Materials Porcelain?

Free Porcelain BJD Making Tutorial

Doll Artist Allison Mecleary is currently offering a FREE Porcelain BJD Making Tutorial at Woodland Earth Studio. She has already completed the Sculpting and the Molding parts of the tutorial, and is currently doing the Casting part. Everyone who is interested in learning about how a porcelain BJD is made is welcome.

Martha Armstrong-Hand (1920-2004), an NIADA Doll Artist, and author of Learning To Be A Doll Artist (1999), used pins, s-hooks, springs, and swivels to tension her porcelain BJDs. Evidently, this type of tensioning allows each joint to move without affecting the other joints? I am currently working on a new Martha's Method thread at Woodland Earth Studio.

(^_^)

 

I have more links than these if you need more-- porcelain is an oddly un-Internet friendly hobby, it seems, and small bits of info are scattered over different sites.

Plaster molds-- http://www.ginabellousdolls.com/miniature-mold-making/

How to clean greenware - http://www.cynthiahoweminiatures.com/wetgreenware.htm

Slip casting - http://www.rykerstudios.com/ceramics/articles/slipcasting.htm

Jointing is similar to resin BJDs, only the slots are carved after the part is cast, and the pins are added after firing. Personally, I have found that drilling the holes during greenware stage, firing, and then inserting metal pins with epoxy works just fine. I'm thinking of experimenting with firing with pins and s-hooks directly in the porcelain with nichrome wire, but I haven't quite got around to it yet (and specific info is sadly sparse.)

 

You're very welcome-- good luck! It is definitely, ah, different than resin. And yes it can be much, much cheaper especially if you've got access to a kiln! Plaster and good-quality porcelain are just so much cheaper than even just silicone. (and I just noticed you're in Upstate NY-- bah, wish we could've done some sort of sculpting meet-up while I was there! Sculpting BJDs is a sadly solitary hobby.)

 

I guess the important thing to remember is TOTAL SHRINKAGE OF ALL MATERIALS.
Know your process.
Know your materials.
Know what you want. (As always, beware what you want!)
Why?
What is your process? Own it.
What are you using as your modeling material for the original doll figure?
Yeah, it does make a difference.
Before you make the final production molds of the original figure, it is a good idea to test string the original figure.
I know, what a bother....
but you are making a BJD, right?
You really need to test-string your doll before you commit to the final doll.
What are your standards for your BJD?
Does it need to stand on its own, without a doll stand, or not?
You really need to figure this stuff out.

There are several approaches to making a BJD.
[1] Follow the Ryo Yoshida tutorial as outlined in the book, Yoshida Style Ball Jointed Doll Making Guide (2006),
which is about how to make an OOAK BJD from LADoll air-dry clay.
[2] Follow Martha Armstrong-Hand's method of making a porcelain BJD using oil-clay and carving wax, from her book, Learning to Be A Doll Artist (1999)
[3] Follow Allison Mecleary's method of making a porcelain BJD at Woodland Earth Studio, using polymer clay.

If you are making an OOAK BJD, total shrinkage does not matter.
Any time you are molding one material, to produce another material, then total shrinkage matters.
Especially when you are working with porcelain slips.
There are many types of porcelain slips.
Total shrinkage of porcelain slips can range from 15% to 20%.
That is quite a range !!!
Each method requires that you know your materials, and own your process.

What this means is that your original working drawing should include the total shrinkage of all materials.
You use the working drawing to design the wire armature to support an original figure made of oil-clay.
Example:
You model the original figure in oil-clay (0% shrinkage).
You mold the original oil-clay doll figure and cast it in carving wax (3% shrinkage).
You refine the carving wax doll parts and plaster mold them to cast porcelain slip doll parts.
Porcelain slip has a shrinkage rate of from 15% to 20%, depending on the porcelain slip you use.
Let's take the top shrinage rate: 20%.
Oil-clay shrinkage: 0%
Carving Wax shrinkage: 3%
Cone 5 porcelain slip shrinkage: 20%
Total shrinkage of ALL materials: 23%

So, if you want a final BJD to be 45cm tall, then you'd better make your original doll figure, 58.4cm tall.
Go from there.
It really does matter what you do.
Are you going to mold, or not?
What are you going to mold with?
What is your final casting material going to be?

If you are going for a final doll in Cone 5 porcelain, and you make an original doll figure for that purpose,
then if you mold the same original doll figure to make a resin BJD, the final doll will be a different height.
That is because resin does not shrink the same way that porcelain does.
A silicone rubber mold is not the same as a plaster slip casting mold.
Resin is not porcelain slip.

As for studio equipment, costs vary.
An OOAK BJD does not require much fancy studio equipment, but after all your work, you have ONE BJD.
Resin BJDs require an air compressor, pressure pot, resin, and silicone rubber. You can make several BJDs.
Porcelain BJDs require an electric kiln, porcelain slip, china paints, plaster. You can make several BJDs.

Own your process.
Know your materials.

Hopefully Helpful.
(^_^)

 

kwmelvin is, as always, a fountain of great information!!

I found Martha Armstrong-Hand's Learning To Be A Doll Artist essential to my understanding of the pin, s-hook and spring technique of ball-jointing a doll.

 

Kind of late to this discussion but realized that the links provided to Woodland Earth Studio is inaccessible now and Martha Armstrong-Hand's book is extremely difficult to purchase (and expensive too!)... I'd love to know if anyone else has other resources available.

Oh oops sorry. Just read that it's off-topic here.