OT/General Your Primary Motivation For Making BJDs

This is a very expensive hobby to pursue just for yourself! Of course most hobbies are. I wasn't looking for a new hobby but to help out my daughter and her interest in the dolls. She kept urging me to sculpt but I had no familiarity with these dolls and just didn't get it. Finally I borrowed a spare body from her so I would have something to use as a dress form for clothing for her dolls. It bothered me that he didn't have a head or hands (didn't bring them because I didn't need them for clothes) so I made a head that I liked and hands, and feet because I hated the ones he has. Now I don't like the proportions of the body so I'll have to make him all new someday.
Anyway, I started to realize that this was something I could do as art for my locale that 50 other artists weren't already doing to death. There must be more artists here per capita than almost anywhere in the states. Nearly every one has notecards of flowers or volcano paintings or photos of waves for sale. I have made puppets for many years but really wouldn't sell those except to other performers. I refuse to perform myself any more--just too old to enjoy it. Personality and character are most important factors for me, with a certain version of realism of movement. With that in mind I decided to try to do a series of ball joint dolls in honor of the famous Hula festival we have here every year. There are dozens of different styles of hula so there are many choices for the future. First thing for me is to please myself...and then hope others will also like it also. I really doubt I will ever do much more than break even but for art that is enough.

 

I love sculpting, and I love the doll I'm currently working on... but I did weigh the marketability of my various ideas before I chose one to pursue to the point of casting. Setting aside the time spent, I'll be investing some money to get Kitpandi cast, and I'm hoping she'll earn it back. I liked my "Weaver" design just as much as I like Kit... but I'm not sure elegantly creepy anthropomorphic spiders would sell in any kind of quantity. If I sell enough of Kit and her friends, then maybe I'll take the chance on Weaver.

 

It's just for fun for me. I like creating bjds because I like sculpting and it's something that has just the right amount of stress involved. At the end though it's worth it.

 

I've always loved all types of dolls and toys so i find the process of creating an articulated doll awesomely cool. I do plan to sell a few (if i like them enough to share) in order to fund my expensive hobby but i started it because of my love for dolls and toys in general. Also because i wanted to see if i could sculpt one. It has completely ruined buying dolls for me because now when i buy a doll from the store i take off all its clothes study its joints and dump it all on the very first day. There's nothing left. It's more interesting struggling with the clay now and testing things out than playing with a ready made doll lol or toy in general.

In terms of motivation, when i create something that looks remotely close to what i originally envisioned in my minds eye that pushes me to carry on lol and i guess i'm to stupid to stop trying when things dont go right. I just get depressed step away for a couple hours and try again later. Being limited by only your imagination is a very powerful thing

 

It's a fascinating thing for me. I was never into sculpting until now as an adult, and so it's new and exciting for me, and a way for me to apply sculpture into a semi-practical format (dolls). That's why I sculpt.

 

This is a good question. I am (trying to) make a bid because I want to create something beautiful. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. I see a beautiful face or figure and I want to recreate it. I am interested in trying to sculpt just a figure one day, but the thing that interests me also about a bjd is the flexibility and near humanness with the jointing, so much more satisfying than a static figure. So perhaps there is a challenge in that, making it beautiful but also not static. But I never really thought about why I want to do that - recreate/ create something beautiful. specifically a small humanoid. And I can't answer the question to myself now....

 

The first time I was a BJD I knew I wanted to make one as well. After collecting dolls for a few years first, I started making my own somewhere around 2007. Of course I fantasized what it would be like to have my own company someday, but I never expected it to become a reality. What I loved and love most about making dolls is seeing how new faces come to shape and how I'm able to make the bodies I'm looking for, but can't find.

Even though I did decide to sell one of my dolls, my main motivation is to keep building new dolls. Creating new faces, tinkering with joints until they do what you want them to do and making elegant bodies, that is what I want to do and that is why I keep sculpting. Personally I think that if you sculpt dolls for the cash, you're going to get disappointed. Dolls simply don't sell that well to give a huge profit.

 

Dolls are just one of my interests. I'll be doing jewelry and small casting work as well. If you have sufficient passion and imagination for your work-and are willing to do the work and practice to excel-you will inevitably find others who will feel the same about your creations in time.

It's how all artists succeed. It's literally a labor of love.

 

I'm all about storytelling. I started out with doodling comics during class, then got into illustration, graduated with animation and now I'm in the doll-zone (pun intended). What I like so much about these dolls is that they allow you to create a character with his own background story. You adapt and dress them in such a way that the doll becomes a story of it's own... Now if you can sculpt them yourself, that's even more awesome, because it gives you even more possibilties of creating a unique character. The way you see the personality evolve while designing, and come to life while you're sculpting it is absolutely fenominal.

I also LOVE mechanics. Not electronics (I don't understand one bit of those), but gears, pulleys, hinges, metal springs, magnets and so on (Yes, I am a Steampunk! )). Even when I don't like the character or shape of somebody else's doll, I can still enjoy the mechanical quality. At conventions, I am often found holding a doll, staring intensively at it's knees and moving the same leg over and over again.

