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Part 1 ***
Posted By Natasha Red October on January 2, 2010
Ball-jointed dolls interested me very much for a while, but Lily by Enchanted Dollsimpressed me so much I had to drop everything and make my own BJD. Well, I have not seen a BJD in real life, only on internet but I am not scared! I think Somebody pass me the salts [UPDATE - I think I should clarify the matter. What I would like to attempt to do is to apply BJD techniques to the traditional OOAK dolls - in other words, BJD on a smaller scale, using polymer clay, Magic Sculpt, tubing, etc - all the materials I am used to. So it will not be exactly a BJD, as we know it, but I would like it to work like one]. First thing - I got to read SOMETHING on the matter, I suppose. So I got a bookYOSHIDA STYLE BALL JOINTED DOLL MAKING GUIDE Now, the book is in Chinese. A Japanese (original) version is also available, but getting it in Japanese would not help me either. Well, no fear. The pictures are very clear, I will use what I can figure out and add to it my own ways as I learn. If I must read something, I will find a Chinesespeaking person to help me, I am sure. [UPDATE - GREAT NEWS! APPARENTLY THE TRANSLATION IS DONE AND AVAILABLE AT THIS LINK Den of Angels Forum translation of Yoshida Style Ball Jointed Dolls Making Guide
I also read a bit about BJD on google - looked at the pictures, etc. And lastly, I was thinking about it for a couple of weeks every night before going to sleep - picturing in my head the mechanics of the ball joints from what I saw on the web and deciding which kind I would like to try first there are several types of ball joints and it is hard to know which one I prefer. So, to start with, I made a drawing on how to go about it using the materials that I already know and have in my studio. It is a good start. I am prepared to find that some of the mechanics as I see them now might not work and I am not worried about it. Once I know what does not work, I will be closer to finding the ways that do work. So, off I go. Rough drawing of all the parts - something to start with The elbow and knee joints can be a single-ball joint and a double-ball joint. I will go with a single-ball joint for the time-being - I think it is easier and next time will try a double-ball joint. Proportions of my future doll - taken from the book.
Printout - it is 12 inches tall (about 30.5 cm) a ball cut out of styrofoam and mixed Magic Sculpt.
Mixed Magic Sculpt goes over styrofoam to make a core for the head. There are holes for eyes, for neck and also a trace line around the head to remove the head "lid" later.
Here is the chest (upper part of the torso) - again, mixed Magic Sculpt around a piece of styrofoam Lower part of the torso - same thing Pieces of brass tubing and temporary ball joints - they serve somewhat like spacer beads so that I could sculpt around them keeping the proportions. When the doll is sculpted, fired and cut at the joints, I will replace the ball joint.
Hand armature:
Pieces of steel wire GA 24, painted with Ultimate glue and covered with shredded cotton ball (I used a q-tip), removed some cotton from it, cut it into small pieces with scissors.
Rotate gently between your fingers, to evenly coat the wire. Then tied it together with sewing thread.
hand palm from Magic Sculpt. Same thing for the feet (well, almost the same).
And here is what I have as of now. Out of time, will continue tomorrow.
Thank you for watching! The Magic Sculpt cured and of course, I couldn't wait to string her together. Right now she is strung temporarily - with a simple string. Then I couldn't help playing with her a little bit -it is going to be a LOT OF FUN to make her, I already feel it! Ok, until tomorrow - for real this time - I need to ship a lot of packages mailman will be coming soon.
January 4, 2010
Well, that head I made out of magic sculpt - no good, cannot use it. Started new one out of clay - inside there is a tube 5/32 and a temporarily ball in the neck. Traditionally, it takes me 3 days to make a head - and that is an improvement from 7 days a few months ago. So, here you go - the result of the Day 1. Will try again tonight or tomorrow morning. I wish I could just improve on this one but I doubt it - there is no room for the chin
- the chin is too close to the neck. So, unfortunately, need to start from scratch. Talk to you later - thank you for watching.
January 6, 2009
Made another head - still not good. Will continue.
January 7, 2009
Yet another head - better! I ran out of time - it still needs work, but I am happier. The clay is Puppen Fimo Rose.
