Discussion The Joint: BJD-making discussion

Wait, so...is the Joint being squished into DoA again? Like...will there be doll making forums here again? There were when I first started but the Joint started and doll making became off-topic during my hiatus.

 

Ahh!! This is Awesome news! I can't wait too see what it will look like.

 

Oh cool, thanks for the info! I always did enjoy browsing doll making projects~

 

Aah, I can't wait! It just always seemed so empty at the Joint. I hope it will be more active once it's reintegrated.

 

oh!! this is pretty great since the joint actually never worked for me at all ahhhh

 

Cool! It's been a bit quiet at The Joint recently … I hope this will help more doll people to get into of doll making and the artists to show their process.

 

Ahhh, this is wonderful news! I was an avid follower of the Sculpting sub-forum when it was around, and an active member of the Joint for some time. (I lost access and forgot my password or something. I'm certain my account has been deleted by now, it's been a few years at least since I even tried to get back on there.)
I just love following artist progress, and I hope this will be a good place for sculptors to more directly interact with their potential customers and fans.

 

Awesome news! Thank you for doing this!

 

I've been toying around with the idea of perhaps trying to make my own doll at some point, but I never really felt committed enough to the idea to create an account on The Joint. I guess I'm have to learn now ;0 hehehe

 

hooooooooooo boy this is gonna be big.

 

This is super exciting I didn’t even know The Joint existed! I used to look at and follow a tone of threads in the Sculpting sub-forum when it was on DOA.

 

Oh, this is splendid news!

I could never get "The Joint" to work for me - even after I made an account, I could not get it to accept my verification. Besides, this forum has a great layout, with an easy-to-read display and good picture-display functions. I'm looking forward to sharing my own creations and seeing the work of other artists! Thanks, DOA Moderators for making this decision!

 

Oh this is such great news!! I've been making plans to start sculpting my own head, but I really wanted to see and talk to people who've done it! But without joining the Joint all I could see was all about dolls, and not just heads, and I was afraid to join since they discouraged lurkers and I haven't sculpted anything since I was in school D:

Eek! I'm so excited! Thank you!

 

Ahh I'm so excited!! I've recently started working on my own doll and posted about her, not realising that sculpting dolls was off topic. It would be lovely to have it all in one spot so we can share ideas and inspiration!

 

Most of my progress work is posted on my Deviant art page.
Looking forwards to share my resent work. which is a 1/3 sized head for 60-65cm bodies.

I am at a point where I am spraying primer and then sanding over and over again so that it's smooth.

 

I'm on a trial-and-error process on casting my doll head. Does anyone know an easier way of sanding those small and hard to reach places, like nostrills and ears?

 

The best I've done was to fold sandpaper or fold sandpaper over something with a thin hard (blunt) edge or point.

 

Pretty much what I was doing, guess there's no escaping that. Thanks!!

 

Woahhh perfect timing! Uncannily perfect actually - just yesterday I was thinking how it'd be nice to have an active dollmaking forum. I visited the Joint a long while ago but it was really slow and I gave up on it for instagram. Hopefully with the merge into DoA, it'll become more active.

I'm on my phone so posting photos is a bit fussy; if you're curious about my dollmaking you can check out my progress on instagram.com/stray.dream

Looking forward to this so much!

 

Hmm. Perhaps this will encourage me to start working on my dolls again. I have two doll bodies I've been working on and my very chaotic and stressful life up until this point, and my medical conditions, have taken all my hobby making energy.

Arg... I need to buy new resin. My old stuff, the part A started to harden by itself, and I don't know if it's any good anymore. My silicone is just fine though. I swear I remember people complaing about their silicone going bad first...

 

I'm really exited. The joint was too slow for me. I'm an aspiring artist and I can't wait! So happy right now.

 

Oh by the way, about sanding small areas - what I do is use a very thin tiny sanding bit at first; then a bit of sandpaper rolled a point or shove a ternsy bit of sandpaper in there and use a pin or needles on the other side to shove the sandpaper back and forth to rub away the texture; then for final smoothing use Mr Surfacer 1000 in a bottle, gently brush into for example insides of ears, nostrils, this will fill and smooth over minor unevenness. Remember to sand again after thiugh to remove any trace of brushstroke. Hope this helps!

