Porcelain BJD Wax stage

I can't believe how expensive this hobby is! Not just for raw material but for a million different tools as well. I just got my kiln delivered a few days ago which I am super excited and nervous about (I can now move on to the next step but have to learn yet another completely new skill). I also ordered about 5 different types of porcelain slip in different colors, and a bunch of metal working equipment and tools so I can make some cool jewelry stuff for my dollies, but now I am broke and will have to save up for the next bunch of stuff I am going to need. I have ordered some different kinds of mohair and silk fibers as well to see what I like best for wigs, and since my doll will be fairly small, I can probably use some of the Saran I have as well. I really like the feeling of Saran, really really soft.

So I am finally done with sculpting and tweaking, and can begin finishing the wax surface in preparation for the master molds! This feels like such a huge sigh of relief as I have been working on this doll for over 8 months. I am dying to get on to my other dolly projects already!

But a little about the wax. The color in the photos I am going to try and post, may seem a bit gross, but it wasn't bad on my eyes to work with. I used a recipe I kind of made up using the Martha Armstrong Hand book and the Tim Bruchner Pop Sculpture book. I did use Baby Powder for the talc, but I won't do that again. I think it was way too fine as it all settled to the bottom in a sludge no matter what heat my burner was on. Tim Bruchner has a much more practical idea for opacity in that he uses Crayons. I really liked the wax, but this is a change I will for sure be making for next time.

I like such a wide range of styles and types that I have decided to do multiple dolls. I like anything from tiny to large, slender to super curvy, mature to juvenile, stylistic to realistic, porcelain and resin. I don't have time to tackle everything, but I for sure want to do a smaller (about 12 inches or smaller) and a larger (20inches or above) doll

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I have only done two heads for my doll so far, but I have a million more ideas for faces I want to try. I have such a wide variety in tastes that I don't think I could ever establish an ideal. This picture is of the two heads, keep in mind the wax is still very rough on them. The European head in front and the Asian head in back.

 

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Thank you so much nia! And can I just say that what I could find of your work on the forum is marvelous! I could only see what you started with the concept art and head, but it sounds like you are all done with her sculpt so I will have to keep looking. Can't wait to see her though! And I know how you feel about holding yourself back The face is my favorite part to sculpt, and I had to make the same promise to myself not to start on any more faces until I actually finish with her body

Sorry I can't post better pics than this for the moment, I am not computer savvy and will have to figure out how to resize some of my photos before they will attach.

Wax is wonderful!!!.......and I hate it Just like the other types of clay I have tried. Honestly, I took to it very naturally because it suits me, whereas some clays are just an uphill battle for me. I think I had to figure out what worked best for me, and since I have no experience sculpting, I had to spend some time working with different clays (air dry and bake), at different consistencies to figure out I don't really like it at all. And although making the molds was time consuming, I liked wax almost immediately. So here are some of the things I like and dislike about wax, and mistakes I learned from.

Everything about this process is completely new and foreign to me, and starting each phase so far has been scary. I like working with my hands, but my pencil and paper are pretty safe and predictable. After I got my hands dirty, it was no big deal. I like wax because it holds the shape it's in, and details aren't destroyed by my clumsy fingers. It feels like I was always smudging and smashing up my clay pieces after I had worked hard on something. I love how easy it is to cut things apart and fuse them back together if they break. I actually dropped my torso on my garage floor and it shattered in a few pieces. It was so easy to swiftly run my wax pen along the break lines and all the pieces came back together perfectly in a few seconds. I love how easy it is to create details with a wax pen, you can pretty much draw them on. Also, when designing the joints, it was fairly easy to get sharp, crisp edges. I so prefer carving something from a harder substance so much more.

There are some things I would do differently next time. I got frustrated with the clay I was working with, and decided to move ahead to the wax stage way too soon. I decided to do it somewhat like Martha Armstrong in that she molds the whole leg and arm from the clay, then cuts it apart and builds the joints after it is in wax. I had no idea how long it would take me to do this, and wish now I had been patient and worked more details out in the clay. My parts looked very similar to Playdough snakes. Cutting them apart was very easy, but building a lot of mass in wax can be very time consuming. Everything has to be built up a drip or two at a time, which is no problem for fine details, but is a total pain for larger areas. I got better at it, and found more efficient ways to do it, but nothing I did was ever fast in this area. I used a lot of carnauba in my recipe, compared with the other recipes I have read, and this made the wax pretty hard. I think I will try it softer for next time, but one thing I really like about this recipe is that the melting point is very high. I am working in my hot garage and under a pretty hot lamp, and my wax doesn't soften. One thing I worry about though is how easy wax is to mar. I am trying to finish the surface now so I can make master molds, and I keep slicing it with a fingernail, or something like that. Also, I can't even begin to describe what a mess wax is! That is why I am in my garage. The shavings are static and cling to my clothes and hands, and get everywhere despite my best efforts. I couldn't have it getting down in my carpet or ground in to my tile. I had to give up on keeping clean, and just work.

