Diy doll - Junku [Blue Junku p7 :) ]

Lady > Thanks - hopefully she will soon be done.

KazeTaco > hehe thanks.

rikku > thanks a lot. Everybody elses' projects inspired me to start doing my own so I'm only glad if my project can inspire others

The various comments I got from people here on the gesso flaking was really helpful and I've just been gessoing and sanding slowly ever since (gesso dust have invaded my living room :S)
I also managed to restore the eyes and the girl's very near to finished . A couple of evenings more with sanding and correcting and I might be ready for moldmaking.

Some pictures to show the close to finished doll:

Standing. Her head is far too big and it has a tendency to make her poor little legs tremble, but I hadn't got the heart to change it (and I was too lazy) so maybe I'll make another one later on.


Sitting. I've had a hard time making her sit in a 90 degree angle. If I ever make another doll, I think I'll have to make her thigh ball joint protrude more from the hip (if that makes sense...).


Her face. For some reason it's hard to capture her features with the camera. Maybe it's because of the white surface and the stains from the sandpaper/ dust/ my greasy fingers?...


Some posing. ("Arrgh! Finish me, human!")


Some more posing.


I hope I'll soon be able to update again with my adventures of moldmaking and such. Hopefully I will not break the doll or create a hole in the fabric of time trying to do that

 

Riven > thanks a lot. I know I tend to write about any little detail but I really wanted to document the whole process, including stupid mistakes . I'm glad that you find the progress interesting to follow.

Hermione > thank you! The ears were made because I liked the shape and found it funny, but mostly because I couldn't sculpt real ones . She's not actually a cat, but something about the mouth and ears hint "cat", so I consider doing a kitty mod of a cast doll some time. I hope you get to try it out yourself (making a doll) - it's been a lot of fun even though a lot of patience is needed.

Update:
Mold making materials arrived. I now have both silicone, resin and pigment and of course that meant first tryout at moldmaking this weekend. I consider it 50 % succesful and 50% fiasco due to own stupidity...

Silicone and catalysator:


It started out fine. I wanted to start with something very easy so I made a mold box for a foot. It was made out of ordinary cardboard, some tape ( it's called painting tape in denmark) and some plastic for making the inside of the box "silicone proof". I then put play dough in the bottom and pressed the foot and a small funnel into the dough and made sure the dough was closing tightly around the foot. I used beads for making "keys" so the two parts of the mold will stay fitted.


Mixing the silicone (silicone + catalysator). It was a bit thicker than I had expected. After mixing I did my best to avoid air bubbles by tapping/ dropping the cup repeatedly. The air then made its way to the surface.


Then the silikone was poured into the mold and left curing 10-12 hours.


After curing the whole thing could be popped out of the box and it was fairly easy to remove the dough. The one half of the two piece mold was finished.


Succesful so far, I then made a really big mistake. The problem was when I popped out the cured mold it was 3 am and I had just returned home from a party and I thought it would be a splendid idea to continue right away and make the other half of the mold.
I therefore placed the finished part of the mold in the box...

...and mixed a small batch of silicone and poured it into the box. Very content with myself I went to bed, looking forward to having my first completed mold when I woke up. Only problem was I forgot to apply any form of release agent to the first half of the mold, so when I indeed woke up I found one, firm block of silicone with the foot stuck somewhere in the middle. . I had to cut it out and start all over with the first mold. And that, children, is why you shouldn't drink and make molds...

But well, the one half mold I managed to do seemed fine with not too many air bubbles, so all in all I'm quite optimistic and I'm continuing the mold making, but this time applying actual intelligence...

 

Shiza - hehe, well even though I felt incredibly stupid I could laugh at myself.
Thanks for the tip, I'll remember that when I get to the actual casting.
And I'd love to see your pictures of the moldmaking/ casting - it's so nice to see how others do

 

Small update.

I managed to get the foot mold right the second time. I remembered applying a thin layer of vaseline/petrolatum to the first half of the silicone mold when cured before pouring the second half and they came apart nicely.


Just wanted to show this first functional mold. Now I just have to do a cast to test it for real.

 

Thanks Whisper

Well, there are lots of small updates for the time being, as I like to document how I do the various kinds of molds.
I got one thigh mold done and thanks to the tip of the drill-free parts (thanks to lolipop ) I went with the method of putting a stick (straws were unfortunately too big to fit) inside the thigh when making the mold. It is probably easier to see in the photos:




By having the stick be a little longer than the part, it made indents in the mold, so it'll be easy to place right when casting...I hope.

