Materials Build a BDJ....what is needed?

if you want to work with bakeable clay i suggest super sculpey, tinfoil to shape your parts, sculpting tools or just small odds and ends..i used a toothpick and a butter knife for most of my work.

you'll probably need a dremmel tool and sandpaper. If you want to go the less complicated route then maybe some wooden beads for the joints.

and oven (duh ^_^)

you'll need wire or something to the effect to pick at the tinfoil after your doll is cooked.

i suggest having a strong glue on hand if you're a klutz like me..you need elastic for stringing...paint for details

a sharp knife, scissors are good too.

and i also suggest reference pictures of joints. That was a big help to me.

as for a tutorial your best bet is to just drift though the other artists dolls and read up about what worked for them and what didnt..what they did and didnt do etc

thats what i did..i read what other people had done and tailored their methods to suit me. Its all about personal preference and creativity in the end.

 

not if you're using super sculpey...(btw..DONT use regular scupley.its not strong enough..it breaks)

you can just use your regular home oven..and cooking times are on the package of the clay

 

I tried using tin foil to make the parts hollow, but it turned out very badly(it broke)... So instead, I wrapped some tape around the lump of foil(to keep the clay from sticking to the grooves) and removed the lump before I baked it. That's for the torso...For the limbs I just scupted them around a thin stick.

 

Oh Im making my own and you dont have to bake it!

http://www2d.biglobe.ne.jp/~dhnoah/make_00.htm

I heard you dont really need the sawdust so im doing with out and the white paint junk they do im also doing with out ( im painting her peachish ) I will put pics on the forms as soon as im done! !

 

I use super sculpey and just my domestic oven. :3

I use wooden balls to make the ball joints...

I've used tin foil as a skeleton, I've used papermache as a skeleton, and I've also hollowed out the inside before baking with Lithefinder's melon baller technique. Each has their pro's and cons, you'll have to try them to figure out what you like best.

You'll also probably need:
1- Rubbing Alcohol: you can smooth sculpey of your finger prints with a soft brush and a little rubbing alcohol or the hand cleaner alcohol stuff.
2- Sandpaper: Get a variety pack of grits, you'll probably have to buy the extra fine stuff seperately in grits 400, 600, and 1200.
-alternately to 1200 you can take a toothbrush and comet and scrub the super sculpey after you've baked it. Comet has abrasions in it and will give you a very fine scrub.

3- Sharp Knife: I like exacto blades with disposable changable blades, other people like ceramic knives- but those are sort of hard to get a hold of.

4- Super Glue: In case something already baked breaks. My stuff does often enough. X3;;;


Alternative stuff:

1. Mr White Surfacer: A white primer, as acrylic won't stick to super sculpey very well.
Or domestically: Krylon sandable primer in white or grey, I got mine at True Value.

2. Putty Filler: For filling small cracks and imperfections on parts. Sometimes the expanding and contracting of the SS as you bake it will cause parts to crack- especially if you're using woodenballs, resin parts, or other various substances as an armature that will expand and contract at different temperatures than SS. I use liquitex modeling paste in white. It's made of marble dust, is very hard when dry, whitewhite, and dries quickly. Unfortunately it doesn't sand very easily.

3. Airbrush: Best way to get a smooth painted surface without brush strokes. :3

 

Batchix- Do you use rubbing achohol after baking? @_@ After stringing my body.. I saw that there's a whole 'skin print' of my *palm* on the back of the body..
I use ball joints too ^_^ Tinfoil is a must. It's a lot easier to madke it of you have a drill too, to make the holes.

 

I would say:

1- a plan, you can draw this on any paper, but the grid one is nice.
2- Some clay, bakeable if you can get some, and maybe some regular clay if you plan to make your "interior" with clay (or styrofoam, or papier mache, or whatever else)
3- Sculpting tools! My dear, precious little sculpting tools... You should try to get a basic set, or at least a pointy one.
4- knives, glue, cissors, etc.
5- sandpaper, the small grain gives a nice finnish
6- some paint, varnish, modpaste or mix of all three, again for the finished softness

And most important: PATIENCE! Hound... I mean, Rome wasn't made in a day!

