Supplies Using Pliver to Suede Joints

Might be just as easy to link to this BIN auction

Genie, do you think this stuff will hold up to the wear and tear of a well played with doll? How long have you had yours in? My main concern is that the glue will not "stick" enough to the smooth resin, and eventually a glue-coated leather-shell will slip out of the joint. Also the leather may smooth down with use and loose some of its grip? This is not to say that I'm not willing to try it out, though!!

I see a definite benefit in being able to put in a seamless piece of sueding into the joint, as there is nothing then for the ball of the joint to get snagged on, which would work to slowly pull the piece out, and this has been a problem in prior attempts using less flexible materials.

I am thinking about masking off everything but the sockets and having them sand-blasted to give extra grip for the glue..

 

Ok I got some and sueded my Lishe's joints. seems to be working very well. She can stand in posh dolls pumps unassisted. Can lie down with legs extended up and out. Also no kicking. Thanks you definitely took the fear out of doing it and I can barely see the leather.

 

Ok...veeeery stoopid question, but...do you need to unstring the doll to suede it?

My DES is sort of ok (still tight, but workable), but my LIshe...boy..oh, boy!! It's a kicker alright!!

Let me know, guys, and I may buy some too...

 

Yes, you will need to unstring for this method. If you are unsure of how to unstring, there is a tutorial on the Noticeboard at eluts.com

Sueding is a bit fiddly, and having to pull the joints apart to get to it would not make it any easier.

 

There, there, there (hugs)

You can do it.
If you have a large or tightly-strung doll, it would be a good thing to have a helper; perhaps at a meet-up local to you?


Ok, I'll admit it. I was totally nervous when I unstrung my first doll, DoD Too.
& Bee-A had flipping hysterics the whole entire time.
But I did it, not tooo bad. Put Michel (Too) back together; he's fine, Ysabea's (Bee-A) fine.

Ask Ysabea if she can be unstrung--sure, no problem.
from the doll who Screamed the entire time Michel was unstrung.

So they've been apart for face-ups and put back together, with a washer added below the S-hook in the head for better posing.


Ann in CT

 

I was afraid to unstring mine too. But I just did her legs, I have always been very happy with her arms. I did remove her lower torso ( flashed in Jaws, the scene where the girl washes up on the beach). And she was very manageable to put back together,( took me less the 5 minutes) and I did it myself. The first time I changed heer hands I was really scared though.
I am very pleased I sueded her. I feel like a trouper now. Her limbs stay put. I do wonder about the super glue though, will it hurt her long term? And how do I get it off if I want to?

 

Yay! Thank you Genie!


About unstringing. This will sound very strange, but I find it best to use your feet to hold the doll when re-stringing if you don't have someone to help you. Well, I guess if you're not flexible at all it won't work... but I typically put my foot on the doll's chest and then PULL on the shoe string for stringing. I usually use the fancy shoe strings from Hot Topic because it makes it all more special. XD Just... make sure your feet are clean!

 

Thank you for the tutorial. I tried this and it worked!!!
I sueded my Unoss and I love her so much more now that she is so posable!!! Next I will be sueding my MSD, who so badly needs it...

I did a few things differently though.
I only unstrung my doll in stages. First I took the legs and feet off and did them.
I used a single hole hole-puncher to make the hole in the middle of the pliver pieces.
Since I didn't remove the lower torso, I threaded the pliver piece on the elastic through the hole that I made.
I used Anita's tacky glue for hard to hold surfaces, instead of crazy glue. It's much easier to work with and you can remove it from your fingers just by pealing it off.
I coated the entire surface to be glued, rather than doing it in stages.
It was really easy to stretch and mold the plivar pieces to fit into the joint socket and when I was done doing that with my fingers and a little help if a chopstick, I fit the corresponding boll joint into the socket with a little preasure to further help mold the pliver in.

The whole process took me about 45 minutes.

I use my knees, chopsticks and a stringing tool, but a piece of thin wire works well too.

 

I successfully sueded just the legs on my luts delf Shiwoo elf and my SD13 old style body. It works great! Andesha no longer stands like an old man with a bladder infection and Ghaleon has stopped kicking me in the face. Ghaleon's crazy legs were SO BAD he actually broke two fingers with it. ;n;

I used Leather Cement to attach the suede. It's basically just elmer's glue(white school glue) that's a bit stronger. I only know it's stronger because I had trouble pulling it off my fingers. n.n;; I also cut wedges into the suede peices also, it helped give a little lax when I couldn't get the suede to lay flat.


I'll suede my hound, Nathan, later on... but for now I am a very satisfied bat with very sore fingers.

 

One sheet is several square feet, it is enough to suede many dolls.