I now have molds for the two feet, the right thigh and I'm waiting for the head cap mold to cure. I probably won't make any more molds till I have done a test cast to see if it works at all. I'll have to wait for a spare weekend to be able to do that.

 

anya_vegas > Do you have a thread with pictures of your molds? It's nice to see other people's methods. (also I'm curious to see how a mold can be done in one piece? Or maybe I just lack imagination... )

Shiza > That makes two of us I'm curious as well. But I have some ideas for the head mold. I think I might be able to do a one piece core (making it a two piece mold all in all) but we'll see. The good thing about using play dough/ wax is that you can control how the core should look, so if you're unsure whether you can pull out the core, it may be a possibility to put some dough/ wax inside the head before pouring the silicone, to give it the shape you want. Not sure if this makes sense, but I'll probably try it out myself.
I'll be sure to update as soon as I progress, but it may be a couple of weeks till I continue, I'm afraid. Hope to be able to do a test cast soon. If I haven't made updates by the 25. it's ok to poke me with a stick...

Katsuu > Thanks. I'm also eager for the next step - I hope everything works out fine with the casting

 

I finally had to try casting. I had promised myself to wait for a weekend with lots of spare time, but today after work I couldn't wait any longer.
Put on safety glasses, face mask and rubber gloves and took the resin out of the plastic wrapper with a sense of foreboding (all the stories about resin being very toxic have given me a large amount of respect/fear for this substance...). If anyone is curious the resin used is from http://www.artificina.com.

Everything ready for casting:

I had three molds ready for casting. I held the parts together with rubber bands. The resin is two component and I used plastic cups with lines drawn on them for measuring two equal amounts. Mixed and poured (tried to pour from as high a distance as possible, but the resin was thin and runny so it was a bit hard to control).

Resin poured in a mold:

Th resin kept looking very wet so I was afraid it hadn't cured. I waited an hour before I opened the molds and it had cured allright. Turned out the wet look was just the surface being very smooth.

The three parts I cast:

These are the results of the night's test. I'm all in all satisfied: The surface is nice and smooth and the resin has a nice look. It looks a bit yellow in the pics but I think it's just the bad light. The resin is all white with no pigment in it (saving that for later - I've got challenges enough as it is...).


And with blitz:


The feet:

The casting lines are visible, but they were surprisingly small.

The feet, underneath:

There was some large air bubbles under the feet (the heel of right foot and toe of left foot), but I pretty much asked for those since I have no air vents in the molds, tsk tsk. I will make some before next casting.
But apart from those few large bubbles I had practically none, on the surface at least, - yay!
The leftover resin from the pouring channel can be seen under the feet.

Gigantic air bubble in thigh:

A really big one. Should have had air vents, but I was too eager to just get going and try it out.

All in all: I'm happy with the result of this test. Of course I can't really use the parts because of air bubbles and other things, but I'm surprised that the surface is so smooth and generally free of air bubbles and other nastiness.

Next project: Creating air vents and making the face mold.

Stupidities: I used a wooden stick inside the thigh mold to create the hollow inside the thigh - not good. It is totally stuck, so now I have a thigh on a stick with a gargantuan air bubble.
I'll have to find some really thin straws instead.

 

Thanks a bunch for the advice guys.

Bruny > Thanks, maybe I'll look into that, but I'll probably try to find something hollow first, like straws, so it won't mean diaster if I can't get them out after the curing... :S

Shiza > Thanks, I hope next cast will be better, but as you say, it has definitely been useful.
125$ for shipping? - that's a lot, but as you say, the amount of resin you need probably weighs quite a bit. I looked into alumilite first as well because I felt safer using resin/ silicone that everybody else was using here, but I found the shipping cost scary... Maybe you should consider getting it from somewhere closer. 1kg of resin + 3 colors of pigments + shipping was "only" 79 euro from artificina (france => denmark). I was able to find silicone in a local hobby store (intended for making tin soldiers, but it has worked fine and seems both strong and flexible) - I guess silicone is the worst when it comes to shipping as it's rather weighty.
Hope you work it out either way

Twigling > thanks a lot - it's very useful. Naive as I was I just thought I could pull out the stick afterwards (or a straw for that matter) but it seems like it's not that easy. I'll probably try to find some transparent straws as you suggest, as I'd rather avoid drilling. It's good to know that empty straws don't collapse when not using pressure during the cast.
As for air vents: - how wide are they supposed to be, approximately? needle-thin? under 1 mm? or several mms?

