BJD Addicts Written Prompts: #1, #5, #15

The BJD Addicts group on DeviantART and YouTube put together a series of prompts for BJD owners to make videos and write posts describing how they find the hobby. It's a great way to build community and help people get to know each other.

I'm a little camera-shy, so I don't expect to be doing video prompts any time soon, but I'll do the written prompts. They can be done in any particular order, so I'm going to do #1, #5 and #15.

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #1 - The Wait

While I wait for a new doll to arrive, I tend to spend a lot of time imagining what they're really going to look like when I see them properly – because unless you've been to a meet-up to see a particular BJD in person, you really only have sales pictures to go from and they can be deceptive some times. Mostly, I try to forget that I've ordered a doll because I know that the wait will be a while and I don't want to be driving myself insane checking the order page constantly, waiting to see when it updates :p I am even worse once I've got the shipping confirmation because I'll be refreshing the tracking as often as I can to see how close my doll is!

I like my dolls to have an outfit of their very own waiting for them when they arrive (this includes shoes), so I'll turn to the usual suspects when I'm looking for BJD clothes; some independent tailors I love to buy from are theHappiestPrincess, Sugardollshop and icantdance, but I also shop from companies like Volks, Dollheart and Dollmore.

I have quite a collection of wigs and eyes now, so usually there'll be something here already for an incoming doll to wear, but for my most recent girl, Deryn, I did buy two pairs of eyes and a few wigs. This was partly because I only had one pair of 18mm eyes, and Mafonwen's very attached to her eyes, but mostly because I wanted Deryn to look very different from the other girls I have here. I do the clothes/wig/eye shopping quite early on in the wait so I can be sure that they'll be here before my doll arrives. I like to dress them in their things first and feel a bit pampered, before they have to start sharing with everyone else!

I've ordered BJDs direct from Volks, Fairyland, Camellia Dynasty and Soom. The fastest arrival was Arthur, my Camellia Dynasty Wong cat, who took 19 days to arrive! It's more usual to expect a BJD between 35-45 days after placing an order. Some companies take longer, some take less time. My Soom order took months because I ordered a Limited Edition Monthly Doll, a Soom Glot, and at that time there were huge backlogs with the company trying to produce and ship Monthly Dolls that had been ordered way before Glot had ever been released. I had a very long time to wait for her, but that made it easier in a way, because that way I could forget about ordering her and the wait wasn't as unbearable as some shorter waits!

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #5 - Dolls in Public

I do feel a bit strange about taking my dolls out in public. I don't know any BJD collectors in my area – the closest person I know lives in Ireland and the others live in London – so I'll always be on my own taking my dolls out with me and I don't know how I would handle the attention. I like to blend into the background and carrying a 60cm doll doesn't really help you do that. I do feel a lot more confident when I'm with other people with their BJDs.

Part of why I would feel strange is that people can be really rude, even when they don't know you. I'm not normally worried about what people think of me, but I do get quite upset when people are rude to my face, or stare. I'm sure that some people could see me photographing dolls and come over with polite questions and be quite interested in the hobby, but I'm not sure whether I'd like that any better. I'm a little shy and get nervous around people I don't know.

BJD Addicts Written Prompt #15 - How Many do You Own?

1 boy, 5 girls and 2 floating heads. By February 2012, this should be 1 boy, 6 girls and 1 floating head, because I'll be ordering Deryn's body in January and Ariadoll don't have much of a waiting period because they keep dolls in stock rather than make to order.