I Have Come Up With A Better Metaphor Than “you Can’t Pour From An Empty Cup” For Burnout. You

Cindy Bernhard (American,b. 1989)

Baptism, 2023

Oil and acrylic on canvas

Yahoooooooooo!!!!

Counterfeit Goods Hurt All BJD Artists

I can't tell and demand what anyone else spreads their money on, but if there is anything I hate the most, it's blatant falsehoods being paraded around as fact. I won't name names since I'm not interested in brigading since spamming someone is never going to productively change someone's mind, but as a reminder: recasts (counterfeit ball jointed dolls) hurt all artists. To pretend that it's OK to participate in the theft and exploitations of BJD artists because "the companies [they work for] exploit the artists because they don't get royalties and are only given a one off payment" is wildly inaccurate for the majority (if not all) BJD companies. The BJD hobby is a global hobby and how one company may operate from another may vary wildly from company to company, country to country, as local laws may dictate artist's rights to their work in specific ways as well as specific employment contracts. By no means is this a end-all, be-all, but most BJD artists are the company. Sometimes the company is solely the BJD artist and whomever they may hire to help with doll production. Sometimes the artist, like Bimong, participates in casting and cleaning up the dolls. Other times they might not have those skills and may need to hire fellow employees or commission another BJD company to do the casting for them - many artists use Harucasting, Resinsoul, Island Doll, Fdoll, and so on for their casting services, for example.

Sometimes the artist also haves on apprentices - have you ever noticed that Supiadoll and Limhwa's works look similar to Bimong? They studied under him. I am unsure if Limhwa casts their own dolls, but I know Supiadoll (as of the last few years) uses Withdoll to cast their dolls (with at least one collaboration doll between the two of them, Xion). The BJD hobby is small and many companies have artists who will leave and start their own company, in time - Cerberus Project (Fairyland) used to work under Luts, Resinsoul and Bobobie are sister-companies, Xagadoll and Asleep Eidolon are sister-companies, Dollits (J Baek) used to work for Doll in Mind, went independent, and for a time Dollits worked with Darak-i under the brand "Macaron Doll" and shared a workspace... Would it even surprise you to hear that the most infamous recaster, who had probably done the most harm in this hobby, used to work as an employee under Xagadoll before he was found to be stealing from them and subsequently fired? The BJD world is small and through a cruel twist of irony, the only properly "large" BJD company probably IS that recaster specifically: Luo. (Quenifs, Shuga Fairy, and whatever other monikers he decides to use for himself)

Needless to say, the average BJD operation is probably 1-4 people. But if the artist isn't the owner of the company, sometimes they are able to take their sculpts with them - whether it's because they still retain ownership or they are able to buy the rights to their dolls, I cannot say with certainty without asking them myself, but when Cerberus Project left Luts to make Fairyland, they also took several of their sculpts with them, too - that's why Luts can't make a Delf Soony anymore, even though it was originally produced under the Luts name. J Baek was a sculptor for Doll in Mind, and when he left them to create Dollits, he took several of his sculpts with him, too - SooHee comes to mind, but she wasn't the only doll.

Some BJD companies are "bigger," Fairyland floats around 40 people all-in-all and Volks - of legitimate companies - ...may be the biggest company, when taking account the Dollfie and Doll Dream branches? I am not sure if we've ever gotten a quote of how many employees Volks employs in that section of their company.

Again, I cannot say what another person can and cannot do with their money. However, if you're pro-recast, you can defend recasts all you want, but you don't need to spout inaccuracies as fact. It's much more respectable to just say you want a cheaper doll, no matter the "actual cost" to the hobby as a whole.

Funding recasts just gives recast companies the funds to steal even more dolls, including from those little single-artist teams like Lillycat, even though sometimes those recasts might not even be particularly profitable for the recasters. (Even Hujoo Freya was stolen, and she a $40 plastic bjd that was widely available at the time!)

It's OK if you think a doll is overpriced and "not worth" the value the company/artist has set for their work, but that doesn't mean artists deserve to have their work stolen. These are small companies, not massive cooperation that can easily weather theft, counterfeit products hurt all legitimate artists. It's just a matter of when. No one needs a doll but BJDs have become more and more accessible as the years have gone by, and will probably continue down this path as STL sharing and printers become better and better. Sometimes we cannot help but support things that perpetrate harm due to needs demanded in our society, but no one needs a doll, and I certainly wouldn't want to hurt someone (or multiple people) because I wanted a doll and damn the consequences to anyone else about me getting the "best deal" I could get (aka: paying the least amount of money possible). To wrap this discussion up... please remember, if you purchased recasts in the past, it's never to late to stop and start purchasing legit dolls, secondhand or directly. How someone "shifts" their collection from recast or legit is an entirely personal choice: personally, I think it's more than OK to keep your recasts and keep them out of the secondhand market and enjoy them as they are, as long as you don't pass them off as legits, and stop supporting the primary and secondhand recast market.

Night at the Museum (2006) dir. Shawn Levy

Magic Breakfast ✨

Eirwyn

Comparison with the old Dollzone body.

Oh, I just can't. I printed this boy in 1/4 size and I'm in love. I immediately came up with a name for him. I feel like returning to the hobby I left in 2019. I doubt people will be as interested in him as they are in unusual dolls like my turtles or mice. But I am very pleased with how he turned out. My real MSD doll that looks decent next to the company dolls.

what do you mean Just Standing There Ominously doesn’t count as socializing

fat porcelain dollgirl with lovingly filled in cracks for stretch marks

yume_primavi (Twitter)

Everytime you feel too old to wear frilly styles, remember there is Candy Milky who runs the Candy Candy museum in Tokyo and still slays wearing lolita and girly fashion with age 71 (at the time of this post in 2023).

Not sure about other socials, but Candy is mainly active on Facebook if you are interested in following.