 

Time for updates again - made molds for head and headcap and made a junk cast of both that turned out well - yay!

Riven > The head cap wasn't hard to do . I'm afraid I didn't get any pictures from the "play dough stage" - sorry... but hopefully the pictures of the mold can help understand the way I did it.

As with the other molds I just build up play dough around the rounded side of the head cap, a little above the "brim". I then poured the first half of silicone and when that had cured I poured the other half.

The head cap mold with the first head cap cast:


The head cap inside:


The head cap from the side:

As can be seen there are some impurities in this first cast. Guess that's the reason why it's called junk cast - it picks up all the dust, silicone remains and what not. But it's nice and smooth (apart from a little flaw in the mold) which I found impressive as it the head cap mold didn't have air vents.
I think this is because the pouring channel is placed strategically at a small point of the piece for casting. It seems it's a bad idea placing the pouring channel at a flat side of the piece (fx under the foot which I did - easily makes a lot of very small bubbles) but a good idea placing it at fx the brim of the head cap. It's just my experience however

 

And nooow...the first head cast.

I made the most horribly ugly head mold possible as I both ran out of play dough when building up around the head (I forgot to take pictures of this - sorry) and silicone when making the mold, which resulted in the mold being very thin around the chin and on top of the head opening...tsktsktsk.
I made it as a two-piece mold, placing the head with the chin pointing directly down into the dough, leaving the head opening pointing directly up.
I then built up dough around the face. I used dough inside the head to make sure the head inside was forming as much of a "cone" as possibly, meaning the head opening should be the widest point, and the far point of the inside of the head should be the narrowest. I of course wanted to be able to pull out the inside mold afterwards . I closed the eyes from the inside with a very thin layer of dough, as well as the neck opening. I then poured the first half of the mold, which goes inside the head. As my silicone was running thin at the time the mold was a bit too fragile and thin at the top, so when I pryed it out of the head, it broke. However, I've been able to use it anyway as can be seen below

Broken mold:

The circle formed by the head opening broke lose, but I used it for casting anyway. I sort of wasted some amount of silicone this way (it ran out, of course), so I'll have to patch it up later, but at least the break made up for air vents so the head was virtually bubble free

The part that goes inside the head looks something like this:

AS can be seen the mold part is almost bowl-shaped, which is not intended. It is caused by my impatience as I didn't want to wait for more play dough for filling out the bottom of the mold box...

The outside part looks like this:


Both parts of the head mold:


After curing, the one half of the mold lifted of:

This exact moment I think has been one of the most rewarding moments of the whole process, as I half expected to see some monstrous cast of the head, lacking the nose and full of strange craters, but it is close to perfect. I must be lucky...

 

Sorry for making so many posts in a row, but I have a lot of pictures today and they can't be posted in the same post. Bear with me

Some pictures of the first cast of her head. Apart from the silicone remains at the forehead she's so nice and smooth and bubble-free. I have to sand her a bit and of course remove the remains of the silicone that "closed" the eye holes after the cast.
I'm just a tiny bit ecstatic about it right now... Can't wait to have her all assembled with a face up. But I'm running ahead of myself. Gotta do the rest of the molds first.

 

Thanks for the nice comments all of you guys

Michikaru > Hehe, please don't feel embarassed. Questions = good (unless, of course, they're stupid... sorry - couldn't help joking ).
You're right it would be nice if the impurities were the same color as the resin. But if plaster is what I think it is in danish, isn't it all hard and not bendable? Because the molds have to be rather soft to get the various parts of the dolls out afterwards, at least I think you would have to be a far more skilled mold maker than I to do it.
But I think the impurities are supposed to only be there in the first cast, I hope so at least. I'll be sure to post a picture of the next head cast to compare.

Shiza > you're right, faceups really change how the mold looks. A head without faceup tends to look a bit detail-less (in my case it might still, though, even with the faceup ). Also it is interesting to see how different the resin cast looks from the original clay prototype.