 

When sanding places like between tightly positioned fingers, around toenails or other tiny places where there really isn’t enough space to do the back and forth motion with sanding paper or a file, even if you could get it in there, I find that a tiny rotating file is usually the best choice. Since it rotates in place, you only really have to make sure that you can get it into the right position.
I use a dremel, but any similar tool would work as well.

For places with a bit more space, a piece of sandpaper rolled around a toothpick or similar usually works just fine.

 

Ohh,so that's why most doll prototypes look gray!! I'd never heard of Mr. Surfacer before!! Thanks!!

I'm still finding my way around my dremel. Still afraid to use it on those tiny, tiny details!!

 

Yeah, I know… Just the other day I had to use a bit intended to make engravings on metal to re-carv some fingernail definition lines that had managed to entirely disappear under a layer of primer. It was a bit, uhm… interesting. But it worked out.
For that sort of things I prefer using bits that are intended to take very small amounts of material off at a time, so that if I make a mistake, at least it won’t be too bad to fix it.

 

I'm considering making my own dolls, too. :3 I'd love to interact with other people that want to sculpt. I'm pretty busy and I'm trying not to spend too much money, but I have so many doll ideas I want to try! Honestly, it's almost bothersome because I know it's going to be so slow and expensive, and my spare time is usually needed elsewhere. Busy, busy... Maybe I'll just start with heads, and focus on the joints and bodies when they're less on the priority backburner!
I can't wait to see everyone's progress shots and journals! ; a ; la huge part of the fun in this hobby is being noticed by other people and sharing, so that should motivate loads of sculptors and artists!

So, anyways! I'm infatuated with the idea of someone loving my dolls and just waiting for them and painting them and showing them, just like I want to do with other people's dolls! What a high! If I ever sell doll sculpts, I want to make the packaging exciting to open! Also, easier to store :'D so many options.
I also want to sculpt resin accessories, like...resin hair! Resin horns! With glitter and transparency! And I'm excited to sculpt optional faceplates and hands! I love hands! I'm scared about joints and engineering though. And sanding the interior of the body... all those particles, my goodness... and I'm worried about drama. Like, y'know, copycat drama? It happens, I guess, but I'm still worried!

 

I know what you mean, so many ideas so little time! i work full time and work on doll stuff in my free time so progress is way slower than i would like. I do my best to use my free time on the weekdays to do my everyday stuff like cleaning my apartment and as many errands as i can or feel like so i can have a little free time just for doll stuff on the weekend.
finished my 1st doll at the end of January and i think i have even more idea's now than when i started to make dolls ha ha ha ha.
good idea to start with the head so far for me it's the 1st thing i make when making my dolls.

 

This is a custom doll head I'm working on for a friend. The basic shape of the nose and mouth is done, the rest still has a lot of work left!


I'm working on my very own dollie. I'm using FIMO Basic air dry clay, the concept is a bird lady. Nothing fancy yet though.

This is the head, and that /was/ the torso, I dropped it and it shattered I'm making a new one though, I'll add pictures later.

This is the basic shape of the feet. Not very symmetrical. I need to make a concept art so I have a reference to work off, especially for the joint system!

The dream is to turn this project into resin, then to buy my very own dollie off the profit (one can dream right?)

 

I wanted to Share a Quick snap of what I have just finished! The eyes have white putty in them just so that the shape of his eyes can be seen easily.
His features will show up better after I give him a coat of matte paint.

 

hello! I'm not actually sure if this is the right place to post.. but.. I'm sculpting a girl here and I've been staring at her so long I need a fresh pair of eyes to tell me what's up. It's rough and there's not much of her yet but yaknow.. I've lost my way a bit

Edit: the picture doesn't seem to work so here's a direct link Doll1

 

Yea, I'm not really certain just where they would go at the moment, since DoA is technically merging with the Joint so we can't exactly point you there. My only real critique about this is "How will you string it?" SO far it looks fine, but she looks very "Monster High" esque. I say that not because of your avatar, but because of the mold of her body. I imagine it would be hell to string such a thing.

