Ball Jointed Dolls - Is there anyone out there?
 

I love them. I think they're an amazing work of art. The face-up (as it is called) you see above is all hand drawn and painted on that doll's face. I feel like this art contains so many different ways to create something it's amazing. You draw the eyebrows on with a colored pencil. You paint the eyelashes on with ink. People sculpt these dolls out of fine clay and cast them. Finally someone buys the doll and customizes it to their fancy, wigs, eye balls, custom face-ups, clothing.

There are people who sculpt these dolls, people who paint their faces, people who sew clothes for them... their customization is astounding. Although, they are really REALLY expensive. I will not mention the price because that's NOT what I want this thread to be about.

I want to sculpt one of my own one day ^_^. I started this thread to see if there's anyone out there who knows what these are and maybe... if there's someone who might know how to make one... or help atleast. Feel free to ask questions and talk about BJD's on this thread! I want to see how many people want to know or already know about these little ... (well not that little) beauties. :)

Post away! Feel free to ask questions! Thank you!

LINKS
The most prominant Ball Jointed Doll dealers:
Volks (The Original)
Soom (home of gems of the forest)
LUTS (Mysterious children and animals)

YELLOWING HELP
Sometimes soaking for several days can help reduce the yellowing done to a doll. As for heads, the threads I read said the soaking didn't touch the acrylic paint even though it wasn't sealed, but I'd be extra careful on this. Dolls only slightly off white have been known to come back to life after an hour of soaking. :) This will probably not get rid of all yellowing but may reduce it enough so that when you look at before/after photos you notice a difference. PLEASE, USE EXTREME CAUTION IF YOU ARE TO ATTEMPT THIS. It's your doll, you love it, be careful. Also, if you are wary use a less intense soaking recipe.

Ingredients: baking soda + peroxide in distilled water. no scrubbing. 5+ days soak!

DOLL MAKING TIPS:

Sculpt:
CLAY: wood clays, air-dry clays, or ceramic clays
☻ Apoxie Sculpt:
☻ Sculpey
☻ Super Sculpey(same as sculpey living doll): stronger than sculpy
☻ Fimo
☻ Paperclay: (you need a really good sealant before you cast because it is so porous)
o Creative Paperclay
☻ LaDoll: $10 a lb. Air Dry
☻ *Marblex Gray Clay: $10 for 5 lb’s. Air Dry

CORE:
☻ Styrafoam core: (covered with plastic wrap or tape)
☻ Alluminum Foil core:
☻ Newspaper core:

Cast:
Mold:
☻ RTV silicone (Goes into the pores of clay so use a sealant on the clay before molding)
☻ Materials for constructing a mold box (foamcore and duct table, PVC pipe, Legos, or whatever you like to build the boxes out of)
☻ A non-sulfurous clay
☻ Silicone
☻ Vaseline or some other release agent
☻ Mixing containers
☻ Stir sticks

Cast:
☻ Polyurethane resin
☻ polytek's uv stablizer

Other:
☻ Krylon primer

Crap to never use because it sucks:
☻ Das Pronto clay

What to NOT do:
☻ you can't bake resin if you intend to eat anything that came out of that oven
☻ you DEFINITELY can't bake sometime with primer on it. But you CAN boil it
RESIN IS TOXIC, NEVER DO ANYTHING WITH RESIN WITHOUT THE PROPER VENTILATION AND A GAS MASK!!!

FACE UPS:

Materials to use:
☻ Soft pastels and acrylic paint
☻ watercolor pencils
☻ 70% Isopropyl Alcohol or Winsor & Newton brush cleaner (For cleaning purposes, these are safe bets.)
☻ Aleene's Tacky Glue (or PVA glue in the UK) - (A good glue to use for gluing in eyelashes, since if you need to remove them, it will peel away rather easily yet holds the eyelashes firmly in place)

Sealants:
☻ Testors Dullcote (it may tint your doll’s skin color though)
☻ Zoukeimura Finishing Powder
☻ MSC (Mr. Super Clear)
☻ Citadel/ Games Workshop Matte Sealer (durable, wears well, has a little more tooth to it. Do not spray too close or in high humidity)
☻ Model Masters (apparently this is works fine)
☻ Folkart "Clearcote Acrylic sealer" by Plaid (holds up, does not tint or cloud, it smells though)

Materials to NEVER use:
 Any oil based paint or pastel (Oil eats away at resin, so spend for the preservation of your doll, avoid oil-based products.)
 Human make-up (Human make-up tends to contain oils. Although some does not, it may still stain your doll.)
 Sharpies or other markers (Markers are meant to be permanent and will stain your doll.)
 Colored pencils (Colored pencils may stain your doll.)
 Colored nail polish remover or acetone (Nail polish remover with a color (ex. purple) to it may stain. Acetone has been known to eat Cerberus Project resin. )
 Super glue/Crazy glue (While these glues are okay for repair work, do not use them for attaching eyelashes. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to remove super glued eyelashes..)

