making spare heads for ji - added Vampire Kitty Ji! 6/18

just got my little orientdoll vampire ji - and I'm having great fun making her new heads. I'm starting out in polymer, but she is so tiny (4 1/2") and her head is so small (1 1/4" diameter) that I'm planning on making molds and casting.

right now - I just have a first try at a cat head - (hey Ashbet!!! Micro-Mau!!!) my daughter pointed out that her forehead is kind of short - but she reminds me of a cat I had - so please meet Petunia



this body is really poseable - If anyone is thinking about trying out sculpting for bjd's but concerned about the effort of creating the whole body, or the expense of getting a body to put your heads on --- this is a really affordable way to try it out. the body is about $68 from orientdoll (their vampire ji head (the one on the cumi body to the right above) is about $38 without faceup)

this head is just polymer clay and plenty sturdy to play with on this body.

best of all - it is so tiny, that materials costs for molding will be very low --- you will be able to try things out without going broke.

 

<grin> thanks Kaye - she does look pretty sad. going to make a happy kitty soon - my daughter was not too happy with this one!

by the way - this is fun - not that any of the heads are turning out too well - I'm not very good at this tiny size!

ok - head number 2 ---- I think I'm not meant to make a chibi. sigh. guess I'll have to try again - this one wierded out the whole family, but I thought she was kind of cute. They got a little less nervous when she got horns and ears - but I dont know - I like her a lot with out them.

its funny - I have friends who sculpt exquisite tiny dolls - beautiful children, lovely ladies. I make golems - or chibi cows. go figure....

anyway - here is chibi head number 1.







hey guys - jump in and make some heads for ji and post them here.... surely you guys can come up with something better than I am!!!

 

ok, attempting to rescue the chibi head. post these then go away and not inflict more strangeness for awhile....

ears up, or ears down?

 

hey Fairy,
I've been watching your dolls on ebay - my usual ones are much bigger, and urm - stranger, but I was thinking you were testing the waters there

I was thinking of you and yours when I took these pics






I would love to see the heads you make for these guys too.
editorial comment at home (ahem) has got me going back to my normal style for my next try ---- someday I'll do a chibi right!!! yours are adorable.

 

wow!!! I was sure it is you up there.... I'll go look and see if I can find it and send it to you, I think it must be because your avatar looks so much like these little guys.

ok - now I really want to see the heads you do for ji!

 

ok - trying a more normal head now --- still not passing muster with the hometown quality monitors, but getting better. switched back to prosculpt - the kato polyclay is much stronger and better for making a head intended for really using, but the polyclay is easier for me to get finer details in. just nowhere near as strong. need to mix some cernit into the next head.

meet Sprite :

 

hey Fairy,

I can't find the ebay auction that i thought was yours! now i'm going to have to go thru all my bookmarks and hope i kept it...

do you have links to pics of your commissions? would love to see. don't take too long to start sculpting again... hey - thats why i'm liking these ji heads (even though they aren't turning out perfect from the beginning) --- head 3 was a few hours last night - it still needs some headcap shaping and sanding - but I get a result to play with in a few hours which is fun....

 

hey guys, thanks for the positive input! this is a lot of fun, and i'm hoping some of you guys will join in - we could get a ji head challenge going or something!

Ashbet - that wig is by Darkmothflame - she made it for her ji (Twig) but I stole it - I love it! (It has 2 little pink buns in the back too)

Batchix - you are right about the gremlins! I love cartoons - ok, mostly Miyazaki's these days, but I grew up on those warner bros etc ones from the 40s, 50s and 60s ...... and I think the 3rd one is up to something too...

Shadowlink - I love the baby too --- funny how you put that oversized head on the body and lay it down and it really works. I'm thinking about making a jointed suedecloth body (13 joints) but a little more babyish - i think i would like the softness of the suede for that head.

Kaye - oh I hope you get one of these little bodies and make some heads - yours would be awesome!!!

Fairy - I've only got a beauty white body right now - but I want one of the little boy bodies too, so I want to get it in NS - then i'll try to match resin with it too. Bambicrony's little 10"ish ones are very tempting - that would be a nice size to make heads for, and still pretty inexpensive.... have to think about that later.....

got to take the dog for a walk, then i'll try to post head 4...

 

ok - this head is getting a little more acceptance here - they are requesting that i decrease the chin - and she needs some work on her eyes (and ears might be a nice addition) -

what do you think?







hmmm - sorry the pics are kind of blurry - I think the poor light and the white body are causing some problems. oh well - will try to get better pics after the changes.

 

hey guys - ok , how do we propose a challenge? and I wonder how many folk have ji's ---- maybe I'll ask the mods... would some of you be interested in joining in?

<snork> - hey Fairy - you should see some of the minor disasters pretending to be heads rolling around here.... but I have family with high standards so they keep me trying harder...

I'm planning on making molds and casting some resin heads from some of these for myself - so if the resin heads turn out well, i'll post them here and see if anyone is interested. I need to order more moldmaking and resin supplies now anyway - so i'll investigate matching the colors. Maybe i'll break down and get my normal skin boy now instead of waiting so I can match that resin too....

