F.A.Q

Also known as "all the things people have ever asked of me of BJDs":

What exactly are these dolls?

Modern (Asian) ball-jointed dolls, cast in resin, strung with elastic. Wikipedia helps, there is also Den of Angels which contains all the info you could ever need of BJDs.

Can you help me getting a BJD?

I can point you to the sources of information and answer specific questions, yes. I cannot order a doll for you or borrow my Paypal, some things you'll just have to learn to do yourself.

Do you create these dolls yourself?

Oh I wish I could! Yes, they are handmade but I'm not the one who's able to sculpt and cast these, actually I cannot sculpt at all. I style my dolls, choose their wigs and eyes, get their face ups done by Finnish artists usually and sew / knit / crochet clothes and accessories.

How many dolls do you have?

Eep. 30.

How on Earth do you fund this hobby?

Well my finances are my finances, but I have a full-time job and no other big expenses. I also get some income from my Etsy business which I usually use to buy accessories for my dolls. I'm very strict with my money and live on a very planned budget which gives me freedom to spend the remaining money as I see fit :)

What else are you interested in?

I have no other expensive hobbies, luckily, phew. I'm interested in sci-fi, fantasy, Asian cultures, video games, RPGs and so on. If I'm not playing with dolls, I'm usually watching Dr. Who, Game of Thrones, Korean TV dramas and so on.

Do you think your dolls are "alive"?

Well, not really. Most of them have characters that I've created inside my head, but the doll is just a doll. They are of course very valuable so I treat them carefully, but I have no problem leaving them naked and in unflattering positions if needed xP I don't carry them around because I think that's bit, ehhm, strange, and I never talk to them.

But they do have names?

Yes, they all have a name. Most of them have what we call "the character" - the doll form represents a character that I RPG with or have created for doll stories or just for fun. They help me with styling and stuff, and of course it's fun to create things since I consider myself a creative person.

An adult playing with dolls? Shouldn't you get some more mature hobbies?

Thanks for your concern, but I think collecting valuable artistic objects that make you do creative things IS very mature and adultlike.

What do you think of recasts?

I cannot support them since I've never seen a single doll artist being fine with his / her work being recast and sold. If you see an original artist giving you a permission buying one, well, then I guess you may, but I have high doubts anyone would be OK with that. Let me know if you come across one, then I may change my mind ;P

All for now <3

Daddy's little girl

I took some snaps of Apsu and Lochesh, my daughter-and-father - pair. Apsu returned from jesmo's face up spa and is looking like, well, herself.







They are so cute *3* Just missing the mom, but her doll form should get completed the next year, hopefully. (She's not my doll.) Then we can take cute family photos, and maybe I could share a little bit about the characters too. They are from our RPG "The Line" which is basically uh, just me and my friend having fun with our (doll) characters.

I dunno if this is interesting, but Lochesh is Meital's big brother so Apsu is her niece. I should take more family photos :)

I probably also should look for new eyes for Apsu. She currently has a pair of Soom silicone eyes which are somehow...odd, I dunno. She probably would look much better with urethane eyes, I hope.

Light for the dark season

The days are getting shorter and much darker as we are approaching winter solstice. I love winter, but  the lack of light is very depressing. So I decided to buy some new photography equipment just to be able to photograph more:




I bought a cheap foldable light box from Ebay (similar to this one) and a better tripod. This is probably the best I can do now: daylight is always daylight, but I cannot control the sun.

Liduse is my current favorite, she's so eerie and strange, yet very beautiful. Too bad that Notdoll seems to be out of business, they had so fun and different dolls. Her body is very wonky and odd, but it's okay and has nice proportions. And her skin tone (crystal rose) is very pretty, a sort of pinkish white with grey shade, very unique! Her "default" wig arrived too from Mini Fairy Tale; the quality is very nice.

