The Fear Factor - when did you lose it?

I've restrung, sanded and done face-ups/touch-ups myself, and I
*still* haven't lost the "Oh-god-help!" inclination that comes before I begin!
I think as far as specifics go, I lost the fear of re-stringing pretty fast due to the fact that I was desperately keen to figure out exactly how the stringing actualy worked, poked around and ended up accidentally unstringing my first doll mere days after I got him. I guess since the situation sort of forced me to learn, it wasn't so scary after that.
What can I say? Some people inch their way into cold water - some people just jump right in.
-V

 

For me, i lost my fear of customizing and restiringing around the time that i ordered my third doll, but my dolly family grew really quickly. i havent even had my first doll a full year yet! ._.; i fully unstrung and gave my first doll a tattoo about 3 months after getting him, and now im getting ready to give him a new face-up this weekend. Tho, on the flip side, it took a year and a half and heavy pursuasion to get my best friend to finally restring her boy and give him a face. and shes the one who got me into this hobby! lol

 

I had to ship heads for faceup that evening, so I gave my doll a crainiectomy within two hours of getting it out of the box.

 

It was three months before I was even brave enough to change my first doll's eyes! (And what a change it was -- ugh, I hate Volks hotglued eyes.) But I've slowly but surely learned how to take care of my dolls. I changed the feet out about six months after I got Akiko. I was forced into changing my Sooah's feet the first day I had her, because the previous owner put them on wrong. Changing Elfdoll feet is a whole lot harder than changing Volks pureskin feet :P. Also, I only recently learned how to restring a doll, with a Domuya Flexibody that was here a month. So, part swapping is not an issue!

On the other hand, I was totally nonchalant about doing faceups -- until I actually started. I discovered that I have not one bit of talent for that art :P.

I'm also still scared of trying to restring my Hana, due to her tiny and delicate parts. She has severe kicky legs, but I'd rather live with it than take her apart!

 

I lost the fear for restringing once I got my second one, Zane. Mainly because I had bought a stringing tool, so I felt more confident that I wouldn't kill myself. And because Zane stood like a drunkard. As in, not at all. X_x So I had to fix that. That was about half a year. I'm still afraid to get rid of their face-ups. I didn't start doing face-ups until this summer, almost a year after I first got Miles. But I was doing it on the NaNuRi head. I have had so many mistakes with the head that... well, let's just say it's not pretty and it belongs in a box because most of the things I have done were irresponsible(mainly just not knowing) and unfixable. So I don't think I will ever do a face-up on my kids. :X

 

I don't think I ever had "the customizing fear," honestly. I've always been a hands-on type of person, and my first complete doll, Mikelandros, was part of the VoA set, so he came unassembled. I modified his faceup, blushed him, and strung him right off the bat. I actually rather enjoy it.

I need to get some work done with them; Kasada needs a new faceup, Weros needs to be blushed (body is whiter than head,) and Mikel needs a bath. I think Anime Expo wore him out. ^^;



~Anrui

 

Unstringing, yes. Everything else, I had no hangups about as it was why I found the hobby so attractive. I still hate restringing, though some of my dolls are more cooperative than others.

 

I think part of me has never really lost the fear factor really. For me it's more along the lines of I worry even though I know that if I mess up on a non permanent mod, that it's removeable and that I can just start over. I've never done a faceup before, so I'm still paranoid to remove that ^^''

As for stringing/restringing, I really only have a fear about my DoC boy, since he's strung really tightly and it's a pain to try and get his S hook back into place in his head ^^''' Otherwise I'm completely confortable restringing my other boys ^^

 

I have a bit of customizing fear with the idea of opening eyes and sanding face... but faceup, not so much. Stringing... well I haven't had to do it yet. My dolls all came so well strung, that it's extra work I just don't need to do right now. I'd rather be sewing. I have no fear of it, just procrastination of a chore that doesn't seem as glamorous as painting or sewing or photographing.
The fear I have is a fear of anything permanent I do to the dolls. Temp stuff like stringing and faceup, I have no problem with. I'm about to try dyeing and modding a doll big-time though, so I think my fear might slowly start to ebb. at least, I hope it does...

 

I did my first face-up when I got Teacup... so, about five months after I got my first pair of dolls. I did my first real mod (I opened a sleeping MNF Shiwoo's eyes-) a month or two later.

