What do you do with your doll(s) for fun?

I'm new to the hobby but so far: all of the above (going to a con this weekend actually so this will be my first meet) + My doll is a shell of a pre-existing and beloved character of mine, so I write/draw/roleplay him a lot as well. Just looking at him makes me feel so excited and proud!

But I don't think there's a right or wrong way to enjoy your doll as long as you're having fun and staying safe. Congrats on your first doll! What sculpt is she?

 

Congrats on receiving your first doll! I'd love to see pictures of them.

I am in the same boat - I just got my first doll and I always want to be spending time with her So far, I have mostly been sewing for her (or planning future sewing projects) but I'm excited to take pictures as well. I have also created a pinterest board for her which I spend time looking for images for/pinning to. It's also really fun to go thrifting or shopping and try to find unexpected in-scale props!

A lot of the time I just enjoy having her in the room with me while I work on other things. She's my little companion

 

I used to sew for them, make things for them, Photograph them, and paint some of them. Now I stay to busy.... one day.....

 

I love having my dolls next to be when I’m reading or taking a nap. I like creating stories for them, taking pictures, dressing them up. Pretty much the kid part of me takes control.

 

While I am too exhausted most days to do anything with them, I do love looking at them and saying hello/goodnight to them. When I have more free time, I like to change their clothes, take pictures of them, take them out to my local park for outdoor photos, or if there is a meetup/the local dealer is open, take them out to be around other people haha. But I just enjoy having them because they're the embodiment of characters I really love, so it's like having them there, ready to start an adventure with in my imagination.

 

I’ve found the same with me so far! Oddly I never actually owned dolls as a kid, I had some LPS and MLP toys I’d play with and stuffed animals but never dolls. But now I’ve found myself liking having my boy just sit next to me, sometimes I’ve been talking to him too.

 

Take photos, change their clothes, sew for them, craft for them, do faceups, make dioramas (temporarily on hold due to life), take them to conventions and doll meets, take them when traveling...

But my favorite part is their stories and personalities! Every doll I own is the physical representation of one of my role play characters, so they each have a character sheet with all their info: full name, family, pets, birthday, likes and dislikes, job, fear, and so much more! They each get a backstory, and they each get played out in their own stories, most of which intertwine at some point. I love this part of the hobby because I'm limited only by my imagination, and it's 100% free. Making a character or story for your doll can be as basic or in depth as you like and requires no materials, no formal training, no years of practice, no tools, nothing that holds many people back from other aspects of the hobby, like sewing or painting.

 

I sew for them (I do take pictures, but tht's not fun, that's a necessary evil if I want to be able to share them online), I generally play with them, I talk them to meets, to visit friends, to historical events and conventions, parties, Barbecues, picnics etc. I would love to arrange diaoramas/room boxes for them but don't often get around to it and don't have the space for permanent set-ups for them. I have a couple of dolls more of less permanently on my desk, beside my computer, at home, I take a doll or two into work with me for desk company there most days (DollsTown 7Year Arin boy, and his teddy-bear today for example). Two of them came on my honeymoon. One or more goes onm holiday with me. I usually have several dolls in my sewing room (in various states of undress) for fitting puposes, and a few because they're newer arrivals and there's nowhere else in the house they'll fit.

Some of the best fun comes from their interactions with each other, and other people's dolls. I don't have hugely detailed backstories for most of them, just general stuff (some of it quite sparse) about who they are, how they're related and a few "snipets" of backgoround story from such interaction. The picture of their characters grows as things happen and diffeent mixes fo dolls spark in-character interaction.

I don't create a character then set out to find a doll to fill that role. Instead, I tend to get a doll and as I "get to know them" I learn who they are and what sort fo charcter they have. Nettle (Kaye Wiggs) for example is my entitled "princess." She's sweet and nice enough but tends to be a bit self-centred. Arin is a quiet and thoughtful boy with a sharp sense of humour (he's the one who persuaded Nettle that if she were a "real" princess, she'd be able to pee through twelve mattresses). Jean-Claude is the edest boy in the family and sees himself as The Leader in all their games and adventure (he isn't), he also resents Alphie who is three years younger but already much taller than Jean-Claude is. Hannah is a tomboy, and Nesta the snarky "older-sister" type (even though they're the same age) who despairs of Hannah's complete disinterest in fashion, Cressida is the little peacemaker who runs interference between them. Edith sees herself as a graceful dancer, even though she has no talent or ability in that direction despite her limitles enthusiasm for it, Cordelia is a cheerful little chatterbox who Never Shuts Up!... etc. They are all one big, extended Victorian/Edwardian family of siblings, half-siblings, and cousins (some of them elves or half elves, the rest human) and poor Sera, the eldest child in the family, is just about old enough to be guardian to the whole boisterous bunch of them.... nd so the details grow in fits and starts, as bits and pieces, and random snippets become available.

Teddy

 

I often describe myself as a compulsive crafter, so I am pretty much always making something for my dolls. They are a great umbrella hobby to fit sewing, sculpting, casting, painting and all sorts of other hobbies into.

When I am not actively making something I enjoy the stuff I already have. I redress the dolls fairly often and set them up in different situations. Most of the time they hang out in a little display area in my sewing room and I try to always leave them posed so that they look natural, talking to each other or doing someting.
Sometimes when I am stressed or bored or just generally don't know what to do with myself for whatever reason, I will sit down with just one or two of the dolls and just play with it. I try on different outfits, may try through wigs or eyes i have just to see how it looks (even if most of my dolls have a finished set style that I rarely change in any dramatic way). I will try posing them in different ways, learning what they can do and what they can't. This is a good time for looking for damage to their blush, or find out if they need new elastic and other things like that.

I also do backstories for them, most are not written down, they just float around in my head and when I spend time with a doll new details often emerge.
Sometimes I put a few of them together and just see what happens. The majority of my dolls fit in the same world and their characters are all connected in some way. Most of them are centered around my first doll, since she is the seed from where the collection grew, but that means some of them have no direct connection to each other. It's really interesting to think about how they would get along with each other when they meet.

I do the "picking a doll to keep me compnay" while crafting or sitting by the computer, too. When crafting it is partly for practical reasons to test fit and scale but I also enjoy just having something pretty to look at while working on something.

I do also enjoy sharing what I do with others and I like talking about my dolls (what hobbyist doesn't like to talk about their hobbies, right?) and I do take photos to make that possible to do on places like DoA, but I don't count photography as a hobby. I find it more frustrating than fun. But I try to motivate myslef by thinking about how much I like it when other share their dolls and their crafts and so I want to contribute too.

 

Now why couldn't I just say that instead of writing an essay!

Teddy

 

Because, like all hobbyists, you like talking about your dolls?
And I don't blame you, your dolls are lovely!

 

{GRIN!!} Many people who know me would just shorten that to "you like talking"

Teddy

 

You can find them here and there all over DoA by now. I have some stuff in the chochet thread and I often participate in the monthly sewing challenge. I'm sure I've posted in some of the more general sewing threads and possibly in the knitting thread as well, but that is probably older stuff, you'll need to dig through the older threads to find it, but you can search the threads by user name if you want to. Some of my scultping and casting is in the doll making section.

 

That's a neat idea. My only name theme is that many of them have longer names but I mostly use shortened versions of them (Sera is Serendipitous, Alphie is Alphonse, Polly is Leopold, Nesta is Clytmnestra, Phinnie is Delphinium... etc.)

Teddy