What makes someone a "good" dolly owner?

I think there are 3 things that make a "good" doll owner:

1) Have a genuine interest and curiosity in most aspects of the hobby, even if you never try those things yourself. (You might never do your own faceup, but if you hang around doll people long enough, you'll probably have an idea of how to do one and what you should or should not use.)
2) Own a doll
3) *related to #1* Be able to maintain your doll - keep them relatively clean, wigs brushed, have faceups replaced when they start to rub off, super glueing broken fingers when accidents happen - you don't have to be an expert re-stringer or faceup artist.

Beyond that - how long you own a particular doll, what your doll wears, how they're painted, where they hang out when you're not playing with them, whether or not you photograph them, take them outside, or for meets, that's all up to you, so long as you ENJOY your dolls.

 

A good dollowner to me is someone who doesn't do crazy things like drop them off of buildings or do sharpie face-ups... Which doesn't mean they don't have the right to do that because they definately do, I just wouldn't consider them good owners. Other then that... I can't think of anything really.

To me it basically comes down to good care for a valuable thing. If you demolish a 100 year old cabinet I wouldn't consider you a good antique owner either. Taking care of the doll essentially means don't ruin it. Don't drop it of off buildings, be careful with sun, use sealant, etc. Everything else I consider personal taste of the dollowner, and my own personal ideas about that are irrelevant. I kind of like seeing how differently people enjoy their dolls.

 

Your dolls are yours, and how you enjoy them is entirely up to you. It doesn't make you a "bad" doll owner if you only take pictures of them once in a while or don't buy a lot of things for them. If you just want to have them around to look at and enjoy, that's perfectly okay! There is no set of "rules" for the BJD hobby. The BJD experience should be as unique and diverse as the individuals who are in the hobby. There's no right or wrong way to enjoy them.

I think the only qualification for being a "good" doll owner is to be responsible and take good care of them by keeping them clean and safe from damage. No matter how you choose to enjoy them, they are an investment and I think it's only proper to treat them as valuable items.

All my dolls are characters with backstories, relationships and so on. I love writing stories about them, taking pictures of them, making things for them, and generally playing with them and admiring them. I think I'm a "good" BJD owner, not because I do all that stuff, but because I take proper care of my dolls and try to make sure they'll be in a condition where I can enjoy them for a long time to come.

 

A good dolly owner is on that isn't a jerk an doesn't judge me/get up in my grill for stupid things/things that aren't their business.

 

A good doll owner enjoys their dolls.

 

A good doll owner is someone who enjoys the hobby and performs basic maintenance on their dolls. For maintenance, I just mean keeping them clean and not being neglectful such as leaving them sit in the sun. That I would consider a good dollie owner. I personally don't care if someone leaves their doll baking in the sun or drops it off of a building, but those who disregard basic care tips and has complete disregard for what makes their doll wear or become damaged would not be considered a good owner in my book.

 

from my point of view: someone who takes time to me his/her doll(s) pretty. buy or sew them quality clothes and is at least a bit cautious not to damage them (i.e. doesn't store them by the window directly in the sunlight and handles them carefully enough to not constantly stain or scratch them. etc.).
so ehrm, a devoted/carefull collector basically
*about the clothes: I don't mean "buy them stuff all the time". just that their dolls has pretty clothes in general. be it only 6 outfits in the whole doll's life.
but that is only my definition.
someone who only enjoys their dolls, to me, is a simple doll lover/enthusiast. it is not enough for me to classify them as good or bad.
I guess for me to consider someone a good owner, I must be able to translate their general behavior toward their collection item to a pet xD "dolls is dragged everywhere carelessly with only a sock dress? dog would not have any toys and will sleep on cold floor but might get to eat food table" IknowIdon'tmakesensedon'tmentionit

 

My point of view? There are no good or bad doll owners, just doll owners. They are just objects. Some sort of dolly relationship, or sense of duty (i.e. my doll needs clothes, I must provide them with clothes) is completely irrelevant to me.

I guess the only "bad" doll owner is one that doesn't look after their expensive belongings, but even then that's debatable. A person can do whatever they want with their expensive items.

 

I may have no place even commenting here as my first doll is yet to be ordered! But I like throwing in my two cents.

