What does it mean for you to "bond" with your dolls?

For me, it's as simple as spending time with my doll, whether it be posing it, taking pictures, changing it's look etc. I don't really know how else to describe it other than that.

 

For me it just means to fall in love with the doll so I can't bear to part with it (except if times should get REALLY severe, but I'm afraid I'd just then run to my parents for a loan. Not something I'd like to do, but I'll go to great lengths to keep the dolls I love). When just looking at the doll makes me feel at ease and puts a smile on my face, I know I have bonded with it.

 

I only have one doll and when I got him it was a surprise, yet it didn't take me long to find that I enjoyed having him around. He makes me smile and feel creative. I'm curious as to how I will feel during my first box opening for a doll I have been waiting for. I am not worried about a lack of a bond I think it will be there.

 

For me it's about character, too. I just adore my Littlefee Luna and pose her all the time, but when the character I had for her originally wasn't working out I had to change her. I also do really weird things, like stick her hands/feet on her head or back, but I think that's more my amusement with her magnets than an actual bonding... I also talk to her sometimes.

 

I only have one doll so far that I find impossible to bond with, so I'm planning to sell him so I can replace him with a doll with whom I can.
Bonding to me means that I can keep looking at the doll and never get bored with their sculpt, or can look past their flaws. These days, when I look at my boy, I think about his value and all of the problems he has (the scratches and chips that he had when he arrived home, that DoD never helped out with). That is a bad sign for me.
I know that I'm bonded with my doll when I want to show him/her off to everyone and spend time with the doll (posing, sewing for them, etc). It's just a matter of finding that kind of doll to owe up to my tastes. When a doll is everything I thought it would be, I know I'm set.

 

As a kid I grew up with a ton of stuffed dogs, and I knew which ones I'd "bonded" with and not. It was more of less which ones I loved so much and chose as my favorites, would carry around the house, would hug when I was sad and felt comforted. I agree with the people above, just being able to feel a special connection. Right now I'm not feeling bonded with my one doll, but more like a motherly feel towards her, but I'm giving it time.

 

If I like seeing the doll in my room and find myself considering buying him something when I'm out shopping and come across something doll-size. If I have a desire to write fiction based on his character. If I obsessively photograph him. XD Things like that. There are some dolls I can say I haven't really 'bonded' with but I've noticed lately that the reason for that seems to be a lack of clothes for the doll. o.O Some of my dolls are naked. A couple don't have faceups. It makes me want to photograph and play with them less, and I don't write about them.

For example, this year I got my two grail dolls, Soom's York and IOS's S. York came with a faceup but he's a lot bigger than any of my other dolls so I have no clothes for him. So I just set him on the TV stand. I look at him constantly because he's right in front of the TV. XD But I only took pictures of him after opening him the first time and I haven't played with him at all or written about him. I'm not even sure what to name him. But my S dolls (I actually bought two) are smaller and I realized that I have lots of clothes that will fit them! Even though they don't have faceups yet, because they had eyes, hair, and clothes, they were fun to photograph and play with.

It seems weird, but I guess naked dolls just make them less fun so I'm less interested in and attached to them! Luckily, with a little cash, that's an easy fix. I wonder if anyone else finds this to be true.

 

For me I guess it's just whether or not the doll fits the character I have in mind for it. I haven't been disappointed yet, though, so I'm not really sure.

 

I find it very important. Recently, I found out that when a doll's arrival time took several months, I ended up not bonding with her. I think I lost interest and will probably rehome her.

 

For me, bonding means that I can't imagine letting them go. I just love seeing the doll there every day. I don't really do anything with them. I hardly even take pictures. But the collection I've ended up with is all of my own characters from a particular story, so I think that gives them them a higher degree of meaning to me as well.

 

You shouldn't use superglue on eyelashes, because then you will end up bonded to your doll!

 

Ok, I lol'd. Hard. And then I started coughing because allergies are a bitch. But then I lol'd some more.

Annnnnyway.

I've never put much stock in "bonding", but I guess you could say that for me it happens before I even buy the doll. I don't buy on impulse. I don't have a long wishlist. These days the dolls I want have been on the list for years, so I've already put a fair amount of energy into "I really want this and will not let it go for like ever and then some". Most of my collection has been with me for five or six years; my Wu, Cecil, had been on my wishlist for a good solid three years before I got him. (I'll cop to admitting that Dave, my Aden, was kind of an impulse; Elfdoll was doing that mad cleanout clearance thing and I liked the Aden head but I wasn't sure about keeping it -- so I figured what the hell, it's $35, never gonna get that good a deal again, might as well get the head. Then I liked him so much I kept him.) I pretty much never sell dolls. I only recently parted with one, and that was mainly because he'd been sitting all wrapped up for almost two years so I figured I should pass him on to someone else who'd give him more attention. I guess you can call that bonding. I don't know what else to call it.

 

^_^' sorry

I'm the same way, I either buy dolls that I've already researched and wanted for a long time, in which case they stay or I buy cheap, impulse dolls because I'm like "ooh cheap doll!" and then always end up selling them because they're not what I wanted which I knew even before they arrived. I'm not emotionally attached to my dolls either like many people seem to be. If someone offered me twice what one of my dolls is worth, I'd take it without a second thought and just buy the same sculpt.

 

To be honest when I first got my doll I was a bit unsure about her, but the more I interacted with her the more I loved her. The things I was unsure about I now think are cute and quirky.

 

I'd say for me, being "bonded" means I'm "attached" in a way. I like to pick the doll up and mess with it, unstring and work on it, style hair, adjust eyes, change clothes, just general play with them. The only doll I ever sold was one where I felt uncomfortable doing any of those things--she was my only SD, she was enormous, heavy, very expensive and covered in delicate parts I was terrified to break. And I had a very hard time even finding a place she could sit out of the way. While it still was a little hard to let her go, especially with how excited I'd been to get her (and even now I still wish a little that I had her), I'm still glad I could send her to someone who really wanted her.

 

What it means for me to bond with my doll is either a sewing session where it's just me and her or a photo shoot where I'm solely focusing on her.