cloudedmind: Haha, me neither! However.. I'm a little worried, cause it turns out it was a bit too cold in the room where I kept the molds over night. The silicone was supposed to cure/harden within 5 hours, but the surface is still pretty "sticky" to touch - it's hard, but.. sticky on the very surface? It's not supposed to be like that, am I right? Does this mean that everything has gone to hell that I need to start all over again? D8> I'll wait for a few more hours, I have since then moved the molds into another room, where it's warmer. Any advice on this is VERY welcome!
Okay, a bit of an update on the mold problem; it looks like the first mold (the actual head) is still curing? It's not sticky at all anymore and way harder to the touch. I guess changing rooms helped? I thought I was done for. ;___; The other mold (the head cap) is still sticky, but it was done almost 45 minutes after the first one, so I'll give it some time.
ALLRIGHT! Harrharr, so the second halves of the two molds have been poured, cause, yes, the first parts cured on their own a few hours after my last post~ Woohooo! I hope I can cast the first head in resin tomorrow.. and that my molds are okay ;___; Otherwise I'm screwed, cause I'm supposed to put the head on display for friends and possible customers on Saturday and Sunday.. >_o; *facepalm*
Auurgh! First time trying the molds out! Waiting is reaaally difficult right now. XD I think I totally failed on the coloring process though, I'm pretty sure Ask will come out, looking like a red alien. 8'D But whatever, haha! In 45 minutes, we'll see how he's doing~
Haha, well, he turned out okay, with a bubble each in both ears, but otherwise, he's fine. Except.. for the COLOR! X'D Oh my GOODNESS, he looks like the Chief of the Indians in the Peter Pan Disney film!! HAHA! I did some more research on how to apply pigments in a batch of resin and.. I think I'll stay with completely white resin for now, until I've managed to make at least two more silicone molds or something, cause it's darn hard to apply pigments to such a small amount of resin. Also, a problem I discovered is that unfortunately, the vaseline I used wasn't smooth enough in one of the corners of his mouth, but I think I can fix that beauty flaw with some sanding for now. ^^ And, um.. here he is. XD
Haha, I remember the chief of the Indians from Peter pan. I scrolled down to the pic and I thought you cast him in old fashioned letter sealing wax. :XD i kinda want to have that head to make it into something scary. Keep updating. All this casting business is an art of it's own and it fascinates me
That red is awesome, and it's really good for your first cast! My first cast didn't have a face! I also had the same problems with the ears on mine, but I was able to carefully drill (emphasis on carefully) small tunnels in the silicone to let the air escape for the next cast and it came out a lot better (the no-face was from not tapping the mold ). Still, for a first, that's almost flawless, so congrats!
Oh wow! I kind of love the colour, actually - he would make a fantastic impish demon painted with black and gold, don't you think? Is it just the picture, or does he have some roughness on his forehead? Right above his eyebrows in the center looks almost light a very slight orange peel texture effect. Might just be the picture though.
Haha, thank you guys, thank you! I'm very surprised to have gotten this good a result from my very first junk cast, actually, cause... the ones I've seen have been more or less completely trashed, but I can actually use my first cast if I mod it a bit, haha! HystericalParoxysm: Haha yes, he does have some weird texture on his forehead, I'm hoping I can use some of it once I mod him into a demon...
Here are the two other casts I've made so far! Completely uncolored, white resin. Looks a bit transparent in the photo, but once I sanded him a little, he looked less transparent. ^^ He has a few bubbles here and there, but this will be good enough for now. I will paint this boy today, for the mini-exhibition on Saturday. ^^ Aaand, Normal Skin! Sort of. XD Sadly, this cast can't be used at all, because I didn't put enough resin into the mold, so the backside of him wasn't completely filled out.. and there were some bubbles and stuff. Well, this is really darn fun, if you ask me, and not as hard as I thought it was! Loving this, guys. I will create a new, way better silicone mold sometime next week though, but these heads are good enough for my very first try ever! I'm VERY satisfied! :
Prototype 001 - Ask - Molds in the making~ This is the best attitude about mold making that I have seen in a long time !!! :XD Even though you made just about every mistake that can be made, and have more failures than successes, you are VERY satisfied with what you have learned, and the positive progress that you have made. You also discovered the secret to making good molds and casts: having fun while doing it. You were somewhat scared of mold making before you tried it, and now I have a feeling that there will be no stopping you from molding anything that you want to mold. Mold making is a craft skill, and as such, it cannot be learned by reading, but only by doing, and making mistakes, and looking at the failures and solving why they did not work. As you gain more experience, your molds and casts will just get better and better. Congratulations on having the courage to give mold making a go. I look forward with great interest to seeing more of your progress. Have Fun !!!