To me, being a "good" or "bad" doll owner is not something to really worry over. In any hobby some people take the hobby very very seriously and can become (slightly or even fully) elitist and gain enjoyment from feeling superior to others in the hobby. It can be hard to ignore these people even though they are usually the minority often because you may respect them or just because they are so active in the hobby. I would stress that anyone who makes you feel inferior intentionally is not worth worrying about.

In my opinion, the only thing that makes someone a "good" owner is appreciating/valuing/caring for/loving their doll(s) and treating them accordingly. (No that does not mean buying them the best clothes, just the same as with real kids love is about keeping them from harm and caring about them, not buying them expensive things.)

Being extremely active in the hobby does not make you a better "owner" it just makes you more "active in the hobby" which is another thing that some people value and others don't care about.

Having said all of that, I don't really think there is a "bad" owner. If you sell dolls regularly, leave them in sunlight or let them get scratched I would suggest that you might not be bonding with your dolls in a very deep way. That doesn't make you "bad" though, just "less attached."

 

Nurie you are one of my favorite doll owners
I really enjoy seeing pictures of your dolls Summer and Winter are especially lovely, to me taking pictures and buying new outfits occasionally is being a great type of doll owner.

I often feel like a "bad" doll owner because my girls sit in their boxes and I haven't had time or funds to spoil them like I wish I could.

 

Funds don't make you love them any more, neither does a lack of time. As for keeping them in their boxes, that sounds like a sensible way to protect something you care about.

Isn't it as the beatles would say: all you need is love?

 

I think its not really important to classify BJD hobbyists as 'good' and 'bad' owners. That seem to be a distinction reserved for the care of living things, at least to me. However, I think one is a 'good' owner so long as they place value on the hobby. That value can be measured in a variety of ways. Someone who puts monetary value first might have 'shelf babies', keep all their boxes pristine, clean them weekly, and do all the things that keep them as fresh as the day they were cast. Others may have emotional value- bonding with characters, making photostories, or taking their dolls everywhere with them, and still having warm feelings for them despite the wear and tear. Still others may see them as a learning tool- there are many types of art/crafting that overlap with this hobby, and what better way to advance your skill than working with miniatures? Overall, I think the same as everyone else- if you enjoy what you're doing, then that should be good enough for everyone else, too.

 

to me a good doll owner is all about not forgetting your own dolls
and treating them all right and the best way u could

i see allot of "doll owners" out there that have over 10-15 dolls
but all random and some without clothes or hair or so on
collecting dolls is not a problem with me but collect them right
and treat them all equal ... i feel money plus time goes to waste

seeing a doll owner with 10 dolls and half of them naked without
character or hair - eyes

ya

 

Hello nurie! ^_^

You are right, life is meant to be a balance between serious responsibilities and pleasures. Important things in life are family/spouse/children/parents, job, friends and community, food/shelter/clothing -- these are responsibilities and obligations everyone in the world has to take seriously. Unlike those important things, hobbies are meant to add interest and colour and fun to your life -- to be pleasurable and not burdensome. Life is already hard enough without a hobby adding to the burden!

So if the BJD hobby is becoming burdensome and causing you to lose sleep... Perhaps you are taking it too seriously? I don't mean to be critical, I'm just making an observation. Ultimately, your dolls are just like reading, going to movies, window shopping, having coffee.... I mean, when you read a book and don't enjoy it, you stop reading it, right? That should be the exact same thing with your dolls: their only purpose in their (non) lives is to give you pleasure and happiness. If you're dolls are no longer making you happy, if you're now living for their supposed happiness (instead of them serving yours)... you may have to ask why you feel those obligations now.

I'm saying these things because I also went through something similar too! I also had some doubts in my mind about whether I was giving the hobby and my dolls "the attention they deserved". It was only later (when I took a hiatus from the hobby for about a year) that I realized that the only attention my dolls deserved is the attention that makes me happy. If they're not giving me pleasure right now, they don't deserve my attention!

You said, "I don't have a strong sense of purpose in the hobby". I think the only purpose in the BJD hobby (and in ANY hobby really) is that I get pleasure and happiness from it -- from my dolls, from the face-ups and clothes I get for them, from the photography I do for them, from the BJD community. If I'm happy and fulfilled when indulging in the hobby right now... that's all that matters. If I feel happy being challenged to take better photos, paint better face-ups, being "a good doll owner" (whatever that means)... -- if I feel happy about all those things right now -- that's my purpose for being in the hobby. But once the challenge becomes a pain and causes me to lose sleep... like that bad book, ditch it and read something else!