Riven > The leg is not cut in half. I made the mold by covering the bottom of the mold box with play dough, then I embedded the thigh in the dough and made sure the dough was built nicely around the thigh, covering the half of it (which may be why it looks cut in half). This is roughly the procedure I'm using/ will be using for all molds, but of course some parts are more complex to do.
The little wedge thingy is just used for creating a pouring channel. This can also just be cut out afterwards, which I did with the head mold. The small marble is used to create an indent which will work as a key. When the second mold part is poured over the first silicone will of course fill out the indent and create a key fitting perfectly in the indent and make sure the molds are fitted. Note - one key is not enough if your molds are perfectly smooth, but as my molds look like a rocky landscape I figure I don't really need keys

Leechy > Thanks. And kudos the other way around - love the beautiful, melancholy boy you're doing

 

I'm working on finishing all the molds so I can get to casting a whole doll at once´and also maybe experiment with colour
I still have the hands and the arms to go. I'm doing the lower legs and the lower torso right now.

I just finished the upper torso yesterday and it was my first 3-part mold. I made a core mold and two parts for the sides of the torso.

The torso:



Torso with playdough:

I built up a little play dough inside the torso to make it as cone-shaped as possible and make sure I would be able to pull out the core mold afterwards. I closed the arm holes with a bit of play dough to avoid silicone running inside the body.


Torso in play dough:

I embedded the upper torso in a lot of play dough to start by making only the core mold when pouring the silicone.


Core mold:

And this is how the core mold looks. It is a bit small, so some drilling will have to be done afterwards, but well... Or maybe I'll be able to put some straws to form neck opening and arm openings as well when casting.


Making the side molds:

I made the two sides of the mold by tipping the torso + core mold and made an oblong mold box instead of the taller one I started with. I covered the bottom and the lower half of the body piece with play dough and poured the silicone. Same procedure for the other side, but this time of course without play dough.


2 parts of the mold:



The upper torso mold finished:

Done!

 

Nephyllim > your little one is coming along nicely already so maybe before you know you'll be making molds as well ( that said, I know it can be tough sticking to it sometimes)

Kisaki_kun > you're welcome. I'm genuinely happy that people can make some use of it. *honoured by subscription*

ScuzzBopper > You're right. It was only for the first few molds I added the bead while making the first half of the mold. A couple of molds later I simply just made an indent as you suggest. Should have edited it in the description though. And thanks - glad to share.

lucidDreaming > Thanks.
I'm afraid I honestly don't know why my seam lines look as they do :S
Looking at the right foot and the head I cast, you can definitely tell where the seam line is, but it came out quite thin, so it was easy to "break off" and a little sanding should do the rest. It must be caused by how close the pieces of the molds are held. Do you hold them together with rubber bands when pouring the resin? That's the only thing I can think of. Apart from that it's not that bad as long as it's seam lines that protrudes outwards - you can always easily cut them of while the resin is still a bit soft from the mold. It's worse to have holes and bubbles - still trying to figure out how to make air vents for the thigh molds that tend to make huge bubbles in the pieces I cast.
I really like your girl by the way. Can't wait to see her done.

 

ab_rowin > I'm glad

LucidDreaming > sorry to hear of all your trouble - hope you have raised some funds for continuing the molding/ casting. Your doll is so sweet.
Hope you win the battle over the air bubbles, but if they're small, few and not so visible, it might be an idea to accept them - I think they're hard to avoid totally. I'm also experimenting with air vents to avoid them as much as possible, but like you I'm finding it a bit hard...


Update:
I finished all the molds some weeks ago and just thought I'd update with how I did the lower torso and the hands (wasn't too lucky doing the lower torso core mold though so my way is probably not recommendable, hehe...)

The lower torso mold was done as a 3 piece mold, much the same way as the upper torso mold, except this time I started with the piece lying down instead of starting with embedding it (as with the upper torso).


The core mold was made last this time, and as with the upper torso I had to built up clay inside the piece to make it as coneshaped as possible, to be able to pull out the core mold after curing. This resulted in a rather thin core mold, as the upper opening in my lower torso piece is quite small.
I ended up with the three mold pieces:


When I did the first cast with the mold, I found out that either the core mold was not cone shaped enough or it was simply to thin to stand the strain of being pulled. It broke when I tried to pull it out of the cast piece, leaving half the core mold inside... so I guess I'll have to do another core mold...