Also first experiments with ankle joint. The only elastic I have here is an elastic tie for turkey cooking. It is too thick, but works - until I get a better elastic. The metal inside the joint is a piece of steel wire 17 GA. There is a small straight piece going across the ball and an S-hook hooked to that little piece. The joint works, although the slot is too long and the range of movement is too wide for a human ankle - in other words, human ankle joint does not move that far. But this is something easy to correct - just decrease the slot by adding a little clay and rebaking.
posed - polymer clay surface has a very good grip on another polymer clay surface. Here is what I have - thank you for watching talk to you later
January 9, 2010
Good morning! I was thinking about how to go about the chest - where the elastic strings need to cross - and here is what I came up with, let us see if it works. I had a power outage all day yesterday and couldn't recharge my camera so I will just draw what I did with the chest. Of course, I can't help playing with the little I have
About the hands - the wire armature did not work - it is too thick for this size of hands. So I used another idea. I wish I could take pictures yesterday - no electricity, but I hope it is clear from the drawings. It actually worked very well, I liked this way. The cotton thread ends sticking out of the fingers help to move fingers around while working on them. When I say thick cotton thread - it is really thick - I am not sure what kind it is - the picture is below. The hands are baked and I have been trimming the irregularities and bumps gently with the scalpel. I will need to sand hands a bit, add tiny bits of clay here and there, cover it with liquid clay and rebake later. That is all for today - thank you for watching and good weekend to you!
plate sprayed with a tiny bit of Pam (cooking oil spray - for my nonAmerican readers) and wiped almost clean - much better - the ball slid right off. Meanwhile, the time has passed and I had to stop. By the way, the reason I was making the chess cross out of Magic Sculpt is the following - I made it first out of clay, baked - the tube slides inside the clay up and down, left and right. I would rather have them stable there. I also decided to make all ball joints out of magic sculpt, with a layer of clay on the surface, so that the wire hooks and tubesstay there deadset. The clay is not strong enough for this type of action. Anyway will continue later.
Continued from Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 1
3. Attached fingers to the back of the palm 4. Put S-hook joing and the palm piece on top, pressed it all together
5. Made indentations between the fingers and sealed and smoothed the clay seams there with the Fine Point Rubber Tool. 6. Attached and formed the thumb with Kemper Johnston 3-in-1 Sculpting Tool, also known as Jack Johnston Primary Sculpting Tool.
7. cut off excess clay and thread on finger tips 8. made finger joint creases with the other end of Kemper Johnston 3-in-1 Sculpting Tool
9. Palm lines in Russia they are called Fate lines again, with Fine Point Rubber Tool. 10. Other tools used a plastic straw cut at an angle to make nail beds, scalpel, colour shapers (also called clay shapers) in Size 0.
Here you go they are baked, they are looking pretty good to me but I see some things I dont like, so I will detail them tomorrow shave some clay off with a freshscalpel, add clay where needed, cover with Translucent Liquid Sculpey and rebake.
Here is also a first go at the elbow joint. The joint is made out of clay, with a piece ofbrass tube inside, the arm and forearm also clay with brass tube inside. The arms need lots more sculpting and fitting, of course. I stringed them on a rubber band to see what needs to be done, other than the obvious and took some pictures.
Here is what I have will continue tomorrow. Thank you very much for watching
And again, change of plans Yes, it will work pure Polymer clay. I am happy I made a joint it works. All that needed is a good fit of the joint. A VERY GOOD FIT. I will post the pictures shortly.
Now, I will try to make the same joint in the scale for my doll I am making two joints at the same time. Here is step-by-step: 1. Made balls out of clay, made a hole now they look like beads. 2. Put small pieces of plastic drinking straws inside the hole rolled between my palms again to make them round and baked. Baking at the highest temperature allowed by manufacturer 260 degrees for Fimo good 20 minutes I need all the strength I can get. 3. Removed the plastic straws out of the beads the easiest way is with the needle file.
4. Jointed the balls together, with a piece of plastic straw, put some clay around to make cylinders and baked.
5. Cut the sides off to make flat sides this will prevent the joint from rotating sideways making the rotation possible only in one plane (forward and backward).
6. Cut and filed and sanded the slits for elastic one side only that will allow to bend the elbow forward and not backwards 7. Put the piece of clay around the joint wider on the outside of the elbow, narrower on the inside of the elbow. That will prevent the joint from rotating backwards. The front part will be fine-tuned later shaved with knife and sanded to make a good close fit. Baked again.
9. Made arms and forarms approximate I am interested in the joint part right now, and worry about the other ends later. 10. Inserted plastic straws inside.