 

What kind of paints should you use if acrylics don't work well? I just finished my doll and I used acrylics, but...he's not too smooth now

 

I think you'll have to sand that off unfortunately. :S You can try it... or try acetone, but it'll probably just take off that waxy feeling that SS gets, which from what I understand is part of the plasticizer.

[qoute]What kind of paints should you use if acrylics don't work well? I just finished my doll and I used acrylics, but...he's not too smooth now[/qoute]

THe problem with SS and acrylic is that the acrylic will peel off sometimes. If you rub the SS down with acetone and then prime it, another layer of acrylic paint should stick.

What is it that's making it not smooth? Are you seeing brush strokes or are you seeing imperfections, like finger prints and stuff? If you're seeing finger prints and dents, you need to sand him more. SS is slightly transparent and it hides a LOT of those imperfections, which is why if you're casting it's important to prime it and get a solid color so you can sand all that off. Resin casting is able to achieve a level of detail enough that it'll pick up your fingerprints. The primer I use is Krylon spraypaint primer in grey or white. Make sure that the primer says it's "sandable". I don't think that Testor's primer is sandable...

If you're seeing brush strokes you probably need to put on your acrylic with an airbrush. That's the only way I know of to paint a model and not get brush marks in it. ._.; which is frustrating, I hate airbrushes, I can't control them worth a darn. X3

 

I'm too poor to cast or get an airbrush...-_-;

The imperfections I meant are from the brush strokes. I tried to sand after the first coat, but it just scraped paint off of random spots.
On my next doll, I'll try that Kryton stuff...

 

That's the kind you want, SS. :3 You can tint it by mixing it with colored Sculpey III, but Sculpey III isn't as hard as SS. I think you can also mix it with Fimo and Premo which are about as hard as SS. Not sure about that tho. :3


Yukamina: All is not lost! You can get the acrylic off with acetone, just like you would on a resin doll. It just stinks and takes a lot of cottonballs and time. Then wash it with warm soap and water, let it dry and then you can coat it with Primer.

The SS will show through as you sand with the primer on. But that's okay, you can always go back and put another thin coat of primer on top. Do thin coats with the primer. It takes a while to build up, but it's better than the alternative. If you get it too thick the primer will feel sticky and will dent when you push at it with your fingernail and may take all day to dry and won't sand well. =_=;;; I did this several times before I learned my lesson. XD

 

xD That was alot of help for me, too.
Also: Batchix, what is this "melon baller" technique? I've heard you mention it in other threads, too, but I don't understand what it is.. I think I know what melon balls are, but wouldn't that be kind of hard?

 

Ladoll is used a lot, but 1 lb is not even CLOSE enough.. I used about 5 for my MSD-sized boy.

 

wow that was way informative ^_^ i'f i were to make a DD sized doll useing this method http://www2d.biglobe.ne.jp/~dhnoah/make_00.htm (thx patchez)
about how much (lbs) of saw dust ect would i need *makeing list* i've always wanted to try my hand at sculpting ^_^

 

It took less than one (1lb)package of super sculpey to make my each of my dolls...but then, they are only about 12 inches high... So if size doesn't matter, you could just make a small one.

 

if MSd is 5lbs how much would an SD sized doll take?

 

I tried Sculpey... my hands are too warm after working it in to make maleable it just kinds of melts on me... >.< I need Ladoll I think.

 

I mixed super sculpey with prosculpt light in a ratio of 4:1, so the clay was firmer and lighter, and the prosculpt doesnt pick up any fuzz like it usually does.
It turned out to nbe quite light-they both blend well, and I just about squeezed the finished clay back into the super sculpey box-I added a 1/4 of a block of Transparent Fimo to give that translucent 'resin' look.

