Round Doll Stringing Elastic Cord Questions

I've bought eyes from kemper. Mind, they're cheap eyes to act as placeholders during sculpting. But the eyes were exactly as advertised.

 

Kemper has been around forever. Nothing fancy, but it is a solid company to do business with. What you see is what you get.

 

I've bought stands, S-hooks and those little resin cookies from CoolCat on eBay. Haven't bought elastic from them, but they seem to be a very good dealer and have good feedback.

Dollspart sells an elastic sampler package which might be a good way to test drive various thicknesses. The other thing they have that I love are "doll screws", like a combination hook and spring. You can use them in the head in lieu of S-hooks.

 

oo thanks for posting the links! I have bought from kemper before but didnt know they had elastics doh.

 

You can also get/use that shock cord stuff which is sometimes used for shoe-laces.

 

I get my elastic from the hardware store, they only ever have the synthetic weave but It's very heavy duty stuff. they have a variety of sizes usually. I get the 1/8" or 3.5mm size for my dolls which mostly range from 35-80cm except the DZ Kay who I've never restrung...

 

coolcat elastic is pretty fabulous (and fast) - its strong but has a great range of stretch to it. I've found some fabric stores do stock round elastic but the degree of stretch vs strength often isn't as good as buying from the doll-based suppliers.

Kemper are forever having sales and they ship pretty fast too - I've had a dealers account with them for about 3 1/2 years now and they are great - their elastic in bulk is great!!

Re:

That all depends on the dolls arm/leg length and how you prefer to string them - as a general rule with the arms independent to the head and body you use the elbow to elbow measurement for the arms x 2 + 1" to allow for a knot, and for the legs measure from head/neck to mid-calf x 4 + 1" - then of course it depends on your personal preference regarding how tight/loose you prefer your dolls strung - some wont pose without tight stringing others kick and bend unless it is looser....

 

Sounds like a productive shopping trip!

 

As this thread is already about elastics, I guess my question does fit in here:

In the meantime, I have assembled and disassembled my man several times. I bought a round, elastic cord in a sewing shop, which is approx. 3 mm thick.

Although I never can see it on internet pics, but is "real" doll elastics any different from this stuff? Because I have strung his legs quite tightly in the beginning, and now they are hanging down from the hips and knees very loosely from just picking him up and sitting him down again. It looks horrible.

If doll elastics is a different stuff, I will certainly have to get it.

 

Brand name? I do not know it, really. I bought it in a tiny store in a town near my place. This stuff is pretty normal for sewing purposes, but perhaps not suitable for holding heavy things.

Maybe this happens because he is really heavy? He is made of Aves Apoxie. but I put him on my kitchen scale, he weighs about 1.6 kgs. I have no clue how much the usual 60 cm guy weighs.

 

Sewing elastic is sometimes too soft and stretchy for doll stringing. I think it's something to do with how much rubber in the elastic and how tightly it's wound. Your heavy Apoxie guy might do better with a sturdy doll elastic.

 

Ah, okay. Then I will get this along with the color my guy will get. I already found a good shop here in Germany:

http://www.miradolls.com/onlineshop...e1591f05dd7bc61ff&ts=1290534637&next=0&page=1

They carry not only BJD-elastics, but also a body color which I will use for him.

 

What a great store! I wish I could order from there.

What is that color? A pigment to be mixed with clay?

 

No, it seems to be mixed ready to use. It serves both as basecoat and skin color. So I guess even I can use this stuff. The lady said one of these pots is sufficient for a 60 cm doll, and there will even be a little leftover.

 

I have one more question: What are the average wall sizes of dolls you can normally buy (e.g. from Volks, Luts, Dollmore, etc.).

Maybe as I just inserted the cable insulation, sculpted it and then let it dry, his limbs could be a tad heavy even for the best elastic cord? E.g. his upper tigh is to a major part more than 1 cm thick

Because if I take e.g. 3 cm of my elastic and stretch it, I can pull it up to 6 cm and no more. That should be not too bad, I guess.

However, I do not know...

 

I have a Domuya where the the thighs are completely solid except for a small hole drilled through the center, and on the other extreme I used to have a Dollmore Sara where the walls were quite thin, less than half a cm. Most of my BJDs have walls of 1- 1.5 cm or so. The thickness varies by part.

 

I had Alex at my parents during Christmas. Before I had restrung him very tightly, and again now his legs are hanging off his hips.

Instead of trying different elastic, I decided to give him a kind of mobility joint. I cut the first upper tigh, and I think it is pretty obvious that even the very best elastic in the world cannot do the job here:


Right now, my Dremel is heavily working to remove a good amount of Apoxie. I have already looked at his lower legs, and I think I can carefully remove material also from there. Same goes for his arms. Then we shall see...

 

Most of the 60cm-or-so BJDs I have, use elastic in the 3-4mm range. I have some bigger, heavier dolls, 65-70cm, where 3mm elastic is totally inadequate for their weight. They have the problem Modelhorse mentions, where the thighs dangle out of the hip sockets. I restrung one of them with 4.5mm elastic and it really helps. I'm a firm believer in stringing the doll with as heavy an elastic as will fit in the slots-- at least for the resin dolls.

On the other hand, I couldn't use heavy elastic on the paperclay doll I made, for fear of damaging the joints.

Regarding the hole drilled through the solid part, as with my Domuya-- it actually causes problems because the hole limits the elastic size. You can only use 3mm max, and that's too thin for the weight of the doll. I've heard of people drilling out their Domuyas so they could restring with thicker elastic.

 

So I will widen the holes. I guess it will also increase the fun of playing with Alex.

 

I hope it does!