11. Made the sockets by inserting the balls into the ends of the arms and forearms. To prevent the balls from sticking, wet the balls before inserting. The sockets are exact negatives of the balls. 12. Marked the arms and forearms the same letters and baked.
13. Remove the straws. 14. Match letters they fit just right.
I am out of time so tomorrow I will make the other ends of arms and forearms, make them look like arms by cutting and shaving and adding clay and rebaking. The sockets also need sanding to make them look nicer. Thank you for watching talk to you later.
About the neck I am going back to a separate ball in the neck like I had in the beginning in other words, neck, separate ball, head instead of what I have now ball and neck together. I made the neck ball joint and the torso as one piece because that is what everybody else does in all the pictures I see them together, but now I miss the freedom of movement in the neck that I had a few days ago. The stringing: I am using a very thin and very long crochet hook to pull the elastic through. The elastic that I have in my disposal is of very poor quality it is actually a piece of turkey tie which is available at the grocery store. I will be ordering good elastic today in two or three different grades of thickness. It is one piece loop and I will draw a diagram later to show how it goes it that way works all the way through for the entire doll. I am also talking to a manufacturer of miniature springs ready to place an order for 1000 springs 2 mm diameter by 40 mm long. I think that should work the springs can be cut in two or three parts to make them shorter (the last coil will form a hook) or linked together to make them longer. Thank you talk to you later!
February 3, 2010
Good morning. I have a little more. I am waiting on elastic I cannot string her the turkey elastic string tie that I am using is too short. But I can work on individual parts. Here are the pictures:
The concept for the doll is a teenage Nepali dancer. The inspiration came from thehaunting face on the cover of the music CD that I have been listening to. The female voice rising out of the male chorus chant sends shivers up my spine. The music is Tantra from Tibet album by Waterbone
Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind it is a perfect fit. Enjoy this dance the girl is amazing
Continuing from Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 2. I have some progress to report: My first ball-jointed doll is sculpted. Her name is Smita which means Smile in Sanskrit. Smita taught me a lot! I am going to make version II, taking into account everything that I learned from Smita. Meanwhile, here she is:
at Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 4.
Continuing from Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 3 As I said in the previous part, now it seems a little more clear how to make a ball-jointed doll. So I have started on a new improved Smita. Here is what I have so far:
DAY 1 Lets start with the head, neck and upper torso. The head and the upper torso will be hollow this time. So, step by step: Piece 1 Head. Piece 2 Upper Torso. 1. Rolled a sheet of aluminum foil into a tight ball for the head. Roll a sheet of aluminum foil into a tight ball for the torso. Shape the ball into the torso shape. Insert a piece of plastic straw for the neck. Aluminum foil and plastic straws can be found in your kitchen cabinet or in a grocery store.
2. Covered with a layer of clay. I am using Living Doll clay, which is, in a nutshell, generic Prosculpt clay same formula, same manufacturer, different name. I loveProsculpt and therefore, I love Living Doll. Here they are. The difference in color is because one is not baked, the second one is baked. Also, different lighting. But it is the same clay, although it does not look it. If you have a piece of dirty clay, here is your chance to use it up. 3. Baked both pieces for 15 minutes at 275 degrees F in the Deni convection oven.
4. Forced a piece of wood through the head (that sounds painful, doesnt it) for a handle. After several false starts only 3, I am definitely getting better I managed to make a face I can live with. The head is baked (20
minutes at 275 degrees F). I can see a couple of spots that I need to add clay and a couple of spots to sand, but overall it is satisfactory.
5. Cut a wider opening at the neck hole. With a pair of forceps, piece by piece, I got all the aluminum foil out. 5. With an X-Acto knife cut a round opening on the top of the head as well. The idea is to install a hook inside the lid, so that, when the doll is strung with elastic cord, the lid will shut down tightly and hide all elastic. At least that is the theory.
Ok, Ive got to stop need to start my working day. Here what I have yes, the neck will be wider. The next step sculpt the neck, the nect joint and upper torso. Thank you for watching!
DAY 2 This morning it occured to me that the chin is a bit too long, the lips are a bit too puffy and the eyes are a bit too bulgy. All those things can be fixed with sanding so off I go with the sanding paper. I like sanding my dolls and always sand all parts, however, the results of sanding the face can be sometimes unpredictable, as you will see later the personality of the doll might change rather significantly. However, sanding makes the face smooth, symmetrical and if I need more clay somewhere, here is my chance to add it. I needed more clay to make the neck socket for the neck ball. A wooden bead helped to make it nice and round.
