OT/General BOOK: Yoshida Style II: Ball Jointed Doll Making Advanced Guide

YOSHIDA STYLE II: BALL JOINTED DOLL MAKING ADVANCED GUIDE.
Ryo Yoshida.
Tokyo, Japan: HobbyJAPAN CO.,Ltd., 2014.
ISBN-10: 4798607827
ISBN-13: 978-4798607825



CONTENTS
Forward 6
Flow Chart 8
Contents 9
Chapter I Primary original mold 11
I-1 Model a primary original mold 12
I-2 Make preparations for making a mold 18
I-3 Make a mold 22
I-4 Liquid plaster 28

Chapter II Shaping with a mold 33
II-1 Shaping with a mold 34
II-2 Shaping the secondary original mold 40

Chapter III Ball Joints 49
III-1 Fix ball joints 50
III-2 Arms & Legs' ball joints 54
III-3 Knees double ball joints 58
III-4 Set up fingers' ball joints 62
III-5 Ball joints of abdominal 68

Chapter IV Variation 77
IV-1 Proportions change 78

Chapter V Finish 85
V-1 Painting 86
V-2 Styling 92

Chapter VI Molded item 111
VI-1 Parting line 112
VI-2 Plaster mold making 116
VI-3 Modeling Cast 124

Tools & Material 10, 32, 110
Afterward 136


This is a book written in the Japanese language, and I cannot read Japanese. However, like the first book, this book has intensive photo series of each step. After going over the photos carefully, I made some notes about what I understand the photos are about. These are my notes about this book:

Chapter I-1 is about modeling the original figure in a material that looks like oil-clay, and may be called PLAXTIN, which appears to be made in Italy. This original clay model is called a 'mold' but it is not the mold, but a model of a female figure, formed in clay. The ball joints are styrofoam balls of various sizes. The sockets are formed around the styrofoam balls.
Chapter I-2 is about making the parting lines on the clay figure in preparation for molding. This is followed by details about making the build-ups around the parts, along the parting lines.
Chapter I-3 is about making coddles with clay walls around the build-ups and pouring/applying plaster. These molds look a lot like the plaster rough shell molds that Martha Armstrong-Hand makes in her book.
Chapter I-4 looks like some information about mixing plaster, along with some arithmetic.

Chapter II-1 looks like it is about methods of drying the plaster molds in a box with a hair blower. Then air-dry clay is rolled and pressed into each half of the plaster molds. Excess clay is trimmed. The mold halves are then pressed together to make hollow doll parts. The individual doll parts are then taken out of the plaster molds.
Chapter II-2 is about shaping the air-dry clay parts of the figure. Once again, this is referred to as a 'mold', but it is a molded model of the original doll that was modeled in PLAXTIN. Much of this chapter seems to be about repairing the air-dry clay doll parts that were press molded in the plaster molds. At the end of this chapter, all the air-dry clay figure parts have had the flashing removed, holes filled, and other repairs made as well. Even doll eyes have been placed in the head. The emphasis seems to be on reproducing the original PLAXTIN clay doll in air-dry clay, as several heads are shown, as well as several of the other doll parts.

Chapter III-1 is about shaping the air-dry ball joints with some custom made tools.
Chapter III-2 covers making the ball joints for the arms and legs.
Chapter III-3 details making the peanut style double joints for the knees.
Chapter III-4 has details about making finger joints. Only the first knuckle joint of each finger, where the finger meets the hand, is jointed.
Chapter III-5 covers different styles of torso joints.

Chapter IV-1 goes into modifying the proportions of the molded air-dry clay parts to make variations to the dolls created from the plaster molds.

Chapter V-1 is about painting the face and blushing the body parts.
Chapter V-2 is about wigs.

Chapter VI-1 is about making a mold of a finished air-dry clay doll. The parting lines are drawn first.
Chapter VI-2 details making an oil-clay build-up around each doll part, and pouring plaster for molds that will be used for slip casting.
Chapter VI-3 is about pouring the finished plaster molds using an air-dry slip called Modeling Cast. Information is also shown for repairing and mending the cast doll parts.

This is a Japanese language book, just like the first book about making a BJD by Ryo Yoshida.

How does this book compare to the first book?
The first book is about making a One Of A Kind BJD using air-dry clay (LaDoll).
The second book is also about making BJDs with air-dry clay, but there is a slight twist.
The original figure is modeled using a modeling clay that looks like oil-clay.
Next, plaster shell molds are made of that oil-clay figure. The molds are dusted with baby powder.
Air-dry clay is then pressed into those molds to make hollow air-dry clay doll parts.
Multiple air-dry clay reproductions of the original clay figure may be made in the plaster press molds.
Then the air-dry clay copies are finished, just like the OOAK BJD in the first book.
The first book has much more detail about making a BJD, face-ups, wigs, shoes, and so forth.
The second book then shows how to make plaster slip-casting molds using a finished air-dry clay BJD as a model, and casting reproduction doll parts in air-dry slip. This slip is poured into the plaster molds just like Porcelain slip, but an electric kiln is not needed to cure the cast BJD. They harden in the air.

I am very glad that I purchased this second book of YOSHIDA STYLE.
The two volumes compliment each other.

The original review is at Atelier de Poupée.