Discussion The Joint: BJD-making discussion

I hadn't really been consistent in taking pictures of my progress. But here is what I have done thus far.

I had made silicone molds so that I could make a copy of my master sculpt.

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And then made a rough copy out of Apoxie-sculpt super white

With the molds being two parts I was able to use them like push-molds and make two halves. With the two halves, I was then able to put them together with more apoxie sculpt on the inside and outside to create a hollow shell for all the parts.

For all the joints I cut the shell where I wanted the joints to be.
For the torso, I added more apoxie to rough out the joints.

Since I have engineered this body differently to the normal BJD-template, the hip and shoulder joints where worked on extensively.
The shoulder joints have a separate 'Ball-cap'to where it fits into the torso.
The hip part is almost completely solid as it needed strength there to hold the elastic and to hold the parts for the hooks for the leg elastics. (each leg has it's own elastic.)

Right now, I am refining the "mobility" thigh part.

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The rough is riddled with bubbles and such, it isn't a big problem for me as I can always add more putty to even it out.
I'm more concerned about the engineering of the joints then appearance at this point.

 

@Elysion gear that's coming along so nicely!! and i like the process of working two halves and then working them together with apoxie.

 

@Elysion gear so nice to see you are productive

I had today first test stringing , she is again wide spreading legs, but I think it is in way how I string her. I did not made slots yet, and did not sand it- That is why she can play in dirt
She is made from La doll.

 

Feels like ages since I’ve sculpted anything... I’m reducing my hours at work next month so hopefully I’ll stop feeling like a reanimated corpse and get back to sculpting!

 

@Spuggey it is great to hear about reducing job- that is always great idea ! I can't also do anything from work, I come home like loose strung doll after work. It is hard to begin sculpting than. So I feel you! I came now also from job and I am watching 3 broken fingers for repair like huge jurney... guess not today.

 

I have finally finished the heads, I have worked on during this past... years.
A teaser of one of the heads.
@swampruler on Instagram: “1/4 bjd head I am working right now. He is an adult mini. He is almost finished. I need to just spray primmer on him. After this, I can…”

 

He looks really nice @Swampruler! I especially like his lips.

Perhaps as you find information on casting companies you might share it here? I'm a long way from looking for such a company, but I would love to hear different opinions on them. I already have Haru Casting in mind just because I really respect their work (I own a doll cast by them and she is perfect) but I would like to know of other options as well.

I hope the process of finishing your heads goes well!

 

Hello, I've been lurking around this thread for a few months now and I'm always astounded by everyone's projects! @Elysion gear @LornaLoo It's especially exciting to see the progress you two have made to be so far as working on stringing and joint engineering!

I was wondering if anyone new of resources/references for making quadrupedal dolls? I've never owned one and I just can't seem to wrap my head around how they might be strung... thanks a bunch in advance for any help!

 

Haven't had huge amounts of time to really work on my very very basic beginnings, but I did get to putting some clay over a framework. I did more than what's pictured, but I'll probably post that tomorrow:

(edit - image put into spoiler tag because wOAH that was a big pic, sorry haha)

Spoiler

 

I am so glad this is here! I super need some help. I have a friend who is looking for a casting company that can also model certain parts of a doll in 3d. I sent emails to Haru Casting, Nobility Doll, and Dollshe, but so far, not one has gotten back to me. Is there a way to get a hold of them, or is there a better company to work with for this? He came to me because I know the dolls more, but I am not coming up with useful info at the moment. D:

 

Thank you. I will write about my experience. I am thinking about using Haru too. I have his Adori and love the resin and quality. Moreover, I like that he has a minimum order of 10 dolls. I also plan to contact Fdoll and Bobobie to find out their prices.

This facebook group has some information on casters
BJD Sculptors and Admirers (Ball Joint Dolls)

My second head Smiley/Joris
@swampruler on Instagram: “Smile This is a head I am working right now. He is almost finished. He is msd sized. #bjd #bjdmaker #dollsculpting #dollsofinstagram…”
Swamp bjd

 

Thank you @Swampruler - that's very helpful. I also like the fact that Haru has a minimum of 10 dolls. He also told me at one time that it is possible to make an order just to cast heads, so that's useful since one of the things I want to do is make female SD heads.

