I've been making my own homemade dolls for the past year but I've been interested in bjd's do you have any basics tips? Where are the good places to get the different bodies and parts for these dolls?
hello! sorry it took a minute for me to respond to this ask but I wanted to make sure that I had enough info for you :o
as far as basic tips go, I'm not sure I can provide anything super helpful since I'm not sure exactly what kind of information you're looking for. I will say that one thing that helped me understand a lot about the sizes of dolls/how they move/what people do with them was watching videos of people with dolls. Nicole's Dreams, Teeny Tinkers, and AsenvaBJD post some fun doll content, and Teeny Tinkers also sculpts dolls :)
here is a link to a google doc with a lot of helpful information: big bjd faq . it covers a lot of stuff, and it's relatively easy to navigate since everything is linked.
i would also recommend looking into making an account on den of angels. it's a forum specifically for discussing bjds with information about dolls going all the way back to 2004, and they have a marketplace for people to sell second hand dolls. definitely read all of the rules before making an account and posting though, they can be kind of strict 😅
as far as buying dolls goes, I live in the US and have had pleasant experiences using Alice's Collections and Denver Doll Emporium (I find Alice's Collections especially nice for browsing since everything is well organized and all of the information about a doll is on its page.) I have also heard good things about Jane's Dolland, Legenddoll, and New Clover Singing.
I guess one other general tip that I can give is to try to find as much information as you can about a particular doll before you buy it (searching on den of angels, flickr, instagram, tumblr, etc.)- bjds can be pretty expensive and I've found that I have a better experience when there are as few surprises as possible when the doll arrives haha
hopefully something in here was helpful for you, sorry it's kind of long and possibly confusing :v if you have any other questions I would be happy to answer as best I can :)
