So I have a week off from work this week. And I told myself I would dedicate this week to finally finishing this BJD. I'm on the 5th month I think and I was gradually losing interest. With a full time job, It's hard to devote all the time and energy I want into this project but now there's no excuses. I also shelled out tons of money on silicone and resin and what not and it's all so frustrating. There is no place I can vent really because places like Facebook people won't understand this BJD language I'm spewing and even then the project is already weird to some people. Anyway, so I'm up to mold making and pulling my hair out (I have a crew cut, so that's just you know...a saying). This all feels like lab experiments and so many trial and errors. I have a growing pile of imperfect junk casts and trash molds. My heart sinks but I'm also grateful for what I'm learning. Along with priceless techniques to save money and time in the future. Some advice I have from things I learned along the way: - LEGO's are bad for mold making /because/ (I was looking for a reason not to use them but dished out $40 USD on a pack) they bleed on the sides which means wasted silicone and unattractive (for those who care) exterior molds. - When using foam board as molds walls (which by the way are nice and inexpensive) glue guns are an excessive and unnecessary step for small molds of a standard doll/action figure size. Simple masking tape will suffice in closing the wall. No clamps, no special balsa boards etc. etc. - Mold Release Sprays are a WASTE of money. Use Vaseline in between silicone mold pouring and baby powder when resin casting. - The pour hole of molds must be made where the liquid evenly spreads into the whole cavity. Or else you end up with incomplete parts of your piece where the resin could not make it. - You can use Magic Sculpt (or something similar) to repair small gaps in imperfect casts you want to use/keep. What else? I don't know. I'm trudging along to finish this project trying to stay inspired. I check in on this forum and my favorite artists blogs to stay inspired. I always used to ask myself why do many doll artists send out to casting companies? Is it because this step is painstakingly tedious and technical instead of artistic? Not to mention very time consuming. Really just bitching and moaning. If you guys have any extra tips during this part of the BJD journey please enlighten me! Or tutorials even. I scour the internet and these forums for decent tutorials but I find myself instead staring at Donn Kinney's Tumblr picture of molds trying to decipher his wisdom. Thanks! Sorry. I feel a bit better.
I do lots of plaster molds when I work with wax... I really don't enjoy the mold making at all and usually takes me a few days to work up the corage to even start. I bow to your bravery, silicon molding terifies me, (i have some silicon sitting in my room for the last year!). anyhoo... this post was just to thank you for this "using foam board as molds walls" , I had been using lego but the foam board idea sound MUCH better
I use Tupperware for make my molds. Costs only $6 for about 6 containers that are various sizes. Got mine at a store called family dollar. No building required. Its reusable and as long as it isn't warped the molds come out perfectly shaped. Don't have to worry about the silicone leaking through either. For mold release i used a mod podge's clear acrylic sealer spray. Less than $5 at walmart. or at least it was when i got my can. FOr me it worked better than Vaseline because i'm heavy handed and it actually put streaks in my sculpt.
In terms of mold making this guy on youtube has some awesome tutorials https://www.youtube.com/user/jayco40
I am in the throes of mould making woes also. Trying to get a cast that works of the hands... Seemingly impossible for me... Still trying though but had to go back and resculpt the hands cause I broke them making an unusable mould. If I was doing this professionally I would definitely use one of the firms for the mould making and casting.
I use legos mainly for things where I want to be able to build up the walls little by little, to get easier access to the sides of my parts to get nice even lines where the clay meets the part. When I'm done I just give the inside a layer of polyvinyl alcohol that seals the walls nicely and makes it easier do demould later. No silicone seeps into the legos and it makes cleaning them very easy. I agree that silicone + talcum powder it pretty unbeatable when it comes to making silicone not sticking to silicone. I don't like it for the actual doll parts, though. The risk of getting it in too thick in tiny details is too big. For those, again, I use the polyvinyl alcohol. It gives such a nice hyper thin layer and it dries so that you can handle the parts gently after coating them, unlike the vasline where touching it accidentally can leave fingerprints and such.
I've suffered mold making/casting woes in the past and refuse to try again ^^;; I didn't enjoy the task, and even when the pieces did come out alright, bubbles were a problem because I don't have special equipment. Every time I tried it was expensive with poor results, and frustrating the whole time ;_; When I have a new doll I want cast, I'll be using professional services, that's for sure.
I use legos for small molds, but I prefer other methods for bigger ones. Lillith; what is polyvinyl alcohol? and where would I get it?
It is a liquid that you brush on and when it dries it leaves a very thin, clear coat. I buy it from Kinn, a Swedish company that sells resin, clay, silicone etc. I think their supplier is French, though. Not sure if it helps, but this is the product page for it: http://www.kinn.com/product.html/polyvinylalkohol?category_id=29 I don't know any other sellers, but check out places that sells materials for casting and such. It is not too toxic and easy to use, so it shouldn't be impossible to find.
When I make molds, I'm using LEGO's as well, and I tape the insides, to prevent bleeding. LEGO's are great to create boxes the exact size you want them, and they're easy to take apart once the silicone has set. The two main reasons why I turned to a casting service, instead of doing the casting myself are these: 1. Doing it myself is too expensive. The fees casting services ask is something I can't compete with. 2. It takes up too much time doing it myself, meaning that I can't release as many new sculpts. I need new sculpts to keep selling. It has nothing to do with the molding phase being too technical. When you're sculpting, you still need to know all the in's and out's of the molding process to create something that is producible. But it is so time consuming and takes up a lot of space, so I had to make a choice.