There are moments during the design that are only found when you are making (or severely modding) a doll yourself. Moments reserved for artists, not buyers (except maybe the eye-thing, but I noticed it's much stronger when you made the doll yourself):

-The sketches of the face. Accidentally making an eyebrow to long/ too high up, and suddenly there is the expression you were searching for, but couldn't find.
-When you just made an upper arm which falls PERFECTLY in the slot at the elbow. You almost hear it go "click". Orgasmic.
-When you are sculpting/sanding a hand and put it down for a few minutes, and then pick it back up... And the hand still has most of your body heat in it... It's like a little fairy is putting her hand into yours.
-That awkward little dance when your doll is strung for the first time and able to stand up. You are almost exploding with satisfaction, but you're afraid the doll might fall over if you stomp on the floor to hard or bump into the table.
-And then there's that magical moment when he/she is done and you put in the eyes for the first time... And suddenly it's alive.
Best. Feeling. Ever.

 

I wish I knew my answer to this...I started out saying "I'm doing this for me and my own enjoyment!", and I guess to some extent that's still true...I still want to sculpt what I want to sculpt, and don't really care whether it wouldn't do well in today's market.

But as I've been sculpting, I've started to feel like I would actually really like to completely finish, cast and sell dolls. I would reallllllly like to become a successful dollmaker. Which means...(ugh) I would probably have to cater to the market's tastes to some extent.

So I'm trying to figure out how much I'm willing to give up of my own randomness, how much of my creative freedom I can rein in to meet the interests of the current market. I still don't want to sculpt anything "normal" by any means...because...well...there are sooo many "normal" dolls already, and most made by more experienced dollmakers than myself, made better than I COULD do a "normal" looking doll. So I'm trying to find the line to walk between "sellable, possibly On Topic for DoA" and "artsy/stylized/very different". @~@

Maybe my motivation is just...to offer the doll world something different than what is already there? *shrug* I do feel something of a weird little creator-affection for even my weirdest/ugliest/most unfinished heads. I can't seem to throw them away. They're still MY creations, and they're still full of possibilities...

 

I'd probably say that it's because of my long-term goal to set up my own BJD company, which would sell my dolls, clothing and accessories, so I'm pretty motivated to get to that point.

Also, I've loved Arts&Craft since I can remember. There's not a significant period of time where I didn't sculpt, or paint, draw, needle felt, sew, carve, or what have you! Though admittedly I've spent most of my time drawing, before learning to sew for a living. Sculpting has always been my next favorite thing to try, and I'm really really enjoying it, when I get the time.

I guess it's mainly for the enjoyment I get from doing it, and the satisfaction when others enjoy what you've done.

 

(my appologies for digging up this thread but this is interesting)

Looking back this was probably something i was always going to end up doing, ive made dolls since i can remember, and i remember trying to figure out how to joint them at about the age of 10, which was way before id heard of BJDs... i do this because i love doing this, and honestly id never even considered getting any money from it, but maybe one day it might be an option :] i love miniatures, so of cource i love dolls too, and im also very intersted in mechanics and robotics, so i really enjoy figureing out the how to do just what im after with a joint, and nothing beats the feeling when it works

 

I just started working on my first ball jointed project, but my reason for doing it OOAK style out of polymer clay is that I've seen anthros and micro BJDs and gone "Ooh, I want to make one of those!" So I'm taking inspiration and forming it into a physical form that I can hold in my hand and play with. I hope...

 

I started making dolls because I always liked making toys as a kid. I never bought anything, but I spent a long time making tack for my horse collection and making countless paper dolls. That and I love little figurines; I have lots of dinosaurs hiding in my room. As a kid I remember being very disappointed that there were never dinosaurs with moving parts like there were humans, and most of my favorite toys were animals with an absurd amount of joints. I got into doll-making for fun, as more of an artistic challenge than a business endeavor. However, now that I've made a few, I kind of wonder if there would be a market...

Right now, I'm staying away from resin casting, and most of my doll-making is a learning experience, as lame as that probably sounds... Starting out, I had never seen a BJD in real life, so I had no idea how tension worked or how to make a doll stand. At this point, every doll I sculpt teaches me a little more about mechanics, aesthetics and construction. One of my biggest inspirations is the polyclay OOAK doll hobby, and since I know people will buy static figures, I'm wondering if I can start making some OOAK pieces to supplement a possible resin doll...?

Honestly, I'm still working on it.

 

Making things has always been more interesting and satisfying to me than having things. I started making dolls when I was ten and I gave all of my early dolls away as gifts. I stopped making dolls when I was a teenager because something was missing from them. I wanted them to do more and I didn't really understand what "more" meant. I found out about modern BJDs in college and took some art classes and discovered and rediscovered Marina Bychkova's Enchanted Dolls and eventually it clicked for me what was missing from my previous dolls (besides experience, patience, and a materials budget, that is).

 

It may sound silly but my motivation was to get over a crush; the anguish of not having my affections returned. So I began to sculpt his beauty to channel the energy until the project became a fictional fantasy character I can mold, cast and sell. It worked. I'm over him. And I'm having a great time with my first true BJD project.

 

I used to make dolls made out of two copy paper cut outs in the shape of a gingerbread man, color on them with crayon, stable 'em together, and stuff some toilet paper inside. They were fabulous. That was when I was a little kid.

The dolls progressed from there. I think it's the idea of breathing life into an otherwise boring material that gets me excited.

 

I thought I had answered this thread, but I had not.

There is a lot of back story to it, but it boils down to the fact that I want to give something back to the hobby that gave me so much. I will never make money at it, I know that for a fact.
I also wanted a specific doll that no one makes. Though Dear Mine came close, that wasn't until after I was well into my project.

 

That's not silly at all. Actually, my main motivation is that sculpting keeps me 'zen'. I'm ill and I've got some crazy brains. Sculpting keeps my hands occupied and calms my mind.

Sculpting, like all art, helps us deal with things spiritually. The trick is to make something beautiful out of it.