Hello there! This is my first piece about my newest hobby, DOLLS!!
Yeah I know, I’m probably crazy for getting into this hobby. But dang does such beautiful stuff come out of it.
Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Anna, and I am a graphic designer, artist, and all-around nerd. For about 10 years now I have been doing cosplay, almost all of which (aside from my first costume) has been a product of hard work between me and my amazing mother, who spent hours of my middle and high school summers sewing for me. She’s seriously the best. But that’s not the only reason she’s the best.
She’s also the best because ever since I was a little girl, it has been a tradition for me to receive a doll from her every year for Christmas. Until several years ago it has always been porcelain dolls, but 3 years ago now was the year she gifted me my first Pullip doll: Pullip Sailor Moon!
That same year she also last-minute gifted me a Little Pullip Grell Doll. I had a similar reaction.
I had never heard of Pullip dolls before and to me she was the most gorgeous, amazingly beautiful doll I had ever set eyes on. From then, I didn’t really take a serious interest in looking into the hobby further. The next year, she gifted me Dal Steampunk RaMuw doll. Once again I was blown away by the amazing detail and beauty of the doll.
This year was her third year gifting me a Groove doll – Pullip Alice in Steampunk World.
I had suspected she was going to get me this doll, because unlike previous years, she asked me if there were any Pullip dolls I felt particular desire to own. I found Steampunk Alice, and then that was when this all started.
For years I had been admiring the idea of ball-jointed dolls, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be able to afford one. Heck, I still can’t – but I figured, this would be a good way to start until I could, right?
This is how obsession begins!
I started researching ball-jointed dolls and other Pullips and how to make doll clothes. I liked the idea of making doll clothes because of my experience sewing cosplay and clothing. Imagining making such cute little outfits for Pullip dolls was so awesome. I wanted to start doing it so badly, but I didn’t want to mess with my two already-dressed dolls that I had received as gifts. That’s when I came across Pullip Make-It-Own kits.
And then, I jumped down the rabbit hole.
Since then, I have spent hours watching videos and reading forum posts and blogs about how to make clothes, eyechips, wigs, how to do faceups, and pretty much literally everything you can do to customize ball-jointed and fashion dolls, including Pullip dolls, Monster High dolls, and all different kinds of ball-jointed dolls. To me, this is a too-good-to-be-true combination of all of my current hobbies – sewing, painting, drawing, and crafting, and I was biting my nails in anticipation to get started. The only problem – I didn’t have any dolls, and MIO kits sold at decent prices everywhere were sold out.
So the agonizing wait began. I started drawing and sketching all my ideas for my first custom Pullip dolls. I went out and bought the supplies I needed to begin face-ups. I bought fabric for clothes. I even printed out some blank Pullip faces onto paper to try and get practice in while I waited for the MIO kits to restock. And I also bided my time by watching more and more videos about how to do face-ups. I felt like I was a proper expert before I had even began.
FINALLY, after checking pullipstyle.com twice a day for at least two weeks, Pullip MIO Kit Mocha tone was back in stock! I snatched one up literally the minute I saw that they were there. It was such an exciting feeling!
I also decided by this point that before I did a face-up for my first custom Pullip, I wanted to get a lot of practice first on Monster High dolls, which I found were much cheaper and easier to find than Pullips.
So, off to Goodwill I went! And lo and behold, three beautiful Monster High dolls appeared before me!
As you can see, these dolls looked decently played with by their previous (likely young) owner – tangly, frizzy hair, somewhat loose joints, and poor Clawdeen missing an arm. But hey, that was okay with me, because these were going to be my first sacrifices towards my new obsession.
For more practice, I also decided to pick up a couple other dolls I found there – a Moxie Girlz Lexa doll and a La Dee Da Dee doll.
That’s it for now. In my next post you’ll see my first attempt at repainting a doll. Be warned – it’s pretty bad! But I look forward to sharing my progress with everyone and I hope I show what I learn and maybe even inspire people to do the same.
TTFN!