Supplies Where do you source your supplies? Elastic, eye putty, s hooks, etc

If you have them in your area where you live (in the US) I personally bought my forceps from a medical supply store, elastic from a local hardware store (advertised as shock cord, ~4mm for my 1/3rd scale) and sealants from a local anime shop that also sells art supplies for gundam kits and the like. Taking out the sealant, the forceps and shock cord rang me up about ~10 usd together. There are a lot of places online that I feel like mark up things because they can say it's "BJD specific," but if you look outside with generic terms, it gets a lot more affordable. I hope you're able to find things where you are that is accessible!

 

I unfortunately don't have much to offer in the elastic field, as I haven't had to brave restringing either of my dolls yet, but for other supplies I've had decent luck with a combination of my local art supply and gaming stores. Art supply stores I've found useful things at that are chains are Artist and Craftsman and Dick Blick. There's a fair amount of supply overlap between miniature painting and doll customization (to the point I steal my girlfriend's mini painting supplies sometimes), so if there's a store near you that hosts Warhammer or other wargames to play, they'll probably have at least some of the requisite painting supplies like high pigmentation paints, sealants, etc. A few shops I've been to also carry magnets because some people mod their minis to have swappable parts as well. If there's a Hobbytown near you I was decently impressed with their selection when I went there on a whim during a roadtrip.

 

I'm not in the US so can't name exact stores that would be good but:

• Elastic - look for "shock cord" or "elastic paracord" sometimes also "bungee cord". There are some specialist shops you can find online and sometimes hardware stores carry some - those tend to be a bit more durable. There is also similar round elastic in sewing shops but it's usually not as strong and will need to be swapped out often, Amazon tends to be hit or miss also.
• Face protectors - I have previously ordered from ACBJD or AliExpress/taobao but in a pinch i've also just cut up transparent plastic cups, and secured the raw edge with painters tape.
• Magnets are pretty easy to find - craft stores, hardware stores, sometimes stores with tools for jewellery making have magnetic closures available that can be used for making magnetic ears or horns and what not.
• Stringing tools - nothing I use for restringing is a special BJD tool crochet hooks, ribbon, wire, pipe cleaners, pliers are all easy to find. Sometimes a big s-hook from a hardware store is good as a head puller.
• Soft garden wire is good for wiring minis/tinies as it's already coated. I just cover the sharp ends with some painters' tape

Surprisingly enough, sometimes also fishing/hunting stores have useful stuff for crafting, and might have magnets, tools or shock cord.

 

Also not in the US, and also not having had to restring my dolls, ever since I got into this hobby more than a decade ago I've been on the lookout for supplies I might one day need when I finally got my first BJD (even back then, I was certain I would one day own one - today I house three, and am planning a fourth) so here are my results.

Eye putty: Any stationery or craft store should have poster putty, also sometimes called Sticky-tac. I use Faber-Castell Tack-it, myself, and one pack goes a long way. Other alternatives you can use are polymer clays. Do not use an oil based clay, nor an air-dry clay - the idea is for the putty/clay to stay malleable for easy removal/adjustments, and oil based clay will leave a residue behind that's difficult to clean. You can also find silicone ear plugs - the kind meant to be warmed in the hands and then molded to the ear. I've only found it in transparent, but it should come in all sorts of colours, and is easy to find at any pharmacy/drug store in your area, as they're commonly used for swimming.

As an alternative: Secret Art Studio makes magnetic eye caps in multiple sizes. These completely negate the need for eye putty, as you glue a magnet to the inside of the head, and the eye sits in the little cap against some wool roving, which allows the eyes to be infinitely repositioned. I haven't used these myself, but I'm planning to buy some custom eyes from them in future, and will likely try them out. They are based in Canada, however - Toronto, if I'm not mistaken.

Stringing tools: Seconding @cobaltconduct with crochet hooks. I happen to crochet as a hobby, and when I was trying to change my Lati Yellow's hands I accidentally let the S-hook slip too far into their wrist for me to reach. One tiny crochet hook to the rescue - I was not only able to pull the cord out, I was able to slide the handle of the hook into the lower part of the S-hook (the part that's attached to the elastic) to stop it sinking back in while I fiddled with her bag of hands. The only drawback is you want to be very careful with these - the tiny sizes (used for lace) are typically only available in steel, and it's very easy to scratch the resin with them if you're too vigorous. The larger, more 'standard' size hooks are usually available in plastic, typically in kits meant for children, and will be more likely to stain the channel than scratch it. I've also seen individual plastic hooks for sale in the crafting section at Wal-Mart, but I think they'd be too big for anything but a 1/3 scale. In any case - crochet hooks are extremely easily sourced from craft stores, but can be a bit on the expensive side, as crochet and knitting have become trendy hobbies again, which inevitably makes prices go up as demand increases.
Also useful for holding the elastic outside the doll, crochet stitch markers. I have locking stitch markers, and I can use them to 'lock' the elastic in place because the marker is too big to sink into the doll's arms, legs, or neck. They're usually plastic and come in multipacks, which is useful because I lose them all the time. I must have a stash of these things in some hidden corner of the house with how many I've lost over the years. The only caveat is if your doll is tightly strung, it might bend or even snap the marker, but if you aren't intending to use the marker for crochet, a bend is perfectly fine. A snap would be a sure sign your doll is too tightly strung.

