Hi there...i've been wanting to make my own BJD ever since i realized it was possible...i tried the Noah's doll method once, about halfway through messed it up and gave up completely. then i saw how many people were having luck with super sculpy, i went out and bought a few pounds of it, and started sculpting last night. I thought i would just practice at first with a small scale doll. When finished she'll probably be just under 12". Here are some pictures of what i completed in about a 3 hour period. (torso is too long...what's the best way to do a knee joint? how will i do hands & feet??) (the back is a little lumpy...the lower torso is lopsided) i think this needs more forehead... i haven't baked it yet...it obviously needs some more work!. and i wonder how well i'll be able to make the peices hollow without totally ruining what i've done so far. Should i just bake it solid, then drill thru the limbs with a dremel? or should i get it cold then carefully scrape out with a knife? I'm very much open to constructive criticism here, as this is my first try. i want to see what you all think...thanks for looking...
the little hooked tool that lithe-finder posted in her how to post works really well for scraping out the insides of the doll. I admit I was sceptical till I tried it! XD Just be gentle and to slow and only take small chunks. After I hollowed out my doll's arm I found that it had gotten a little flat... I stuck a paintbrush handle down the arm and gently pushed out the arm again. What you have so far looks pretty good! the head is REALLY nice!
3 hours!?! Dang, I wish my three-hour 'working on stuff' periods were so productive. I think the head could use more forehead, but looks fine without; still well-proportioned. Great great great face. Knees. You can have a ball attached to the thigh piece, with a socket hollow in the shin piece; the ball at the shin & the hollow at the thigh; an elongated sphere or bean shape with hollows at thigh & shin. Lots of choices. There's a sticky, I think at the top of this section of the forum, that lists a lot of links to various how-to-make sites. You may find a congenial way to make hands &/or feet there. Also, there's a book called Fabulous Figures, by Susanna Oroyan, which shows a lot of variations on how to make dolls with 'the new clays'--paper clays & (ta-daa) polymer clays. Good work; I look forward to seeing more. Ann in CT
drilling the holes will take a very long time. I made a little sea monster and he took about 3 hours to dremel out! Yous looks smaller so it may take less.
well, i have been working on this project every now and then for a while...and now i can finally say that i am ALMOST done!! The dremeling out the limbs wasn't too hard...exept i broke a few peices in the process... She is now fully baked & hardened and is only missing one hand. She needs some final sanding, after which i will airbrush with a light flesh tone. I took some pics last night, and i apologize for the poor quality of these photos..my camera was dying and didn't want to focus! I made her eyes with sculpy then coated with gloss varnish. for some personal criticism her legs aren't very graceful, and I burned a couple of peices as you can see. I made these two really beautiful, graceful hands...but they were so delicate the fingers broke off instantly :cry: oh well...i can't wait to get started on a BIG one!! my fiancee for the most part is creeped out by my dolls, but this one he really likes...he wants me to make him one so he can turn it into a marionette! i will post more finished pics soon...
You seem to have a good eye for the proportions of your little dolly. ^_^ I can tell from the pictures that the sculpy is discolored in some places, especially the hands, and you said the fingers broke off? The clay discolored because its burnt, and that's probably why those little fingers broke so easily. When you bake your next doll try making a tin foil "tent" over/around the little delicate pieces like fingers, hands, or noses. Any parts smaller than the "bulk" of your figure will cook more quickly and begin burning before the thicker parts are done. Tenting these parts will allow them to warm more slowly than the rest, and not burn as easily. Also, when you pull it out of the oven don't touch it. Not only is it really hot, but the clay is still pliable. Sculpy doesnt actually harden until it cooks and cools. The packages don't say that, so most people don't realize it, and then cook it more thinking its not immediately hard. I'd really like to see what else you do though. This looks like a really good first try