Your "Smiley" looks appealing! It is hard to tackle a smile - good for you.

 

It's always good to see people's developments of their artwork. Your sculpt looks good now, and I believe you will be definitely getting a lot better and better years later.

 

Thank you so much! It is difficult to find companies that are legitimate using only Google searches.

 

Some progress! Definitely learning as I go, but focusing on not viewing anything as a "mistake" - just something to add to or subtract from later

Images under spoilers:

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

And this is where I stop working on my doll for now. I finished his joints, then worked on getting all the bubbles in his surface filled out and sanded everything so that it's smooth to the touch.
The joints move pretty smoothly too.
I still have more work on him like painting his skin to match the hands and feet parts of a 27cm Slim Obitsu male doll.
Heh, I had attempted to sculpt tiny hands but....My skill isn't good enough yet for tiny fingers and toes, so he's getting plastic pre-made parts.

Also I wanted to do something different with his elbow and knee joints. So I used these handy little things.

Spoiler

They fit snugly into the holes I made. But with the plastic parts I'm using, he definalty won't be on-topic for Den of Angels.

I will take pictures of him tomorrow when there is better light.

 

Here are some pictures of my doll body.
He's finished, but needs some tweaking here and there.

Spoiler: lots of pictures!

Standing! The obitsu feet have magnets in them so he can stand unaided.

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Bendng back wards and forwards. I had to put a counter-weight to keep him from falling over.

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Arms and waist turning action!

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Standing on one foot! Again with the help of the magnets in the feet parts.

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Sitting and with one leg over the other.

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That looks awesome! Mind if I ask how you made the elastics work on the joints?

 

The elastics only connected the thighs and shoulders to the torso. The torso had it's own string from the hip piece to the neck.

Pictures are below, if you wish to view a bigger picture, I have left the link to the image right under each picture.

Spoiler: Elastic strung joints!

The shoulder joint.
The elastic is looped around another loop of putty in the shoulder. I am thinking of removing it and adding a eyelet screw instead.
Second picture is with out the "shoulder ball-cap"

IMG_20180706_231837 by Elysion Gear, on Flickr

IMG_20180706_231900 by Elysion Gear, on Flickr​

The upper thigh was made in the same way. But with a "Cone" of putty that fits inside the ball-hip joint.

IMG_20180706_232002 by Elysion Gear, on Flickr​

The hip-torso piece!
There is an eyelet screw inside to guide the optimum place where the elastic should be coming out of the hip-piece.

IMG_20180706_232036 by Elysion Gear, on Flickr​

Another Eyelet embedded in the putty to hold the Torso-elastic.

IMG_20180706_232117 by Elysion Gear, on Flickr​

And just for fun, the knee joint.

IMG_20180706_232303 by Elysion Gear, on Flickr​

 

@Elysion gear looks like you are making engineering advances.

 

Wow, the joint idea is great, but these little joint things are too small for large bjds.

It looks very poseable with those little joint things. It reminds me S.H.Figuarts which have similar joint designs.

These are really nice ideas of ball joint design. I rarely see people make a bjd in this way. Great job and thanks for sharing it!

 

Aaaaah I can' t wait to see other bjd artists or makers sharing their projects

 

Maybe not 100% on-topic (sorry), but anyone dealing with carpal tunnel, and if so, how has it affected sculpting/casting/etc for you? If someone doesnt mind sharing. I may or may not be developing it myself, but finding out soon. I also do daily hand stretches, but am naturally prone to developing it anyways (i have hypermobility in my wrists, ugh).

 

It's been a long time since I've posted any progress! I think I'm almost done sculpting the body, but still need to work on the hands and feet. Meanwhile, I've started working on a new head, using epoxy this time.

Spoiler: Images!!

Wip - sculpting a bjd by Lilian Pereira, no Flickr
Sculpting - WIP by Lilian Pereira, no Flickr
Sculpting - WIP by Lilian Pereira, no Flickr
The head sculpt!
Sculpting - WIP by Lilian Pereira, no Flickr

 

That head sculpt is looking cool! It has a very other-worldly look.

 

Thank you! I'm aiming for a slightly mature elven look. So far, all my faces looked very childish/teenage-ish.