Anyway, I can wax very long winded sometimes So I will stop there. I hope you get to try wax in the future though, it's really nice.

 

Thank you so much Aneemal! And thank you for the photo tip, I hope to get around to posting more photos on flickr soon. Too many things to update, sheesh

She is about 18 1/2 inches (47 cm) right now, and based on a 17% shrinkage rate, she will end up around 15 inc (38 cm). I thought 17 a good middle number to go with, so that could obviously be more or less. I also read you can achieve small variations in shrinkage in the same slip just by varying the heat or length of firing. This I have yet to try though.

And no worries Nia, I honestly have no problem discussing other people's creations on my thread I love hearing about your experience, so feel free to talk about your doll here all you want! And wow! I looked at the newer thread you provided, and I love your doll! Her face is so beautiful. I really like her And thank you for the great idea on the face. I did order some darker slip that I am hoping will be beautiful, and was planning on sculpting a more ethnic face for it. But I can just use the one I have for now, and don't need to wait Hopefully she is versatile enough to be good with multiple looks. Too soon for me to know though. I have no idea how she will look painted......or if I can even do china painting Just another skill to tackle.

As for wax, the best resource I found was in a book called "Pop Sculpture" by Tim Bruchner and a few other sculptors. There is some good info in the Martha Armstrong Hand book as well, but that one is out of print, and I am pretty sure the other one isn't. At least it shouldn't be hard to find one fore sale. If you want to use resin in the future though, I would go with the Pop Sculpture. He goes through some really good ways of making silicone molds (circular so that you can rubber band the mold directly without squishing the mold shape), good tools for wax, how to cast and finish it. Even how to re-use your silicone for waste molds. I know my experience in wax is extremely limited, but Tim Bruchner has been working commercially for Marvel and DC comics for years.

Haha! your questions aren't amateur at all.... or maybe I am just too amateur to notice Anyway, the wax part is way less expensive than resin and silicone part. If you want your parts to be solid, and hollow them out yourself, you can use the silicon for molds. But if you want to cast them to be hollow already, I would really suggest plaster. Plaster is much less expensive I believe, but you can't re-use it like silicon as far as I know. I don't know how they compare in ease of use, or time frames as I don't have any experience with silicone yet, but plaster is pretty easy. With plaster, you just pour the wax in, wait for a bit, then pour it back out. This works great for something intended for porcelain as it doesn't matter how thick the walls of your original are for that. But with resin, you may want a little more control over what the inside looks like since you have to make that inside mold piece, so casting it whole and then hollowing it out after might be a better way to go. At least if you are working on a big doll. On a tiny one, it probably wouldn't matter.

Anyway, the wax itself it pretty inexpensive, and I would suggest a real wax pen which can cost $100 or more. I got mine second hand from a dental lab, and it works wonderfully. I have seen an inexpensive solution where someone took a regular heat tool, like a wood burner, and rigged it to have temp control. This would probably work fine if you just want it for adding mass (and if you aren't sure you really want to work in wax yet), but I can't imagine using something that unwieldy to work on tiny details. I would really suggest the pen. A candle making supply company is a great place to order wax from if you don't have a hobby shop near by. And Dick Blick was where I got my brown micro wax from. I bought a little hot plate so I could use it in my garage, but I am sure if you were carful, you could do it in your kitchen. And although I have a ton of carving tools, I pretty much only use two. I use a ribbon carving tool to shave the wax down over wide areas, and a dental tool for the rest. I would recommend getting a very good dental tool. The one like it that came in the cheap set I got off Amazon doesn't compare to the one I got from a dental supply catalog. The nice one cost about $35.00 but it was so worth it as I do almost everything with it. If I had to do it over again, I would have bought the $80.00 one instead.

Yes, I feel like I got the hang of it very quickly. It feels very natural for me to work in wax, but I have heard others say they hate it. I think it depends on what your natural inclinations are, whether you prefer a soft or hard medium. For some reason, working in the clay stage was very frustrating for me and I think that is why wax was so much easier. I would recommend experimenting until you find what you like best.

I think wax would work just fine for any size doll. Martha Armstrong Hand learned wax work making larger baby dolls for a toy company.

And I hope you get around to editing more photos, I am really excited to see more of your beautiful doll! Thanks again for sharing

 

I guess I didn't read through your thread thoroughly enough Switchum, because I totally missed that you were using wax. I guess it didn't occur to me that you might not be able to get the level of precision in the joints you have if only using modeling clay It makes so much more sense now why he is looking so amazing! I loved your comment on carpet being a giant sock you can never change!! Haha, soooo true!

Anyway, although I am still a total skimmer, reading your thread made me realize I forgot to mention a really important tool for cleaning tools. A jeweler's lamp that burns rubbing alcohol. They are pretty cheap from what I can tell, but I use it to clean the dental tool. Mine is an un-fancy old glass one, but it's pretty low profile and I don't worry about tipping it over. The wax can be pretty static as I have mentioned, and will stick all over your tool. Easy to stick it in the fairly clean flame and then dab on a paper towel.