So... why not take a hiatus and evaluate why you're in the hobby. Why not put your dolls away and do something else with your time -- something that makes you happy. I'm not saying that you have to do this; all I know is my own experience, which is when I got dissatisfied with BJDs, I packed my dolls away and took a hiatus for a year, and did other fun things. Now I've settled my hobby angst, and I'm back and really enjoying my dolls again. A hiatus did me good, perhaps it'll do you good too?

Anyway, I'm rambling. I hope this is encouraging and helpful! Don't take the hobby too seriously!

 

Personally? I don't think what a person does with their own dolls has any bearing on their being a 'good' (and I use that term very loosely) doll owner at all.

In my opinion and experience, a 'good' doll owner enjoys their hobby, whether that means sharpie face-ups or dollheart couture, and understands and respects other owners' wishes. The only, ONLY time I would ever consider a doll owner a 'bad' dolly person (not doll owner, since it doesn't really apply to ownership) would be if they treated other people's dolls with disrespect. For example, picking them up by their head or arm (even if that owner does that, it's up to them how they want to treat their doll) or treating the doll roughly. I've known several doll owners who are very rough with their dolls, who pick them up and swing them around by their extremities, who balance them in deliberately precarious positions, who jam them squashed up into boxes too small for them, who paint them with all the things we don't recommend... But despite that I would never do the same to one of their dolls, even if I did it with my own (which I don't) - just as I wouldn't expect someone using my phone to throw it in the air or someone driving my car to go at 120 miles an hour down winding country lanes. Even if you know something is safe, you just don't take risks with other people's property.

That, to me, is the only time I would consider someone a 'bad' BJD hobbyist. Certainly I wouldn't judge them for not plastering pictures of their dolls all over the internet, constantly buying them new things or not writing novel-length backstories for them.

 

I think it's kinda silly to try and classify what other people do into whether or not they're good dollie owners, but I do have some standards that I like to apply to my own collection, and if I neglect some for a while, then I feel like I want to 'fix' it, if that makes sense.

For my personal standards, I like to keep my dolls looking nice - have their own outfits and make sure they don't get dust in their wigs or eyes if they sit around for too long, and buy them new clothes when I get a chance. I want them to have good, professionally done faceups, high-quality eyes, and nice-looking wigs. I like to take pictures of them at least every couple months (with 21 dolls, it sometimes takes a while to get around to photos of everyone.) I like to make sure I do something with them character-wise every so often, whether it be a photostory, or text story, or even just a couple photos with captions that are more than just portraits, so I feel like I'm keeping up the personalities I give them, though this is usually an LJ-only kind of thing.

For about a year I was living in an apartment that was just too small to unbox my boys, and I usually only had about 4-6 of them out at a time. It kinda bummed me out that I couldn't "play" with my other dolls, and I felt a little like a bad owner that they were all stuck in their boxes for so long. Granted, I never took it too terribly seriously, because I knew it was a space limitation, but I do feel better now that I'm in a larger place and have a proper doll room again, where everyone has room to be out on display.

Again, all that is just what I feel like *I* need to do to be a good dollie owner. And while I might prefer to look at dolls owned by people who have similar dollie-upkeep ideals as I do, it's still just that- a preference to how you deal with being a doll owner. There's no real right or wrong way in a hobby like this.

 

For me, a good dolly owner is someone who enjoys his/her dolls. Whatever they do with them is their own business.

 

You're a bad doll person if you actually give two hoots about lists of criteria of what makes a good or bad doll person instead of just, y'know, ENJOYING YOUR DOLLS HOWEVER YOU LIKE.

 

I think everyone has their own ideas about "good" dolly owners. I do NOT think that there are any majority opinions on this...

For instance, I don't really care at all whether someone is a "good" doll owner or not. I truly believe that a person can buy a doll for their own reasons and do what they want. It is totally up to them. I really don't like judging people!

I DO think it's "nice" when owners seem to really enjoy their dolls, spoil them with things and with attention, and are happy to share their enjoyment of their dolls with others, through talk and photos and meetups. But it's definitely NOT required, and I don't think badly of anyone who doesn't do these things.

I really love my dolls and have had them forever and don't tend to sell them... but that's just me. It doesn't matter what others wish to do.