If I had any suggestions it would be to draw, draw, draw. Draw what you want her to look like, front view, side view, back, etc. Have sketches, even awful ones as guides and go from there. If you have certain eye shapes, mouth shapes, etc find them online and create a collage of things to go off of as references (I'm not saying copy other dolls, human faces, drawings of other faces work as well to give you an idea on what to sculpt).

Its harder to get lost in the sculpt when you have a cement idea. I will say, I'm not certain if its the angle or not but one breast looks larger than the other. The one on the left (as you are looking at it) looks well rounded while the one on the right seems smaller/less rounded. It could just be the angle of the doll though.

 

Yeah, I've been looking round forums trying to find somewhere to ask this for a bit but I'm struggling..
Wow thank you for your detailed reply though! It's so helpful to have some grounding. I literally just picked up some paper clay and started moulding (which is probably why it looks so MH). I had an idea in my head but I can't quite remember what I was thinking about. I'll do lots more sketches...
God you're right about the breasts, I think my brain has adjusted to them a bit. The picture doesn't really help but they are different.

 

Ahh, Photobucket won't let me view the sculpt, but I wanted to let you know there's a temporary thread to discuss BJD making while the merge with the Joint is happening! It looks like there are already some artisans and doll sculptors posting, so maybe someone can help you out there as well?

 

Ahh thank you thank you!!!

 

Photobucket doesn't let me see the pictures either :S it tells me to disable my adblock and even doing that I can't I'm very curious, do you think you will use another site to post photos?

 

Yah, I don't believe this is allowed atm... But also photobucket will not allow third-party sharing or linking due to its new rules. You may want to wait a month or so till the boards are merged. Then more sculptors will be able to help you out.

 

Ahh, I would love to see, but I'm not able to view your photo either. I hope you're able to get the input you need thanks to the info provided by the other posters. I would love to sculpt my own BJD someday; kudos to you for attempting it.

 

My Instagram is mhdollyfaces

 

Gah complicated! I'll wait around until they're merged. I mean hopefully I'll have something worth showing people by then!

 

@Isabelsa I totally understand how confusing it is. I used to sculpt dolls back in the day in the old artist's subforum. You could also look for critique/help on places like Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, or DeviantArt in the mean time.

 

My only concern with this is if they decide to try and make a "criteria" for what's allowed, and what exactly that criteria will be.

 

Why don't you ask the Mods directly?
I am pretty sure that have (or in the middle of) discussing that.

 

I'm aware that they are discussing it, I doubt I'd get much of an answer right now anyway. I was just sharing a concern.

 

It's very interesting to see how different this has been recieved here versus at The Joint.

 

I use a dremel on low speed, fine head with small grain.

 

I've been going back and forth with the idea of making my own bjd. I'm getting married in a few months and was thinking maybe after that I would get started. The only thing that worries me is my super critical brain demands perfection right out of the gate. And I know that isn't how sculpting works. Ha!

 

Perfectionism isn't a bad thing, just stick to the end goal and keep working until it's perfect! You can do it!

 

Ahhh seeing everyone's progress is amazing!



Here is one of the dolls I'm working on, Sabine. Head is cast in Smooth-Cast 325 - which, let me warn you, is super finicky and I regret buying it; Smooth-Cast 321 opaque off-white is much more reliable and less prone to bubbles. But, the 325 is translucent and so allows for fun with glitter like this.

I also made the eyes. And the body, of course, is in progress and quite rough, a lot more sanding/priming/filling/sanding ahead. Just strung it again last night and found asymmetry in the legs auuuugh.

 

So, after a few castings, endless sanding and a quick faceup. I can finally show my creation!! This particular head hasn't gone through the primer>more sanding>new casting process, cause I couldn't wait to see it with a faceup!! Oh yeah, She's on a BBB immature girl body, which matches her resin color really well!