 

hey guys! Its so exciting to see everyone's work, its inspiring!! I can't wait to see what ya'll make next

I've been working on a tiny pelvis thing. I realized I made the leg sockets waayyyy too small so I'm carving them out more. I'm really happy the clay is so easy to carve/cut/sand!

Spoiler: A few pictures

 

Wow I love that! looks really great!!!

 

Looking good! It's very interesting to see the different order people use to sculpt. Some people start at the head and work down, some start in the middle of the body and work outwards. I'm a top-down person, usually.

@thetinyshiloh fortunately I don't have that problem, but I have friends who swear by those fingerless gloves made to support the wrist. Maybe give those a try? Sorry to hear you're having pain.

 

@Alewife oooo i've heard of those, but had forgotten about them! thanks for the suggestion, i'll definitely look into those. and yeah, it sucks, but according to my doc, we caught it very early and some physical therapy and this annoying wrist brace should help get me back to a less painful state

 

I was able to make the torso and pelvis fit a little better! and I finally did a tiny test stringing to see how it would look with the head I'm going to use (dearmine Lupy). I'm definitely going to sand the neck down and work on symmetry, this is so exciting!!

Spoiler: pics!

 

So, I’ve been away for a while with work & redecorating my house (which is still in chaos). But today, I had some sculpting time and decided to work on a new sculpt. I got about 4 hours’ work in, but that included core making, first baking and cooling time, plus dinner. So all in all, maybe 2.5 hours of work.



I hope I’ll have some time to carry on working on him tomorrow! (This one is for 70cm ish size)

 

He's looking awesome so far, @Spuggey ! I look forward to seeing more pictures of him

 

Ah man everyone’s made so much progress! I thought the thread was dead for the longest time cause I never got any notif’s about new posts (is that a bug? A setting?? Idk)

I’ve been working on 3 different sculpts at once lately and it’s been so tough to get any of them really “finished” enough to be printed

Edit: oops I forgot to post pics

Spoiler: So the post doesn't stretch to like 50 feet long

Details:

Spoiler

And one of my other sculpts that I'm messing with:


Videos of both sculpts:
Log Account on Instagram: “Initial sketch pass done! Minus the back but lmao the idea is down. I’ll be mocking it up on the intended body soon (fairyland Motion line…”
Log Account on Instagram: “Starting work on the horns!”

Though I'm in a bit of an awkward position for the third sculpt?
I actually got permission from 5th motif/Mr Cho to work on an alternate head for venitu (vampire mouth) but I dont know if this counts as recasting or not according to DOA rules.

 

WOW! I'm in love with both of those sculpts!

 

@LuckyXIII
Thank you!! It’s been so hectic trying to juggle so many sculpting projects ＿( :3」∠)_
I’m glad to hear they’re at least looking alright lmao

 

@Spuggey he's looking great. I like his good-humored expression.

@BoneLace your many-eyed sculpt is really wild! Love it!

 

I hope I'm not spamming or anything but I figured since I'm not too too far from the finish line in terms of pure sculpting, it's not a bad time to mock up how my sculpt will look when finished? I dont have his 4 arms mocked up so he'll just have to settle for two this round lmao

 

Nice work! and I think you work very fast. I've already spent 2 days sculpting my doll head, and it is still unfinished.

Wow! Your 2nd head design is very creative and cool! I love it.

I really like your design. I can't wait to see when it finished.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1626419720819700

I'm sculpting the doll head in Castilene clay. I don't see many people use Castilene. It is very hard, so I need to heat it up in a oven or use a sculpting waxer. Have anyone used this type of clay before?

BTW, this is my Facebook page where I record my work progress: Ting Pan Art Dolls
Welcome

 

Ah! I saw this over on Facebook! I have always wanted to try working in a sculpting wax material.

 

@redandgreenlover
Thank you! I just saw your work on instagram too! I was surprised to see your work again right after haha.
Your plans and sculpting is looking real good so far though.

Both of my sculpts are quite a few hours in so as far as I’m concerned, everyone else is super fast haha

 

Y'all are way faster than me, haha. I'll go at something for a week straight, and then abandon it for weeks in between, which is currently what's happened with my poor sculpt!! I feel like I made a good choice going with DAS.

