dolls I'm not MAD about. When we're talking so much money, I try to keep my doll collecting compact as compact and practical as I can." <--- and this is me too, which is why my doll collection is shifting so much. If I'm not absolutely 1000% in love with a doll, I have to sell them and try again!

 

I currently have 7 dolls; 6 of which are at home, 1 on the way, 6 are full dolls, 1 is just a head at the moment. I'd say that I have a bond with all of them; some I'm more attached to than others, but they all get little bits of my time and attention when I can spare it. I admire the large collections people manage to create and if I had lots of money and space I'm sure I'd do the exact same thing; as it is, however, I quite enjoy the idea of a doll 'family' as opposed to collection.

I don't consider my dolls to be real people, or think of them as on par with living human beings. I do however have a bond with them - my oldest doll has been with me for 6 years now, far longer than any of my romantic relationships have lasted for example. As a writer I'm capable of creating vast, in depth characters and personalities, and I do think that creative and imaginative energy can give a certain life to inanimate objects. My attachment to my BJDs is far larger than my attachment to my clothes or the toys I had when I was younger (it's only in the past year that my sentimentality has downgraded enough to finally have a sort out of all my things and get rid of most of them). Selling my dolls would upset me more than selling some of my dresses for example, but not as much as losing a loved one.