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Jointing Stringing vs. Spring Coils & Swivels

Jan 19, 2015

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    1. So I've been noticing some notable BJD artists use spring coils and fisherman (?) swivels; particularly Marina Bychkova in her latest video, Martha Armstrong-Hands book/tutorial found in thes forums and then a few doll artists I find on the internet.

      So two questions:

      1. Which do you prefer? Elastic stringing or Spring Coils & Swivels?

      I've only tried elastic string (found in the jewelry section of arts & crafts stores) and the only vice is, on more than one occasion the strings snapped and resin (thankfully durable) went flying everywhere. One time it was due to the weak wiring (I also use jewelry wiring).

      Sub question: what kind of strong wire do you guy use?

      2. If you use springs and swivels, where do you get yours?

      I've seen some springs at Amazon but hesitant to order. Mostly because springs and coils I've read are not readily available to collectors. There are a lot of traditional stringing videos on YouTube but I've found no spring and swivel your doll videos.

      Using sprngs and swivels seem stronger and create better tension. What do you guys think or do already?
       
      #1 mykeangelo, Jan 19, 2015
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    2. The main advantage of the springs and swivels is being able to isolate and control the exact tension per joint by using different strengths of springs. That is, so that you can rotate the elbow without the tension changing on the wrist, and being able to use much stronger springs for the hips and legs than for stuff like the wrists, and so forth. AFAIK, you need to put little anchor wires to terminate each section at the pivot point of each joint which is... pretty extensive modding in resin, and I think difficult to cast in place. I don't think it's really necessary to do as long as you keep it so the length of the elastic will be the same at every point of the joint's rotation - the only difference then is going to be that elastic is going to want to go in a straight line, where wires in a spring/wire/swivel doll are only concerned with their start and end points at each joint. Can also use thicker/stronger elastic in the legs than the arms.

      So. Yeah. Neat idea, but ehhhhh. I wouldn't like having to deal with a spring-filled doll if I wanted to take it apart to blush the body or clean it or whatever.
       
      #2 HystericalParoxysm, Jan 19, 2015
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