Small-time Hijinks

Christmas 2025

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone reading this had a good day, whatever you got up to. It's a secular festival for me and my family, with presents and food and relaxation, and we managed to tick all those boxes and then some.

This year there wasn't a doll for me under the tree, but there was a new camera lens - a nifty fifty (a Canon RF f1.8 50mm, to be specific). I'd been thinking about it for ages, because while my 35mm lens is fine, I thought I would like the 50mm better for doll photography.

Hazel was my first model, and of course, I had to put her in front of the Christmas tree and stop the lens all the way down to get some nice bokeh.

Portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long auburn hair, wearing a high-necked yellow and white dress. She is in front of an out-of-focus Christmas tree.

I should also (belatedly) introduce Claudia. She's a FCS F-07 (or Nono) from earlier this year when there was a special time-limited event at Volks's Tenshi no Sato, and you could order this otherwise-unavailable head. I bought her with boyish make and put her on a DearSD body for maximum cuteness.

I put them both in red for Christmas, but I've been doing some Christmas sewing (which is obviously not finished in time for Christmas) which I hope I can finish before the end of the year.

Portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long blonde hair in ringlets and big sparkling purple eyes, wearing a red dress. She is in front of an out-of-focus Christmas tree.
Half-length portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long auburn hair, wearing a high-necked yellow and white dress with puffy sleeves. She leans against a human-sized chair, holds a hat in one hand, and is in front of a Christmas tree. Half-length portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long auburn hair, wearing a red and white dress with a large white sailor-like collar. She is sitting with her hands in her lap in front of an out-of-focus Christmas tree. Portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long blonde hair in ringlets and big purple eyes, wearing a red dress. She is looking away from the camera, to the side. Half-length portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long blonde hair in ringlets and big purple eyes, wearing a red dress. She has one hand in front of her mouth and behind her is a Christmas tree.
Two female ball-jointed dolls sit in front of a Christmas tree. They are both wearing red dresses. The doll on the left is smaller, with long auburn hair and a wistful expression. The doll on the right is larger, with big purple eyes and long curly blonde hair.

After this one photo session, I can say I'm very happy with the new lens, and with the fact that I have Christmas photos up only slightly late.

Looking back through my posts this year, I see I've taken photos of Hazel more than any other doll. SDMs are very portable... and she's just got such a soulful expression. I keep thinking about getting another SDM, but in 2026 I would like to work on managing my collection size. I don't feel comfortable indefinitely adding new dolls, and I'm running out of space anyway.

I may do a separate post about 2026 plans, but the short version is that I want to finish all unfinished dolls (two of which involve paid exchange at Volks due to extreme yellowing) and do more sewing, knitting, and photography.

I hope everyone has lovely winter holiday period, and good wishes for the new year! May all your dreams, doll or otherwise, come true in 2026.

Dollshe Grown Bermann and faceup chatter

I always loved Dollshe Bermann, but the timing was never right to buy one - and then later, I heard that it became unwise to buy from the company due to long delivery times. There was a re-release of Bermann's sculpt with some slight changes, called Grown Bermann. I was lucky enough to find a Grown Bermann second-hand, and even luckier to find a matching body at the same time.

Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with short black hair with 90s-style bangs, thick spidery lashes and a very amateurish faceup.

I'm the world's most amateur faceup artist. Every time I do one I see glaring mistakes that seem like they should have been obvious at the time. But he has a faceup, and I finished it just before a week of rain where I can't spray the necessary sealant, so it's sort of a win?

My list of self-criticisms: the lower lashes are far too thick and there's too much dark shading on the outer edges - it's unbalanced. His mouth somehow looks smaller than when it was unpainted (too dark, maybe?). All the lines are generally messy. And are the eyebrows a tiny bit too high? I probably need to do this a few hundred more times before I get better.

Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with short black hair with 90s-style bangs, thick spidery lashes and a very amateurish faceup.

The eyes are nice, but I'm not convinced by the wig, which is really low quality and sheds if you even so much as glance at it. I'm actually second-guessing if he should have black hair, but that would really need a faceup change unless we imagine that he's wearing mascara. Maybe he is. Maybe he's going for a Brian Molko look from the 90s.

I've been finding it hard to find space and time for doll things, lately. And it's so, so, SO much easier to fall into easy consumerism, especially if you have to hunt something down, which makes it even more exciting when you find it, and then you have to wait for the parcel, following the tracking (tiny dopamine bursts all the way when it updates) and finally the item arrives and... you do nothing with it because you're tired.

I think I am at or reaching doll capacity, so I need to train myself back into the habit of doing all the other things I enjoy about the hobby (really, buying dolls is the smallest part of it, but it became the thing I do most). So while this faceup isn't exactly what I envisioned, I still finished it, and I am really pleased about that. (I even put in eyelashes, which is actually the worst thing ever.) He has a face. I took photos. And I'm knitting him a jumper.

(Does he have a name? Of course not.)

Pink knitted jumper for Rufus, and happy birthday to Volks!

I'm a bit late with this post, but on the 28th of February it was Volks's 26th birthday. To celebrate, there was a hashtag on social media where people were invited to share photos, and also some events in Volks shops in Japan. For those events, the dress code was pink.

I decided that for once in my life, I wanted to take doll photos for an event before the actual event itself. And I also decided to make something pink: a knitted pink jumper.

A piece of knitting in progress on knitting needles, using a ball of pink yarn and a ball of cream yarn.

I almost ran out of yarn, so the arms are a bit short for SD17 and the length... let's just call it cropped. I made up the pattern based on measurements - it's just a basic drop-shoulder jumper with cream stripes to try and make the pink go further, twisted rib at the neck, cuffs and waist, and a bit of shoulder shaping. I used light fingering weight wool on 2.5mm needles.

I did finish in time, but left it until the last minute (well, the day before) to take photos.

Male ball-jointed doll with pale skin and long ash-pink hair reclines on a pink and blue fur backdrop. He wears a pink and white striped knitted sweater and pale blue jeans, and is looking away from the camera.
Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with pale skin and long ash-pink hair. He wears a pink and white striped knitted sweater, and is looking into the camera. Male ball-jointed doll with pale skin and long ash-pink hair reclines on a pink and blue fur backdrop. He wears a pink and white striped knitted sweater and pale blue jeans, and is looking away from the camera. Close-up photo of a male ball-jointed doll with pale skin and long ash-pink hair. He wears a pink and white striped knitted sweater.

I like the finished result, but it is definitely a bit short in the arms. Luckily, I have smaller dolls who can wear this one, and I bought more pink yarn to make Rufus one of his own.

You can see photos from the Volks birthday hashtag on:

  • Instagram (you can't view hashtags in order anymore, so you'll see previous years as well)
  • Bluesky (I posted mine here)

And you can read about the day on the official Volks blog.