Hehe, thanks a lot, kwmelvin! And yes, I will definitely continue this, it feels great to open a mold and see the result of moths of work! Sure, they might have bubbles in them, but what the heck, I've seen way worse than my result, haha!
So, this weekend has been awesome. I haven't worked on Ask at all, but I've been the hostess for a big (at least for Sweden) dollmeet where I showed Ask fully painted and all for the first time, and he was adored, which made me a very happy girl, haha. My grandmother came by when I was just about to start painting Ask (the White Skin version), and she asked me to paint him in green colors... so I did. I think he looks kind of like an elf, haha. Sadly, I don't have the money to go buy acrylic colors at the moment, so the colors aren't that great, but the face up still looks decent.
He's gorgeous, Aminoff - beautiful and stunning. The green is a wonderful choice!! You should be really proud )
Absolutely, it was a great improvement! Your cast heads look wonderful, It must be amazing to hold an actual cast of him after all this time, I'm so jealous! x3 Now I'm looking forward to more body progress, can't wait to see your complete boy, hehe.
What sort of resin are you using? I wouldn't normally pigment just a small amount of resin (I usually mix enough for a whole doll) since the stuff is so concentrated. You can try thinning it with multi-purpose paint thinners or maybe airbrush medium, as long as it is not waterbased, which would affect the resin. If you touch just a tip of a toothpick to the pigment and then stir the toothpick into some thinner to make a dilute pigment, then use a drop of that to tint your resin. If it's not strong enough you can always add more. Store the diluted pigment in a glass jar with a lid, and label it. Might need to shake it up if you've let it sit for a while, before using it again. Ask looks good in resin, and I adore the green faceup. If you're using tin/condensation cure silicone, it would probably benefit from being post-cured in an oven for a few hours to evaporate any remaining alcohol in the mixture. As long as the components are mixed properly and measured at the correct proportions it should set up eventually, but temperature can affect curing time.
crowtree: Allright, great! And haha thanks, yes, it's indeed a very cool feeling, sort of like "....so.. wait. Did I do this!? WHOOAAAH." XD And I can't wait either, I just hope the body turns out as good as I hope it will. ^^; cloudedmind: Why thank you! twigling: Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely keep them in mind! Although, I'm thinking I might wait with casting for a while, until I get the body completed and everything, cause I need to do a better silicone mold of the head anyway, with air vents and whatnot. ^^ But, yes, I'll keep this in mind, thanks! And thank you, it was very fun to paint him! About the silicone, hmm, I'll have to go look more closely at the packages it came in, cause I'm not sure what kind of silicone it is.. the company I bought it from have also covered the original bottles' labels, haha. But yes, I'll go take a look at that. ^^
Body Update, woo! ...not that much of an update, but whatever, haha! I think I have to cut his torso into pieces now, cause I need to get the core out and it's.. honestly stuck inside him. u_u; But I think I got the major proportions of what I want down (would've wanted him slimmer, but then he wouldn't fit Ask's head, I think... I still have issues with Ask's head size compared to the body, but I think I'll make the neck slightly thicker and see how that works). So, the lines on his body are twhere I'm thinking of separating his torso. (The high joint will probably be the line in the very middle of the three darkest lines... if anyone can tell XD). What do you guys think? Do they look good? x_x; I was at first thinking of making the highest joint right below his pecs, but I'm not too fond of how it would make him look, so I opted to lower the joint some instead, to run more along his ribcage instead. And the hip joint is supposed to look like that, yes, cause I find it sort of boring when people take a decently sculpted body and cut it up in perfect circles instead of following the sculpts actual lines.. I hope this won't interfere with the body's posing abilities? I'm going to do some more research on this before I start cutting him up, I think. x_x;
I think the high joint would look best up under the ribcage, rather than under the pecs. Having curved cuts won't really affect the posing abilities specifically - what may is how the parts collide when posing. Getting that torso joint to work - whether you place it higher or lower - will be tricky as, well, as soon as you bend it forward much, it's going to be colliding with the upper belly, making it difficult to flex forward very far. I'd suggest looking at some male dolls that have a good flex for some ideas.
Thanks for your words, I'll do some more research on how to make them fit together and yet have good movement.