I'm very happy to have this girl <3

p.s. I listed a new hat to my Etsy store. Sorry about not-so-good photos, we're having a snowstorm outside and it's dark :<

Meital's new body: Sadol / Little Monica hybrid ahead!

I recently bought myself Sadol's Dal-Ha from a fellow hobbyist, because, well, do I really need a reason? xD; She is damn pretty, and her body is to die for. And she has squinty eyes, and I needed another SD girl for my story project. I haven't yet paid her in full and she lacks the perfect wig, so no photos, but I did snatch away her body for Meital.

Warning, naked doll under the cut!

Let's go outside for a while

I've been trying to be more active in shooting dolls outdoors. We have fine nature all around us despite living in Finland's biggest city anyway! Today I got jesmo as as company and went shooting her dolls and my Tuike in eastern Helsinki. We found a pretty spot, and the weather was perfect <3











I have an old wide angle lense (Mir-1B) that I used for these shots. It produces nice photos but it's frigging hard to use. Focusing and getting the right aperture / shutter speed is very much trial and error for me, so lots of photos went straight to the computer's trash can >_> But I think that those that came out okay are quite pretty, no?

The dolls:

- Elsi, Bluefairy Strawberry Didi (jesmo)
- Fairyland MNF Marcia Dreaming (jesmo)
- Pivot, Pipos Dreaming Mari (jesmo)
- Tuike, Cocoondolls Hilla (mine)

It was a fun trip, we need to make more!

Fish goes blob

Fishfish, my custom Monster High Lagoona by jesmo, worked as my model today. Apparently gloss and vinyl are not the best combination as her lips attract dust and dirt like there's no tomorrow. And it's hard, if not almost impossible, to remove, boo. I don't think it's possible to remove her face paint and get her re-painted, so she'll be like this until the end. Well, BJDs and MHs don't really compare anyway if you ask me :P But I still like playing with my two MH girls sometimes, they're fun dolls.



Fishy was the closest doll available for this knitting commission where I was asked to create two hats for Fairyland Chicline. It's fun to knit these small hats, so I thought of adding a couple to my Etsy store too. But which size? I no longer have Lati, so humm, maybe Pocketfairy?

Just how much craft supplies does one lady need?

The answer is of course "plenty and then some more". I invited couple of my crafty dolly friends to visit Tallinn's craft stores once more since I've been running low on some supplies. I've been eying Clover's mini iron since ages and finally bought it. I sew a lot of Pocketfairy dresses with lining, and turning and ironing that lining has been...well, not so easy with my big iron. Now it should be much easier. I also went slightly over the top and just bought those rose trim spools to create big rose skirts for my big girls. They ended up costing almost 40 euros, whoops. Oh well! Overall I spent about 140 euros in total, which is of course quite a lot, but hey, this is my hobby and my money ;)

We went to eat in Vapiano and after a small hassle as we had no idea how their system worked got some really delicious pasta. The portions were huge, I managed to finish about the half of my bowl. Afterwards we just hanged, bought sweets and gossiped, before coming back to a very stormy and rainy Helsinki. Now I'm tired but very happy and itching to create new things <3 If only I had the time...

The misty forest

We got the most perfect misty weather today, so pretty that I just had to pack up a doll and go outside despite having a flu still. Unfortunately of course the mist didn't look as cool in the forest with all the trees, but I think I managed to snatch a couple of good shots ->

The last one...

...well, that sounded almost too dramatic. This is, however, the last photo of Enne in this form as once again I ended selling her. I wonder what it is with me and Lati-sized dolls these days? It's not that I don't like those adorable bobbleheads, far from it. It's just that I find my other tiny dolls so cute that they stay in the shadow. Having a Lati / Pukifee benefits my knitting business though since it's such a popular size. I just don't think that I can own a doll just because it helps me get knitting commissions.

Maybe I'll just keep an open mind and check out new releases, if Lati comes with a special doll that will blow my socks out. I think I want something fantasy-themed, a special skin colour at least :)

Etsy update + Bibi says hi!

