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Post by Tovah_Leah on Sept 24, 2014 22:56:31 GMT -8
I have been working on making my own porcelain dolls for a long time now, nearly two years I believe. I have started, thrown away, restarted, cut apart, reconstructed, sanded, baked, sanded again, molded, shaved away, cut my fingers, baked again... well, you get the picture! I never get very far. In the past I have made simple mistakes that end up hurting in the long run. My first doll was much too big, I had to restart. My second doll was much too small when I took into account the shrinkage that would happen porcelain during the baking process. Luckily, I never get very far before I realize my mistake and scrap my WIPs. Now, finally, I believe I am on the right track. My current plan is to make a first draft in original oven bake sculpey, which will be roughly 17 inches tall. Then, I will move to carving wax, refine and smooth my forms, and have wax master parts. After that, I will move on to porcelain. With shrinkage taken into account, my final doll should end up around 13.5 inches tall. Given the timeline I have been working on, with my tendency to abandon the project for school for months at a time, I cannot say how long this will take me. My current goal is to have something substantial to show by the end of the school year (at least my sculpey draft, if not my wax master parts). Hopefully, this will be easily attainable. I don't have very much to show as just a few days ago I decided to move in a different direction with my doll (again). But, I do have a leg which I am very pleased with. I have found some problems, like being limited by the size of wooden beads and spheres at the hobby lobby and Michaels. My hip joint is therefor smaller than I had planned, but I believe I can work around this, at least for now. It still needs a lot of sanding, and possibly some resculpting, but so far so good.  Legs_01 by Tovwig, on Flickr  Legs_02 by Tovwig, on Flickr  Legs_04 by Tovwig, on Flickr |
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Post by nenethomas on Sept 25, 2014 2:02:56 GMT -8
Looking good so far and I really like the curvy shape. So that is sculpy? The color seems really unusual. I do want to give you a warning though. I too, was limited by the lack of proper wooden ball sizes at Hobby Lobby and it has caused me nothing but grief. I think that really small size you have is going to wind up causing you a lot of trouble as well. Might I suggest rubber balls instead, (as long as you only use them for sizing and don't bake them with the clay)? I think I'm going to go with something like that on my doll 2.0
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Post by Tovah_Leah on Sept 25, 2014 3:52:49 GMT -8
Yes, it is sculpey. Its an off white color, the box says white, but its rather grey in most light. And, the more it is baked the tanner it becomes. I was gifted an 8 pound box of it a few years ago, around the time I started making my doll, so I decided to use it mostly out of convenience. I admit, I don't really like the material. It gets gummy and soft very quickly, so I have to disrupt my sculpting to pop it in the oven more often than I would like.
And that is disheartening to hear about the balls. I was figuring that once I got to a point where the small hips would no longer work I could go on a more focused search for something that would work and then just cut off and resculp the top of the thighs. As of now, I do need to be able to bake the material that the joins are made of. Maybe I will see what I can find online, I'm sure more sizes would be available to me through ordering.
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Post by nenethomas on Sept 25, 2014 4:21:33 GMT -8
The bjd artist Batchix has a series of ball-joints available from shapeways. I haven't tried them myself, but they look like they could work: spheres for balljoints And they already have the little slots in them! Drilling through wooden spheres to do test stringing sucks so bad! I think I need to get a set of her joints! |
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Post by Tovah_Leah on Sept 25, 2014 4:40:20 GMT -8
Oh those are quite interesting! What is shapeways? Are they plastic joins? I actually did a quick google online and ordered some wooden 1.25 inch balls. The ones on the leg currently are 1 inch (it was that or 1.5 inch from my current stock, which was too big). I'm hoping they will work! I suppose I will find out in a week or so.
As for drilling, I haven't thought that far honestly. Since I am going to be doing a second draft/master parts in wax, and knowing that would be hollow naturally, my plan was to test string then and just get my range of motions and proportions down on the sculpey draft. I'm unsure the sculpey would even live through a drill.
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Post by allurose on Sept 25, 2014 5:20:02 GMT -8
Tovahg, I think your leg looks great! And it can really fold up, so important!
Wow, those batchix joints are really cool!
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Post by Tovah_Leah on Sept 25, 2014 6:29:41 GMT -8
Thank you Allurose, having the thigh and calf fit together is very important to me. I still have a lot of fixing to do to make that seamless when the leg is folded.
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fawkes
Senior Member
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Post by fawkes on Sept 29, 2014 9:04:18 GMT -8
You say you've started a leg but what about the rest of the body? I think you should start with a blueprint - a drawing of your project which would also include the size of your ball joints... and work on the whole body at the same time. Believe me it will save time to know precisely where you want to go. You can then refine each part independently as necessary. What's important too is a good knowledge of anatomy - the body of course , but also the face, the hands and the feet. Mistakes are normal, don't panic or get discouraged when you make them. Learn from your mistakes. Your leg looks fine; you can fold it very well but have a look at the muscles of the thighs and calves. Keep in mind that legs are not fully straight (anatomy books can help you with that). What's difficult is to reach a compromise between form and function.
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Post by Tovah_Leah on Sept 29, 2014 18:57:23 GMT -8
Fawkes, I do have a blueprint. As I mentioned, I have started and restarted many many times. This time, I happened to start with the leg, because it was just on my mind with the mechanics I suppose. But, here is my current blueprint which I am loosely following and what little of the body I've worked on, as well as an old body that I am more closely modeling off of, but just making it bigger:  IMG_0885 by Tovwig, on Flickr I received my 1.25 inch balls, yay! So I switched the leg sockets out with those. I am happy with the current size of them now. |
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fawkes
Senior Member
Posts: 297
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Post by fawkes on Sept 30, 2014 8:23:28 GMT -8
It looks fine so far. I can see you've sanded the leg, haven't you? Keep up the good work  |
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Post by kellys on Sept 30, 2014 8:55:31 GMT -8
You're making progress, TovahG! Knees give me headaches. Like fawkes said- the legs have a curve, from the top, through the knee and down into the calf. Restarting is a good thing, you will gain experience from each effort. Be sure and string the whole thing as you're working to see how the parts interact.
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Post by Tovah_Leah on Sept 30, 2014 19:13:40 GMT -8
Yes Fawkes, I have sanded the calf a little, but it still needs some shaping! The thigh is in a rougher state and the knee is somewhere in between.
And thank you Kelly, I actually cannot currently string my pieces because they are not hollow. A drill is on the top of my list of tools to buy once I have a little extra cash!
You two are making me worry that my leg isn't curved in the right places, I hope it turns out more like I am thinking it will, and less like it photographs.
Although I must say I am intrigued by the Olesiida dolls in the artist discussion board where the hip joint is attached to the torso.. I am considering going in that direction. I'm not sure yet though, it needs some contemplation!
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Post by Tovah_Leah on Oct 4, 2014 11:23:52 GMT -8
Here comes a body! Obviously its quite rough at this point, but I am finally honing in on a solid look and good mechanics for my girl. I've decided she will have hip joints attatched to her torso, and that she will also have a double jointed thigh so that she can bring her legs up to her chest.  IMG_0889 by Tovwig, on Flickr The photo makes it seem like my proportions are off from my drawing, but I think that is just becuase one is 3d and one is 2d. In reality, the proportions seem to be correct to me thus far. Although I think I might raise the hips a bit, and give her more of an hourglass instead of a pear shape. |
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Post by allurose on Oct 4, 2014 12:03:12 GMT -8
That looks great! It's really coming along!  |
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Post by Tovah_Leah on Oct 4, 2014 15:21:43 GMT -8
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