So, this took me basically the whole fricking day since I had to do it by hand aaand my knife broke in the middle of everything, but FINALLY, he's in three pieces! Still rouch, haven't worked much more on him and won't do so until tomorrow.
cloudedmind: Yuppers, I did. I'm going to try it out either today or tomorrow, but we'll see what happens.
So, time for a very minor update. My motivation sort of ran out the window a few days ago, but it's slowly coming back. I ordered 8 packs of clay this morning, since I also realized I'm low on stock. Been working on the smaller parts of Ask, as well as his torso joints (but there are no photos of those yet, I'm experimenting a little), mainly his hands and feet, but also his arms and legs. Have a snapshot of one hand and one foot?
Long time, no see. Just thought I'd pop in and say that I'll be gone for vacation from this Tuesday. Been feeling a little low lately, hence why there have been no updates on any of my sculpting projects. Hope to see you around once I get back! (Will probably be away for around a week or so.) Cheers!
You've done a gorgeous profile! Really nice! I find balancing and symmetry of noses to be tough too. It's funny that different light show you things you may have missed. I too go "blind" after staring at the same thing for too long (especially if I'm blushing a body because it's so subtle to begin with) I love the mirror idea from glimmer thx! I'll try that on mine. I turn my heads upside down to check for balance because then the features distract me less, and of course I take pictures, Sometimes that shows me things I missed in real life!I love your head so far Aminoff Can't wait to see more!
awsumgal: Thanks a lot! Yes, I've gotten quite a few great tips and tricks from the other forum members in this thread, it's been really helpful! Jphobia: Thanks! I, too, hope I'll be able to get enough rest... and perhaps get back on track efterwards. >_< There's been so many darn things going on this year, really.. Anyway, since I can't afford trying LaDoll yet, I've ordered the same clay I've been working with so far; DAS. I don't understand why people hate it so much, it works just fine for me? Oh well. See you guys in a week or so!
.....oh hi there. On the last day of vacation, I got 6 voice mail messages (or whatever they're called in English?) on my phone and once I had called the ones who had called, i had a job. o_O So I've been busy working, haha. But I've been going back more and more to sculpting! So far I've "mended" Ask's lower torso joint, cause I was dissatisfied with the way it looked, so I'm going to remake that joint, slightly lower this time, in a few days. I've also worked on the legs, hands and feet and also cut up both arms into parts and started working on the arm joints as well as shoulder joints. Photos will hopefully come in a few days. See ya.
Finally a picture update! My camera cable is still missing, but today I finally bought a new one.. I don't really have much to tell you, except that I'm aware of the flaws and steadily working on them. I've come further with his joints since this was taken. A new photo will come ASAP!
No photos today, but some good news! Got back the first professional test cast of Ask's head two days ago, and at first glance, he didn't look like much, he was full of bubbles and what looked like a minor crack in the neck. The "crack" turned out to be the only cast seams though, so that's pretty damn awesome! I'm having an open dialogue with the company at the moment and am very excited! I'm hoping they can solve the problem with the bubbles somehow, either with some more resin "painted" on (I can't find a good english word for it, sorry...) or something.. else. I don't know, I'm not an expert, but I'm hoping they can solve it somehow, cause not having any seams at all on the whole doll would be AWESOME! So, yes, very excited! Haven't had the chance to sculpt anything lately, though, which sucks...
I'm looking forward to seeing more of that body, I really like his proportions. And of course, the face is great, I love the expression, plus the faceup really brings him to life (even in green!). He's got the sort of versatile looking face I'd love to faceup! Good luck working out something with the casting company, it must have been a bit of a shock for him to come back bubbly.
Thanks for your kind words! I'm hoping people will like him when he's done. Yeah.. It really put me off at first, I'll admit that, but if they can fix that issue, then I'll be VERY satisfied! The bubbles are all where they can't be viewed though - between the head and the headcap. but still, I don't want any bubbles, so they'll have to figure something out.
These two painted test casts of Ask's head will be on display on a local art exhibition in my town, starting this Saturday. Cool! Haha, the one painted green's face up can't really be seen in this terrible light.. Still no progress on the body, however, sorry about that!
That's so cool! Congrats! ^^ Can't see the green one but the other face looks great. The beauty mark looks like one of my friend's. XD
Thank you! ^^ It feels awesome, hehe. And yeah, the camera didn't pick up the green undertones at all... and the bad lighting didn't really help much, haha.
