Materials Headcap + material question

you should probably form the head as one piece so that they match well, but before your clay or whatever dries, use an x-acto or kitchen knife to cut the line out (not all the way to the foam, but most of the way.) then finish cutting through when it's dry. most air dry matierials are fairly easy to cut

to cut the headcap on my paper mache doll, I poked a starter hole with a little icepick-type thing, and cut it apart with a little hand-saw that came from a cheapy pumpkin-carving kit

 

If you choose to use an oven-baked clay for your doll's head, then start with an Al foil ball just wadded up, sculpt the head, and cut the unbaked head at your desired headcap line--careful, careful, not to distort the head shape while you are doing it.

Don't take it apart, or anything!!

Bake per package directions. Let cool (warm, cured 'clay' can still be scratched with the fingernail).

Pull apart the headcap from the face & pull out the foil.

At least that's my plan.

I think some of the actual companies got a headcap design & then use it on all their dolls of a size, if they can possibly manage it; DoD appears to do this also to a plug for the bottom of the head, so it will fit the neck right.


Good luck

Ann in CT

 

I haven't used DAS myself, so I'd reccomend looking around the internet to see what people sculpting various things (not just BJDs) think of it... how strong it is, how heavy, etc. If DAS doesn't seem to be right, try some of the paperclay products, like Cellluclay, or Creative Paperclay (or "Pearl Paperclay", a school-quality version). they're both air-drying, paper-based, and as I do have some experience with them, they're very strong for their weight. celluclay is cheap, and good for making the base, and paperclay is excellent for detail work.

One other thing to make sure of is that you make your parts all at once. all air-drying clays shrink as they dry so if you sculpt something to match an already-dried piece, when the new one is dry, it will be too small.

 

There may well be some sticking to the foil; I haven't actually finished a head properly myself yet. It is how I'm planning to make the heads, though. fwiw.

You can rebake clay, especially if using a lower temperature & a longer baking time than recommended on the package.
The main possible problem with re-baking is scorching, especially of a narrow bit like the nose or ears on a head.

Ann in CT

 

hehe, sorry, didn't mean to scare you ops: I was cautioning you about the shrinking mostly in reference to headcaps and other pieces that will need to either match closely in size (hands, feet, ears) or fit together tightly (the balls for the joints, headcaps) yeah, making basic pieces and fixing them up later should work fine

if you're making a wet part to fit tight to a dry part, then make it about 10% bigger, and if it's still too big when it's dry, sand it down to size

 

I'm using "Fimo puppen" clay, it’s perfect for sanding and painting with acrylics... or at least that’s what it says on the packing…

 

How I did my headcaps:

I've made two doll heads so far (one for my DD2 and the other as part of my from-scratch doll). For the first headcap I had a thin hole poked through the part of the head cap that sits inside the rim and it continues through the walls of the head. I strung a string through it and I tie a bow on top of her head to keep on the cap. It's simple and stays on great, but it leaves a bow on top of her head ops: heh...

I went for a more sleek design for my second head. On my fox doll her headcap stays on with a magnet and washer (like on Yo-SD's). It stays on fantastic and comes off easily (if you want it to).

Good luck!

 

I'm standing in a pretty much same square as you are ops:

I tried DAS very fleetingly but ran into a problem with the material it self: it looks horrible. It cracs and doesn't smooth out and it's... er... sandy ( well duh, it's clay *snerk* ). Clay isn't exactly easy to work with either.

I'm gonna go and buy some Cernit sculpt-thing-whatchamacallit as it's easier to smooth out as it's a bit more plasticy. It's bake-able but it can be perfectly worked with after you've baked it. Also, I think it's possible to just let it dry O_o I'm not sure because I haven't tried it much.

 

If you want a strong doll that you don't have to bake you might want to consider epoxy clay. I use Aves Epoxy Sculpt. It takes a little getting used to, but once you figure it out it's alot of fun to use. It has different stages of workability. For the first half hour it is incredibly sticky, which may sound like a bad thing, but if you're trying to get your clay to stick to an armature you can't beat it. Plus as you build up layers the clay will adhere to itself very nicely. The middle stage it's still a little sticky but it's more likely to hold the shape you give it. You can start to work in the details more here. also, the epoxy can be smoothed with water and a finger or brush, giving you very smooth surfaces. With polymer clay, it's hard to get the surface smooth without the sanding afterwards which, while it may make the surface feel nice, it tends to visibly mar it. When the epoxy starts to set up a little more, starts to cure, you can add in even more detail. Once it's cured (which takes about 2 1/2 hours) it is SOLID. It can be handled and played with, and it isn't going to break. I love paperclay, but it is fragile and water is its kryptonite. Plus it takes forever to dry. It's easy to make hollow pieces for the limbs, you use drinking straws for the armature on those parts. for the head and body you can use basic modeling clayand cover it with epoxy. When the clay has cured to a leather toughness, you can take an exacto knife and cut your headcap opening. The headcap on Tallulah is held in place by a tiny eye screw that I threaded the elastic cording through. The screw hasn't budged at all and believe me, I've yanked the cap out of the way a number of times with no problems. When the parts are sculpted and thoroughly cured, I do sand them down to a smooth finish. If I have some major shaping to do then I use a very coarse grade of sandpaper, and when I want a smooth, even surface I use very fine grained sandpaper. Works beautifully. If you want to see what it looks like check out my baby Tallulah. She's not all epoxy, there are some areas on her that are stone clay. I was experimenting with what would stick to what... it wasn't as sucessful as I could've wanted Sorry for the extra long post ops: I hope you find this useful.
Fairysquisher

 

Hmm....where can I get some of this Aves Epoxy sculpt stuff? It sounds like it's worth trying out!

 

I want some too!!!

 

http://www.avesstudio.com/

Ta-daa!

Ann in CT

 

Thanks!

 

I just ordered some more from them on Monday. I got 4 lbs of white. With shipping and handling it cost me about $33. And it got here on Wednesday! That 4 lbs will last me through several projects. It is really good stuff. It has an incredible shelf life, you can use it to make armatures that you can sculpt over with the oven bake clays (although why someone would do this I don't know) your can eat off of it once it's cured. You can speed up the curing process 2 ways 1) you can heat it in your oven (no fumes the stuff is completely non toxic), or 2) you can add 20% more B (the hardener) than A. I was as careful as I could be on working equal amounts, but I wasn't exact, and it didn't affect the end result at all. I do recommend that once you combine the epoxy sides together that you go wash your hands. This gives the epoxy time to rest and also makes handling the epoxy easier. Epoxy wants to stick to everything, but it especially likes freshly mixed epoxy, so if you have it all over your hands it's going to feel like you're working with tar. And it is much easier to clean off your hands when it is fresh, because then you only need to use water. Also, when you sand the cured epoxy, save the dust. You can use it like you would use flour to keep dough from sticking to a rolling pin. I keep a pyrex dish on my work table and I sweep all my dust into it when I clean up for the day. You can't order the epoxy online. You call up the company (contact info on website) and place your order over the phone. The people are friendly and will answer any questions you have. One of the guys is colorblind and he may tell you that the natural is a pale beige- it's not. It's a jade greenish color. I have absolutely NO affiliation with this company AT ALL. I just really like their product. I've used milliput, gappoxio and another one that the name escapes me for some reason, and they weren't as easy to use as epoxy sculpt. I'm all done blathering on and on now ops:
Fairysquisher