Hello!

Nice to have you here! What was that first doll?
Isn't it cool how this hobby moves? You can be all in one moment, be inactive for years and then one day come back to it and the dolls are just right there waiting for you.

I often call the BJD hobby an "umbrella hobby" because you can fit so much in underneath it. I'm a compulsive crafter myself, so I got in via doll making and dolls in general.

 

Charles has such a lovely and expressive face. A great choice for a first doll. Have the dolls from your buying spree all come home yet or are you still waiting? Twenty at once does sound like it could be overwhelming, but it sounds like a lot of fun too!

I try to spread my collection between as many companies as possible to get a varied group of dolls, but I do have a few that stands out.
Lati was the first I fell in love with and my very first BJD, a lati blue Shaina, is still my favourite. And I have secon Lati head, a Cara, as well.
Other companies that stands out is Doll Leaves because of their great engineering despite the relatively low price and Maskcat, again for great enginering and very very lovely faces.
I have two Iplehouse JID and their sculpting is wonderful, but their posing is limited and unreliable. I still love them, though. I can forgive a lot when I love the sculpt.
I also have a Maracreatures Ramunder. He is a massive troll doll. His weight (around 4 kilos!) and unusual body shape and posture makes him very dificult to pose. He can't stand on his own and he keeps dropping his magnetic tail, but he is so absolutely unique and there is nothing else even remotly like him out there. It's one of those dolls that I always known I would buy, no matter the cost, right from when I saw the early sculpting stages. And he is my most expensive doll, but I think he is worth every bit of what he cost.

 

Here is the discussion thread for him if you want to check him out.
I think the fact that the manufacturing process for these dolls work well for small production runs makes it possible for small artists to compete on, if not equal then at least reasonably fair terms. This in turn means a lot of smaller artists and with that more diversity.

That's a challenging face to do a face up for, for sure. You did a great job on him!
I used to mainly look for neutral faces, but the longer I'm in the hobby, the more I find myself admire the more expressive sculpts.
If you ever want to try your hand at sculpting your own doll, join us over in the doll making section of DoA.

 

Oh, that sounds like a very cool project!

 

Anything hand sculpted is off topic for the main forum, but you can share the sculpting process in the doll making forum or the finished project in Brigadoon; the off topic section of the forum. There are several threads about art dolls and off topic dolls where you can post a picture, or you could make your own thread about your project especcially if you want more discussion about it.

The Styling & Crafting forum in the Workshop section is probably a good place to ask for advice about making and styling wigs.

 

No worries, I'm happy to help.

Yeah, I can see that DoA may be a bit much to take in all at once. But with the slow pace here and the fact that posts remain more or less forever, there is no rush. You can safely take your time to ease into things without the risk of missing anything much.
The more you read, the more of a feel for what goes where you'll get. And should you get it wrong, worst that will happen is that a mod will move the thread to the apropriate forum. It's no big deal. And if starting your own threads seems intimidating, you can always spend some time just replying to other peoples threads, to get your feet wet, so to speak.
You will feel at home in no time.