Early Beginnings

All people have their humble beginnings. I always liked listening to stories of how people started, how their roads were rough at the start, how they stumbled but managed to pull their senses together and kept going. 

Just like everybody else, I also have humble beginnings on making toothpick dolls. They were never perfect. They had uneven hips, too big heads, too thin limbs, and so on. But despite their imperfection and my obvious mistakes and lack of experience, I'm still as proud of them as I am proud of the toothpick dolls I am creating now--my own style, my fan arts, toothpick elf series, and contest entries. After all, these humble beginnings started it all. They opened the door to me creating toothpick dolls and improving my craft.

It all started once upon a night time when my online students were absent and I've got nothing better to do to keep my time productive at the very least. So I went on to streaming dramas online till I got bored sitting still and staring at my monitor. I am the type who gets uncomfortable when I'm not doing anything with my hands. I used to make friendship bracelets for myself and sometimes I sell them to those who were interested. That night, I had no requests for personalized bracelets so I had nothing to do. And since I also have loads of extra yarns and threads I didn't want to throw away, I looked for ways to reuse them.

I went to Youtube, and like some coincidence, I found a tutorial on how to make toothpick dolls. It tickled my curiosity just by looking at the video thumbnail showing an image of a toothpick doll, so cute and so adorable. Since I said I didn't have anything better to do, I watched it and ended up following every steps along the way. I finished making my first ever toothpick doll in just half an hour.

This is my first ever toothpick doll. I made it resembling me when I was in University, wearing our uniform. I felt really proud after making it, because not everyone can think of making dolls with toothpicks and yarns. I adored it so much I ended up taking it with me to bed and staring at it until I fell asleep like a little girl holding her stuffed bunny. Next morning, I took a photo of it and uploaded it on my Instagram and some former schoolmates said it was nice and suggested that it could be a cute key chain for the students of our University. I thought that was a nice idea, but then at the back of my mind, I thought can I make key chains? I was only able to make one, how sure I am I can make more? And if so, what about the males in my University? I can make the female toothpick doll, but I don't have an idea on how to make a male toothpick doll.

That was my first dilemma after the first night of making a toothpick doll. But that didn't overwhelm my emotional rush from my first ever toothpick doll. I even ended up making another one for my student.

I showed my first toothpick doll to my online student and she said wanted one so I made it for her. By this time, I got surprised to see that my toothpick doll ended up looking just like her.  Even my student commented it looked like her. This was the second doll by the way. I struggled with her glasses since I couldn't figure out how to make it and the Youtube tutorial didn't have a doll with glasses. So I guess this doll started my perseverance in adding the details I want.

After the hype I got from my two toothpick dolls, I decided making a character toothpick doll. And back then, the trend was the animation Frozen (to which my sister probably watched a dozen times).

Here is Anna (obviously). I tried to make her as close to how I imagined her. I was almost disappointed, though, if not for the tiny braids she had. I wanted to give her an A-line skirt, but unfortunately it didn't end up with the outcome I was expecting.

If there is Anna, there should also be Elsa. Remember when I mentioned awkward hips and too big heads? Yes, it was this Elsa doll. By this time I have struggled so much about giving her that A-line dress, and being unable to do so frustrated me. I explored a new method, which unfortunately and obviously didn't work. I can't even tell if those were her hips that got dislocated or her petticoat got stiff on her mid-calf. This was probably my biggest stumble in making toothpick dolls but if I look at it on the better side, this was the doll where I started exploring new ways of improving the look of my toothpick dolls. The only thing I was happy about with this doll was Elsa's hair, which turned out the way I imagined it to be: the falling hair strands, the messy-looking braid accentuated by DIY snowflakes.

Then I decided to make Spiderman. Since my boyfriend is a fan of Spiderman, I thought about giving him a Spidey toothpick doll. This time, I explored giving my dolls bulkier limbs, their own shoulders, pelvis, and their own shoes. I first did his legs and boots. After that, I thought I could make it possible. But when I was making his upper torso, it all turned into disappointment. It was so messy I was so embarrassed on giving him as a gift. After making Spidey, I might have taken a break from making toothpick dolls for a couple of weeks because I've had continuous mistakes after Anna, Elsa, and Spiderman. 

I had to find another inspiration in making toothpick dolls so I looked for prospective models. After I found one, I was motivated in exploring new ideas again like nothing happened. 

But anyway, this is the story of my humble beginnings. I struggled as a beginner, but that didn't stop me from improving my style.