Collection Chat!

Hello!

I wanted to talk today about my collection so far. I'm coming up on a year in the hobby, and I'll be doing a proper post about my actual like "collection journey" when the anniversary of Bridget's arrival rolls around-- it happens to fall on a January Saturday, which works out perfectly-- but for today, I really want to just talk about my collection-- who I have, their characters if they've got one, and who I'm currently waiting on. Sorry this is so heavy on words!

Who I Have

My first doll was a ResinSoul Mei in white skin. She started super femme and a little frilly, and the only things she still has from that look, other than her default faceup, are her name, Bridget, and her purple eyes. She's turned out pretty emo/punky and more androgynous and butch than initially planned, but I love the resulting character so much more than I liked the old plan.

Six months later, in early June, my second doll arrived! She's a ResinSoul Rong in dark tan, and she's the pretty femme I had intended Bridget to be, and her character quickly established herself as the daughter of elven nobility. Her original hair plan didn't work out-- I'm 3 for 3 on original wigs not working out at this point, we'll see how it goes with Cassandra and Gretchen, I'm highkey nervous for both-- but I looooooove the wig she wears now. I need to spend some time over winter break just taking care of both of their wigs, as they're both a little ratty currently, but that's a bridge to be crossed next week. Her name's Amelia, and I actually was a little nervous about whether or not I was going to like her sculpt based on the company photos-- specifically, I was a little worried about her nose. But once I had her in front of me, her nose actually became my favorite feature. I still don't like the company photos of Rong, but I adore Amelia.

The next one in was my tan Wol head! I'm still waiting for his body-- see this post for my hybrid plans and this one for character chat-- but I'm incredibly excited to start working on his wig! He's the third one in the problem wig streak, but I'm actually really excited to make his wig! I've had a hard time finding basically everything I'm interested in for him aesthetic wise-- I squealed out loud when I found a shop on etsy that has a couple pairs of boots I'd be interested in for him-- but I'm ready to learn new things for him. I'll be drafting a pattern for tights soon, him and Amelia will be getting matching lace tights. Or maybe they'll share one pair, I'll need to check a bunch of measurements to see if they even could. I'll also be making his pants, jackets, and vests, as well as maybe some ties.

Close behind him was my green Yu! She was an impulse buy, and while the purchase itself could've been worse, the ripple effects I'm starting to see on my collection plan are bad news. Maybe 'bad news' is a little dramatic, but long story short-- I fucking love this tiny. She doesn't take up a lot of space, she's easily stored and stashed, and she's just so damn cute. I love her tiny little elf ears, I love her little teeny hands, and you'd better believe I absolutely love her feet. And tiny clothes are so cute! Granted, I'll probably get salty the second I have a mission to style a tiny as anything other than a fairy princess or a small child, but god I want like a dozen of these little bitty beans. More on this in "Who I'm Waiting On," fortunately/unfortunately. I'm currently calling her Gretchen, and taking a picture of her with a unakite sphere while I was home for Thanksgiving has me wanting to take a zillion pictures of tinies and crystals.

And last but literally not least, my NS Impldoll Iris. She's still in a bag of parts, and I need to get new elastic for her. But I do have character thoughts for her, and I'm pretty set on how I'll be styling her. I'm a little nervous, to be totally honest, she's a 'do I like this size?' test and the answer might be no. I never really know where to hold SDs, but that also might be an issue of inexperience with them. I've played with other people's at meets, but never for long, and there's something about something being someone else's doll that makes me a lot more careful-- kind of like I was with Bridget as a brand new newbie, honestly. So having my own to mess with could be helpful here, but we'll see.

Who I'm Waiting On

Jonah's body is part of a big DZ order! In addition to his body, I've got a Penny coming, and she'll have a faceup because a friend and I wanted a Niu Niu to split(I was about $40 short of the event threshold and I prefer dolls with faces)! She's the tiny version from the summer event, so he gets the body, I'm keeping the head, and he's got a Pukifee whose body my Niu Niu will hopefully be stealing. I don't say hopefully because I anticipate anything going sideways with us, it's more a question of whether or not necks will need modding. I'm not anticipating a need for it, but until I've got her body, I won't really be sure. 

The Niu Niu is going to be a little pixy girl, and I got so accustomed to called her "PG" in her head that her name wound up being Paige. I'm intending to have her be very cutesy and pastel, but we'll see! She might decide she needs a different aesthetic. I've been really 50/50 on her hair color-- I keep flipflopping between red and blonde. Either way, I definitely want curls for days on her.

And the Penny's going to wear fairy kei and possibly sweet Lolita. It feels kind of cliche, given how many pastel dolls are out there, but I wear fairy kei and I'd love to have a doll whose aesthetic matches mine. I'm also really excited to create a doll who actually wears fairy kei, rather than just. What people outside the fashion think it looks like, which I see a lot of. I'm really feeling a giant twintails split wig with a million tiny things in it for her, Mint on Card has a Code Noir one in her size in stock, so we shall see. I'd love to style her super OTT, but she'll definitely have to start with a more casual style while I build up a wardrobe for her. She doesn't have a planned name or character yet, but that hasn't posed a problem for me yet, so I doubt it will this time. I do know I want her to be a friend of Bridget's, but other than that I don't have much yet.

Here's where we start to get into the bad news caused by Gretchen. This one I also a little bit have my friend Tyler to blame for, because it's his fault I know she exists in the first place. Denver Doll Emporium tends to get small amounts from limited runs to have in stock and sell, and he sent me the photos of Dearmine's Chopin Bean in cherry skin from them and I fell in love instantly.  A tiny pink dragon with ears that look like bows? Sign me the hell up. I don't have a name for her yet, but I'm planning to look into dragons of myth and literature to choose from. She's got two more layaway payments on her, which will be funded in part by the sale of the Snail Larry I got in a deeply disappointing Mint on Card surprise bag. But hey, it obviously wasn't a total bust-- Larry sold, the YoSD boots I got in it sold, the eyes weren't too bad, and the technicolor Marie Antoinette wig has found itself a new home.

In further 'oops' news, I have a super cute Asleep Eidolon Chocolate coming to me in the new year as well! She's secondhand as well, and will be my oldest doll by a long shot, as she was made in 2010! She's definitely a 'the glory of the secondhand market,' she's super cute, she was under $100, and she's coming with easily $40 of extras, including clothes, socks, and a wig. I'm already very tempted to make her a little insect fairy-- one of her dresses is bee-themed, another is ladybug-themed-- and I'm thinking of giving her some sort of flower name. Maybe Daisy, but I'm going to see how I feel about it when she gets here. My tinies are able to exist in the same story as my MSDs because I've got a fantasy story with elves, and I'm so so so looking forward to taking pictures of my MSDs with my tinies for things other than just to compare sizes for a friend. 

I think that's all for today! I'm planning for Wednesday's post to be about grails, see you then!

~Theo