The Strange Little Things Unique to You in the Hobby?

I like to keep my kids blank and naked for a few days when they get here. It gives me a chance to settle in with the mold. Sort of a 'you are mine' deal. That, and I can imagine half of them are deadly embarassed. And I love to just sit myself down with the new kid and mess with them. Just to get to know their bodies and posing abilities.

I also like to take my tinier kids around to places in their boxes for luck. Shopping, running errands, etc. I have a puki box shaped indention in my pleather purse from carrying Rami around so much. XD

 

I know exactly who my dolls are before they even get here. I buy dolls to look like my characters, not because I find them exceptionally pretty or anything like that.

I usually make the character's a music playlist while I'm trying to find their doll to get me in the right mood.

 

There's really only one thing I do that's sort-of "out there" with my crew... and I'll be the very first to admit that it's pure silliness... But it's something tied to the characters the dolls represent so strongly that it would seem weirder to me NOT to do.

There are pairs that I won't separate.

Hideo and Elise, Serras and Sannru, Yeru and Lir, Mender and Oracle, Miya and Aku, Julian and Ashley. If I move one of the pair to another shelf or a different part of the house, the other always goes too. I never pose them apart. If I pick one up for pictures, or to take to a meet or even just to tinker with, I also bring along the other. They're the avatars of characters that are inseparable, and so it really feels "off" to me to have one of them sitting there alone.

Like I said... pure silliness.
But being irrational doesn't make it any less true.

 

I always take a guy out to the doctor's or dentists. XD It helps me calm down a bit and gives me something to focus on. The assistants at my dentist's were even calling Val by name when I'd visit.

 

I almost immediately think about what mods I want to do with my new doll. Sometimes they're minor (like non-permanent tattoos, Pipos/Leeke ears or horns) and sometimes... well, I spend a good amount of my free time covered in resin/Milliput dust, happy as a clam.

Also, within the first week or so, I want to do a photoshoot with them.

 

Hmm... I don't know if this is all that odd but I recently took Icarus out for a couple days (it was a friend's birthday and she wanted to see her "nephew"). He went with us to lunch, twice (yay sleepovers!), dinner and he got to sit and watch two movies (yay discount movie theaters!): Puss in Boots and In Time! He also rode shotgun in the cart when we went to a hobby shop where I got him a stuffed bunny for like.. two bucks. Rambling aside, I LOVED carrying him around with me and may do it again in the future despite some of the weird looks I got. It might just become a habit.

 

I'm not sure if I do anything unique. Maybe, the most unique thing about my BJD experience is that I don't share it very much. I notice a lot of people on the forum talk about telling their friends when they are getting a new doll or taking their dolls places with positive or negative results. The only time I talk about my dolls to anyone is when they happen to see them and ask about them, and I never think to share any information about my characters to friends or family. The few times I have was because they asked, and I think they got more out of it than I did.
One thing I do often is, before and after a faceup, I set the doll up with a prop or another doll and look at him from all angles. I try to see how many "expressions" he has. I also spend a lot of time picking eyes. I will look at the same few eyes for several days, usually on different computers, and I will often place the doll who needs eyes or a picture of it by the screen. I will try similarly coloured and/or domed eyes in the doll until I feel I have a perfect idea of how to eyes will look in person in my doll. I'm not as specific with wigs because I figure, I as a living human can go to a salon and have my hair bleached, dyed, curled, cut, whatever, so my doll can change their hair the same way. However, aside from minor changes with contact lenses, I can't change my eyes. I certainly can't change how domed they look, so my dolls should not be able to either- for the sake of realism. XD

 

Agreed. I think the only really unusual thing that I do with my dolls is that once they're "finished" (Have their first good faceup, at least one complete outfit, and a pair of eyes to call their own) I put a coin inside their head. I think this started with my second doll - I went on holiday to the Czech Republic, and had a 2-koruna piece left over when I came home. To keep it safe, I put it in my Glow's head. And now they've all got one, in different denominations and different currencies.

 

I kind of do something similar to what Ratty does with the coins, except each one of my dolls, once they are finished, and have clothing eyes, and a wig, gets a small little crystal placed inside their head. I usually stick it right in between their eyes, into the little bit of extra eye putty. I'm not sure why, but to me it makes them all feel a little more personal, and mine. I read in a new age book about crystals and gems that crystals tend to absorb emotional energy they get from people in rooms, and tend to resonate it. And also, I heard that crystals build up more energy in the dark, so I thought storing them in my doll's head would be perfect. I don't think my dolls have souls or anything, but I think to a point they too absorb energy placed into them, like love, or frustration.... lol. So I sort of see placing a little crystal in their head as like a building point for that energy. Once I put one in my doll's head, to me it's pretty much a little welcome home gift, and I never take it back. I'm sure one or two people I've sold a doll to were kind of like WTF when they opened their new doll's head and seen a tiny crystal inside it. The only time I remove the crystal is if I remove their eyes as well. I am weird I know. .

