Custom dolls are a bit of a rarity in my doll collection. A lot of people are into custom dolls and I think that’s fantastic. I find that I really enjoy stock dolls, or ‘lightly customized’ dolls. By lightly, I tend to mean minor changes that I can do myself (sleep eyes, gaze lift, eye chip changing – the extent of my customizing capabilities).

There are a lot of customizers that I admire because of the amount of talent and beauty that they can put into a Blythe doll. Or the addition of a reroot in kitten-soft alpaca, lightly carved lips with a slight smile to go with it. Customizers are talented. I just don’t tend to see myself as someone with want nor the need to start taking a knife to my dolls.

I own exactly two custom dolls, both aren’t considered “extreme” in my mind. To me, extreme customs are the ones that have been carved to look like cats or dogs. Or they have vampire/monster teeth, or just teeth in general. And maybe a reroot, or scars, or something. Light carving does not necessarily an extreme custom make. There are some beautiful extreme customs though, and some not-so-beautiful extreme customs. I love dolls that tell a story behind their eyes, or are so amazingly beautiful in an fantastical kind of way. Much like the customs to the left, I love the artistry that goes into extreme customs like that – so much talent, so much more talent that goes into a single doll than I could ever hope to achieve.

The thing to remember with truly one-of-a-kind (OOAK) art dolls is that the prices can also be OOAK in the way that they will make you wish you fond that OOAK money tree. Because of that, I will not be adding an extremely customized doll to the family any time soon. Maybe one of these days, but it would definitely have to be at the right time, and the right doll.

Do you own any extreme customs?

It’s time for another Tiny Shoe Love! And we all know how much I love shoes – just a tiny reason why Sophie is so interested in shoes as well. In the first installment of Tiny Shoe Love, I featured Monique Magnifique’s stock heels and vintage dark brown squishy Barbie boots. What are you in store for this time? Very happy that you asked!

Stock engineer boots from Jackie Ramone (Middie):

Left: on Jackie Ramone (Middie), Kitty Brighton. Right: on Love Mission (Blythe, EBL), Belarus.

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Sometimes I muse about getting another Middie Blythe. After all, if having one Middie is awesome, having two must be even more awesome, right? And then I think about it some more, and change my mind.

There are stock Middies that I am interested in (a certain Marshmallow one comes to mind), but I haven’t pulled the figurative trigger on that yet because I’m just not a good Middie owner. Realistically, I am fully aware that Middies are just dolls. Dolls don’t have real feelings and don’t feel temperature by wearing a sweater in the summer and aren’t aware when I leave them in the same outfit for like half a year. I get that. But at the same time, having a doll that just hangs out that I don’t really play with makes me feel like I’m cluttering up my living space.

That and I really don’t have many clothes that are Middie-sized, so it does make me reluctant to continue to add to the Middie part of my doll collection because I just don’t have the clothes (or the shoes!) for them. Yes, I do have some Middie-sized shoes but I don’t have nearly as many as I do in Blythe-sized. And as much of an effort as I had put into amassing the Blythe collection, I don’t fancy doing the same for Middie when it comes to just… things. I think that’s one of the reasons why I decided to hand craft my Middie’s wardrobe – I want to be inspired and creative when it comes to Blythe (and the other sizes of dolls). This mindset didn’t last very long because I do go through periods where I just don’t do much with my dolls aside from picking out, redressing her, and taking her to a meet. And then she’ll stay in that outfit until the next time that she happens to attend a meet.

This is one of the reasons why I think photo challenges like 365 are great for people who want to become more creative and take more photos. But alas, that is just not in the cards for me at this time. And my only Middie girl will continue to be the only Middie for a while long… If only because I don’t need another reminder that I don’t make enough things for the dolls around here.

“I’ve reached my limit.” “I’d really like to downsize.” “One in, one out. I can’t go over 5.”

I’m sure these are all very familiar words that have been echoed through online forums and at doll meets. A lot of people have a maximum number of dolls that they’d like to stick to. I did too, once upon a time.

When I got my first Blythe, a Cappuccino Chat (Sophie), I told myself that I was only going to have one. Then a month later, my Love Mission (Belarus) arrived. That lasted long.

Then I told myself that I would only have five dolls. Then that became six. Then I bought my Kenner (Emmalynn), who is number seven.

Kenner #1, Emmalynn.

Of course the next logical ‘limit’ number was ten. So I told myself “Ten’s a nice round number. I’ll stop at ten.”

Blythe #15, a Friends With Blythe custom named “Cameo”.

That did not last long. How many dolls do I currently have? Well, I recently added #15. Well, #15 if you don’t include my Middie, Petites or other dolls. As it is, at 15 I still do not have a BL, which I would very much love to add to my doll family one day. Which would mean a minimum of 16 dolls. Is that too much? I know some people are probably reading this and thinking “15? That’s nothing! I have 2-5x more than you!” and I think that’s great! The more dolls the merrier, right? But then I’m sure there’s also some people reading and thinking “15?  I have 1. Clearly I have more self-control than you do if you couldn’t keep with your original self-imposed limit!” and if you managed to stay at one, I do applaud your self control because I would find it very hard to downsize, at this point, to one Blythe.

How many dolls is too many dolls?