I discovered BJD's around this time last year. I knew very little of them at the time, as I'd seen only a few pictures, and thought that all of them were in the $500-600 price range. Regardless of the price, I didn't have a job and so they went as a passing idea of something to have. Much as I had wanted to start collecting dolls for a long time, it just didn't seem like a possibilty until I'd finished school and had my own house.
Sometime during last November, I met a girl at school who was into BJD's and she educated me a bit more on the topic. Turns out that these dolls ranged from all sorts of sizes and prices, some more afordable than others. I still didn't have a job, but with Christmas coming up, the prospect of saving up for one was plausible.
After doing a lot of research on these dolls, and after picking a few that were top choices, Souldoll Linn, Katie.A, and Yewon, I told anyone who asked me what I wanted for Christmas was one of these dolls, or more so, money to go towards it. I'd also had a long babysitting job one day which contributed to this. By early January, I'd saved up the necessary money for a middle sized doll.*
I attended a doll meet-up in January so that I could really educate myself even more. There were so many different sizes! I had my heart set on getting an MSD for size and price reasons and I was glad to find that seeing a doll this size in person was still something that highly suited my tastes. Even though I found that I liked the SD* size dolls more at the time, I did not feel that I was ready for such a large doll.
Shortly after the meet-up, I ordered my first doll, a Soulkid* Katie.A made by Souldoll and purchased through an American distributor called Denver Doll. Then it was a very long three month wait until I got my doll. Most doll companies take about 1-2 months to ship the dolls since they're hand cast and sometimes factors such as demand and weather conditions can affect delay.
My doll finally arrived on 7 April, 2009 and I was absolutely eccstatic to get home from school and open the box. She was really beautiful, even without a "face-up," the term used for the make-up done on a doll. I'd ordered her this way since I wanted to learn how to do this skill, having an interest in art for a long time.
The first evening I had her, I took her to my friend's house and attempted a few face-ups but didn't do so well. I removed them and didn't try until a few days later.
She was strung very tightly, and I spent several hours the next day trying to do this. While it's a skill usefully learned, it's definitely not my favourite part of the doll hobby! The way a doll is strung has a high impact on how it moves. When my doll was tightly strung, it was hard to bend her limbs at the joints and keep them in place. She was much more loosely strung when I did it which I prefered for a few reasons. It makes her more "floppy" and she reminds me of a marrionette puppet that way which is very appealing for me. The loose joints make her a bit more cuddly as I've found with time.
After the restringing, I tried face-ups again. My first complete face-up was not great, but it wasn't bad either! She had this one for a few weeks and it was while she had this face-up that she got her name.
It took some time before I completely settled on a name. I'd had the names Artemis, Diana, Luna, and Adelheid all in mind as possibilties. When I saw her for the first time, she really didn't seem to be either of the first two. It took about a week before I tried using Adelheid, and another before it really seemed to suit her. Though this is more recent, I sometimes call her Adele for short, which was inpired from reading the book Jane Eyre this past month.
BJD's are very customizable, the heads open up so that eyes can be changed and the hair is always in wig form. I originally intended Adelheid to have blonde hair and blue eyes; when I got her, the former stayed and the latter changed. The golden blonde hair suited her perfectly, but she came with a set of beautiful pale green-grey eyes and seeing those, decided that I liked them much better than the blue eyes as planned. Last week I just upgraded her Souldoll acrylic eyes for a lovely pair of Kanis Augen glass eyes, also green-grey.
Since the eyes are such an important part about a doll from my perspective, I'll go into a bit more detail. Eyes are made from different materials and come in different qualities. Acrylic eyes are the cheapest, and most of them look rather flat and lifeless and most do not photograph well. The only acrylic eyes I've ever seen that I've really liked are Souldoll Acrylics; they are among the higher quality of this sort. I also don't like Silicone eyes. They collect dust easily and they also look a little flat, although the colours can be beautiful. Urethane eyes are very popular although very limited. I have yet to see a pair to make a proper judgement. Then there are glass eyes which can run from super cheap to very expensive. The cheapest glass eyes are not too pretty, but once they're around the $20 range, they can look alright depending on the company. The most expensive pair of glass eyes I've seen were around $200. While they were pretty and certainly well made, there wasn't really anything that impressed me about them. My favourite eyes tend to come from Europe. As mentioned, my Adelheid has a pair of eyes from Kanis Augen, which is a German company. Mine of some of their less detailed eyes and they cost me close to $40. Still, there is beautiful detail and depth to them and they have a really wonderful colour in natural light. There are a few other companies from Europe that I am rather fond of as well, and they are also around the same as far as price goes.
So there is my first post in this blog dedicated to my doll hobby which has really just begun. I've now had Adelheid for close to three months and I bring her with me many places. She is a lot of fun to play with and she's the muse for my art now. Since having her, I've gotten back into art, sewing, and started photography.
A few notes:
*The term "MSD" is usually used in reference to dolls who are about 40 centimeters tall. Before I knew much about BJD's, I sort of assumed that MSD stood for "Middle-Sized Doll" since there were dolls that were small, around 25-30cm, and tiny dolls that are around 14cm. There was also the term SD that I saw a lot, again me assuming things and thinking it was for "standard doll" which are around 60cm. However, I was very wrong with this. SD stands for "Super Dollfie" and MSD stands for "Mini Super Dollfie." Both of these terms were created by a company called Volks which sells these dolls. While only this company specifically calls them by this name, the acronyms have been adopted by most people who know about BJD's. Most companies have their own terms for dolls. For example, instead of calling the 40cm dolls MSD's, Souldoll uses the term "Soulkid."
(Though I have to admit, "middle-sized doll" makes a lot of sense!)
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