The hand molds were a little hard because the hands are a delicate and the fingers bend in various directions. I placed the hands on top of some clay and made sure that the clay underneath were not horisontally flat, but formed to the shape of the hand to fit. I then poured the first half of the silicone, let cure and then the other half. I've placed the pouring channels at the wrists and have tried to do one cast of the hands, but it was not very succesfull. The wrist was one, bit air bubble, but the fingers were fine. My experience all in all is that it's a good idea to have detailed parts turning downwards in the mold when pouring ( fx the face of the head mold, and the fingers of the hand mold), as it seems to minimize the risk of air bubbles at the detailed parts, were they are most visible. It is just my experience though


I've cut some air vents in my molds (I used an exacto knife), but I think I've made them a little too big. I anybody can see from the pictures if this is the case, comments and critique are most welcome.

The problem is that when I start pouring, it tends to look like this:

...as the resin runs out of the air vents. But well, on the other hand they seem to do their job most of the time. I would just like to not waste so much resin each time I do a cast... Expensiveness - gah!
(just a note to that last picture - the reason the resin was flowing out so much in in that particular cast was also that I hadn't fastened the bottom part of the mold well enough to the others, so it created a leak.)

 

Just one more update with some picture spamming of my doll with the first faceup experiments, wig and eyes. Couldn't help it. Can't wait to have a whole doll finished, but I'm waiting for more resin...











And a bonus picture:

I wasn't going for a pink head (it's maybe hard to tell from the picture, but the color is bright pink). I just innocently presumed that a few drops of orange in 50 ml of resin would create a natural fleshtone...I was wrong. And there is also an air bubble strategically place on one eye lid. But the head sorta makes me smile - looks a bit like cotton candy

 

Sorry - I haven't checked my thread long and thus haven't answered. I've been waiting to get a dremel or a similar tool to be able to finally string my doll. It turned out that even though I've cast the limbs with stráws to create drill free parts, the holes/ channels weren't quite big enough for the elastic to run double through them. But hopefully I will very soon be able to post updates of the finished doll.

Ayperi > Thanks
Good luck on your own project - I'm sure she'll turn out very well

Svennex > I'm from Denmark, so I'm not sure if it's the exact same clay in the panduro stores, but I just checked and what I used is called "doll clay". It's sold in 500 gram packages (approx. 1 pound). I guess the smaller details like fingers were a bit brittle, but overall I was suprised how sturdy it felt. I liked the fact that it was paper clay, because the fibres could be sort of "kneaded" together, which made it easy to apply more clay to already dried areas (I would just apply a little water). Hope you can use the answer.

Treelore > Thanks, glad you like it
It never hurts to read the various threads on casting a couple of times, but I can try to explain also. However, I have posted all the pictures I've taken of the process in this thread, so I have nothing new to add to the explanation (but maybe I can be a bit clearer than before ).
For the arms and legs I tried Lolipop's brilliant method of using straws to create hollows all through the parts. Her tutorial on this can be found here http://www.vivcore.com/dolly_daydream.html (I hope it's ok for me to link... else please let me know, Lolipop). UNfortunately I found out that I had to drill anyway as the straws I used were too small for my elastic band, so better compare the size of the straw with the size of the elastic you're going to use before casting .
If you look on p 4 of this thread there are pictures of how I did a leg mold (it was same procedure for all leg and arm parts). As can be seen I put a stick inside the leg that stuck out a bit at both ends. I should just have used the same kind as the straw I would later use for the casting, but the point was to create small indents in the mold so when casting, the straw would be kept in place. This has worked well (for me at least ) apart from the fact that I should have used something a bit larger...
I can see that I never provided a picture of the mold ready for casting - sorry - but if you look at the last of the leg mold pictures (still on p 4), you'll have to imagine placing the straw in the indents, "closing" the mold and securing it with a lot of rubber bands and then simply pouring the resin the the pouring channel (by the way - the pouring channel in the picture is a baaad pouring channel - never place it like that ). After curing you should be able to pull out the straw ( with some difficulty! )
Hope this is clear so far...

