Moldmaking Making mold of body

I am making Aalish in parts, so I am making a mold for each individual doll part.
Martha A-H modeled an oil-clay original, cut that into 6 parts (head, torso, arms, legs),
made waste molds of those oil-clay parts, then cast carving wax in the waste molds.
Then she designed her joints, and cut apart the carving wax doll parts at the joints.
She had cast carving wax balls for the joints in ball molds. She welded balls to the limbs.

As far as I know, Martha A-H does not give any specific way of making joints in LTBADA.
She gives some suggestions to keep in mind, then says to experiment, and try several
different ways of making joints.
The two main things to keep in mind when designing joints are friction and tension.
Those are the two things that are working in the joints of a BJD.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is are you planning to have sockets that have
a lot of surface area, or sockets that are only going to be a rim, the thickness of
the body?

If the sockets are going to have a lot of surface area, then you'll need socket pieces
in your molds.

Example of sockets with a lot of surface area:

These sockets will need separate mold pieces.

When molding the lower torso, my spare would be placed at the top, on the ball joint.
I would have two sides, and two socket pieces in the mold (4-piece mold).
Moulage does not stick to Moulage.
I use Moulage for waste molds, to translate modeling wax into carving wax.

Otherwise, you can get by without socket pieces, because you will cut
out the area where the socket is going to be. That leaves a hole that is smaller
than the ball joint that fits it, and the ball rotates in the hole. The only surface
area of the socket that touches the ball is around the edge of the hole.

Hollow porcelain ball jointed doll parts.

It is a good idea to have shallow sockets if you want a good range of motion.
Range of motion can also be increased using cups between the ball and socket.

See the picture of Martha's dolls to see cups between balls and sockets.

As far as the torso parts, what I would do is cut the carving wax torso at the joint(s)
then make the joint(s) and make separate molds for each part of the torso.

So far, I have not made any torso molds with Moulage.
I made plaster rough shell molds for the torso parts of Carving Wax Test Doll.
However, I will probably make Moulage molds for the torso of Aallsh.

 

Thanks Kwmelvin this helps me too!
It looks like the Enchanted peices don't have much of a socket at all, just a rim like you say, I hadn't thought of it like that before, and of course porcelain can withstand having high stress areas at the joints like that.

That would make molds much less complicated for me anyway.

Mothi, Twigling has some amazing rubber mold making threads; Parts 1-4 are all linked at the start of part 5 ) Part 4 has torso pieces.

 

You're welcome.
The threads by twigling are amazing !!!
Also, look for the silicone rubber mold making tutorial by Donn Kinney of Bishonen House.
He shows how to make a 3-part silicone rubber mold of a torso (2 sides and a core).
http://www.denofangels.com/joints/showthread.php?t=3942