One of the reasons I was drawn back into doll collecting, and especially gravitated toward Blythe dolls, was because of a popular trend called customizing. This means that a doll is changed in some form. The change might be something small like cutting the doll’s hair or switching out the doll’s body, or it could be much more involved such as totally take the doll apart and changing out the eyes and carving the face plate.

I began slowing with switching out bodies. Then at one point, I purchased a doll (second hand) that someone else had customized, and she arrived in bad shape so I had to put her back together again. I wouldn’t say it was all that fun having to fix the doll, especially since I paid for her, but it gave me a little more incentive to try to fully customize my own Blythe doll.

I bought a few inexpensive fake Blythe dolls, carving knifes, some hand-painted eye chips, and other assorted tools and supplies and got at it. My experience with the first doll was mildly successful, though she was very, very far from perfection. I didn’t jump into the next customization project I had planned as I thought more about it, and I also became distracted with sewing doll clothes, which I found much more enjoyable.

As I’ve been collecting Blythe dolls now for a few years and dabbled in the various parts of the hobby that go with it – customizing, making doll items, photography, and so on – I’m ready to finally admit that I’m not a doll customizer and will probably never be one either. I discuss this topic a little more in a recent six and a half minute video posted on my Youtube channel (see below), and since posting this video, I’ve had a number of people comment and contact me expressing that they also had similar feelings about customizing dolls.

Of course, most crafters want to do all the crafts, right? But, has there ever been a craft that you finally had to admit was just not your calling, that you thought you might like but once you tried it a little, all did not go as planned?