First BJD!

Time to make my first BJD!! I've wanted to get into the hobby for a long time, and had several attempts to do so that never panned out over the years due to budget and time. However, now that I have an income and am not in school anymore...time to go crazy.

I want to use this thread to record my progress and get feedback!

Current progress
As of 4/5/22, I have...
- Printed the doll
- Have a vague idea of a design
- Ordered wig and eyes
- Ordered faceup supplies
- Obtained fabric for clothes
- Strung the doll (literally an hour ago LOL)

What doll?
This is a 3D printed doll- specifically "Alternate Polaris BJD" by black_hole_entropy on Thingiverse! This is a modified version of Polaris by saisaillias on Instagram to make her slightly shorter, which is super needed because wow she is tall.
I wanted to do a 3D printed doll for multiple reasons!
- I have access to a resin 3D printer and I want to use it to print something meaningful. I also enjoy 3D printing in general, so that's extra fun to the process
- I am super afraid of "messing up" a $200+ doll on my first attempt at handling, stringing, and doing a faceup. Even though this girl is technically still expensive because of resin costs, it feels less intimidating because I'm more used to handling 3D printed parts
- Polaris looked really pretty and I wanted HER specifically : ' )

Pictures
Here she is!! Please look at my daughter!! She is so cute



Thoughts so far

Super positive so far!! This doll is so pretty in person and I can't wait to dress her up. Since I didn't get elastic for stringing her til today, I've just been showing photos of her blank disembodied body parts to friends and freaking them out :''')

I do have a few surprises and things to change for next time though:
- Primary thing is that stringing is HARD. Since she's not bought from a company, she didn't come with pre-measured elastic and it's also my first time stringing a doll this big so she is kinda loose. A challenge I found was keeping the extremities of each limb taught as I was working on stringing a further-away body part, if you know what I mean? For example, if I started on the left leg, by the time I got the string through the head to the right leg, the left leg was somehow loose no matter how much I pulled on the right one. Does anyone have any tips for handling this? Just practice?
- 1/3 size was probably too ambitious for my first doll. Was hard to handle when stringing, and she's REALLY heavy and hard to pose and impossible to stand (I think she was designed for FDM printers, so SLA+resin made her heavier than intended). Next time I print a doll, I'll probably try to scale it down (and also learn Blender or something to increase the size of the holes in the joints to account for that)

Next steps
Cleaning (she some dust as I was waiting for supplies for stringing) + faceup! I was gonna do it this week, but it's going to rain the rest of the week. Will wait for next week and, if I have time, maybe start working on clothes?

 

@Seafoam Shade
Thank you!! TBH I was a lot more confident with her keeping a pose after I sat her down on fabric

@nocchios
ooh, thank you for the tip! I had to google hemostats- do you just use them to pull the elastic thru like a tweezer?
The doll did not come with a stringing guide (but did suggest 3mm elastic which I'm using, but didn't know they had different firmnesses), so I just used two loops (like you said, one through the arms and one through the legs, torso, and head). There is actually a hole in the model in the crotch area between the thigh parts and I wonder if that's supposed to be an anchor for stringing somehow??

 

First shirt time! I'm proud of how this came out *except* for the fact that..... i used the wrong color thread the whole time and didn't realize it'd show LOL. it's ok tho, at least she's finally clothed! The article is mostly scrap fabric + faux leather I bought at a secondhand craft supply store. I still have a little left, so I'm gonna try making a tshirt next!
This sweatshirt came from this pattern, but modified after sewing it and trying it on and realizing it was too big

(edit: also this thread seemed to have been moved to the BJD making forum, but the rest of this thread is probably going to be sewing and faceup stuff)

 

@nocchios it's a really easy to follow pattern!! I don't have a name for her but I was thinking something star related, bc her original sculpt is called Polaris? Gotta think on it!

Last minute update before I pass out- new clothes! Slowly getting better with sewing

 

Finally after a whole week her faceup and body blushing is done!! Her eyes and wig are arriving tomorrow (hopefully) but I was so excited to be done with this step that I took pics anyway haha




please ignore my messy room

Her faceup is super simple but it's actually my third try :'') In the first one, I used a brand of sealant that did NOT have any tooth, at all. I spent hours trying to rub pastel pigment into it and having it just fall off before giving in and ordering MSC. Then a few days ago, I found out that brand was on the DOA list of "sealants to never ever use on dolls" WOOPS. (in my defense, I already owned it and wanted to see if I could use it rather than buy a new thing)

Spoiler: first try

On my second try, I used MSC and had a much better time :'') I tried a super dramatic faceup that I still like, but I don't think I had the skill to pull off the way I wanted (the eyebrows and eyeshadow just look dirty imo)

Spoiler: second try

I'm super happy w her current faceup tho! The main thing I feel like I could improve on is that it still looks a little dirty and messy- main reason is probably because my workspace is dusty, but I also think the eyebrows and lips look streaky because I relied too much on watercolor pencil instead of pastels. Next time, I'm gonna look up brands of more pigmented pastels so it's easier to build up color there.

 

Her eyes got here and she's soooo cute!!! Her wig is too small tho, so I'm gonna go shopping for another one :'')

 

came back to the USA after a trip three days ago and in my jetlagged haze, I made a couch
Started at 5am Tuesday, finished 1am Wednesday :'') (not full days, went to work, but still)
I had also made her glasses and a new outfit before I left! Still no wig yet though RIP...just staring at alice collections and willing them to ship faster

 

She has hair and a name!! She's Lark now : ^ )



I may redo her faceup later to match her hair color but I will still consider her done!!