I have a confession to make…I never thought I would work with anything related to dolls!

I remember quite clearly that when I was in a second grade, I saw a Barbie doll, and fell in love with it right away. I wanted to have one for myself, but it was rather a luxury item at that time, so I couldn’t have it. Then when I grew a little older, someone gave me a baby doll—sucking on a pacifier, has a short blonde hair, and can close its eyes. I was over the moon, and name it ‘Meme’, and we stay together ever since.

But when I become more mature, other things got more interesting, and Meme remained just in my distant memory. Now, I cannot even remember where Meme is, but Meme is surely the only one doll in my memory that I will forever cherish.

When people grow older and become adults, they have more responsibilities. And sometimes, our joyful childhood memory can easily be forgotten. But today, I feels like I gets to revisit those happy moments again.

Thank you, Shun and Rin for sharing stories about dolls with me, and make ‘Ardeur de l’amour’ comes true today.

Thank you, Shun and Rin for helping me realize the enchantment of dolls...until I got a doll for myself for the first time in my life (even though now it is still faceless, and still waiting for Shun to spare some free time to do the face-up ^ ^’)

Thank you, Shun and Rin for agreeing to walk together on this path with me.

The three of us dream that Ardeur will be another kingdom that brings joy and happiness to all the doll collectors, just like it does to us.

There’s a saying “if you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life”. I always thought I would like to be able to do that someday, but never imagine that the dream that I told Elle four years ago (when I just started playing BJD) would actually come true.

Dolls can have enchanting spell on people. It’s magical to bring a liveless dolls back to life by our hands. It’s amazing that dolls from the same mold can come out looking totally different with a distinctive face-up, unique character-building, or how people play them. Because, playing doll is very flexible, it always inspires an endless customizing possibilities according to the player’s creativity.

I started to become even more fascinated with dolls until it seems to play a big part in my life. And now, it got to the point that ‘playing dolls’ is not only a play, but it is an art, a relaxation, a child, and a dream. How great it would be if I can share this dream and imaginations with other doll-lovers. How magnificent would it be if dolls are to be accepted as other valuable arts. And this is why ‘Ardeur de l'amour’ is originated. 

Let me just say that before there’s ‘Ardeur’ today, it was not exactly an easy task. Although I had expected it, to make our dreams come true or just as close as possible, is a lot harder than we ever thought. But the three of us never lose hope, because we always believe that with strong determinations, good intentions, wonderful feelings, not insulting oneself, and respect to others, along with a companion whom we trust; we are all equipped to make any impossibilities possible!

Ardeur is only the beginning of a dream. There are still so many other things exist in imaginations, waiting to come true. I truly hope that Ardeur could be another part that help fulfill the dream, inspiring further creativty of all the doll-lovers.

Hi, everyone. This is Rinnarin. First of all, I must say I never thought I would do anything related to clothes. More importantly, the decision was entirely and willingly my own >////<

Going back to when I was a child, I felt that sewing class was super boring!! (a compulsory class at my school). At that age, I was not into dolls at all, but always hanging out with the boys (climbing tree, spooning wigglers, catching lizards or millipede -_-‘). But I loved drawing, especially paper dolls—probably the only activity that made me look like a girl. Graphic Haha. When I grew up, I went on to study design, with a major in Graphic Design, focusing mostly on illustrating works, and book design.

So how did I get into this? Well, to cut long story short...it’s because I like reading comics, watching anime, and started doing cosplays. And that’s it! For an undergrad student, to hire a tailor to make a cosplay costume—it costs me almost one-third of my monthly allowance!

And when I look at the costume—my impression was “What!! You charge me XXX baht for this simple dress!”

So from then on, I convinced my friends who were also into cosplay to make our own outfits. We went through our wardrobes to find something that looks like our cosplay costume, each the patterns, and tried to adapt it to resemble the original costume as closely as possible (sometimes it does, but sometimes it does not...haha), and then did the sewing ourselves. Me and my friends went out and bought a cheapest sewing machine we could find, and tada~, our proudly presented home-made clothes looks ---censored---. I guess this is when it all started.

Oh, I just realize I still haven’t mentioned anything about making costumes for dolls. OK, here we go:

About four years ago, I travelled to Japan with a group of friends, and found a doll that I liked, so I brought it home with me (hmm, that’s probably why I didn’t play a doll when I was a child—I never found the type that I truly like!). I was very obsessed with this doll. Whenever I found anything suitable like a mini motorcycle, table, chair, or other little things, I bought them all. But what I wanted to have the most, but were not available (at least, in Thailand) are clothes! My first doll is a boy, but male outfits are so hard to find. So I decided I had to do it myself!

My first doll costume was modified from a mobile phone case that has a picture of a shirt on it. Then I started finding for pattern information from books and magazine. When it comes to sewing, I just look at the stitch to see how the tailor did it, then try to do the same. My friends always told me, “You might haven’t realize this yet, but you must really like this, because whenever you’re making the costume, you look like you’re having so much fun!”. And they talked me into selling these clothes. At the same time, in Thailand there’s a doll shop offering a small renting space for amateur doll collectors who want to sell their works — so I did it, primarily producing a style that pleases me. Then, I partnered up with my friends to open an online store, went to open a booth-sale in Hong Kong, and now, of course…I decide to join Elle and Shun Acho to create ‘Ardeur de l’amour’.

For me, Ardeur is a beginning of an important new chapter of my life. Thank you, Elle and Shun for striving so hard together to make today comes true. Also, a great appreciation to other friends for their guidance and continuous moral support!