BJDs, short for ball jointed dolls, are dolls made out of resin and strung with elastic. The BJDs are designed for a lot of customization. You can paint them any way you want, design their clothes, or change their faces and wigs. They typically come with blank faces unless you pay to have their faces painted by the maker.
The art of painting the faces of BJDs is called the face up.
One of my first BJDs I bought at at least third hand. She had been owned by several different people, and came with heavy black paint all over her face. I knew she was made by the Momocolor company, but it took me a while to realize she had the Emily face mold. For a while I thought she had the Lucy face mold, and, prompted by an association of ideas decided that her character would be Lucy of Narnia. So her name is Lucy, but her face mold is Emily.
Lucy was the first face up that I did, and in fact I bought her for that purpose. On her first face up, I liked her eyebrows, but I felt that I could improve on her lips, among other things. Her first face up, to me, looked sullen, more like Mary from The Secret Garden than Lucy of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
This was her first face up. Definitely room for improvement.
Another picture of the original face up.
And here is her new face up. I think it is a big improvement. It really changed her facial expression. Instead of sullen, she looks surprised.
Ironically, the one thing that I like least about this face up is what I liked best about her last one- her eyebrows. I think they are too high up.
I will be redoing her face up eventually in the future. I am enjoying this face up and marveling at how it alters the whole look of the doll.
We also tightened her elastic, so now she stands and poses much better.
I made her dress myself. It is from the Contrast Pleat dress from Jen Wrenne. I just had to make the bodice longer, otherwise it was a perfect fit.
It is definitely interesting how BJDs allow you to experiment with a doll. However, if you just want a pretty doll that doesn't need a lot of tinkering, these dolls are not it!
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