So, after sanding it all over, I washed it with a toothbrush and soap that takes all the sanding dust away. Let it dry completely (got coffee). With a flat filbert brush, applied a thin layer of Translucent Liquid Sculpey. Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS) is self-leveling, meaning it will spread over the surface evenly, provided that it is not too much and it is not dripping and it is not too little. It fills tiny grooves left by sanding paper and whatever tiny cracks and separations in the clay that are invisible to the human eye. My bottle of TLS is pretty old, so yesterday I put some Sculpey Softener Oil, let TLS sit overnight and shook it vigorously this morning my TLS got back its nice flow.
After brushing TLS all over, I baked her for 10 minutes at 275 degrees F. The small amount of clay that I added and thin layer of TLS does not take a lot of time to set.
So here is what I have she is smooth and more symmetrical, but, as I said, she changed. She looks a bit older that is good, as I am going for a 12-year old, but not as much personality as before. I am going to continue with her as she is. Overall, I am happy with her. Thank you for watching talk to you next time!
DAY 3 Good morning, Happy Haloween! Piece 1 Head. Piece 2 Upper Torso. Anyway, next step is the neck joint. First I put the bulk of the clay on the torso, made the neck joint to fit the head socket (while it was raw, I just
pushed it into the socket, carefully pull out, trying to preserve the shape). Putting a bit of water on the clay helps a lot. Then baked the torso, cut it open and took all the aluminum foil out the same way as with the head. The torso is hollow now. Then fitted the neck joint by scraping and sanding bit by bit. Then strung head and torso with an elastic loop and tested the neck joint please see the pictures below. The neck joint works very well holding the position nicely and looking very graceful, I think.
On the back of the neck I made a stopper that indent which looks like a step it prevents the head from going too far backwards and too far around when the doll is looking over her shoulder.
As I suspected and I am sure it is not a mystery to everybody who is more experienced in it the key to a good ball joint (the one that works and looks good while doing it) is a good tight precise fit of the ball and socket. The first doll stands all right and keeps simple poses, but I want to see if I can push the envelope this time and make the second doll keep complicated poses requiring balance of the whole body dancing poses. The strategy is first, making good-fitting joints, second, line them with liquid latex, third, make the whole doll lighter by making larger openings in the limbs and hollow parts (head and body). But the neck joint works so
well, that my idea of lining the socket with liquid latex (I was mulling over it for a few days) seems unnecessary at the moment. Well, we shall see how the whole dolls joint structure will work. DAY 4 Good evening. Piece 3 Right Hand. Piece 4 Left Hand. I am going to make cotton thread armature in the hands similarly to the way I made them the first time: (Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 2) So, here we go: 1. Cut cotton thread with sharp scissors to make 5 pieces. 2. Made clay fingers, and two pieces of clay for palm and back of palm.
The tools that you see on the picture are (from left to right): Tiny Polished Hook (will be available at Morezmore in a couple of days), Miniature Clay
Sculpting Tool SPOON, ,Fine Point Rubber Tool and X-Acto knife.
Someday I will make a really detailed thorough description how to make the hands, for now shape the hands into hands shape. Palm lines this is new tool that I just got from Alex Mergold (AMCreatures) it is a tiny polished hook amazingly handy tool, just like other tools invented by by this talented artist who is also a fantastic innovator. The other two tools are Miniature Clay Sculpting Tool SPOON
and Mermaid Tail Sculpting Tool. Cut the thread off, make a ball for the wrist joint, pierce it with a needle for the S-hook pin, bake.
Baked, then made a slot in the wrist for S-hook with a needle file. Made an S-hook from the resilient wire. This wire is very hard to bend into S-hook, and almost impossible to unbend. To help with the task, I am using round nose pliers, wire cutters and flat nose pliers. Fastened the S-hook in the wrist slot with a pin made out of the same wire.
DAY 5
DAY 6 Piece 5 Right Elbow Joint. Piece 6 Left Elbow Joint. This is Take 2 I actually already made the arms yesterday half-way, but was not happy the elbow joint was too big and the arm appeared swollen at the elbow. So I am redoing the arms and taking more pictures and posting more details. Here you go, new set of arms, blow by blow:
Piece 7 Right Arm (Wrist Socket). Piece 8 Left Arm (Wrist Socket). Added clay to the wrist end of the arm piece, make into a skinny drumstick.