Face protectors: Now hear me out, I know this sounds crazy - but many playline dolls you can find in any toy store have their heads resting on a shaped piece of clear plastic, with plastic ties attaching them to it. This often helps the doll hold a more dynamic pose in the package, without risk of it flopping about in there. If you happen to have a mature tiny in the same scale (1/6), or a 1/12 like Lati White, this piece of plastic can work as a face protector. It will have holes, naturally, but if it's only being used to protect the faceup in shipping (say, to an artist), it should work perfectly fine. I can't say this is true of all dolls, but the last Barbie I bought had one that was almost the perfect size and shape for my Lati White. I was so mad at myself when I realized I'd thrown it away.

 

I'm in the USA. I buy silicone earplugs from Walgreens for eye putty. I can use some sizes of s-hooks from hardware stores Lowe's, Home Depot etc for some dolls (I think it's been better with 1/4 than 1/3), I have made hand and foot s-hooks from safety pins cut and reshaped. I have gotten good quality elastic marketed for bjd for 1/4 or 1/3 arms and legs from Amazon before. I buy the 1/3 elastic kits from DDE when needed. I get 99cent aluminum wire (it comes in different colors) from Walmart for my wiring needs and to make the threading needle I use for restringing through arms and legs. I use citadel munitorium varnish (aerosol) sealant which I buy in person at a local games shop if available. It's carried by games workshop stores and some other small businesses that sell Warhammer etc. I use Vallejo or other brands of small acrylic paints for dnd mini and Warhammer etc figure painting as well. Those places also carry liner brushes sometimes but usually I've had to order those off Amazon.

 

I buy elastic cord and face protectors from Aliexpress. Shock/bungee cord can be floppy, make sure not to get the "very elastic" kind. Piper cleaners or bin ties to get the cord through the body. Eye putty: kneaded eraser. Forceps and sealant from craft store.

 

i'm in the US; i tried shock cord from Amazon once but it was awful, and i really haven't had any problems ordering from Alices Collections even since international shipping has gone crazy, so i just get my stringing cord from them if i need it. i have also bought it quite a few times from Dollmore's ebay store with no issues. same places for S-hooks, though i haven't found a need to buy those often. maybe once or twice over the years when the ones that came with a doll got misplaced...

other than that: stringing tools and forceps? i don't use them so no need to buy. my "stringing tools" are a ball of cheap acrylic yarn i've had forever and a slightly bent super skinny double pointed knitting needle that i lost the mate to. the needle is for poking the elastic through holes and down channels and the yarn is for threading a long piece through my elastic loop to give me something to pull on to get it stretched thru everything. i have restrung dolls more times than i can count with just those two things + whatever pen or pencil or paintbrush handle comes to hand to stick thru the end of the loop at wrist or ankle to keep a string held out while i attach a hand or foot.

eye putty: soft silicone earplugs. the generic/store brand ones from Walmart are cheap and work great.

sealant: i use Citadel Munitorum Varnish; pretty easy to find either at in-person craft stores in the model-painting section, or to order online from US-based sellers.

 

I haven't had to buy new elastic for my dolls, but Denver Doll sells restringing kits for various sized dolls. In terms of tools, I just use ribbon to pull it through channels as opposed to specific tools- the cheap kind that you can get at Walmart for like a dollar a spool, and my Loongsoul dolls came with what I can only describe as a giant s hook that I use to pull up the s hooks to remove heads, so I didn't need to buy anything to help with that. To keep things in place at the end of arms/ legs, I usually use a chopstick or pencil, though I do have forceps that I got ages ago from The Doll Planet ( initially to help removing plugs from inside fashion doll heads).

I've bought silicone/ rubber washers (kips) and s hooks on amazon, though I've also seen a tutorial from someone who makes s hooks from paperclips I think before. I've also gotten magnets, MSC, an airbrush and supplies there too. Army Painter has an amazon store front that I've used to get their supplies before, since the local gameshop doesn't sell single bottles of their airbrush paints.

Eye putty I use tack-it from Faber Castell, which you can get at most art and craft stores. It's also helpful for keeping sideburns on lace wigs in place. Most of my dolls have come with faceup protectors, so I just use those.

And for faceups I use a bunch of art supplies that I've hoarded. A lot came form arts and craft stores, amazon (mungyo pastels), and/ or arteza. I use a mix of paintbrushes, nail art brushes, and small makeup brushes, also from various places including the dollar store. pointed qtips I either got at the dollar store or Big Lots, same for acetone (I know some people don't like using it but I haven't had any issues). I've also bought art mediums (Liquitex makes several both professional and artist grade) at Michaels, where I can use a coupon and get an educator discount because of my job. They also have a miniature section where they usually have airbrush supplies, paints, and sealants, mostly from Testors, but I think they've had Vallejo more recently. I haven't tried either of those, but I know some people have had good luck with them. I'm still too new at using an airbrush to spend the money for iwata stuff though.

 

I can get a lot of BJD crafting materials from Morezmore. They have hair, elastic, hooks, glue, styling products, sculpting materials, and other miscellaneous materials. I've ordered several times and haven't had any issues, shipping is fast and they're located in the US, so don't have to worry about any additional charges.

I'm not affiliated in any way by this business, I just like the business.

Morezmore