Thanks for posting about this, I got some and have done one mini dollfie. It was very easy to work with. Next time I may try Aleene's tacky glue because it may help with strethcing the leather...I had to cut darts in a couple of my joints, but that may be because I was doing it half asleep in the middle of the night...

But yeah, it was nice and thin, and the price was definitely right.

 

Here's what Hound can do once you suede him.



he's not being held up by anything but his own two feet. He's leaning and standing cross legged on his OWN. He only fell over because there was an especially strong gust of wind.

 

I finally did my Unoss body this weekend. My b/f helped and instructed me in the use and application of contact-glue. By putting the glue in both the sockets and on the leather, and then letting it dry for 10 minutes before applying and smoothing out, we got excellent results. Next up will be my Lishe-body....

I used Selleys Kwik Grip, but contact glue/contact cement are the general buzzwords. I still would have liked to try super glue GEL as Genie suggested, but the contact glue seems to be pretty solid.

 

I use Leather Weld from Tandy.. its a really good all round glue. I always used that when doing the porcelains (who need the leather in the same manner/areas these do). I have some I did 20 years ago.. and they are still "stuck" firm..
I have a huge bottle.. so tend to use it for all my glue needs.. no matter what the job.. eye lashes etc.. Its a very kind glue - dries clear.. water clean up.. and blah blah blah

I have purchased quite a few leathers from this bloke.. they are very good..and good prices.. and he is very helpful/friendly.

 

Quick, dumb question. You just put the suede in the socket part of the joint, correct? Not in the socket and on the ball?

I was just going to tighten the strings and perhaps wire my Hound, but it makes much more sense to do the job properly than just do a "quick fix."

Michelle

 

Yup! just the sockets. :3

 

I finally tried this out after having the pliver for a few months. My Lishe for the millionth time was giving me the fetal kick and pigeon toes while dressing her, so I got fed up and tried the sueding. Oh. My. God. Fantastic- the difference is simply amazing for CP dolls. She's been wired, but now with the sueding and wiring she poses and holds her poses now like a dream. She's almost perfect- I can actually enjoy playing with her without it being a frustrating struggle.

I just used plain old Eileen's tacky glue and it worked fine. I just wanted something water soluble so if I need to take it off in the future I can.

Thank you for recommending this Genie! I can't wait to do my sleeping Lishe- she's worse then my open eyed girl in terms of kickiness.

 

Well, so far so good.

I've put pliver on Dollshe Hound (body & legs only) and all over the place for Dollmore Dean and will wait until tomorrow before restringing, so the glue is really dry.

This pliver is great stuff; D-Dean has hip sockets that are large portions of a sphere & the pliver covered the whole thing, with some encouragement.

I'll see how the boys pose tomorrow & then it may well be on to Suede Everybody!!

Ann in CT

Okay, I'm convinced, if I needed to be.

My sueded Hound can now stand with his weight on one leg & the other slightly bent, like all those classical statues (except taller, proportionally).
Ok, and a headless statue at the moment with his paint scrubbed off, but I'm working on his faces.


Yay, sueding!

Dollmore Dean needs his sueding trimmed back to the edges of his sockets & to be re-strung still, but I expect he will pose much better, too. He will probably still require the wires in his legs.

[edit]: Dollmore Dean--first edition with problems with his legs & all can Stand By Himself with this suede. He can even hold out his arms full extension, or bring them in close. Hurrah!! His new hands, Delf #4 Boy hands, look pretty good, too, though the Delf resin is much darker than the Dollmore.

I'm so glad this thread encouraged me to suede my large boys.


Ann in CT

 

I now have a piece of pliver. I noticed on two sides of it the edges are much thicker than the majority of the hide. The thin part of the hide is what I am supposed to use, correct? And not use the sections of the hide that are really thin so you can almost see through it, correct?

And I should glue the rougher or smoother side of the pliver to the resin? There really isn't that much difference in the texture but I want to make sure I get it right the first time.

Thanks in advance for the advise!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Thin-Sheepskin-...1QQihZ007QQcategoryZ83938QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

They post worldwide! ^_^

 

Yeah! I finally sueded Nathaniel... and he stands by himself! No more Luts crazy legs :-)
I didn't suede his waist joint or neck joint ( I just spaced out and forgot) . When I suede Morgan, I will do all of him. If it makes a noticeable difference, I will go back and do Nathaniel more thoroughly.
Frankly, I was really nervous about doing this. I've had the pliver for maybe six months, but it was really easy. I used tacky glue and trimmed the pliver with an exacto (being very careful not to carve the resin!)
If you've been putting this off, go ahead and try it.
Susan :-)

 

Hi i know its a really silly question but does anyone have a pattern of the pieces to cut out for my Dark Elf Soo? Im just not sure what shapes to use of Suede.