First off, I got back my hats from Ldoll. This year wasn't a huge selling success, but still, thanks to everyone who bought one <3 I listed some remaining hats to my Etsy and will probably add some more as I add more bling into them.

And who is this lovely doe-eyed girl who's wearing that hat?



Well, she is Bibi, my new Bluefairy Sarang. Actually she's not that new because she's from 2008, a second hand girl that I spotted from our forum's marketplace for a good deal. I've been eying Sarang a long while and been dreaming of tanned/baked Sarang. As of course it's not guaranteed that Bluefairy will ever release one, I decided to just cave in and buy her in NS for now.

She is such a cute sculpt and apparently stole my Olive's eyes and clothes xP That creamy mori-influenced style works better with her, I think, so I switched their styles. Olive will get something different that I originally ordered for Bibi, and Bibi gets to be that sweet button-eyed forest girl. I think that will suit her very fine <3

This year's first dolly picnic

The best kind of summer BJD meetups are definitely picnics! Today we had a small one in Vantaa near Heureka science center. We were not many, but sometimes it's fun to have smaller meet ups. That way you are "forced" to interact with everyone. We ate treats and snacks (I brought grapes and waffles) and talked about dolls and everything else. The weather was super nice, and we found a perfect spot near the river in the shade of trees.




I had Hiu with me, because I was lazy to carry anyone else. The photo's taken with my new iPhone which has an okay camera, no?

A fun day!

Fluff-headed adventurer

One more big boy in the house, yes. I know I shouldn't, but I do it anyway! Hopefully he'll be the last :P

He's Immortality of Soul Hiro, called Lochesh or just Lock, Meital's and Niko's big brother in my stories. Very kind, innocent and socially awkward adventurer. You can see more photos of him in my Flickr.

(Sheesh I dislike that Yahoo bar up there since I haven't used Yahoo for over ten years. Go away!)

BJD world is so quiet these days, is it because of summer or is everyone bored of this hobby already? I know I am a little bit, so I thought to concentrate on other things on my summer holiday and see if I still feel like selling part of my collection. Yes, I have some dolls that could use a better home, but I'll see if it's just this summer heat and autumn will bring me more inspiration.

At least I decided that right now I will not buy more dolls unless something terribly extraordinary comes up. We've planned a huge dream trip with my husband for the next summer, South Korea and Japan, and I really need to save up! I also need new eyeglasses and that kind of stuff. Here's me knocking on wood, knock knock.

Ldoll 2013

This is the reason why I haven't posted much about dolly crafts lately. Ldoll festival is coming once again, and I'll send hats and other knitted things there. This is probably the last year though since I'll be starting a new job in August which has a different schedule and a salary raise. I'll no longer "need" my knitting side business so much to fund this hobby, so I've decided to just concentrate on Etsy and of course my own dolls. But this year you'll find my hats there! Sizes range from Pukipuki to SD, mostly on YO-SD and MSD, and as a test I'll make one or two for Blythes / Leeke's bobble heads too.

Speaking of Leeke's bobble heads, I really wouldn't mind giving home to this precious creature if I already didn't have Ariana *_* That Lovely B skin...I know I shouldn't even think about buying Tirlittan a friend, but I do. Luckily or unfortunately I need to save up some money for our trip to Riga, so no surprise doll purchases this summer! I also need some new shoes for myself, more than a new doll. But still, it's a beautiful doll. And I want a doll in lavender / grey skin one day. Luckily Bluefairy doesn't make dolls in fantasy colors xP

Seeing double?