I also have a clay that is part S.sculpey, part flesh fimo, part white fimo, part prosculpt-it's exactly the same shade as prosculpt light now, but doesnt attract as much fluff, which is what Ive needed for a while, lol.

I havnt started sculpting with it yet-Id suggest using either Fimo, Prosculpt or Super Sculpey for dolls as they are the strongest clay. If you're worried about your ball joints cracking or splitting, add a little bit of Molmaker Elasticaly-they gives the clay a little bit more flexibility.

 

The clay is really, really soft, so im going to leach it for about day-to do this, cut the clay into thin slices (like cheese) and stack them between sheets of ordinary white paper. Leave them for a few hours.
The paper will leach out some of the plasticiser (Super sculpey has way too much in it) and firm up the clay.
If your clay is getting sofr while you work, keep rinsing your hands under cold water, and if the clay starts to smoosh, tent you doll with a clean peice of clingfilm and pop her in the fidge for an hour. The cold will firm up the clay.

 

Yeah, sculpting faces is hard... If one doesn't work out, try again... It took me about seven heads to get something I liked(the first few weren't for bdjs, though)

 

>.> how'd it break? Was it too thin, or not baked enough?

 

Scuper sculpey bakes for 15 minute... I think if you overbaked it, the color would make it obvious. The package should say how long to bake it.

 

you have to show us your homemade doll when your done. I find it almost too hard to believe.

 

It should be SUPER SCULPEy, bot regular sculpey...and for a doll Id bake her for twenty minutes.
My dolls are quite detailed, so I bake for 5 minutes at 130*C, starting from a cold oven (put doll inside, start oven, when it hits the right temperature start counting) then when she's done, switch off the oven, open the door and let her cool down to cold (takes a while....)

Then I sand the laregr parts, add the fresh clay for the details (fingers, lips, ears are particularly tricky not to squish first time round) then bake again for 15 minutes. This is for a 10" doll.

Wait for your doll to cool down thoroughly before you even touch her-this can cause stress fractures and weaknesses in the warm clay.
Clay that is baked at a sudden high temperature (shoved into a blazing hot oven) will crack and bubble-these little fissures can make the clay break, which might be what has happened to your doll.

For weak parts I'd suggest using a wire armature to strengthen the doll

 

here's a tip for making hollow arms on smaller size dolls: use a straw! I cut a straw into 4 peices and sculpted the upper and lower arm parts around them with super sculpy, leaving a small amount of straw poking out of one end. After they were baked, I just used tweezers to pull out the straws. Voila!

 

Oh, don't worry, I won't get upset if you don't read all of this, it's just a bunch of information based on experiments with polymer clay.
Please, just skim it, I've completely agreed with some statements allready made, so it's just repeating and reinforcing other people's statements. Still, if something jumps out at you, keep it in mind, and by all means run your own tests, what works for me maybe won't work for you, because I might not have explained well enough.

Try mixing in Bend and Flex with the Super Sculpey. I'm still in the experimental phase of making my first bjd. First came across Volks when I went to Aimee's site for anime tutorials. Fell in love, but knew I couldn't possibly afford the dollfie of my dreams. Then found the make your own Noah Doll tutorial, and have been trying to adapt it to Super Sculpey ever since.

With experimenting, I get lots of good information, but still don't have a doll to show for all my efforts. First up about the Sculpey Bend and Flex. It's gr8 by itsself. Sadly it only comes in small bars, but for rooting hair to pates, it's terrific str8 with a bit of heat applied every so often to make it soft enough for the felting needle to not cause cracks.

Mixing it with the Super Sculpey, you get more flexibility and strength after baking. I intentionally destroyed some test pieces, to find out how easy it is to break the Bend and Flex str8 and mixed in with Super Sculpey. I made two small thumbprint pates, in order to practice with the felting needle and do my tests. I had to really go at the test pieces to so much as crack them. The pure bend and flex is a lot more resillient than the small bit of bend and flex mixed in with the Super Sculpey. Nevertheless, a small ammount of bend and flex mixed in with Super Sculpey makes a tremendous difference. I suggest experimenting to find out what proportions meet your needs, both for strength and how much you can afford to spend on clay.