I unstrung, sueded, wired and restrung Harumatsu and Jen about two weeks after I got them. 'Scared the heck out of me that first time, but afterwards it did get easier.

Leeda told me it would right before I took the guys apart, but I didn't believe her. I should have... She was right. Closing rapidly in on two years later, I can pop the heads or hands off of these guys of mine without a second thought and practically restring them in my sleep.

I"m still not very good at doing face-ups, but I was never really afraid of taking that task on... Mostly because I knew I could always get rid of a bad one if I didn't like it.

 

My first doll came as a kit, so right from the beginning I've been stringing, sanding and painting dolls! I sanded her before even ever stringing her!

So from day one, I lost the fear of customization.

 

I went over to onegreyelephant's house and she did a face up for my Liadan..

there was unstringing, head swapping and all.. you kinda loose the fear quickly when you watch someone confidently do it and realize that they're not as fragile as they first seem.

 

I restrung my boy the day he arrived. And just recently got the courage to sand his body. I never had a fear of doing face-ups. Ever since I've gotten into BJDs I've wanted to try my hand at one...and I did^^

TC

 

The week after I got Kaito I wiped his default Luts faceup and gave him a new one. A few days after that I pulled him apart, sanded his seams and restrung him (mind you it did take me about 3 hours to get him back together...now, two months later, it takes me 10 minutes lol)

I never really had a fear of customizing him or pulling him apart because I knew that if I did something wrong then I could get some help here or find someone who could fix my mistakes.

 

I can't recall ever being afraid to customize my dolls in any way. So far I've sanded seams, re-stringed bodies, done face ups, customized hands and feet and heavily customized one head, and so far I've only been enthusiastic to be able to try something new with them.

 

I think it took me about...um...10 minutes or thereabouts to lose the fear to be honest lol All of my dolls apart from Trystan have been fully re-strung, I've re-done/altered/added to ALL of their faceups, opened sleeping eyes, sanded, dremelled, modded, nearly everyone's been altered in some way from factory default and not a one of them's wearing the eyes or wig they came with anymore

I've worked on other peoples dolls too, so I guess at this point, very little would phase me with them

 

Well, my first doll came as a kit. So I didn't have any choice but to string him and do his face-up. This experience made me fearless.

 

Never had the fear to start with, I'd had and sometimes worked on too many other types of dolls as a kid to be bothered. Admittedly, I wasn't restringing dolls then, I was running to dad with the pieces "Dad, she fell apart again!" But I did make a marionette in high school. Made it real easy to start with a blank hybrid.

There were two things that did worry me, but I wouldn't call fear. First, after taking more than half an hour to wrestle one hand off and nearly straightening the hook in the process I decided I needed to have replacements before going any further, and spent another half hour getting the blasted thing back on (yes, the hooks he came with have been replaced now). I also worried about adjusting his stringing, because almost every knot I had ever tied in any elastic up to that point had promptly come untied as soon as the elastic was stretched.

But given Tanal's early habit of losing his head (stopped by hot glue sueding his neck), and his ongoing practice of slumping and throwing his wig and headcap flying there is no way I could have stayed afraid if I'd started that way.

 

When Ichigo's head came off at his first dollmeet.
It was about a week after he arrived and I hadn't dared touch his stringing or change anything but his wig. Hadn't even pried off his headcap to take a look inside. Fortunately I was surrounded by experts, and stringing tools and S-hooks were produced out of nowhere and he was soon put to rights. After we got home that evening I took him apart completely just to see how he worked. (He's looking over my shoulder as I type this out and the look on his face says "Geez, I hate it when you tell that story." )

When Rukia arrived a few weeks later, I took her apart pretty much right out of the box to change her eyes and coat her with MSC. No more fears!

I've started doing faceups, but only on a 1/6 Obitsu so far... I keep telling myself I need to fix Ichigo's eyes, I just haven't gotten around to it yet (OK, I guess I have a LITTLE fear left...)

 

6 months since getting my first doll, still very much afraid. I've only taken his eyelashes off (and accidentally scratched off some of his eyeliner). It doesn't help that he's faulty and his head can't be removed though ;_;

I'm staring at my new dolls face up though... I'm thinking of getting him a realistic face-up done. My other doll has such a detailed face-up with beautiful painted eyelashes and his aren't as realistic.