This blog is about my collection of Ball Jointed Dolls. They are made in Korea, Japan and China, and more recently in many other countries, and are painstakingly sculpted by artists, then hand-cast in resin.
They have ball shaped joints at points of articulation and their pieces are hollow, allowing them to be strung together with elastic. The elastic is secured inside the hollow head. Their wigs are not fixed but are removable and changeable, as are their eyes.
Their resin can be painted, sealed, then later wiped with special solvent and repainted, over and over. This means these dolls are not only very posable, but highly customizable. You can change their eyes and wigs, and paint or repaint them again and again.
With the right tools and materials you can even modify the resin sculpt itself. Collecting, customizing and photographing them is a very fun hobby.
That's the little speech I give to people when they ask about my odd hobby. These dolls are fun, but they're also fine art. I give them faces, design their looks, dress them up, make props for them and then take pictures. They're photo models that I can carry around and pose as I like!