Does anyone have any cons/negatives I might want to be aware of when sculpting with DAS/paperclay? I really like it so far, but when it's dried, it can be a little flaky, so I've noticed that so far. One of my thoughts was maybe making a very thin epoxy sculpt "skin" to overlay the near-finished product, and then maybe try to use that for more refined detail. Not sure this will work though...

 

Thanks. I wanted to try Castilene, but the idea of heating it and having to work that way scares me a bit. The heads I commissioned were originally sculpted in it, though, and I have some of them that the sculptor kindly sent!

Everyone... I wouldn’t worry about speed. It’s the end result that matters and mine are always wayyyy off good enough because I’m impatient. (I blame ADHD).

 

@Spuggey ADHD buddies! *high five*

except mine manifests as hyperfocusing on the NEW, EXCITING hobby and then not working on it for a month, and then redISCOVERING IT AGAIN, WOW SHINY. Rinse, repeat, lol.

 

@thetinyshiloh From my experience DAS tends to flake, and crack after it dries quite a bit. I also tend to have a hard time getting really good details, but that could just be a me problem (AKA I'm inept) if you know what I mean. :P

 

@Cloudedmind ok, I was suspecting that, thanks! I think I will see what I could do with epoxy sculpt over it. Will be interesting haha!

 

Oh, I do this too. XD

I would agree with @Cloudedmind about cracking of DAS. You could try the epoxy, but I’m not sure if it’d stay or not. That said, I have used little bits of epoxy on paper clay models, but I use Creative Paperclay - I find it’s softer, more adhesive and takes fine detail better than DAS. But I guess it’s personal preference.

 

Hey there guys is this the only place that the joint lives right now?

I was coming back from a serious hiatus and try to find the forum for resources but all I can find is this thread and the merger announcement. And the fact that the joint forum is gone.

 

Yes, sadly, this is it for now!

 

Noooooo is there anywhere that the sculpting resources are saved? I'm specifically looking for the tutorial done by the doll artist that works for one of the bigger companies that did a huge in depth tutorial about their process.

They were working in paper clay and showed literally everything from start to finish.

It was an older tutorial, came out before 2013, but from what my googling is telling me it is the best tutorial still.

I'm looking for it for someone who wants to learn how to make their own bjd on the bjd discord I am in and they are learning with paper clay.

Also open to other resource suggestions for her.

 

Here's my current project. I'm working on a Pug/Boston ZuZu Delf sized head to go on a ZuZu Delf body. I'm not sure how many pictures we can post on here... so I'll just post two.

For comparison

From above, to this:

Still have a bit more work to do, the back of the head needs to be done, need to clarify the face, ears, define the nose, but there's not point in doing that until I'm almost done. Not sure if the nose is too big. The head needs to be a bit taller. I had hoped that we could post project journals now, but it looks like that's hasn't been implemented yet. I'll have to post the progress pics to my Flickr.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love ZuZu Delfs. I have four ZuZu Delf Frise (and want another in the dark tank color) and this is what happens when they haven't put any out for a long time! I based him off of the Micro dogs with smooshed in faces. Upon research I found several cuties that could be made.

Hope you like him.

 

@Bubble Gum Goth I think it looks fantastic so far. I don't think the nose is too big at all.

 

I think the nose looks adorable!

 

So.... shot in the dark here. But does anyone know how to go about making silicone molds for a plasticine-based sculpt? Because most tutorials show plasticine used in making the mold box, so how do you keep the mold half from fusing to your sculpt? Is putting a release agent on it enough? Is there some sort of sealant to apply to the master?

 

No need to apply release agents. For the mold box, you'll need to use plastiline softer than what you used on your model, using a different color helps as well.
Edit: can I post video links here? I think this would be better explained by video.

 

I

I always just use a thin layer of dawn dishwashing liquid. My use is to keep my silicone from fusing to itself when I'm pouring the other half.

 

Vaseline works great as well, and doesn't leave any residue.

 

Thanks guys, these are good advice!
I'd love to see the video you are referring to. Maybe you could share just the link to it?

 

Here's the link:

The video's in portuguese, but I think the technique is pretty clear.

 

Thank you both. I got further on Sunday, I'll post them when I can.