I had some (doll) friends visiting some time ago, jesmo and another friend with her adorable infant daughter. I couldn't resist taking a photo of our Pipos Dreaming Maris. Of course I sent them tumbling down, "whoops", luckily nothing bad happened to Nightmare Alice's face up. My own doll doesn't matter so much :P

Now when I look at this photo, I just can't help thinking how boring Mari's default faceup is. It's pretty, but boring, especially those eyebrows. Luckily jesmo has promised to my saviour and give her a new look with bit more attitude and sparkle <3

So bright lime

Eep, sorry about spamming her, but I finally got my spring Leeke wig. This is their Bright Lime and boy is it perfect for Shua. I actually squeed aloud xD I wish I had ordered more, all those colours are so pretty. Too bad my wallet didn't agree with me...

Hopefully Leeke will re-run these spring colours again because I sure want more. I'm especially crying after Misty Green. Not that my dolls really need more green wigs, I already have four dolls with green hair (Shua, Gert, Hiu and my Monster High Fishfish). At the moment I have no doll with blue hair, so if I still need to invent a hair colour to someone, I think I should go with pale blue.

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My friends showed me web clips of Ever After High, and I think I must buy one or two when the dolls come out xD I fell in love with Mad Hatter's daughter, she's just so pastel-y and crazy, what a surprise. If they really share bodies with Monster Highs, I'm so doomed! Okay, doomed to purchase one.

Pastels rock

Isn't Shua cute with her clothes? I bought stuff from Xaya and Luna for my fairy kei girl, the hat and the necklace are my own.

I've been toying with an idea to switch either her or my Olive to a tanned version, because I really want a tan Tinyfairy and this might help me to cut down the amount of dolls I own. Not that it would actually help in this catastrophe but at least I'm trying. So if you want to sell me your tanned May-V or Olive or trade 'em for a white skinned version + cash from me...well, it's worth a try. Or then I'll just wait what Bluefairy comes up with.

I know there are tanned TFs coming soon, but I heard they are Louis and Jasmine. Nothing against these gorgeous dolls but they are not Bluefairy sculpts I'm so in love with, so I'll rather wait for the right one :3 It's either May-V, Olive (dear lord Olive Valentine in tan would rock *_*), Sarang or Somang. Or some wild card! Luckily I'm in no hurry since I don't really "need" a tan Tinyfairy. I just WANT.

What's up?

Here she is, the mysterical trade doll I spoke about earlier! If you don't recognize her, she's Pipos Dreaming Mari with default face up. I decided to call her Hiu. She'll likely lose her face up and get a new one, and her wig is on its way from South Korea. Then she needs some clothes, she has nothing at the moment. She's wearing one of my hats though that I'm making for this year's Ldoll festival. Yep, I'm participating again with my sale stuff! This may be the last year though.

Flickr's new layout has caused quite the ruckus. I just purchased a pro account for two years, so I will continue to use it just as I've used to. I use it to host photos on this blog and forum(s), it would be quite the hassle to switch. I personally don't think the new layout is an improvement, but it's okay, it works and I can upload and share photos. And with this "upgrade" their uploader started to work with my computer, so I'm fine <3 Actually I was more pissed off when Flickr all randomly froze part of my photostream and I had to switch to pro account just to get my photos working again. And they didn't reappear but I had to manually go through gazillion forum posts and re-type the codes. Grah, THAT sucked!

On a happier news I found a body to my Notdoll Ligaya head <3 The first part is already paid, I'm doing a small layaway. I found a white-skinned Notdoll lady body from DOA and with a good price tag, so I'm checking this one out. We'll see how it works, I heard that Notdoll's resins can vary but at least the neck size should work. And I had some crazy plans to get the head on a totally different body, so if the resins fail, I have a great plan B ;3

Owl amongst the anemones

These are the results of my walk today. I didn't end up going to the spot I originally planned because we already took a long walk with my spouse and a friend this morning. But I did find a pretty anemone field nearby, so I got some photos. There are white anemones everywhere, a sure sign of summer approaching <3

New winds are blowing

The move is almost done, today we visited Ikea for some new home items. The next stop is of course having housewarming parties! Between moving, looking for jobs and attending my current one, there has been very little dolly time. I've knitted few things, and that's basically it. However I bought new pair of running shoes and thought that if the weather's good, I'd go for a longer walking trip and take some doll photos in totally new settings. I discovered a rather magical-looking forest spot one day, hopefully I'll find it again xD I'm probably taking Pio with me since her character is a forest spirit and it feels silly photographing her indoors.

