I Talk About This A Lot

     Over the years I have done many posts on why I price dolls the way I do, why I don't do more tutorials, why I don't give away or sell my patterns, the amount of work that goes into prepping a doll body before its dressed, and many related topics. Lately I have seen a lot of hobbyists complaining that certain reference sites are down or now will need to be paid for if you wish to use them. It is fantastic when we can get things for free. But many people seem to have forgotten that for everything that is available for free, someone has spent their time and money creating or developing it. These things don't just happen. And after a time people really need to be paid for their work. This is not selfish, it is the nature of living in the world we live in. I don't know a single person who is so wealthy that they can just make and do things for free. We all have bills. The bill collectors do not care if we spent hours and days giving away our work and now don't have any money. The bill collectors will unfeelingly turn off our power. They could not care less why we didn't pay our bill. 

     I am still planning to continue my blog. I am still planning on posting every single day. Sometimes, like today, it might be a post explaining (again) why I don't share more than I do. If you go back over the years and read the nearly 1100 posts, you will see that I actually share a lot. Some of the older posts are missing pictures now, I have no idea why that happened, but the words are all still there. And many, many posts are still very complete. I have shared a lot of progress photos, shared a lot of how I do things, or why I do things the way I do them. I have shared a lot of doll history (not just mine) because I happen to know it. My plan is to keep on sharing. But I can't, and won't do all the things for you. My blog is free for anyone and everyone to access, but it is not free to me to make. This particular post likely took an hour of research to find all of the posts that are linked below. This is why I set up my ko-fi page. Yes the blog is free, but it definitely takes time to post. And I thoroughly appreciate each and everyone of you that has bought me a coffee. 

    To wrap up I added a photo. Since as Sue (I think) put it, a post without photos feels like scolding. I don't want to scold, just want to share :). I also want to share again that the concept for the below entry was super epic in my head, and didn't translate nearly as well to a photo. Some day I will redo this entry. Not sure how just yet. 

My photo from the Pandemic Performance Panorama in the 2020 class.

A post about the attitude of people in the hobby when it comes to the value of time and what artists should be doing. https://fieldofdolls.blogspot.com/2020/04/entitled.html 

A post about pattern making https://fieldofdolls.blogspot.com/2021/07/pattern-making-is-hard.html

An actual step by step tutorial on how to make a thing https://fieldofdolls.blogspot.com/2021/01/micro-pouch-tutorial.html

A post about trial and error, knowing what works for you and doesn't and being able to admit when you can't do a thing https://fieldofdolls.blogspot.com/2020/08/things-i-am-good-at-and-things-that-im.html

A more detailed post about what goes into pattern making. The last paragraph really sums things up nicely https://fieldofdolls.blogspot.com/2020/08/when-projects-go-badly.html

A post on how I prep the Yvonne type dolls for most things  https://fieldofdolls.blogspot.com/2019/09/yvonnegraciequinn-customizinh.html

A very OLD post (with all the photos missing for some reason) about the work that goes into remaking a (Breyer) doll and why I price dolls the way I do (still relevant). https://fieldofdolls.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-method-behind-my-madness-aka-why-my.html