With a wooden handle, made an indentation, smaller in the diameter, than the wrist ball. Cleaned out the inner tube opening. Inserted the wrist ball into the wrist socket and made it fit. Carefully pulled the hand out and baked.
Cut, scraped and sanded to make wrists as slender and delicate as I possibly can. The wrists balls stay in the wrist sockets even without the elastic, but not too tight. It is very useful to name the pieces otherwise it gets confusing I might grab the wrong piece which happen to fit that particular socket
accidentally but it is wrong one and I woulld continue without noticing it happened to me, had to redo the whole piece, so now I mark them and make sure I put them in the correct order. It also makes the assembling the pieces for posing and pictures so much faster.
Thank you for watching Talk to you later! DAY 7 Good morning! Piece 7 Right Arm (Elbow Socket). Piece 8 Left Arm (Elbow Socket). Made drumstick shape on the upper end of the arm. The drumstick is flattened, not round (look at your own arm).
Made an indent with a wooden handle (smaller in diameter than my elbow joint). Opened and cleaned out the opening inside with a brass tube. Inserted elbow joint into the indent and shaped it to fit. To keep it alighned, it is better to run the brass tube (or any wooden stick that fits) through both parts the elbow joint and arm. Carefully pulled the elbow joint and put into the oven to bake.
Piece 2 Upper Torso (Shoulder Sockets). Two pancakes of clay, smoothed out on the torso.
Two wooden beads on toothpicks. They go into the socket half-way (see the line on the wooden bead).
Day 8 Piece 9 Right Forearm (Elbow Socket). Piece 10 Left Forearm (Elbow Socket). Well, I forgot to take the pictures, but thankfully, the elbow sockets on the forearms are made the same way as the elbow sockets on the arms. (see the above post). The top part is just drumstick at the moment the shoulder joint is not done yet. I will make the shoulder joints next and
scrape and sand and shape the entire arms make them as slender and smooth and graceful, as I can. Another thing that I did but did not take pictures off was opening (cutting) the elbow sockets (all four) at the front. Tomorrow I will draw the picture how to open the elbow joint and add it here. Ok, here it is: Meanwhile, I decided to string together what I have and just look at her. I am using 2 mm elastic and a thin metal crochet hook.
The next thing is to make shoulder joints, complete elbow joints and sand all surfaces on the arms to make them pretty. Thank you for watching, talk to you later! Day 9 Piece 11 Head Top
Piece 9 Right Forearm (Shoulder Joint). Piece 10 Left Forearm (Shoulder Joint). The shoulder joints took quite a bit of cutting and fitting, fitting and cutting. Some sanding in between. At the same time I was working on the general shape of the forearm, using these anatomy images for reference. The images are from the book Figure Drawing for what it is worth by Andrew Loomis.
Piece 7 Right Arm. Piece 8 Left Arm. Piece 9 Right Forearm. Piece 10 Left Forearm. Piece 5 Right Elbow Joint. Piece 6 Left Elbow Joint. This took cutting and sanding, trying to make the arms slender. Small ribbons of clay went on the elbow joints to complete them. Here is what I have little by little she is coming to life. Thank you for watching talk to you tomorrow!
Day 11 Piece 12 Lower Torso It is a struggle so far. But I have a great idea will show next time! Thank you talk to you later!
Day 12 Springs instead of elastic I did not get to my great idea this morning, as I spent the time stringing the doll withsprings instead of elastic. Stringing with elastic every time I need to check something started to get a little old. So off I go with the springs. The springs that I have are really miniature I got the smallest available. They are too dainty for the heavy polymer clay doll I am making. Looks like I need to get larger stronger ones. However, I found a solution for this time doubling the spring (making it into a loop) it provides enough power for this doll. After I finished putting it all together, I drew a diagram, here it is:
If you care to see the bigger image of the diagram, here it is: http://morezmore.com/galleries/BJDIIe/xl_100_7029.jpg On the picture (on the right, just above) all the things I used: springs , resilient wire to make S-hooks, pliers, wire cutters, thin crochet hook, needle tool (just a sewing needle I put on a handle).
Day 13
To be continued:
Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 5 ***
Posted By Natasha Red October on May 20, 2011
Continuing from Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 4
May 20, 2011 I did the legs and, unfortunately, did not have time to do the description Smita is my second BJD doll and is quite a learning curve. The legs took so much fitting and cutting and remaking. I think on the third doll I will be able to write a good description. So, the legs are sculpted here are a few work in progress pictures: