OT/General List of casting companies?

Ehermahgawd they are so cute ;A; I agree- that grey resin is beautiful!

 

Oh my goodness, Jphobia! They look AMAZING! Me too, I love that grey colour! You should be really pleased!! - They look SO good! )

 

the white is a brilliant white!
The gray looks a bit warm, a dash of orange or green in it, maybe?
Has anyone got experience with yellowing/greening of environmental resin? I can go update the Env. Resin thread...

 

Jphobia lmao that made my day XD I would love to see that face sculpted even if it wasn't produced XD

I hope they get the hand back to you! Is it a spare or is a dollie gonna missin a hand?

View attachment 292

I wanted to share my finished doll with you guys too XD In the photo she's actually on padding and she still stands-on flat/hard surfaces I can get her 1 footed so I wasn't able to photograph that in this set
I really love the almost waxy look that they have- And they did a great job doing what I asked. I'm happy with their services now XD I ordered her full yesterday :3

 

Cheshirepanda, she has such a lovely color! I like seeing fingers slightly translucent. I've been looking into getting the environmental resin in the US, but god, shipping costs from China absolutely kills. Other bioresin might be nice? I don't know.

Jphobia, no no, I'm ok with the gray color, too. It's only that I think a lot of resins are naturally yellow-green tinted and I was thinking how to communicate it *if* you wanted a very neutral or cool gray color.

 

I was not aware! From accounts the chinese environmental resin seems to behave just like polyurethane (except a bit thicker)!!!!! I'll go peruse Lillycat's blog posts more closely, thanks!

 

Jphobia, your doll looks super cute. The final result is great! (I´m jealous now :P) Oh and the grey is fantastic, more photos with make-up, maybe?

I've read the whole thread and want to say thanks to everyone for all this useful information and tips on ordering from the factory!

 

Just an Update for those interested in Jpop dolls (Weiju)

They had scheduled my dolls to be finished in September (;A

However, they told me they shipped her yesterday and they all will be here tomorrow!

I am super happy with the fact she will be here soo fast, however I had planned for September so now I have nothing ready lol.

So I would definitely email for checkups to see where they are with your order. It could also be due to that they moved to a bigger location they got more employees so they can get their orders out faster. However I just hope the quality is just as good (I will post pictures when I get them)

 

That is great news, cheshirepanda!! How long would you say it took, from mailing your prototype out to them and now getting the casts?

 

I sent her out on January 17

I did have an issue with the sample, and that took about a half a month to a month to correct.

I will be getting the full 50 June 27.

So about 5 months (Including the sample issue)

It may seem like a long time, but truthfully it has flown by.

 

Thanks to everyone sharing their experiences. This is really useful info. I will be needing a casting source as I live in a humid climate and the thought of trying to cast even a medium run of dolls with the threat of rain on any given day would make me insane. It's hard enough getting small batches of parts cast.

 

I received my dolls yesterday! I'm super happy with them. Everyone had told me that because of them moving to somewhere bigger that their quality would go down (mostly people at work, and a lot of what we do is outsource from China) So that was eating at the back of my head! But they all still looked exactly like my sample, so no worries!

I did an entire box opening ceremony but I'll get to the most important parts here:


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What I really love about Weiju is that there are no seams (from what I can tell so far)

When I opened the box I got a huge burst of chemical smell, probably from it getting heated up in the car. But from the few I actually examined they are perfect :3 So worth it for me

Now onto clothes and faceups XD

 

Oh wow! Exciting! She looks adorable! Massive ~congratulations~! Hope we can please see more of her made up! )

 

Edited, found the info. Please delete this post.

 

I sculpted a tiny fox BJD sometime ago and have been hand-casting them for a while. It's hard work, so I contacted a few companies asking them what they charge per doll, what the minimum order was, etc. The only one to email me back was Weiju, and they were very nice and quick to respond. The price is great and from what I can tell, I can order a small batch (10-15 is what I told her I wanted and she seemed cool with it). Definitely going to be using them to cast my little foxes in the future.

 

@aneemal: Strawberry
her all dressed up with a faceup

 

Hey Leo! I am again looking into resin casting myself. Let me know if you get a hold of anyone and I would love to see what you are working on. I've tried some new joint stuff and feel like my dolls have really gotten closer to where I would like them to be.


As for other people, do we have a current list of emails and contact info on casting companies? Admin/mods It would be nice to have a sticky post that could be regulated and updated.. if we do please point me to it.

I totally forgot about this forum, should have been more active on it. I will have to post what I have been doing lately when I get a chance.

 

Does anyone know anything about this company here? http://robustcasting.com/
I just saw an advertising link for them while I was browsing BJD Collectasy. Since the pound is usually higher than the dollar by a decent amount, the pricing may not be great, but there wouldn't be any language barrier for English speakers. :arrr

 

BJD Collectasy just released news about RobustCasting:

http://bjdcollectasy.com/2013/11/14/robust-casting-offer/

They are offering a single piece to be molded free for a sample. REALLY tempting....

 

I saw that! I don't have any single piece items that I have much need for right now, but I'm kind of wondering how their prices are. I like the idea of working with somebody who speaks English, that's been one of the things that's kept me from trying to get a doll done by an actual doll casting company, they all seem to speak Chinese, and that worries me.

 

Initially I was going to use Robust Casting. I believe the quality is very good. However, in all honesty, the prices are a 'different kettle of fish' compared to those of the Chinese companies - which is to be expected. For me, the reason I went with the Chinese company is that they offer a finishing service and also have more experience. Also, I don't want to price my dolls higher to cover production costs.

 

Amal, first of all, as far as I know you agreed to work with Robust Casting and booked a slot. Then they didn't hear a word from you. As you know, I have my dolls cast by them and I highly recommended you to them, as a friend. That was one of the reasons why they didn't require a deposit from you.

Another thing is that you did not discuss the prices in detail, as far as I know. Meanwhile, Robust Casting found new, more cost effective suppliers with even better quality, UV- protected resin, which allowed them to adjust their prices accordingly and I'm sure that you'd find the prices a lot better in the end, if you had actually discussed all details with them, including the weight and dimensions of your doll. Not to mention that they are 'round the corner' from you and there would be no custom fees whatsoever. Moreover, you could even overlook the whole process, if you wanted to, since you live so close! I don't think any other casting company offers that.

Is your choice really cost-effective and actually well-informed? You are going to find out. Do let us know.

I went with Robust Casting because the quality is amazing, communication brilliant and very straight forward, and- above all- their prices ARE VERY COMPETITIVE! My previous casting company (in Russia) was a lot more expensive and another one I had planned to go with initially (also in Russia) offers their casting services at three times the price of Robust Casting's prices for large dolls and up to ten times more for tinies and MSD-sized dolls!!!

As for China, it's a similar thing- let's say you want to cast a slim 30cm doll. The price in China would be around 70-80 USD. Robust Casting prices are really not much higher than that and there are no custom fees for all those customers in Europe! After going through the troubles I had with customs with dolls shipped from Russia, huge delays in shipping, bad communication, lower quality with every next order, and lack of professionalism, I really would rather go with someone I can trust and whose examples of work I can see in person before I even order.

 

Hi Ilona,

I think it's a bit unfair of you to 'name and shame' me publicly like that. I now feel like I have to defend my choices, with the personal matters behind them. So, here goes...

As I said, the main reason I went with the Chinese company is because they offered a finishing service. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish my doll myself to the high standard required for moulding and casting in time to send her to Robust Casting. I had asked to be booked in for September. In September, I had a baby and a stay in hospital that was longer than expected. Things got a little bit complicated and overall my circumstances meant that I also had to cut back drastically on any outlay at the time.

For the record, the price per doll as I was initially quoted by Robust Casting (after having provided photos of my doll) was £75-100 which is more than twice that of the company I am now using. However, having said that, that does not mean that I think their prices unreasonable. If I could have afforded to, I would have gone with Robust Casting, for all the reasons that you mention. I contacted several companies here in the UK and Robust Casting came out on top, by far.

I appreciate that you have a good relationship with Robust Casting, however, your post reads surprisingly confrontational and a bit harsh, considering we haven't talked privately about any of this. I only ever dealt with them in good faith and my post is not negative in any way.

Feel free to pm me if you want.

 

Dear Amal,

I'm sorry if my post sounded harsh, that was not my intention at all.

Robust Casting prices start at 35GBP per doll and 10GBP per head, probably even less for a tiny doll (it all depends on the weight and if extra services are required or not) and I don't think any casts cost as much as 100 GBP.

As far as I know, the prices are very competitive, especially that Robust Casting are the only company in the UK and Europe who actually understand how ball jointed dolls work! The only other two companies like that are the two Russian companies I mentioned earlier (but they are in Russia!) and those are a lot more expensive, and Dollshe and Islanddoll in Asia, who may be a bit cheaper (but not by far) but their casting services take a lot longer, the communication is very lacking and the custom fees- drastically high (not their fault, of course). Also, they charge a lot more for their "improvements", which sometimes only make things worse. I personally know great doll artists who had their dolls completely destroyed in the process of having "improvements" done to their dolls by somebody else and again due to lack of proper communication.

Overall, I don't think that there is a better company than Robust Casting at the moment who offer ball jointed dolls resin casting services, understand the workings of ball joints extremely well, meet the deadlines, communicate very well and in a speedy manner, guide you through the process, and who are in Europe and also their customer service is available in several languages!

Soon you'll see a lot more feedback and examples from other BJD artists who have been using Robust Casting services. Until some time ago Robust Casting indeed worked more with miniature and general sculptors. They have been, however, involved with ball jointed dolls for a few years now and they do understand the physics and technology employed by ball jointed dolls artists very well. They will also not promise you something that they cannot do, which I have experienced in the past and that is the worst, especially if you also have a deadline.

Hope this helps and good luck, everyone!

 

I don't think it's neccessary to negatively compare several companies. They all have their pro's and cons. I used to deal with Weiju and they were a pleasure to deal with, I thought, but you had to be very clear in your communications, because English wasn't their native language. Never had any problem with them, their resin is exquisite and they offer many extras like eyes, wigs, packaging. I do however advise anyone who's interested in dealing with them to use plenty of explanatory pictures when you're emailing them and to use simple, small sentences.

Recently, my dolls are being cast by Dollshe, and their communication is very well. I've had no trouble with them so far and this is my third batch they're currently working on. They generally won't work on your master sculpt, unless you specifically ask them. I'm fine with this, because I don't want anyone working on my master but me. Of course there are the custom fees, but - in the Netherlands at least - these can be subtracted to the VAT we need to pay for each sold doll, which means that it doesn't matter financially if the doll is cast in my own country, or on the other side of the world.

What I prefer most about Dollshe is that their resin is beautiful and easy to match with other company's dolls. Their customer service is also excellent. One of my Drazen heads came home with his eyelids damaged during shipment. Dollshe immediately sent an other one to me, free of charge and without having to see the damaged head first. I didn't even have to pay for shipping! It gave me great confidence in them.

Lucky for us there are now quite a few casting companies, so there are plenty to choose from!

 

Now, this could be a completely crazy idea, but I'm toying with the idea of becoming a casting company myself in a year or two. I have some experience in molding and casting, and I would make sure to get a lot more experience and perfect the process before offering those services to anyone else, but having seen what is available or in demand and business models of other artists/companies I'm pretty confident I could start a small-to-mid size casting service in a garage or something. I am very slow with the work on my original pieces, and while resin casting and molding is a pretty tricky process, it seems like the kind of work I could enjoy as work, while I let my art develop in my head.

At present, I'm just focusing on building my first dolls, I hope to cast my first prototypes by next year, and then I'll start doing more experimentation with casting, mostly testing different pigments and color mixes.

So, optimistically, I wouldn't open for any offers for two years at least, but I feel like it won't hurt to double check that there would be interest in such a service.

 

Where are you from? If you're in the US especially there would be a lot of interest in that sort of service. There are more and more BJD artists out there who need their works cast and not everyone wants to go overseas (bit risky, what with things getting lost in the post, and customs fees, and other fees.)

 

I definitely think there would be interest for you! I personally would be much more comfortable sending my work to a US individual with doll experience than to a larger company overseas. I'd love to do my own casting, but I just don't have a workspace that would let me do it, or the equipment of a professional-quality caster (pressure pot and such)

 

That's pretty much what I was thinking, and although a lot of people do some small time casting for their masters and such, I've found that most people find it tedious and frustrating. I've always enjoyed casting and molding and I think I would have a great time setting up an assembly line for doing a number of casts at once. If all goes well I hope to get myself a small pressure pot next year, I already have an air compressor, and even some resin, I just need to get some new molding compounds and a few other pieces of equipment (PPE for one thing, my lungs don't need any more trouble than they've suffered, I get chronic bronchitis and the last time I got a chest x-ray I was pretty alarmed by the appearence of some speckles in my lungs I hadn't seen before, they said it was normal, but it made me quit smoking on the spot.) And yeah, being American seems like it would be a major plus for most artists. I feel like doing casting would give me a very nice balance of regular work and time to spend on my own work.

I hold no illusions that it would be any different than running on-demand art studio in general with sharp lulls and overloads of work, but since I no longer require my work to survive, I feel like I can adjust my schedule accordingly. I'm really excited to get started with my own dolls to get in the groove of things, and then hopefully I can offer special/fun additional features, like glow in the dark, glitter, and fantasy colors. I've got a few good tips on general business, equipment, techniques and pigments via Breakspire of the Skullery, and I'm eager to see if after getting established, building rapport with other artists, if I can't eventually take another page from her book and maybe do some metal casting.

I like art, I like artists, and it seems like a great way for everyone to get their needs taken care of. I can't wait until I can open up, or even just start with experimenting, I really want to try out the effects of a few types of filler materials for resin, from micro bubbles for extra lightweight casts to faux wood finishes.

But yeah, I'm really passionate about all aspects of the artform (well really, I'm not sure there's an artform out there I don't have a least a passing interest in), and more importantly, I love the world I'm living in that so many different resources are available that allow me to even imagine these kinds of possibilities.

 

Can anyone who workid with Weiju before answer a question? I decided to go with them for casting of a MSD sized head and the first prototype should've been done a few weeks ago. I've been emailing with them to ask how things are going and getting responses fast and they always said something like "give you photos tomorrow" or "we will ship it to you tomorrow", but I still haven't seen a picture or gotten any tracking info that I was promised. Is this normal for them or do you guys think it's only a hectic period now, before Christmas and all?

 

@nathalye: I've worked with them in the past and they were always on schedule with me, so I've never had this issue. Usually, when they promised me something, they did so right away. You could ask if things are hectic at their end and explain your situation. At least then it could clear things up for you.

 

@silk: Thank you for a fast reply. I've been trying to ask them if all is okey over there and that I wish them to tell me if they need more time, still get only the "tomorrow" thing. I hope they ship the head this week at least or I'll have to poke them again.

 

I'm new, and this question is still pretty theoretical, but I'm curious...

For those who've worked with casting companies, what sort of minimum orders do the various companies have? I saw fifty mentioned on the front page, and then thirty later. Does anyone have smaller minimums? Larger? Can you usually mix and match resin colours within that order?

I know exact price must vary wildly depending on size and complexity, but I'd love to know what sort of size an artist should expect a company-cast small doll run to look like, to get an idea of the financial commitment involved.

 

Here's what I know:

Robust Casting has no minimum order quantity, and you can order any amount of any color (they'd be willing to do one of each color of the rainbow if you'd ask.) For smaller runs they don't charge a mold fee, but for larger ones it's a better deal to purchase their casting + mold package, which is a mold fee and then a per-doll fee. The per-doll fee with the package is lower than without, but financially speaking if you have a small run it's better to go with the non-package cost, and for a bigger run to spring for the package.

Dollshe's minimum order quantity is 10 and they give you a small discount for larger runs. They also don't charge you a mold fee. You can get an idea of what your doll run would cost you from their website, although they can increase the price if the doll is more difficult to mold.

Other companies will let you mix and match resin colors within the same order, if you order a minimum quantity of each color. Weiju does this the last time I checked, and their minimum per color is 20 dolls.

Another thing to factor into the price is usually companies will charge you more for the darker skin tones.

With all the different things to factor in it gets complicated very quickly, as you can see. But I hope that helps to clarify things at least a little bit. Really the best thing to do is email each casting company with your doll and see what they can do, once you've made your prototype. Sometimes, however, you can't know the true cost of casting until they have the doll in their hands and have weighed it and inspected it and suchlike.

 

Adding to what Sailor already wrote:

Weiju has a minimum quantity of 50, if you'd like to order several skintones the minimum quantity becomes 60 (at least, that's what it was when I did business with them.

Fantasy Doll offers a minimum quanity of 30.

Together with the fees for casting, another thing you should keep in mind is the possible changes they have to make to your sculpt (if the master can't be cast without them). You also have to keep in mind the shipping costs... with a batch of 50 dolls, this quickly adds up. Then there are the usual expenses like eyes, packaging, possible custom charges etc.

If I could give you one advice: start with a small batch. 50 doesn't sound like much, but in this hobby it's quite a lot. Only when you've made a doll that is very popular will you be able to sell them off immediatly. The chances this happens are pretty slim. I've changed casting companies for exactly this reason, as did twigling.

 

Ah, thank you both so much! That gives me a much better idea of what to expect.

I'm still a long ways from being ready to cast something, but if I do I'd love to try using Kickstarter or Indiegogo to raise enough for a first run. It's good to have some idea of order size and pricing before I contemplate that

 

Jusy want to add that things like minimum order number etc. may change for companies over time. So that's why it's probably best to contact the companies one by one when you are ready. I'm working with Fantasy Doll at the moment at the minimum order I was given was 20 and, within that, 10 of any colour.

 

I was able to do an order of 10 heads with Weiju. Maybe I caught them on a good day.

 

Anyone know or used Karlyl's casting service in LA california? http://www.karlyl.com/rcs/ They seem similar in service to robust and like robust being English speaking is a nice idea and shipping would sure be cheaper with them! I just sent an inquiry so see how they respond.

 

Yep! I've used Karlyl's and she is wonderful to deal with. Her communication is excellent, very professional. Her resin is pretty, kind of semi-translucent, and her color-matching service is great. I was very satisfied. I had heads, arms and legs cast from paper clay originals.

 

I would love some pics if you had them


Robust casting is official off my list for now. I was trying to get a price estimate on two of my dolls, and every new email they told me something different, and wanted some new info that didn't' make sense (like they suddenly insisted they wanted the weight in the doll to price the resin cost... resin is a different weight then other plastics and of course clay which many use to make dolls. so weight doesn't' make much sense, but they were very insistent on it and I did give them all the info they asked for and more)

I gave them the exact volume of the doll since I can do that with 3D printing, and it was all just really wish washy on their end and confusing. I told them I understood that things were probably crazy with their work with the special they were currently doing and that I wasn't mad at them but suggested that they should figure out exactly what they wanted from the artist and that I was confused with all the different price quotes they threw at me and form their website.

they basically suggested I go use a different company if I was so confused and denied much of what they had said....

Maybe in a few years when they figure things out they might do okay but it sure wasn't a good way for them to handle a customer. It wasn't like I yelled at them, I made sure to be as polite as possible in my emails. Even if I did, it's the sign of a professional that they don't yell back and deal with the customer as well as they can.

And they never did send the promised sample item that was part of the special that I asked for that they said they would....

The sad part for them is I am currently starting some artist for hire work with a real toy company that are interested in doing BJD, so I am doing all the research and testing out different companies for them, they could have had a really good thing going besides my own doll work and small company of my own.

If anyone does work through them or any casting company and has any info they want to share please keep all of us here updated.

 

I'm still going through my first order with Robust Casting and there have been some delays. It's true, they have gotten a ton of orders and are having a hard time keeping up-- things were made worse when they needed to negotiate with a new resin supplier (don't know what happened with the first one.) But I have found them very polite and deeply apologetic about the situation. They sent me photos of my dolls too, and the color matching is really good from what I can tell. At this point there's nothing much more I can do except wait and watch to see how they follow through, but this will definitely impact whether or not I send any more dolls to them in the future.

Silverbeam -- the promised 'sample' was supposed to be of a cast part of one of your dolls, so if you didn't send them a part to mold and cast, you won't have gotten anything. I'm sorry to hear that you had such a weird experience with them, you've (and we all have) just caught them at a rather muddled time. I hope with time they will prove themselves.

 

Yeah I know what the sale was, And to save them time they offered and I accepted a random item be sent to me as long as it was small and had detail. Alas being busy and crazy was no reason to tell me to go elsewhere, the confusion was annoying but I was working through with them, I am just very disappointed in in how they dealt with me as a customer. They could have said its too hectic please contact us in a month, just the fact that they decided not to take my business on a whim is what is inexcusable. I hope it was just some idiot working with them and not the real companies feelings. That is the best I can hope for out of them, otherwise there are going to be more hurt artists in the future.

 

I would love to hear more feedback about Robust Casting, if someone can offer some. I am pretty interested in working with a company in Europe but I emailed them a few days ago and haven't haven't heard back from them so is it always/often like that or are they extremely busy at the time being? I had emailed them in the past and the answer was quicker, which is why I wonder.

 

One week is normally for an answer at the moment. I think they are overworked.

 

Last news from WEIJU: they reduce the minimum order quantity to 20 dolls.

 

Oh wow, really! I really like the colours that Weiju offer - they seem to be able to provide a wider range of fantasy colours...

 

So it's been a month and Robust Casting hasn't answered.

Also I came upon the story of art-iculated and cicadasoup and I'm wondering if they'd want to talk about it here? I believe it's some experience worth knowing before going the professional doll casting way.

 

That's wonderful news! Does it say anywhere what their fees are?

 

I'd like to know as well ^^ Even any info about how much they generally charge for their service to compare with others. Well I just sent an inquiry to the email posted early in this thread, I hope it's still current!

 

I'm art-iculated on tumblr. Robust Casting has now shut down so happily no one else will fall prey to their business practises-- essentially I sent my doll to them in early December, they promised me that they would send out the finished casts in January, and then they jerked everyone around for a good three months or so before admitting that they had taken too much work on at once. They did send me pictures of my casts as they were working on them so I wasn't too terribly worried until I read what was happening to cicadasoup, and how they deleted their Facebook when she sent them questions there. Then last week they sent me a refund of my down payment, and also sent me what (unfinished) casts they made along with my prototype via FedEx. However they sent it to the wrong address at my old apartment building. I am currently waiting on seeing whether or not armeleia or someone else in Upstate NY can get the package for me from the current tenants, or if it will simply be returned to the sender. Either way, RC is no longer replying to any emails, and whether or not I actually get any casts out of this is.... a mystery.

At any rate, the epic chronicles of this can be found at my tumblr for anyone who wants to catch up in a more in-depth way. There is not much more to be done because the company has shut down. I suppose it can be taken as a shared learning experience (that's what we call failures, after all, isn't it.)

 

Is [email protected] still Weiju's correct email? No reply yet.

sailor: I really hope you manage to get your doll and casts back, the whole situation is just awful and sad. The casts progress photo they sent looked really nice too, so frustrating! Something like this happening is my biggest fear about having dolls cast by an outside party and why I just couldn't quite bring myself to send off the original.

 

sailor, I've been following your "adventures" with Robust Casting. So sorry this happened to you.

 

I finally got ahold of weiju a while back (their email is [email protected]...), and yikes their fees are actually higher than Dollshe's, almost prohibitively so in my case. I thought/hoped they would be less because they're presumably a larger dedicated casting company and in China. Hmm

For a 49cm doll they quoted me 220usd per doll at 20 pieces, with a mold fee of 680/set +300 for shipping, and a paypal fee of 4% (would probably want to use a credit card in this case). Add this on to all the other fees, boxes, customs duty, my own junk casting costs etc (not including labor or any clay/tool costs o_o) and it would be quite expensive to sell a doll and make anything back unless I charged more than I wanted to. Dollshe's fees should be about %30 less unless I missed something. I asked about a molding fee but don't think they mentioned if it was included or not. Just have to make sure the master is nice and perfect and do all the extra work to make it so since dollshe doesn't make revisions.

If my master turns out to be unsuitable for dollshe's casting method (he has a very small necessary undercut in his chest piece) I might have to try and just cast him myself which would probably work out cheaper but be a lot (lot) of work.

 

@Crowtree: Yeah, it's their mold fee that ruins it for me too.

As for Dollshe: make sure the insides are as wide as possible. Unlike Weiju, Dollshe doesn't use metal/plastic bars for the insides of the leg and arm molds, but they use silicone. It was something I didn't know, and so they had to return the master back to me, so I could change all that.

 

Yeah it seems really high for some reason..

Thank you, I will They told me they should be thicker than 2mm, which seems really tiny so i'll just go as big as I'm able. I read about what happened with Salome, they should have let you know before shipping her what they need for channels, It wouldn't have occurred to me that you can use silicone for all the cores. It's good to know though, I'd definitely like to use this method for any dolls I home cast as well. I have a hard time getting the rods out of casts.

 

Just adding to the long info on Dollshe to say that they are really strict when it comes to the doll's inside. Even minor bumps and scratches will be enough to discard the doll, so make sure that the insides are just as smooth as the outside of the doll. I've had to learn that the hard way, but I know now how to prep the doll for them.

about getting rods out of cast... Prep the rods with Ease Release and use metal bars, cotton rods etc, something that's different from plastic. I've never had trouble getting them out before .

 

Possibly silly newbie question, but: are there customs fees on receiving casted doll heads in the US, and if so how much is it (an approximation would be fine)? Is it an issue of quantity? I know there's no customs fee in the US for receiving a toy item. However, I understand if there's a customs fee when it's a bunch of items for resale... I'm just curious how much to expect, and if it would be waived for low quantities. It'll be a ways off until I'm ready to have anything casted, but I want to get an idea of all the costs involved early on so that I can make an informed decision.

I am working on a doll head and I would like to get it professionally cast abroad because I am concerned about my ability (and my safety) in doing it at my own home. However, I'm also concerned about the cost of sending the doll head to be professionally cast.