At the request of the creators, BJDcollectasy released the weekend article early to coincide with the release of the first dollk doll on February 14 2010 Beijing China time. Happy Lunar New Year!
Fong, a mother and former Web Programmer and Web Designer, quit her job after her son was born. After her son started school, Fong began to search for something that she could do at home in her spare time. Around March 2009, C.Y., who was a fashion designer and tiny BJD collector, asked Fong to help build an online community which specialized in tiny-size ball jointed dolls. C.Y. hoped to build a simple forum that also included a search engine for internet resources such as web pages, blog entries, photos on Flickr, and video from Youtube, to give members updated information. They worked on the site together, and TinyBJD.com was created and launched online May 1st, 2009. The forum developed a following of tiny doll enthusiasts from many countries.
Running a free online community turned out to be more complicated than C.Y. and Fong originally thought. As the online community required a lot of time and money for maintenance, updating, and interaction with the members, C.Y. and Fong started to look for a way to fund the site while keeping tinybjd.com a free community. One of the tinybjd.com members, Miu Miu, suggested that Fong and C.Y. set up an online shop to offer products for doll collectors.
Jenny and Patrick, who worked in a Guangzhou Toy Factory, knew C.Y. as they had worked together a few years earlier. Jenny and Patrick were both experienced in creating items, and soon they were taking C.Y. & Fong’s designs and developing products for the shop. Together they created a variety of detailed shoes and tiny outfits. The dollb.com studio was created in July 2009 in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, and dollb.com began selling its own designs in Oct 2009.
C.Y. is credited with proposing the creation their own brand of tiny doll. She has collected tinies for several years, and her collection currently includes a Lati Yellow, PukiFee, Bisou Ai, and a Felix Brownie. During the day, C.Y. works in a Hong Kong brand children’s apparel company as fashion designer, but her night job is now doll fashion designer. When designing shoes and outfits, C.Y. was regularly transporting her tiny dolls between Hong Kong and Guangzhou to work as models for Jenny and Patrick to develop the new products. Often her dolls were in Guangzhou for weeks at a time.
C.Y. then asked Patrick could if they could possibly design a BJD of similar size and body shape, for which they could develop more products. The doll took months to design. The head, complete with a face-plate system, was completed first, and photos were released in December 2009. The body proved to be more complicated. The group designed, then rebuilt the body until they were satisfied with the results. The first complete resin doll was made February 2nd, 2010, and was posted on dollb.com, TinyBJD.com, and Flickr that same night.
The doll will be sold on the website, dollk. It will behand-cast and sanded. Dollk dolls will be sold as a basic doll with head, body, eyes, and face-up. Additional items will be available at dollb.com. According the the company, owners can share their Lati Yellow and PukiFee wigs with their dollK doll as they have the same head size.
Future plans for the doll line include additional face-plates and different styles of hands. The dolls will use the same body for males and females. In order to increase production, the company is moving to a bigger studio, and hopes to hire a few more staff members. They will continue to create new items for different brands of tiny dolls. Asked about future dolls, the company hinted, ” We still enjoy the honeymoon with our 16 cm Tiny DollK Doll; when he/she start to feel lonely, we may bring her some brother, sister, or even PETs!!
Photos above: First sculpt of ‘Leffy’ head, head in production.
dollk – doll website
dollb– shop specializing in fashions for the littlest BJDs
tinyBJD– tiny doll forum
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