I don't know where you live, but you can get an airbrush suitable for hobby needs for less than $20.00 usd. Check ebay. I bought one. It's generic, nothing fancy, but it does come with a can of air(and untill you can afford a compressor, that's a good thing), mine only costed $15.00 total with shipping. Start by looking at Buy Now auctions. Sounds stupid, but I've watched items with Buy Now option skyrocket past their Buy Now price, and also I got my 18" Super Poseable Spiderman(now that I think about it, he's ball jointed) using Buy Now because the prices kept skyrocketing out of control with trying to just buy via standard auction.

Just compare the prices. That's all I'm suggesting, of course you can hold off untill you can afford a top of the line airbrush and compressor.

The reason you're having problems with acrylic paint is that acrylic paint is water based while polymer clays are oil based. It's a trade secret what the actual ingredients are, but the best theory I've come across is that it's plasticizers mixed with petroleum distillates. I say this because the best thing I've found for thinning and resoftening the stuff(when it really dries out way too much) is an oil painting medium called Sillicoil. I'm pretty sure there are other versions available at hardware stores, only reason I trust this particular brand is it's intended for artists' use. At any rate you get a huge bottle for around 5 bucks. Well, actually it's not huge when you're oil painting(I bought so much of it, cause of less fumes and easy clean up), but compared to the tiny bottles of reconditioning agents the different clay companies sell, it's an enormous bottle.

I theorize this particular medium could be used in conjunction with Liquid Sculpey and powdered pigments to make a heat cure polymer paint compatable with polymer clays. It's just a theory at this point though. Sadly, if it works, the cured paint would be permanent. For less permanent makeup, you could use pure powdered pigment, soft pastels, or powder makeup.

BTW it's true about the straw, I did some tests some months ago, drinking straws, floral foam, and even plastic wrap, don't melt in the oven when baking polymer clay at a low temperature.

Oh, even without adding bend and flex, put the clay into a cold oven, and bake appropriate ammount of time, then turn off the oven. Leave the doll inside. It's like the ramp with a kiln. A fast temperature change causes cracks and breaking. If you wait untill the oven's cool you can worry less about your doll breaking.

For sanding, use sandpaper intended for platics. It's cheap as the stuff found in most hardware stores(if price is an issue), and it's more gentle(also comes in more grits, so you can work your way down to a very fine grit). I'm only mentioning it because Sculpey scratches so easily. Oh, and if there are no plastic stores where you live(you know, they sell all kinds of acrylic and casting supplies and stuff), well, go to the beauty supply. If it's meant to be used for acrylic nails, you can use it on Sculpey. A 4 in 1 nail file has all the grits + a buffing surface that you could need for Sculpey. Pain in the butt to work with such a small tool on a large doll, but if you're starting small it's a good and ultra-cheap option. Start coarse and work your way to fine.

If you use a 4 in 1 file, or have a dremel, don't forget about those little buffing wheels, or the buffing surface. Once you work your way down past the very finest grit(this is when you're finishing and have all the lumps and bumps smoothed, and especially if you didn't get a chance to smooth a surface properly with rubbing alcohol or acetone early on in the process, alcohol b4 curing acetone after curing, but some use acetone for both), use the buffer. It will go against your instincts, because you won't want a shiny doll. You want that velvety, touchable skin.

So then why buff? It smooths the surface further and seals it. The shine isn't really super shiny, it's a soft sheen. But why do it? Because it seals the cured clay as much as possible without putting a glaze on top. The advantage is, the clay soaks up less pigment when you go to paint it, and you can fix any painting mistakes easier. If you paint with acrylic paint(advantage it's easily removed if you make a mistake or change your mind, so acrylic's not a no-no, just something to adapt to using if you choose to use it), then you can use a matte medium to get rid of shine. If you go powdered pigments or other powders route, you can seal with matte sealing spray or varnish both b4 and after makeup application(but before adding eyes).

Hope I haven't layed to much info on you. I'm still having trouble getting my doll together, just sharing results of experiments with you really . Hoping to help save time for you(it's stuff I had to do to make sure I'd wind up with the doll I want).

Oh, P.S. A friend of mine tells me that they boil polymer clay in Scandinavia all the time(yes to cure it). Apparently it's somewhat controversial, but with a big enough pot, you get less deformation of pieces than in the oven. No word on how strong the resulting pieces are, or how the clay reacts to being boiled(water and oil don't mix after all, so I'm not sold on the idea). I need to experiment and get back to you on that one, but keep it in mind if even when cushioned with pillow stuffing you get weird smooshing of pieces.

 

I think I get what you're trying to do. I'm just a bit confused about how you want to do it, sorry. Some BJDs have seperate "cups"/sockets, while others have little spherical sockets sculpted into them(all one piece), but the seperate ones, in photos, they do look like they have better articulation.

The only problem I can see you running into, is if your lower torso's finished and you want a seperate "cup"/socket and go putting wet clay there(it's gonna stick). To keep uncured clay from sticking to cured clay, you need a barrier. Plastic wrap's nifty .

I'm really glad you posted though(not my thread so I probably haven't the right, especially cause I'm new here), still I'm really glad. It's because I decided to sculpt my doll in specific stages, and you just reinforced the decision.

When I have something worth showing I'll try to get permission to start a thread with pictures.

But I did decide to sculpt from the bottom down, as opposed to the top down. There's a certain logic to it. Depending on the doll, the joint can be seperate or attatched to a limb/appendage. Well, I figure, to keep things simple, I'll have my joints attatched. Starting with making the balls, simple balls of foil(I saw some acrylic spheres at TAP Plastics, but they don't come in enough sizes to suit my current needs), with a good thickness of Super Sculpey wrapped round them, then cured, then cut in half with my dremelesque. For sculpting I can start at the bottom working my way up, reinforcing where the joints meet the other parts with bend and flex. So start at hands and work my way up and start at feet and work my way up, finishing with the torso and head, because well, the arms and legs finished first will make it easier to sculpt the torso so they fit together. Also finishing the torso+neck will make for a better head fit(I hope).

Keeping fingers crossed for a good balanced doll that can stand on her own.

Since you pretty much finished the torso already, just remember that you can keep trying with the same torso(and dremel away your misfires) or you can choose to redo the torso completely(if you can't get it to work any other way, I'd hate it if you had to completely start over with the torso, so much work).

Realizing you've worked really hard already, I still have to ask, how much clay do you have on hand? Enough for approximately 1/4" shell? Have you finished the limbs? I'm asking because if you've finished the limbs it will make it easier to start over if(and I'm only saying if) you have to. Treat foil like it's clay, and grind the joints of the hips into the appropriate spots, even better if you found beads, marbles, or other super sturdy spheres for joints(less likely to blemish). Then after you bake the lower torso you can grind the waist joint into the bottom of the upper torso and shoulder joints into their appropriate spots. That way it will just be a lot easier to sculpt the torso.

I'll be honest, I'm still experimenting, when I find the quickest and easiest way to do all this, I'll share.

Don't boil anything untill you've run a test. I know it's tempting, but better safe than sorry. The result of a boiled piece of clay will most likely be very different from a baked one. The least of your worries is color(odds are the dry heat of an oven results in a very different color from boiled clay).

Take 2 little pieces of clay, roll em into balls, then smoosh your thumb into them(kinda like thumbprint cookies), bake one and boil the other. After that, and I'm serious, try to destroy them. I mean it, push on them, bend them with your hands, everything it takes, just keep going untill they break. Make a note of which one breaks first and how, if it's a clean break that's good cause it's easier to repair, but a jagged, crumbly break is harder to fix. Whichever method is sturdier, well, that's the one I'd go with whenever possible, but remember, it could take decades or even centuries to find out which method of curing really is best. I'm just saying, I can't vouch for one method over the other, but do encourage experiments . They're cheap and you wind up with a whole bunch of useful info.

 

Sorry, for a triple post, but just want to let you know, I'm heading out to get some more stuff which could be good possible cores. First stop supermarket for teflon foil(hoping it might be smooshier than heavy duty), then it's off to drug store for plastic easter eggs. They have these hinged plastic eggs in nested sizes. Can't promise anything, but I have a feeling they can save an absolute ton of time. Especially when consider that a head is very basically an egg shape.

That's ultra-simplifying, but it is like a built up egg, so I'm thinking fill out the back with some or plastic wrap and see what happens.

Will get back to you.

 

Thanks for the helpful info, Nolita^^

 

thread necromancy huzzah. anyway has anyone sucsesfully made the wood clay for noah's tutorial? http://www2d.biglobe.ne.jp/~dhnoah/make_00.htm how sturdy was it do you bake it or air dry or what? the tutorial is kinda vague about those points. i'm working on getting materials for my homemade BJD and she'll be SD sized so i was also wondering how much and what ratio the wood clay mixture is needed for an SD sized doll. i'm just full of questions that remain unanswered even after searching the forums extensively

 

also a question anyoen ever had one made in plastic. my dad was gonna talk to some business partners to have a mold made of my dream dolly and then have it made.

 

If you're interested in hardback sources for information, I just ran across a bok that looks pretty good.

http://www.verycoolthings.com/vct/Neo_getpage.cgi?page=itemtoy&itemID=14742A

It's $40, but it looks like it would be pretty work the money.

 

Er...I tried. I got a bunch of sawdust from somebody's table saw trap. Then I bought the only "paste" I could find which is this stuff called Nori. That Nori stuff is NOT the consistency of the kind of paste that I remember from grade school. I could not for the life of me find "Stoneclay" so I just used the paste and the sawdust. It is extremely difficult to work with - sticky sticky gloopy horrible. but once it dries it is really hard stuff that you can sand.

If you can afford it, I would suggest trying an epoxy clay like Magic Sculpt that you can buy from Tap Plastics. you just mix the two clays together and sculpt away. in 6 hours it dries and is really hard and you can sand it, smooth it with water, and add onto it. I used it for my doll and was quite pleased. It is much much better than super sculpy or paper clay.

 

***oop! double posted...sorry. darn slow internet service....

 

I like to draw my patterns out then transfer them to styrofoam!!! then using a file and x-acto knife I am able to carve out the shape and drape the clay over it so i can get the exact shape I need!! (you can pick out the styrofoam with tweezers and a little screw thing when it is done drying) I learned those things from the gothic lolita bible... (it is how mirua etsuko makes her dolls)

 

*scribbling in notebook* Magic sculpt....foam core....rob bank lol jk about the bank *shifty eyes*

 

I see there have been 3 pages of replies already, so someone might've already mentioned this, but it depends on how well you want it to come out and how much money and work you're willing to put into it.

There are many types of air drying clay that would probably look better than what a Sculpey doll would give you, but using air drying clays would require you to drill them afterwards, and that takes more time and creates more mess.

The other thing is to make it out of regular sculpting clay and then cast it if you know how to do cast in resin; that would turn out best, but it takes a lot of time and money.

The most conventional hobbiest way is the Super Sculpey. You can sculpt it and then shove it in the freezer for a little bit til it hardens up a bit so you can hollow it out before you bake it; that way you won't have to drill afterwards. Be careful when you're hollowing, though; if you make it too thin, the clay does soften in the heat as it's baking so the shape can warp.

 

well i figured i'd sculpt the arm and leg peices around straws so they'd already be hollow. like those huge straws that sonic gives out with their shakes. and i have a plan drawn up for poseable fingers...it'll be cast in resin and added to and existing body that i'm going to buy eventually. its all still in the planing and experimental stages. i figure a foam ball for the head and build layers as it hardens to add the features.
i still have to track down C4 and a ski mask for the bank heist though (<----joke)