I'll have to search the threads for info on matching resin colors - does anyone have some good threads on that marked?

 

hey Fairy, I think that we should make it a challenge open for any tiny body
I'm trying to get the courage up to take my banji girl apart, and the lati whites... I was looking at the naripons - I would love to see a head for that body!!!


here is a wink i tried for my Cumi body..



going to have to try that again a few times - winks are harder than I expected....

and here is the sad face with a faceup on the ji body...

 

urm - to be honest, I hadn't thought it thru! but I think we should give a month or so - so folk would have time to play around. what do you think? and I'm wondering if anyone else will be joining in? hope so -

to be honest, I'm doing these because they are so simple and there is no "weight" to them. I really should be working on catboy - but my brain keeps shutting down when i start working on jointed catstyle back legs. so instead of working on him, I'm doing stuff just for the fun of it.
meanwhile he, poor dear, is very grouchily hobbling around without arms or most of his legs....





so I'm trying to kickstart myself into sculpting again.... its a little like writer's block - and i'm really prone to it... thats part of why I admire Kaye and Donn and Batchix so much - they stick to their projects and finish them. I'm kind of the sculptor's version of the dribble glass. ( grin - i'm remembering/mangling a famous quote - something about "there is many a slip twixt lip and cup" --- but now i have absolutely no idea of what the quote actually was .... the mind, a terrible thing to lose.....) oh well - maybe i'll go pull out the premiere and attack poor catboy's legs for awhile....

 

hey guys - I think the Mods don't like the idea of the challenge- maybe there is some kind of liability or something - anyway its been a week since I asked and I haven't heard anything. But I'm hoping maybe folk will participate in an informal thing of some sort... maybe we could start a new thread and just invite folks to post their original optional heads for tinies...


meanwhile --- tried to do a more "finished" cat head - but was watching a truly dreadful killer bat horror movie last night ---- Darkmothflame says the cat turned out looking like a batkitty!!!

so please welcome ..... ta tata dah!!!!! Vampire Kitty JI!!!











what do you think???

 

Woot!!! got my internet connection back again - thank goodness! you forget how much you are addicted until you can only connect from work <grin>

hey we've got a fair number of folk interested - I'm in the process of making a body for a tiny, and was thinking about making some tiny "bust" stands for all the spare heads.... i'll try to get one done this weekend to show you what I mean. then if anyone is interested in joining in, but doesn't have a body - i could send you a cast of the "bust" stand and you could make your head on it, if you would like....

<snork> - I've always said I wanted to recreate the bad witch in that wizard of oz book ---- the one who collected peoples heads (she wanted Dorothy's) and kept them on stands in her bedroom ---- then each morning she would choose which head she wanted to wear that day. now i'll just be doing that with a tiny instead of a larger doll......

hey Twigling, you are very probably right...... I know that artist is on this board too ---- the little bjd doesn't look quite like I thought I remembered, but that is maybe it.... I just thought I remember it as being a little more fae....

Hey Batchix, you beat me to doing a mnf head!!!! very, very cool.
Kaye - awesome! I can't wait to see the head that you do ---

and Fairy, and Catdancer, Verbana, Ashbet - you guys are going to join in too, right? the really nice thing is - these are so tiny, they are not so fragile, take almost no clay and almost no time ----

 

hey Catdancer,

these heads are held on exactly like the resin ones --- i'm using a mix of roughly 1 part cernit to 1 part kato clay to 2 parts prosculpt ---- very strong and no plaquing ---- you probably wouldn't want to play rough for a long time, but it seems to be plenty strong enough for playing like I normally do with my resin ones.... and these tiny heads seem to be less fragile than the larger ones - try it!! I'll love to see what you do....

 

hi Elena!

if you would like to send me a reference design, I would enjoy trying to make it for you.

I'm planning on molding some of these heads in the next month or so (I have a conference to finish some dolls for that is taking all my attention right now)

the ji heads from orient doll are $38 with no makeup, these would be less. at the moment I only have a beige resin - so I can't match skin colors. but we could see if i came up with a design you liked, while i'm ordering resins... (I promised my daughters i would cast some of the heads for them, so I need to get going on it!)

pm me the picture, or i could give you my email address to send it to...

take care
patl

 

hey Verbana!!!

<snork> - I like the idea of a dolly duel <grin> --- hey - does this give new meaning to the phrase "bake off"?????

yeah - i'm big on prototypes, and not that great at really finishing off .... I love the idea when it is new and fun - but don't always want to do the careful finishing details needed...

though i just took a figure i thought was finished, and am reworking its skin (she is premiere (like ladoll) and has a skeleton head on a fleshed body - with part of the skin flayed off) --- I had done enough to "prove" the idea for myself - but other people weren't quite understanding what i was trying to do. so i've gone back in and given the areas of whole skin a perfectly sanded finish, with the affect of torn skin where it ends over the exposed muscles and bones.

hmmm - ok, listen - believe me, actually she is very beautiful - sounds kind of dreadful though, doesn't she? anyway - i surprised myself and love going back and doing the detail work now ---- wierd.


i love ladoll/premiere for figures - that is what catboy is...

take care
patl