Am I persistent or just stubborn?
I’m sitting here wondering how one knows if persistence is the right course or if its simply the fallacy of sunken costs moving one forward.
I’m also wondering how long until I get used to blended bifocals
This week’s doll and last week’s (still unfinished) doll both bring me to that same first question.
Both dolls are made from dolls I received in Japan and both involve me continuing when simply quiting and starting a different doll project wouldn’t be unreasonable.
Week three’s (yet unfinished) doll.
This doll head requires a lot of modifications. It’s a more complicated project than I’d planned on.
Two Groove Dal doll heads.
I started my snow-themed Groove Dal doll. It wasn’t until midweek when I’d finished most of the face that I saw I couldn’t put it on the Dal body. I hadn’t noticed the neck hole on the Dal head had been modified by the previous owner.
I was also low on the spray used in face repaints so I didn’t think I could prime and paint a new head by the end of the week.
It would have been perfectly reasonable to set aside the Snow-themed head for another time.
Instead I raided my stock boxes to see if I could find a suitable body for the head. I found one that I thought would work with some head modification.
The inside of the front of the head
With Apoxie Sculpt I’m building a chamber inside the head where a new neck/neck peg from a different doll body can slot in.
Doll head with modifications in progress.
I’m refitting of the head sections to check the fit and sanding the new additions to make room for the eye mechanism.
This is where I must start asking myself if it’s “worth it”
The fallacy of sunk costs is the cognitive bias towards continuing to spend time/money/effort on a current course of action because of the prior time/money/effort one has already allocated to it.
What’s gone into this head so far:
I purchased the head back in Japan. I moved it to America with many other doll parts. I’ve primed and painted the face. I’ve found a different doll body that is a good balance with the head and bought a second version of that doll in a skin color closer to the doll head. I’m making modification to the head and have made a whole outfit for the body.
It becomes a fallacy if what I ultimately end up with hasn’t justified my continuing.
It might not be justified.
It’ll be a lovely doll but the modifications will need to be disclosed. This might impact the price of the doll and may cause me to deem it unsellable.
I continue because I believe that what I’m gaining right now is additional experience and expertise. I haven’t set this weekly goal for myself with the expectations of selling every doll I make. I’ve set it to learn what I can and cannot do week by week.
In fact, by trying to limit myself to dolls in my stock I’m forcing myself into some situations where I have to do creative problem solving. The weekly deadline also encourages me to stick with one doll at a time instead of bouncing between multiple projects.
When this girl is complete I may have the skills and knowledge to use a larger range of head and body combinations to create original dolls.
Or, I might look back and realize my money/time/effort should have been allocated elsewhere…which is also good knowledge to have. Not fun knowledge like a new skill, but that uncomfortable self knowledge one needs.
Week four
Sunk Time? I started this project in February of 2020.
Someone sent me this doll.
Ever After High doll with molded bathing suit.
I would never have bought this for a doll base. Her molded-on bathing suit requires effort to change and she doesn’t have any elbow or wrist articulation. Her shoulder articulation is also minimal.
But I saw it as a challenge.
I watched a Dollyterria video about adding points of articulation on an existing doll. I tried without the right tools for the job
That wouldn’t be challenging enough, why not also make a doll with hair bald/use Tamiya Epoxy Putty on a body and vinyl head (I hadn’t discovered Apoxie Sculpt).
Oh yeah and paint every damned inch of her body.
Because I’d decided, following the Oz theme, to make Scraps, the patchwork girl of Oz….very influenced by this illustration I found.
And this is how far I got.
I didn’t feel moved to work on her. I wasn’t sure if the arms really would ever work well. And yet, after two of three years of not touching her I moved her to America.
Last week, unsure of if I’d finish a doll by the end of the week, I decided that I would finish a started, but incomplete, doll for week four.
I thought it would give me more time to finish week three…as if finishing Patches wouldn’t be a lot of work, perhaps as much as a new doll start to finish...
And this too may be a fallacy.
I think I now have the skills to make her a lovely art doll, but will her crude articulation be off putting?
Even without sunk costs, am I just stubbornly trying to finish unfinished projects out of some desire to define myself as someone who completes a task?
Maybe.
I’m still not sure when to end a project.
I did toss and sell a few unfinished doll projects in the move but very few.
I can do it, b ut I rarely do,
