When scary things happen, New 1/4 head

Last night someone tried to break into my apartment.
The person gave up before the police arrived and in the end no real harm was done, no one got hurt and things are fine. But it left me a bit shaken.
So to keep myself busy I did what any sensible doll hobbyist would do: I made myself a large pot of coffee and started sculpting a new doll head.

A couple of hours later, this is what I’ve got.
She is done all in one go without baking in between. She is made out of super sculpey with an aluminum foil core and with glass marbles as placeholders for the eyes. She is sized to fit on a kid Delf or Lati blue girl body.
Although I just started her to have something to do and intended her to only be a practice piece, I kind of like how she turned out and I will keep on working on her a bit, I think.

As usual, any kind of critique is welcome. I am constantly learning and improving but sometimes someone else’s eyes see things that mine don’t.

 

Thank you, dollsbestfriend. I'll try to get some updated photos soon.
Since the photo was taken I have adjusted her uneven eyeshape and done some detail work on her mouth, but apart from that most work I have done have been to the inside of the head and the back of the head, trying to get the more technical things to work. And debating to myself if I should go for two magnets or one magnet and a hook for the head closure.

Dogs and me don't mix well and neither does dogs and toxic and messy crafting materials, so no dog for me.

 

Thank you Allie!

 

I havent posted here for some time now and I am next to useless when it comes to take pictures as I work.
Not only have I finished sculpting her, but i have also made a test cast.
(I will split this into two posts because of the limit to number af attached images.)

Everybody, meet Skyfall!

 

And here is the cast.




It is far from perfect, but I have been using pretty low quality materials, so when I have the funds and time I will make another mold and do it properly. But for now I am very happy with how she turned out.

 

This is mostly a test. What I really wanted to know was if I was on the right track when planning vents and the orientation of the head in the mold and if I could get away without degassing the resin.

The mold was made from RTV 151 which is a very cheap and rather wobbly silicone. It is a little hard to work with since it is the type where you have to mix in a very small and very exact amount of hardener, not the type where you mix two equal parts. Sometimes it is hard to mix it evenly and that can cause all sorts of problems. The silicone itself is also a bit uneven in its consistency and tends to form thick sediment at the bottom of the can, which has to be stirred up before it is used. It is heavy work and if there are still lumps in it when you mix in the hardener you can get pockets in the silicone that doesn’t set.
To make things worse, this silicone war bordering on too old, but I thought I could just as well use it up for this and make it a test. If it didn't work I wouldn't have lost anything.

The resin I was using, while not bad quality in itself, was also a bit old and because of that, hard to mix evenly and it doesn’t set as fast as it should.

With that taken into consideration, this worked out quite well.
Now I know the general idea and way to work can be done here at home and I also know the exact amounts I need for both mold and casting. So now it will be easier to shop for better materials and estimate how many heads I can get out of a certain amount of resin.

It is tempting to fix this one up with epoxy and sanding. I might do it, but we’ll see. There is a small risk that the resin have not set properly and will start to "sweat" over time, if so I will obviously have to get rid of it. But time will tell.

Thank you for showing interest.