The Fear Factor - when did you lose it?

I'm still freaked I won't be able to put Nathaniel back together again if I take him apart...

 

Ive not taken Lilith to bits yet she strung really nice so thats not needed, she does need hotgluing on her hips and ankles as there is too little resistance (it makes her topple alot). Ive been putting this off cos i dont know what type of glue gun to get. Im getting one on the 1st September with someones help (im off to a doll meet).

Faceups scare the crap out of me but ive bitten the bullet and ordered a Celestyn blank (i figured that it would be a bit more forgiving and i liked the sculpt). Im fully planning to do him myself which also means i'll have to unstring him and body blush him (or at least do his tattoo).

Im gonna do this and if i mess up 2 bad then i might ask for some help but i've got to learn at some point right?

 

I messed up the tattoo on my Drawn's back.. I put way too much paint on him.. It might be removeable though.
Taking his head off was the scariest thing ever! First of all I didn't know how to really do it and then I was scared of the elastic slipping off the S-hook and dissapearing into his body

Overall, it was an interesting and successful experience with my first bjd ^^

 

Ive decided not to use any paint in my first face up. My problem is i dont wear makeup myself (yes i am a girl but i hate make up), so im gonna need to practice a fair bit to get it right. Id love to get Liliths nails to have a french manicure but there is no way id do that myself shes my first doll and i dont want to ruin her.

 

I just used pastel in my face-up, I'm too scared to use paint!
Oh I was thinking of doing a natural manicure on my next bjd.. I think I'll just use what I did for Drawn's lips (pastel and nail-varnish gloss)
Drawn's nails look like real ones (as in, they're all chipped! haha..) I need to secure them..
As some say you can always but a really cheap-barbie thing and practice on it though it's always different on resin.. I found it fun ^^ yet scary. It took a whole day too and patience is key hehe.

 

I got over any fear I had pretty much as soon as I looked at a stringing diagram. If you're freaked out about not putting the pieces back in the right places, you can always label them. My guys have tiny Rs and Ls on the insides of their leg and arm pieces (just inside the hollow portion, not in the socket of the joint; you don't want it to show), so I never lose track of which is the right or left. It really took the fear out of putting them back together. You can also take them apart slowly to get a feel for how they fit together. Just use a stringing tool in reverse - before you remove hands/feet/whatever, hook the elastic on your stringing tool (whatever you happen to be using). Then you can control it and you don't have doll parts flying all over due to quickly-released tension.

And if you're still nervous, check out a stringing tutorial! There are several of them here on DoA, and they were really helpful when I was worrying about whether I could manage it on my own. ^^

(Oh, and if you're sueding their joints, Rushlight, you need to use a low-temp glue gun. Just make sure it's low-temp and you'll be fine. High temp glue can bond to the resin and cause damage. All my boys are sueded with low-temp hot glue, and they pose beautifully! Good luck with yours!)

 

i never had it
maybe cause i still don't have a full doll
but when i have the body i want to start practicing sanding and blushing ^^
i like that this dolls are different, i don't want to keep them as if they were like the others

 

I took a class in stained glass years ago. The second class we were to cut out and solder together our first projects. I sat there after putting the leading on, with the soldering gun poised....for 10 minutes or longer, while the teacher helped the other students. Finally he came and stood by me and asked, "What are you doing?" I looked at him sheepishly and replied. "Procrastinating?"

Thing is I couldn't say why I was stalling. It was just free floating anxiety. It's even more silly when we can't name a fear...

I stopped stalling, and turned out to quite enjoy glass work. And fears? I name those puppies now.

 

For me the fear went out of the picture when I realised that my Bee-a's factory faceup is disintegrating (she's with me for about half a year at that time) D8 Even though from the start I already had the idea of doing my own faceup, when the realisation came it was still abit nerve-wrecking. And when I first un-strung her LOL I couldn't get her back on and left her as pieces for months ^^;;;;; But after that everything's kinda okay and now I can restring, reface up and do light moding to my dolls without hesitation 8D

 

I.... haven't even attempted to remove Annette's head cap I'm totally petrified. I'm sure I'll do it when I get her new eyes..... but until then I live in blissfully ignorance of the joys of customization ^.^

 

Well I kind of HAD TO remove Loki's headcap when she got here (and she's my first doll!) to change her eye. actually it went easy. after that, well...about 1and a half month was when I first retrung her to pose better. It was a little scary, but I made sure to be carefull and the first thing on my mind was to get her back togeather. In total, I resrung her 3 times by now.

What I'm still afraid of is doing a faceup for her (she has a beautifull company faceup, and I dont want to ruin it.) but I guess with a new doll without a faceup, I would try it...Whit a little help tought, I maybe a good artist but I dont like to paint >.< And modifications I wont make at leas for a year. I'm too afraid and I dont have the supplies.

 

I currently start to loose fear on customising my girls... xD I start to own my first doll last year and that time I don't even dare to pose her more as I worry I might crack her. Time goes then I start to do my first face up after I got my second girl this year. Cause she need the face up and I can't afford to pay to get a good face up so I do it by myself. The first trial was I erase off her eyeline first then goes to eyebrow then lips. Now to remake her, I erase her entire face up with the help of my friend we manage to get her head out so is more easy. XD I start to restrung my first girl hand last year and change their hand part from string to S hook this year.

