How I fell into BJDs

I've been writing my oldest story since about 2012. By 2015 I'd drawn my characters hundreds of times and I kept thinking, man, I wish I was good at organic 3D modeling and had a resin printer so I could make maquettes of them. (I was actually doing 3D for experiential marketing at the time, but that's a very different headspace. Doesn't count lol.)

Then one day a friend was like, "I wish I could own an ABJD." I had zero clue what that was. So I googled it, and realized I knew Volks dolls already because a friend's wife has SO many of them. I wasn't really into the anime look, but then I found the more mature stuff like Iplehouse and that tickled my fancy. A lot.

I mean, a lot. 🫠

I went full search-obsession mode. Iplehouse and Ringdoll were the two companies I fell for first, and I was in love with RD Sol. I ended up getting him in tan and then sold him during my hiatus, but that's another post.

Then I saw Iplehouse Leonard and all I could see was Aedyn in his eye shape. Aedyn is a high magister, a divine mage, and he'd just gone through a big change right before this, so I held Leonard up against my newest drawings of him and yep. That was him.

If this was gonna be my first doll, I figured I'd go all in on stock. The company faceup was already beautiful as-is. And as we all know, BJDs are not financially sound purchases lol. It's like buying a piece of art, it's subjective and personal and sentimental. At least it was for me.

What I did NOT see coming was how big 70cm is (about 28 inches) or how heavy a resin doll that size is. And I already owned Sideshow full sets and maquettes! I should have known better.

So I set my wallet on fire, bought Aedyn, and hoped that would be it for me.

Nope. ☠️

He showed up and it was love at first sight, and also terrifying. The box was huge, he was huge and heavy, and I was so scared I'd break him or drop him. I also had no idea how to dress him like his character. Most of my first photos of him are nonsense, no direction at all, but I was just having fun figuring it out.

I don't remember exactly when I decided to make a BJD Instagram, other than not wanting to mix it with my persona and art account. The community felt overwhelming at first, and I ran into some cattiness pretty much right away. I tried to ignore it until it got to be too much. It doesn't feel like that anymore, or at least it feels that way to me now.

My friend who started all this never got a doll, by the way. She lives vicariously through me.

And then about a month after Aedyn I put Kevkul on layaway, an Iplehouse Lawrence, and in the story he's Aedyn's younger half-brother. ...followed by Einvar. One doll was supposed to be it.

Anyway, now we're here. 😅

This IG post I made in December 2016 was a obviously a decade old lie. LOL