 

Believe it or not, I first got into this hobby because I was looking for a model who will pose me to draw, even it's 3 am in the morning! And that's how I found bjd. Then, once I got a bjd, I thought "maybe I should learn how to photography them" so, I got a camera.
That's right, one hobby, lead me right into the next!
Each is as expensive or even more as the next!

 

.... Okay, I've only done this a few times, but it's an extremely important step for me.

Sometimes- not every time, not with every doll, not even with every second hand doll- sometimes, I will give that doll a bath.

Yes, I know it's not that weird. But this isn't just a "take cute pictures of doll x in the sink" thing- it's kind of a compulsion, and every time I've done it I've felt better immediately. First, I strip the doll completely, remove eyes and wig, and usually the head as well. Then I carefully was all resin parts in soap and water. Typically, by that time any face-up and body blushing has also been removed.
I do it because I can't stamp my ownership on something that's still carrying traces of someone or somewhere else. When I opened up Maxxie for example, I was strangely disappointed to see him in person. This was my one and only Grail doll, and somehow, he just didn't feel right. I removed the wig and eyes, and the old face-up he'd come with immediately. It was no disrespect to his previous owner- it was just that she'd had him for a long time, and he felt like someone else's possetion to me. I knew I couldn't bond with him if he kept any of those things. So stripped him, cleaned him, and let him dry. And then he was mine, and has been ever since. I did the same thing with Edissen's new body. I'd bought Ed ages ago, he was the first BJD I'd ever put my hands on. And yet, on the new body he just didn't feel like mine. After the bath, he was entirely so.

 

Teruchan - I do the same thing!

For me it's a cleansing of old energy and birthing of new life.
I don't do it with totally new direct from company dolls, though I might wipe them down very quickly with a damp cloth and dry them.

Like you I tend to also take off the head and remove eyes, wig and faceup in most cases! I use mr clean sponge and paper towels and water. Then at the end I wipe the whole doll down with a damp clean flannel and then dry the doll off again with a fresh towel.
Feels great!! by this time, I have come to know the movement of the doll limbs too and the doll in general. It's also a feeling of getting to know the sculpt and all the contours. I do not take out the stringing though.

 

I guess the weirdest thing I do w/my dolls has to do w/their characters. I treat them as their characters.
This is not the same as treating them like people or animate objects. I mean, I put them into clothes that fit who I've decided they are (or sometimes whom the character has decided they are - its a writer thing, really), I make a little dollie space for them w/stuff the character would like, make sure they are w/their friends/family from the stories I've written or am writing, etc.
I did this w/dolls long before I got into BJDs - just not as detailed. In other words, I remember when my girls were little, I'd go in to clean their rooms & make sure Ariel was w/Eric, etc etc. I had my Baby Kathie sleeping on my daughter's baby pillow (ok, still do), & so on.
It has nothing to do w/whatever I may believe about energy resonances. It just doesn't feel right to do things 'out of character' w/the dolls. So that's my weirdness LOL

 

Hmm...

Once I get the doll all set up (unwrapped, dressed, wigged) I sit them down and go find I piece of paper and a pen. I cut/tear a strip of paper and on it write:

My name is [dolls's name]
I am a [company, model]
My owner is [my name, cell phone]

Then I fold it in half horizontally, fold the right side to the front middle, fold the left side to the back middle, and then write "Read me!" on both sides. That small folded rectangle goes into the dolls head, usually between the eyes and s-hook.

 

When I change my dolls SD,MD and mini. They all have to have the same theme hair, clothes, shoes etc. Not identical but the theme must be there.

 

I tell mine goodnight. Not all, but some get their name called out. I tell them bye when I leave in the AM and hey when I get back.

I also dress them in shifts. SD boys one day, SD girls, Minis, tinies...

 

My weirdness shared by only a few dolly owners has to be the obsessive Medieval clothing thing. Seriously, click my blog link and you'll see what madness afflicts me. I make tiny leather shoes. I handsew researched period garments out of gauzes and linens. I search all over the place for buckle and belt hardware, and make teeny tiny leather goods. Yup, probably crazy.

 

Oh, but you aren't alone! I also carry them like this when I take them with me around the house! XDDD I also like holding onto Jâke's buttom. It's great for holding UXD

 

I'm waiting for my adopted unoa to arrive. But ever since i was a child any doll i have received has to be stripped down and inspected naked. I have no idea what Freud would say but i have even been know to do this at shows ( with permission of course) x