Minha própria criação ganha vida!!! by Lilian Pereira, no Flickr

 

Oh wow! Dolls and artists popping up like daisies!
This is Schatzi.

I started him back when I had more time on my hands but I hope to finish him eventually. He's a lil' Dachshund.

 

I'm loving all the sculpting here! I'm so happy that we'll be able to see sculpting here on DoA now~

Wow, I love love love your sculpting flr that bird head! And the feet too, your concept is so cool. I can't wait to see more of it!

Oh man, he's adorable! Those little ears are just precious~

 

I hope you finish him someday. He looks amazing! You can feel the sass of a true Dachshund coming through hehehe. My best friend of 15 years was a Doxie, my best girl Chloe. And bjd dogs are so stinkin' cute.

 

Thank you!

Thanks! My Sister and Brother in law have a Dachshund named Roscoe, and now my own dog is a Doxie/MinPin called Signe. Schatzi here is heavily modeled on Roscoe.

 

Oh, me too! Perfectionism can really make the process of art feel like a hurdle, so it's not fun at all... don't be too harsh on yourself. It'll take a while to sculpt and just like building a house, fine details are added slowly after initial construction!

I have a question! Is anyone else here planning on sculpting resin accessories or parts? Especially with translucent sculpting clay with glitter? This may seem ridiculous, but I want to sculpt a detachable dress for my dolls. Y'know, like high fantasy, gravity defying and littered with heavy decorations? I do plan on making it posable as I can! Just imagine faceupping it *u*
Any fantasy parts here, like mermaid tails or hooves?

Also, how's stringing and engineering going? Engineering is just, one of those things that are really frightening to think about. All that re-sculpting and refining... and does anyone sand the interior of their dolls?

 

Resin is the liquid form of the polyurethane plastic. You can't sculpt it directly.
Instead, you'd typically make a sculpted original in clay and then make a silicone mold and pour the resin in that.

Fantasy accessories sounds fun. I have never done anything like that, but I have started using an in scale coffee mug mold to test cast different colors and to pour leftover resin when casting. I intend to use the same mug as a fun overflow guard in some molds. I rather end up with surplus coffee mugs than just leftover blobs of plastic. Not an accessory for the actual doll body, but a fun extra.

The engineering part is half the battle. Start simple with plain ball joints and take it from there. It will probably become less overwhelming as you go. Once you have it in your hands so that you can play around with it a bit you'll figure it out.
Sanding insides are usually a must, yes. You need a somewhat smooth surface so that the mold doesn’t stick too badly.

 

I wondered what was up with The Joint! Google kept telling me it "could be hacked" and then it wouldn't let me register. I can't wait until everything is all transferred over to here! I've been watching some youtuber's progress with making bjd, although most of them are sadly like 4+ years old and I don't know if they ever got finished. There's a surprising lack of tutorials on youtube for this sort of thing.

A question I had after watching one particular video (about Nimah, I think?), the artist said that she had to add some epoxy to the head after casting it because between scultping, molding, and casting it had "shrunk" a bit. Is that pretty typical? How much shrinkage is expected? Or maybe there's a book you could recommend to a bjd-sculpting newbie, I'd really appreciate it.

 

I think it is pretty standard for a resin cast to 'shrink' compared to the original. That's just the way the resin cures when it goes from liquid to solid. Like the opposite of how water expands a little when it freezes. I think the "regular" rate of shrinkage for is like 1-3%? It's not a huge amount, but it can make a difference if you have pieces that are pretty thin to begin with.

 

I finished my custom FIMO head, I noticed it's a pretty durable material. I "crash tested" some thinner parts I had left over, took some hard throw to even chip it. I'm gonna need some tips on shipping though, it has to go from Europe to the USA. I'm thinking bubble wrap, foam cutout, in a box, more bubble wrap, chipping nuggets and then finally another box? Any tips on that? The head has some very big horns, and I'm not sure they'll arrive in one piece

I'm taking some pictures soon, when it's not so cloudy outside