A small update Well, I've been silent for quite some time now. Why? I totally lost my sculpting inspiration and went on a drawing spree instead. Today, however, I stumbled across a wonderfully sculpted boy doll and I felt that familiar itch in my fingers and ran to my sculpting table. I've working on little things over the past months, but nothing major enough to actually update. Today I redid the details of the torso somewhat, which made quite a big difference in my eyes, cause I was honestly on the brink of simply redoing the body altogether. His head is still way too big for him though, and this bothers me. Seems like I'll have to make a new head for this body if I ever manage to finish it... Poor Ask, that means he's practically bodiless again. Something I plan on getting, is a dremel. I keep having to do things manually and it hurt my hands. With a dremel I think I could avoid most of those things, so I'm currently looking into the Dremel 300 series. I hope they're good! Anyway, here's a bad photo of Ask; I hope to get back on track with this... thing. This has been going on for way too long and it's stressing me out, ha ha ha....
that's what I thought when I bought myself a Dremel, that it will make life easier for me, he-he unfortunatly I discovered very soon that manual sanding can not be substituted by electronic tool. Simply doesn't do the trick for me in polishing. But it's great to drill holes with this Dremel tool. maybe you will have more luck with it. Your Ask is a handsom boy
Well, I'm mostly interested in the Dremel because of the drilling and cutting abilities, hehe. The sanding I can do by hand, but all the cutting and drilling is killing my hand. And thanks.
This jointing business isn't very easy, now is it? I tried to figure it out on my own by looking at my bought dolls and photos, but what really made a big difference was when I started reading Twigling's PDF-file with a whole essay on joints! Thanks so much for sharing all that knowledge, Twigling. It doesn't look like much, but now he's got one functional knee, haha. Still working on the other one, obviously. I'm going to shorten both of his thighs a little, I think, cause they look too long? Or maybe I've just stared at them too much, hahaha. I'll see what happens. I'm putting the aestethic (spelling?) part of sculpting on the shelf for now, the joints will be the first priority. This is finally starting to get fun again.
I think generally all BJD look better with long legs, even if it's a bit exaggerated (cartoonish? - too long ) So I think you shouldn't shorten anything really from what I see on the picture
Ah, then I won't shorten his thighs afterall. I suppose I've been staring at him for too long, hahaha! Thanks for the advice.
Some new photos! View attachment 46 View attachment 47 Tried out the new image uploader and it annoys the heck out of me..... But whatever. Click the photos and they'll get bigger. So. Ignore the "ribs", I was just testing a tool I found, so they're not very serious, haha. Otherwise, he's coming along nicely. I see a lot of problem, but now I also see ways of solving them. A few months ago, I just felt stuck with those problems and lost all motivation on working on him. I still think his head looks a bit too large for the body. Also, his neck is too long and thin, so I'll have to do something about that - maybe his head won't look quite as big then. The arms, legs, feet and hands are coming along nicely as well, but this is all you get for today. Cheers! EDIT: Seriously! Why are the photos so darn SMALL!? D: Me no likey at all...
Yeah! You culture those local peoples! ^_^ Looks great so far! What clay did you use for the head? It looked like you started with artist wax or something and added stone clay..?
Kafae Latte: Firstly; your nickname is SO darn CUTE. X'D Secondly; I started out with Super Sculpey (which I ended up disliking quite a bit) and once it was baked and stuff, i forgot about it, until one day I picked it back up and realized my taste in dolls had changed, and so I started modifying it completely with an airdrying paperclay - DAS.
Good news! I don't remember if I've mentioned this on here, but I did write about it on the VD blog (http://geminick.wordpress.com/). I thought I'd lost contact with the swedish casting company which would help me cast my doll once he's complete, since they never replied to my e-mails. The last reply I got from them was sometime in September, so I was really worried they'd bailed on me or something. But, I sent them a last e-mail yesterday and today I got a reaply! It seems they must've either missed out completely on my e-mails since September, or there's been trouble with one of our e-mail adresses. BUT they also told me that they've made several more test casts of Ask since September, and they're going to send some of them out to me today!! I am SO relieved and SO darn happy about this! T__T ....just thought I'd let you all know. Heehee.
Aww thank you so much! Thats like.. the first complement on Kafae Latte, most people think it sounds dumb. It's my Pen name for art stuff and being a mangaka. Thanks for letting me know! I'm working with Premier and I like it so far. What's the name of the casting company you were talking about? I'm trying to figure out what exactly these companies do to be "proffessional casters" and also find as many as I can if I need one to cast my stuff. Thank you!