In the doll crew I must report a small change, I ended up not bonding very well with Catsy :< Since these days selling BJDs is so slow and hard (I still have some Soom special legs no one wants, maybe I should hang them to our ceiling lamp?) I went for a trade. One little cat out, and one...well, you'll see ;) It's a mold I've always liked.

It seems I still need to find my perfect anthro doll. I'm very, very picky, many anthro dolls just creep me out. Oh well, it's not that I need to own every kind of BJD there is...:P

It lives!

We're almost done with the move, all my dolls and doll stuff is here! Our new home is much smaller, but there is so much more light than before <3 The photos of this entry are taken of my doll shelf, no gimmicks or anything.

The butterfly queen

I finally recieved Hecate's human head and claw hands from Jesmoth, so it means my dark lady is complete. Which of course means some mandatory photography spam <3

Easter thoughts

The ever-lovely giant-headed Tirlittan!

I fell in love with an odd little girl from Xagadoll, I think she looks like an vintage anime character, maybe Astro Girl? And those heart-shaped knees, awww! Maybe I'll ditch that Bluefairy plan for a while and get Tirlittan a little sister...

Speaking of Bluefairy, I ordered some extra parts for the girls, such as those holding hands *w* I'm sure they will be extra adorable!

In April we shall celebrate again the birthday of our Finnish BJD community's forum, the theme this year is fairy tale which I of course approve. Luckily all my dolls are characters in my dream story, so there is no need to make anything special :P They are from a a fairy tale by nature.

Speaking of stories, no, no inspiration yet even if I've been asked a lot :< (I used to make lots of photo stories in Finnish, and most of my doll characters come from those stories.) I've been RPGing a lot with my BFF which is great fun, so when I need to do it all alone...meh. I haven't written anything proper for a long while. But I'm no stressing it, the stories will come when they will come. Right now I've been enjoying more of my cute little dolls, creating outfits and photographing them, and if I've learned anything of this hobby, it's that you need to do things that you enjoy. I have some story ideas featuring my big butterfly lady, nothing superb but chances to exercise my writing skills <3

Also we'll have our move during April, so I'm afraid things will quiet down for a while. I have so much stuff to organize, pack, move and unpack, graah! Luckily I've managed to go through most of my hobby stuff and throw lots of unnecessary stuff away. If I haven't touched some fabrics ever since I got my first Pullip, I may just throw them away, right?

March's Etsy update

I update my Etsy store with two new MSD-sized rose hats. Lots of bling in these ones, I maybe got bit carried away...

Otherwise no big doll news, except that I managed to get a very promising job opportunity. I promised myself that if I get that job, I'll reward myself with something small and cute from Bluefairy. Fingers crossed!

Fairies in the springlight I

Such a bright pretty spring sun today! I took advantage of it and photographed my Bluefairy girls. I uploaded the first batch of the bigger girls to my Flickr if you want to take a look.

Flickr is currently not my friend though since it randomly disabled part of my photos from working with forums >_>; It's really frustrating because now my portfolio threads are partly missing photos, and I have no interest nor energy to fix them by hand. Oh well, can't help it, I guess.

Spring approaching

Gertrude has finally her mint mohair wig from 1mim! Perfect colour, snug fit and of course Gert looks absolutely darling with it :3

This blog may be bit less active this spring, since a happy thing happened and we got a new apartment from the neighbourhood. So we're moving, which means lots of packing and stuff. But our new flat will be much cheaper, and we even got an own sauna, so I'm sure it will well worth the hassle. It will be smaller though so I really need to work on organizing my stuff and see what storage options Ikea could have for me. Oh well, a good chance to go through my dolly stuff and get rid of useless things.

