So, this is going to be the first of my OOAK experiment. I have never done this before and I’ve never thought about it before now. I wavered throughout my life on my opinion of bjds (ball jointed dolls). Some pictures make them appealing as heck, some price tags make them ridiculous as heck, and sometimes my irrational fear of the Uncanny Valley can take the better of me. Regardless, I know a lot of things attribute to my current journey into OOAK (One Of A Kind).
Working at a toy company, I was tasked with overseeing a project which had close resemblance to a bjd. Of course I had to do some research in order to do my job efficiently. My research got me back into the allure of bjds, but as usual, the price was always a turnoff for someone of a tight budget.
I mentioned it to a friend of mine who shared the same feeling I did and we were stuck in that limbo for a while. It was just then that a YouTube channel that I’m subscribed to made a post. Couple years back I subscribed to Nicolle’s Dreams because I was texturing a 3d modeled head for a friend of mine and wanted to achieve that doll look. Since then, I paid little attention to the channel till now. She did repaints of Monster High dolls and made them look like bjds. I showed my friend who then directed me to Dollightful.
After some brief obsessing, I decided I was going to try. I plan to post my endeavors to help keep me motivated.
The first step in my process after obsessively watching any video I could on the topic was to locate some dolls. It was much simpler than I had anticipated since the friend who got hyped with me about it was quick to scan for prospects. Buying new was too much of an investment for an experiment so secondhand shop was our scope of search. It proved more daunting that we both expected since most second hand dolls were undesireably damaged. I ended up bidding on two lots from the same seller. What made the lot so appealing to me was the amount of pink dracula dolls were in the lot. In all of the bjd videos I watched, OOAKS made from her looked the most natural to human skin pigment. (This excludes cleo de nile who sometimes had body wrapping and clawdeen who I think sometimes had fur tufts on her body.)
I was excited when the package arrived. I couldn’t wait to start. Though, I had come to the realization that if I wanted to make my own custom clothes for them, I should have tried for a lot with clothes to begin with so I could reverse engineer their measurements without needing to think super had about drafting. All of my dolls were naked. Tried to bid for a second lot with clothes but was outbid. So I settled with what I got.
I got 18 dolls in total, one of which is missing an arm so she might just be a dress form. My turnout was less than 3 dollars a doll so I’m pretty pleased with that.
From there I obtained Mr.SuperClear as recommended by every OOAK out there and some colorè brand watercolor pencils. My hope is that I’m not copping myself by picking a cheaper brand but we shall see. As a previous art student, I had a stash of nu pastels that I figured could do the trick. I know nu pastels are technically hard pastels and not soft pastels but that’s why this is an experiment.
The only thing I was missing was cotton gloves.
I didn’t want to start without the gloves but was too excited to NOT touch the dolls that I immediately gave them a warm soapy bath, dried them, then gave them a wipe down with disinfectant since I wasn’t aware of their background as second hand dolls. Mind you, I then pondered if I was being too much of a germaphobe.
I don’t know about now a days, but back in my day, kids put these things in their mouths!!!
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