Latest, I give my second an ear pierce which honestly I never taught of myself will ever did such things. xD So now I'm ready to restrung their entire body and change their string. But sometimes, restringing if you worry to do alone, you can always ask a friend help. ^_^

 

It took me four years to do my first restring. That went well. I took a break and that did a lot for me regarding courage. Coming back I realised I wanted to get more from this hobby. By now I've gotten into it a bit more and I've gained courage. I want to try small mods and face-ups next.

 

I'm not afraid of doing face up because when my first head arrived, I did it without any experience. So I don't fear to ruin them but I "DO" fear that my no-talent skill ruins their image My face up skill is quite scary anyway...

What I really fear, is...my dolls are decayed by time... Yellowing isn't a deal but decaying?! That means my dolls will disappear from this world. I don't know why I'm afraid of this fact because it will take at least many decades or...after I disappear from the world, before it happens Cutting out this nonsense fear, I guess, the second scariest thing must be damage and losing. And third one, seeing my dolls or other dolls being abused! I like to watch horror movies but...I'm soft about dolls and reality. And I can't tolerate to see or think about this...

 

Right when I got my first doll I did his faceup (and he has suffered multiple attempts with me xD) I was never afraid to paint any of my dolls faces and I frequently add/take away/redo them. I wasn't afraid to restring them either, but I've only had to with one of my dolls because he was sent quite floppy. In the future I think I will just go through the process of restringing to my tastes right when I get a new doll, saves trouble in the future XD
I'm still very afraid to do any kind of modding though, especially with a dremel but I do have plans to mod (dremel and all) in the future!
someday I hope I can be a jack of all trades as far as doll customization goes haha

 

How long did you have your dolls before you lost your fear of customising, and re-stringing them etc?

Honestly... less than an hour, really. My first doll was a Bobobie, and was very loosely strung. I'd read up on another forum about exactly how to tighten his strings, and how easy and foolproof it would be, but when I actually did it... somehow I managed to let go of one of the ends and ended up with my just-arrived doll falling apart in my lap. That was a surprisingly good way to get over any intimidation factor, and within the first month I was wiping and redoing his faceup.

Physical mods took a while longer, but I knew I'd never be happy with my first LittleFee until he was actually the elf I wanted him to be, so I finally just sucked it up and got out the Milliput, and I think the mod turned out all right! I haven't gotten to the point of dremeling yet, but that's because I don't actually own a dremel; I'm hoping to buy one soon since the mod I'm currently working on (a very extensive resculpt of parts of two dolls) would definitely benefit from one, though for now I've been doing fine scraping and carving away with an xacto knife. (I also used the xacto to hack some toes off a couple of dolls, which was surprisingly fun for something many people would view as incredibly destructive!)

 

HA! I haven't lost the "fear" if that's what it is!

I've had bjds for 10 years and I have NEVER restrung them or re-faceupped them!

I don't think it's fear, though. I took my Volks 2007 One-Off to the Volks Doll Doctor to get him checked out and possibly re-strung. I hadn't touched the stringing at all. So... what does the Doll Doctor do? Does he replace that 7 year old elastic? No!!! He says it's fine. He just tightens it with another knot!!! So now I think it's not true that you have to replace elastic automatically every few years. I made sure to ask him. He said the elastic was still working. He's the expert!

I've tightened the elastic in a couple of dolls, but most are exactly as they are when they arrived.

Mods... I slightly opened the eyes of a head I got back in 2004. They are my dolls and I'll do what I wish, even though it's a rare/limited head.

I've had to faceup dolls that came without a choice of a company faceup (that happens now and then). But I haven't had to re-do any faceups and haven't ever touched any default faceups. And I have a TON of dolls...

 

I actually got into the hobby fully expecting it to be hands on as far as customizing and care and such. My first doll I ordered without a face up so I could face up him myself, make him his own clothing and just in general use him as a way to explore various crafting projects, including making props, armor, photos, drawing(this was the main reason, less so now) and all of the other things I had seen so many other people do with their dolls. He came with really tight stringing and it took me a while(a year) to finally fiddle with it so he could be more pose-able, but all of my other dolls have been taken part and painted and sewed for and whatnot as soon as I've gotten them in the house XD
The hands on part was what got me really excited about the hobby, being able to obtain something awesome and really work to make it my own

 

I never had any fear of restringing or taking off faceplates to change eyes - I knew resin was sturdy and that nothing could go wrong as long as I was careful and patient.

Tweaking face-ups took me a bit longer - I think it took me about 2 months to work up the courage to tweak my tan Heliot's eyeshadow (by blushing pastel over it, so now it is more brown than blue), and even longer to work up the courage to tweak my tan Topaz's cheek blushing (by blushing pastel over it to tone down the super sunburned pink look to a more neutral blush). I still have to give my Alex freckles (so nervewracking ), and tone down my Cuprit's eyeshadow (maybe - I haven't decided for certain if I want to do this).

Doing my own face-ups is something I haven't really had to think about until now - most of my dolls came with default company face-ups which I love, and have no intention of removing). But just recently I got my very first blank doll who I'll be face-upping myself. I'm nervous, but I have a really great tutorial that I'm going to work from, and I'll be mimicking the company default (which is very simple), so I'm hoping my first attempt won't turn out too terribly. Either way, there's no fear involved, because I know that as long as I use the correct supplies, I can't do any damage to my girl. The worst case scenario is that I wipe the head and send her to a professional to do, and that's not a very bad worst case scenario