Doll Owner’s Corner: Resin Colors

First of the month, time for another Doll Owner’s Corner.  When I, the doll owner, talk about anything at all.

This month’s topic:

Resin Colors

As mentioned several times before on this blog (see Doll Owner's Corner: What is a Bjd?), ball jointed dolls are made from resin, a beautiful porcelain-like plastic. 

Resin can be made into wide variety of colors by adding pigments to it.  This means that companies can and do produce dolls in several different skin tones.

The more common ones you see are white (like our deer friend, Shiro), “normal” and tan.  The “normal” is frequently split into “normal yellow” and “normal pink”, where the yellow is a sort of beige color and the pink is a pinkish color.

There are also the more fantasy colors like grey, blue, red, etc. sadly produced only by some companies.  And the companies that make dolls in those colors typically charge you more for them.  The same goes for tan dolls.  It’s because of the extra pigments needed to produce resin in those colors as well as extra time and effort.  You get what you pay for. :/

What I think is the beautiful thing about resin colors is the variety you get, and I don’t just mean the choice between pink or tan skin, etc.

Colors tend to vary from company to company due to differences in their resin, so a “normal skin” doll from one will usually look different from a “normal skin” doll from another company.  And differences can occur in dolls from the same company due to the age of the doll (since resin turns yellow as it ages) or variation in the batch of resin produced.

I have several examples of these in my own dolly household.

All my ball jointed dolls (except for Shiro) are “normal pink” or pink skin or whatever wording you prefer.  It’s my favorite resin color because it is so cute and it’s fun to see how different it looks in each company.

Or within the same company as with Sakura and Hikaru here, both are from Mystic Kids and bought about a year apart.

You can see here that Sakura looks pinker than Hikaru does.  In fact, Hikaru is so light in color that there have been days where I wondered if they sent me a white skin doll by mistake.

Here is Yuki and Usagi, both made by Doll Family A and purchased from the same event.  Yuki is lighter than Usagi, who seems slightly more beige to me for a pink skin doll. 

Yuki’s body came separately from Doll Family H, which from what I’ve read is the sister company for Doll Family A.  I had assumed that the resin would match fairly well because of this, but you can see by Yuki’s arm on the left that it is definitely pinker and slightly darker.

Now here’s a fun little twist.  On the left is Yuna made by Doll Love, and on the right is Momoko made by Kids Sky.  Two different doll companies and the resin looks almost identical.

I mean if you look really closely, you might see a slight difference.  It is so slight though that if you were looking to match bodies to make a hybrid doll I would recommend these two companies.

And that’s just what you see in my collection. 

How about your dolls?  How do they compare to each other?  Let me know in the comments, and look forward to more fun with dolls in the future.

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Doll Owner’s Corner: It’s Survey Time!

First of the month, time for another Doll Owner’s Corner.  When I, the doll owner, talk about anything at all without the dolls.

This month’s topic:

Feedback Survey

I know, that’s a strange idea for a topic on a doll blog, but it’s been on my mind.  What do you all think of a blog written by a ball jointed doll?  Specifically what do you want to see her write about?

I have made a quick (3-4 minutes) completely anonymous survey.  Pretty please fill it out for me.  Or if you prefer not to, leave a comment below answering the two most important questions. 

“What do you want to see more of on the blog?” and “Which dolls are your favorite?”

Here's the link to the survey.

Thanks, and the results will be posted later for all to enjoy.  Look forward to it.

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Doll Owner’s Corner: Behind the Scenes Round 6

Beginning of the month, time for another Doll Owner’s Corner.  When I, the doll owner, talk about anything I want.

This month’s topic:

Doll Bloopers!

Another batch of behind the scenes shots.  The theme for this set is “How Does She Do It?”  Photos to demonstrate some of the methods I’ve found to take cute photos, so far anyway.

Lately I’ve been using clear hair elastics to style the dolls hair, but I’ve found them useful for other things.

For instance, here when Hikaru wanted to add some touches to something I drew (see Wordless Wednesday: “It Needs More Lace”).  The elastics helps her grip the pencil, but are discreet enough to hide in photos.

I don’t use doll stands to help the dolls stand since they can do so on their own with a little work (I am eyeing these ones though). 

However they can only stay for so long before losing their balance, hence the “falling down” theme from the previous batch of doll bloopers.  A theme that continues here…

This was when my yosd girls were playing with the head (see Wordless Wednesday: Playing Catch).  Hikaru freaked out and they all came crashing down.