Just a reminder that if you want to see more of my doll photos, how about following my Flickr or doll-themed Tumblr? I use Flickr as my main photo host, and Tumblr as a visual portfolio of sorts. See you there o/

Starfox

Like I said, yet another new doll came my way. I've funded Finland's custom office very well this month, maybe they'll send me a T-shirt or something?






Angst aside, Shua is here, my May Valentine. I bought her through Pupa*Casa's special white choice event where you were able to purchase some limited molds in WS, body of your choice and some extras. Of course I cried after Sleeping Sarang too but May-V came first since I've always loved this sculpt, and it was a fantastic chance to get her just as I wanted. She's so very beautiful *3*

Her character idea is a dream fox, I took off her ears because of the hat, something quite inspired from The Little Prince and Japan's kitsune (fox) spirits. She sleeps in her own little mint-coloured moon during the days and hops in the dream world by night, planting cookies everywhere. She's a kind soul but slightly mischievous like foxes tend to be and doesn't always understand how feelings work.

Unfortunately as she arrived, I took a look at my collection and decided that it's time to do a little change. Her style is so close to my Minimay's that I decided that Minimay can go. I love May sculpt very much, but four versions of this sculpt are maybe bit too much...

I traded Minimay (Gretel) to something small, catlike and grumpy. My first anthro doll, can't wait!

Yet more new arrivals

Is it just me or are most of my posts these days about new dolls? It might be, yikes. I did a head count, and I have 26 dolls these days. That's quite the number :B I'm trying to slow it down since I'm running out of shelf space, and even my dear patient husband has noted that "I have plenty of dolls". Okay, I'm addicted xD

But let's present the newcomers anyway:





Okay, Krümlen isn't technically a new doll, it just took a while to get him faceupped and ready. He's Dollgru #11 on Volks Kyotenshi body, Krähe's big brother, a magpie and an angsty, angry boy who writes homoerotic vampire stories in his mother's basement. Or used to write before their mother ran off with a local nightmare demon and left him, so he has to survive on his own now. Of course he came to bother Krähe, and those two just don't get along. He considers himself a great artist and complains all the time that the world just doesn't understand him or his art.

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And my combined Christmas / birthday present for myself arrived too *3* She's new Tirlittan, Leeke's Ariana in snow skin, a doll with a huge butt and even bigger head. Some may remember that I used to own Dollzone's Tintan called Tirlittan, and there is something similar in her features. So this is sort of her new form. She's interesting to pose but not as bad as I thought, Leeke has constructed her very well.

I wish I could promise this is all, but I have yet another doll shipped to me xD Maybe she's the last one for a while...no promises though.

Pink half-dragon

I don't remember if I mentioned it here, but I was trying to sell or trade my Adamelli - Nor boy since I didn't really play with him as much as I had wanted. These days it seems that smaller boy dolls don't really get enough attention here, and for now I think I'll keep Aegis (Angelregion Ami, my first BJD ever) as the only smaller boy of the house. But I managed to trade Ada-nor to something very cute!




This is Apsu, Soom Lami, Lochesh's daughter. Her mother is Tiamat, Illves' Migma, which makes her a half-dragon since Tiamat is a dragon and Lochesh is...well, some kind of a dream creature. She's not very bright, unable to talk, but she's very social, friendly and happy little girl. Bleroorgh!

Her father is going through a mold change but he too should be home soon. I thought to try to give him a faceup myself, although I'm still not good ^^; But I've invested in some tools so I really should put them to an use, and Lock should be the easiest of my dolls to faceup since his style is very natural.

But Lami is so cute ^3^

Tiny Snow White + Etsy update

Here's a better shot of Gris in Marine Scout Didi's wig and in a new knitted dress I made for her. She looks like a small Snow white, don't you think?

p.s. I added some new hats to my Etsy store if you want to take a look :3