Thanks

 

all of the links are pulling up as invalid item... help?

 

That is because they are such old links. I'm sure if you searched the words "pliver suede" on Ebay, you can find it.

 

all the pliver suede that I can find is already in garment or shoe form...

 

Do a search on ebay.com for "dollmaking pliver"-you will find several items for sale there. Hope that helps.

 

I did a quick search on eBay and typed in both plain "pliver" and "pliver suede" and I can tell you that you'll be better off inputting plain "pliver" as it seems the suede descriptor will bring up plenty of shoe or otherwise accessory related items... I've bought the stuff off eBay myself recently for sueding joints, and while it works rather well, it's not a magical fix-all solution for the kicking and flopping. I'd list the seller name whom I got the product from, but I'm not entirely sure that's allowed, so I'll stay on the safe side and just advise you to search for plain ol' "Pliver"~

Quick aside, but talking to some of the local doll collectors, there seems to be something of a divide between those who like their dolls huggable, and those who like then firm enough to stand on their own. If you're checking on sueding, you're probably of the firmer preference, and general advice I seem to get is that stringing the doll tighter tends to work quite well with sueding to make them very posable. It'll boil down to preferences in the end, but just a little extra food for thought if you feel your doll is too floppy~

 

I'm currently sueding my doll, a DIM Flowne. Her posing is so horrible, only after fighting will she stand even with her shoes on and its just been a nightmare. So short of getting her a new body ( I really wanted to!) Im going to give this and maybe wiring (if necessary afterwards) a go.

Im using plain ol' elmers glue-all and some store bought suede in a paechy color to match her skintone. (bought at Joann's in home decor section in tone Ivory) It's fairly thin though not paper thin.

Seems to be working well so far, Im putting her leg back in its hip joint to hold in the drying suede and glue and even as this is drying, I experimentally stood her up and the difference ALREADY is mind blowing! I'm excited to get the rest of her some floppy, some snappy, joints done! I'm very glad I found this tutorial I'll post an update after she's done to tell if the final result was totally worth it or not...here's hoping!

 

I have a question. I just bought some pliver off ebay to suede my dolls...BUT I also have two dolls that are of the dark variety and I'd rather get a somewhat browner leather for them just so it blends it more. Does anyone know the weight and/or thickness of pliver used for suedeing so I can search for a darker leather? Thanks!

 

Hi, this is a great thread! I've been blushing my first BJD today and while he's all dismantled I thought I'd suede him as well. Does anyone know if sueding the joints would help stop scratches from appearing on my blushing? Would PVA glue be the right sort of thing to use? Also I've googled pliver, and searched eBay.com and .co.uk and I'm getting zero results, could someone possibly pass on an up-to-date link?

Wish me luck with completing my first doll!

 

Just found an eBay seller, on about page 73 of the Google search! Why didn't they come up on the eBay search?! Grrrr! Pliver ordered now, i really hope I don't mess this up!

 

Here's a link to the seller's eBay store that I bought from. Hopefully it works for longer than just a listing does.
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/PARTNERS-LEATHER__W0QQ_armrsZ1

 

thanks! i might have to buy pliver from overseas since sheeps are not readily available in my place... >.< we only have goats here... and i'm not sure it will be the same! but thanks for the tutorial! XD

 

Fransyung, goat skin should do the same job. It is a waste product when they make suede, taking off the outer layer of the leather, where hair was formerly attached. Again, if you just search for "pliver leather" on eBay it will come up.

 

thank you... ^^ found it on ebay and it's really affordable.

 

I do kind of a hybrid, in that I use hot glue to glue down my suede (too impatient to wait for tacky glue to dry...) I've done both my 60cm girls and now my Volks SDM. For the big girls, I ended up removing the suede from my Musedoll's knees (even though she DESPERATELY NEEDS knee support) because it turns out that extremely narrow leg is also thin, and you could see the grey color of the suede I used through the resin. Ick. Might need to wire that child...

I went to the fabric district and hit up some shops for bag making to get suede, and picked out a goatskin that was 1mm thick and light beige. I always worry about dyed leathers staining somehow, so I avoid anything with color added to it. There's obviously a TON left, so I'm going to suede a few of my friend's dolls too. If you're struggling to find suede, definitely look for bag/purse making shops!

For my SDM, I ordered her "tight" and when she arrived I would describe her as floppy, so apparently I prefer preeeeeetty tight stringing. Weirdly, I think her arms are fine so I left them as they are. When I restrung/sueded her, I put suede in her ankles, knees, thigh socket, waist joint, and neck joint, but only in the back of the neck. I noticed with her heavier wig, her head would flop forward a lot, so I wanted extra grip in the back. Now she's a ROCK.