This one is when I made Yuna’s new outfit (see Of Bjd Fashion: Yuna’s First Outfit with Tutorial).  Sakura started to fall over (again) and I attempted to catch her mid-photo.

So close, at least she’s okay.  Yuna seemed a little worried. 

The main reason why Yuna didn’t fall too is because she is leaning against my backdrop.  It’s a tri-fold foam board, and if I place something heavy behind it, it’s strong enough to help support the dolls a little.

I wasn’t fully able to lend a hand for Sakura, but I was able to help Hikaru in the next few photos.

Here’s when Hikaru was doing her hair (see Wordless Wednesday: Fixing Her Hair), you didn’t think she was holding that big mirror by herself, right?

And when she took that selfie of herself (see Wordless Wednesday: Doll Selfies), how do you think she held up that phone?

That’s right, another hand from me.

And when Usagi tried to lift up Sakura (see Wordless Wednesday: Up, Up!), she also had a little help.

These are just a few of the little tricks I’ve found.  Feel free to share any you’ve discovered in the comments below.  I will be sure to share any more I find in the future.  Look forward to it.

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Doll Owner’s Corner: What is a Bjd?

Time for another Doll Owner’s Corner.  When I, the doll owner, talk about anything at all.

This month’s topic:

What is a Bjd?

Hikaru and her friends are all bjds or ball jointed dolls which I think are really super nice dolls.  But, I realized I probably haven’t explained exactly what these dolls are to those who aren’t familiar with them.

First a definition.

According to Wikipedia:

“A ball-jointed doll is any doll that is articulated with ball and socket joints. In contemporary usage when referring to modern dolls, and particularly when using the acronyms BJD or ABJD, it usually refers to modern Asian ball-jointed dolls. These are cast in polyurethane synthetic resin, a hard, dense plastic, and the parts strung together with a thick elastic. They are predominantly produced in Japan, South Korea and China.”

So yes, the name for them comes from their ball joints, but they are not the first dolls made with such joints.  Many antique doll have them too.  However, the joints are just one of the reasons why they are so cool, because they allow the dolls to bend and pose so well.

Ball jointed dolls were first produced by the Japanese company, Volks in 1999 with their line of Super Dollfies or SDs.  Dollfie is short for doll figure.

The abbreviation SD, though actually a Volks thing, is commonly used to refer to ball jointed dolls from other companies in the same size, about 60 cm (24 inches). 

It’s the same with their Mini-Super Dollfies or MSD which are around 40 cm. tall.  Which is why I frequently refer to Hikaru and Usagi as being Msd sized.  Even smaller dolls (about 20-30cm.) are known as YOSD, so Yuna and Sakura are yosd sized dolls.

Another way to refer to these dolls is in terms of scale.  SD is 1/3 scale, Msd is 1/4 scale and Yosd is 1/6 scale. 

What makes these dolls different from most is their ability to be customized to suit their owner’s taste.  They are typically made to order with your choice of head sculpts. 

They usually come without eyes (except for a free random pair) or hair, and you can choose to buy them without any paint on the face (aka a face up).  You can actually buy heads and bodies separately to pair them with parts from other companies if you wish.

Then you chose wigs, clothes, accessories, etc. to create the doll of your dreams.  The downside to all this customization and such is the price tag, which I’ve mentioned before here.  They are after all hand made individually from resin.  A beautiful, porcelain-like but highly expensive material. Sigh.

However, there are other types of dolls out there that are just as customizable and fun, such as Obitsus, Azone dolls, Hujoo etc.  So there are options if bjds just aren’t quite your thing.

That’s some of the basics on these wonderful dolls.  For some more information, and possibly some eye candy, check out these links.

• Den of Angels – The largest English language forum for ball jointed dolls.  Also a goldmine of useful information about these dolls.
• Bjdcollectasy – A bjd news blog with updates on the latest releases from companies, sales and events, and even a few tutorials and such.
• AsenvaBJD – One of the best YouTube channels about ball jointed dolls and related dolls.
• Nicolle's Dreams – Another YouTube channel.  Lots of videos about face ups and other dolly fun.
• Antique Lilac – Features several free bjd clothing tutorials as well a some nice patterns for sale.
• Alice’s Collections – An online bjd store.  They are an official dealer for a large number of bjd companies.  They also sell clothes, wigs, shoes, eyes and just about anything else you need for dolls at great prices.  Their sales are great too.
• Junkyspot – Another online store for bjds and other dolls.  They are based in the USA, so cheap shipping if you are American.  Plus almost everything on the site is in stock, so the wait time is about a week instead of several months.

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