I am almost done cleaning parts for master molds!!!! And although I don't have any more pics yet, I might as well mention here the method I am using for finishing wax. This part has definitely had a learning curve for me, but I think I am getting there. The method I am using starts with sand paper to get the roughest and bumpiest places smooth first, then graduating it to much finer sand paper that I had to get at an auto supply shop. Then I wrap a nylon sock around my finger and rub it down (learned this from the kind gentlemen at the dental lab). And lastly, I pass it over the top of the flame so that the surface smooths out the rest of the way (like I said, my lamp isn't the fancy kind with blow tube like Swithum's ). On detailed areas, or concave spots too small for sand paper to fit, I use turpentine and a cotton swab. I actually use odorless paint-thinner that is a substitute to turpentine, but it appears to work the same way.

Switchum, ceramics look so cool to me. So many things you can do, and different ways to use it. If you decide to get back in to it, and do some doll-unrelated projects, I hope you have a blog or something for your work. Too many things I want to try!

 

Thanks again Switchum, I will have to get the torch lamp for sure. I have um...... melted a few things by accident And thanks also for the tip on saving sand paper.

And I admit, that is the precise reason I chose porcelain for my first doll rather than resin. I want my dolls to be works of art that last. I actually really want to make some resin ones in the future as well, but not for a while I think. Ceramic motorcycles? How fun. Makes me miss my motorcycle. I have been dying to have it back all Summer.

No, I got a Paragon electric kiln. I have heard good things about Skutt as well though.

 

Haha, good thing I am working on a 10$ kitchen table I acquired at a second hand shop It's totally beat up and out of date, but it works great in my garage as a work surface.

Yes! Or at least I was a rider before I sold my bike I had a Suzuki Boulevard. I wish I knew how to tinker because I love old bikes and cars. Have fun with it this summer, I am jealous!

Well, I have heard really good things about Paragon, so I thought that was a safe way to go for now. My husband is finally feeling better so I had him help me haul it down to the garage and take it out of the box. Wow, it's heavy! I got the biggest small kiln they make that will plug in to a regular outlet, so I could do other projects in it besides dolls. It is only 11" wide and 9" high, but that should be large enough to fit some small ceramics projects I think. I am nervous though with the dust hazard from the bricks, the porcelain, the kiln blanket, prop-it, and all that stuff. Appears everything causes cancer if you breath it. I am also nervous to use it for the first time. I am nervous trying anything for the first time, especially when I don't have enough info about it. It feels like all I have done for the last year is read informational books about things There came a point with wax though, that I knew I could never learn enough from just reading, and had to just do it. I think that will be the way with most of the things I want to try.

 

Good to know, very reassuring I will be sure to wear the safety mast, Thanks!

 

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She is almost ready to go in the molds! This is the best shot I could get of her as I am not stringing her before hand. I know that might not be a good idea with resin because joint tension is much different with elastic. But all her joints will be held together independently from each other with springs. Anyway, none of her parts hold together well enough in a photo for me to get a whole body shot, and even this one you can see is disjointed a bit. So let me describe what she looks like and what I am intending. I wanted something really stylized with her, very elongated. You can see her neck is very long, but actually, it looks longer than it is because her head kept rolling off to the side, and part of that will be tucked up in her head. Still long hopefully. I made her legs super long and gangly as well. I can't tell at this point whether they are a bit too long even for what I want, but I have a hard time telling right now. We shall see. I may have to back track and shorten them once she is in porcelain. Either way, I wanted her to be super elongated. Maybe for my next doll I will go for more realistic proportions, but I find myself always wanting to exaggerate something.... it's more interesting to me I guess. I find in exaggeration more of my own style is free to come through.

And I totally know how you feel Nia!!!! Ideas for face-ups keep me up as well Actually, ideas for anything to do with my doll, from costumes and wigs, to new faces, to how many different ways could I paint one face. Even how I am going to display them in my house. Also, it's very hard when people ask you what you have been doing with your time for the last year, and you have nothing to show them.....yet I definitely know how hard it is to enjoy the journey at this point in time when I have spent soooooo many hours and months on the same project. I am all about enjoying the journey and everything, but if it starts stretching on and on, then it kind of loses it's appeal. I totally get where you're at.

No, I don't really have too much of a background in art. At least no formal education. I decided a few years ago that I wanted to learn to paint, so have been teaching myself how to paint with oil, acrylics, and watercolors. As an artist yourself, maybe you could tell me what you think of the little doodles I have posted on my Deviantart here: http://elandragarbett.deviantart.com/. As you can see, I have been trying everything out My taste in art is so broad I can't begin to narrow my style down just yet. I hope no one mistakes this as a shameless self-promotion, I don't sell my art just yet I deleted most of my doll making pics, but you can see on the front page there, a pic of the two torso pieces as they looked freshly cast in wax before I worked on them. I really should post a pic of the other pieces to give an idea of just how lifeless and non-descript they were, but I will probably wait for that one until I have the whole doll put together. That will give a much better contrast than now when there isn't much to compare to.