The head, upper and lower torso were a bit harder to make hollow, and in the case of the lower torso I've not been so succesful, so maybe I'm not the right one to ask . But if you look at p 5 of this thread there's a step by step picture documentation of how I did the upper torso (the lower torso was basically done the same way). The playdough I put inside was to make sure I would be able to pull out the core mold after curing ( basic physics => can't pull out a larger part of a smaller hole ). I started making the core by simply embedding the entire torso piece in playdough. Imagine you have to do a plug to fit in the piece you are doing and then cover everything that is not the plug. As you can see in the picture my core "plug"/ piece is not really that big and don't create holes through the neck or armholes, so I have to drill them when I have cast the piece. I know other have made more complex core piece constructions, but I was not able to with my limited first try skills . After making the core mold it was just a question of making the rest of the mold as a two piece mold, leaving the core piece inside until finishing that particular mold. In the end it would be a three piece mold.

The head I was able to do as a two piece mold. I took my head prototype and tipped it so the smallest, pointiest part was pointing downwards (the chin) and the upper opening (where the head cap goes) was as close to completely horizontal as possible. I then embedded the head like that in playdough (I ran out of play dough at the time and didn't want to wait till next day, cough, so my head mold is now messy´, though, functional, but I think the principle is ok). You should then have a flat surface of playdough with the exception of the hole inside the head (be sure to cover every opening - eyes, neck - with a thin layer of dough) that will make up the core mold. Be sure again that the shape of the inside of the head - your core mold - will be pullable through the head opening. If not, use play dough or similar to make it so. Then pour, cure and pull out the core mold.

I hope this was helpful. I find myself that I first really understood how to do it when I tried it out myself, even though I read a lot of tutorials, so if you're not 100% confident even after a lot of explanations, don't despair . It will probably make a whole lot more of sense once you're at it.

 

TReelore > no problem - glad to help. Eagerly following the progress of your elf girl

I have finally got updates.
It has been a long time because I got kind of mad at the whole thing when after drilling, sanding etc (that stuff takes surprisingly long...) my doll couldn't stand. Sigh. The prototype had been standing fine so it took me some time to figure out why the finished doll couldn't.

Turned out the problem was the feet. Originally my plan was to screw small "eyes" (the small thingies a hook can grasp - don't know what they're called in english) into the hands and feet so they could be attached to the arms and legs with a s-hook. Then I saw somewhere hands and feet where a hole had been simply drilled through the ball for the elastic band to go through and thought it was a good solution so I tried it:



Only problem was that the sockets of the lower legs rested rather unstably on the foot, as the elastic was taking space up on the outside of the "ball". INstead of resting on the ball, the socket was resting on two strings of elastic, with the effect that the doll couldn't stand.
It took my brain a couple of weeks figuring out a solution (which is probably obvious to everyone else ): I drilled some small grooves on the outside of the ball for the elastic to go into, so it wouldn't disturb the ball joint.




This worked well, so now she stands, yay!

 

With no further ado, meet my doll whom I named "Junku"
(sorry for the poor quality of the pics - I'll have to borrow a camera to take some better pictures of her).

Lying:



Standing and sitting:



With a faceup I had to remove at once...


and a slightly better one...


With wig and clothes:



And a little presentation:

 

Lady_areku > thank you. I can only recommend giving it a try. Back when I started half a year ago I didn't really expect to get this far, but I kinda got bitten . Good luck if you decide to make a doll.

Sashimi > thanks

Shortetsweet > Thanks I really do love her uniqueness with all its flaws and errors.

ieatedyourcooki > thanks. And I'm happy if my thread can be of any help. I know it can be hard figuring out everything when you start up the dollmaking process.

 

Mitya > Thanks a lot. It makes me so happy to know that my thread has been useful. I'll have to keep an eye out if you create a thread (maybe you have already done so?). Good luck

Sommersdai > hehe, thanks, I like moody

Twigling > wow, thanks for the explanation. I've been feeling kind of bad not updating about my experience with the molds/ air vents after I made them and started casting, so I really appreciate you taking the time to clarify the do not's .
As you say the air vents visible in a lot of my pics from this thread are not placed very well and I have spilled a good deal of resin because of it.
And in the case of the thigh mold I learned to do as you also advise here: I cut new air vents in the top of the mold (at the end with the ball), and covered the existing air vents with a bit of clay dough, which worked acceptably, as I hadn't got enough silicone for an entirely new mold. I'll have to take the time one of these days with updates on my molds, to evaluate what went well and what didn't. That way people using this thread as a tutorial will also learn more from my mistakes.
I'll have to check out the tutorial - thanks for the link.
(and next time I'm definitely in for thicker straws...I've had to drill all the parts anyway)

 

Just a couple of new pics with a better camera (just need to learn to take better photos I guess :S )