Bad Sealants:
 Krylon Matte is NOT an acceptable sealant.


TIPS!!!
-------Don’t use too much sealant!!!-------------
☻ Make sure you wait for each coat to dry before you add a new one
☻ Make sure you always read the instructions of the sealant before you apply it. Using sealants that are ment to be used in room temperature environments tend to bead/goop up if used in cold environments or with cold water.
☻ Testor’s Dullcote and MSC can be removed with acetone
☻ It’s okay to coat the entire body with Testers Dullcoat (in case you do blushing ^_^)
☻ Citadel Matte Varnish is NOW called PURITY SEAL. it contains Acetone Xylene and 2-butoxyethanol(so wear a mask!)

Yeah these dolls are really great for photo shoots. I really want to make one of my very own! Full total customization!!! AAAAAHHH

I hate that resin goes through yellowing.... O_O

I hope some people reply

BJD's rock.... :o

Anyone? They're preeeetttyyyyyyyy

That's cool. I don't really like the animal ones as much I prefer the mostly human ones. Not to say I don't love elk humans.


These are my favorites so far...

I would love to make one, one day. They are so expensive for the parts though. I priced them about 500-1000$ for everything. from the hair, eyes all the pieces to the cloths themselves. Sure you can possibly find cheaper pieces off ebay. o_o but still..

Like I said I don't want this to be a discussion about how expensive they are, but yeah I agree. I don't think I'd want one off ebay, they're only about 200 dollars cheaper. If you're spending that kind of money then I'd go to the dealer.

People say LaDoll is the best clay to use when making one. Some people can even make the eyes. I saw tutorials on how to make wigs but it's so tedious. I love their hair though it's so anime pretty.

Basically this is what I understand so far...

You make the original doll out of clay.
You cast that doll in some maleable casting substance, plaster won't work for most pieces :(
You then pour resin into the mold and let harden
Take the pieces out and add hooks then string the doll together.
Do body blushing, face up, add eyes, hair, and clothes and you're done!

Heh heh NOT as easy as it sounds.
So far I've only gotten to the making part of the doll out of clay part. The clay I used wasn't good enough so it cracked horribly. ;(

Here's what I undertstand about materials so far:

Clay: LaDoll
Cast: some maleable casting thing or plaster for some parts
Resin: Not french resin because it yellows too much.
Face up materials: Non oil based colored pencils and paints. airbrush

I'll update these later and actually pull up my files. This was from memory. :D

If you go for white or pale skin then the resin will yellow. Tan dolls however can easily turn green. Not kidding at all about that.


As for buying off ebay. Don't. Period.
Ebay sealers have a nasty habit of giving you low quality work that is very dangerous. Resin is a poison pure and simple. It's one of the reasons the dolls are so damn expensive. I've heard stories about a girl who got very sick because a sealer sold her a doll that wasn't finished properly. Also they sell stolen dolls. Den of Angels has an entire list of these sealers to avoid.

Also when doing a face-up. Avoid anything that has oils in it. The oil will eat through your resin. >w>


*cough* Anyway I didn't mean to sound like that. Just revisiting what you said. Because well working with resin is very dangerous. Oh and don't forget to tell people to wear a mask when working with the resin. Don't need people fainting and dying from poisoning.


*points to sig* Also this boy is Makrua.
He's a doll-zone Hid and he's an MSD. roughly 356$ with natural skin tone. 433 with tan skin like I got.

Dream doll: A Luts model or Migi, maybe even a Tata's Paradise SD (Which are ungodly expensive.)

Yes. Wow I've never heard of someone getting sick from a doll that wasn't finished... That adds a whole new light to me making one of my own... O_O I even wanted to get good enough to sell them eventually.

I know you have to wear a heavy duty (like... haz-mat) gas mask when working with the resin. It usually comes in a powder form you add water too right? If you breath the powder it is the kind of substance that gets stuck in your lungs and does not go away for the rest of your LIFE. This is also important with sanding or modding a doll's features.

How can a doll cause someone to be sick? Do you mean they didn't use a sealant at the end to cover the resin with a polyerthane?


Anyway besides safety and avoiding oil let me say more about yellowing. Yellowing is natural with resin being exposed to oxygen but leaving your dolls out in the sun will GREATLY increase this. I saw a forum that featured a picture of this. They left small pieces of resin (like Oreo sized) out in their yard. Some for a week, to some weeks, to even three months I believe. The oldest one had yellowed like butter and even looked burnt like how a marshmallow does! I know I'd want my doll to be out all the time but I'd keep her out of direct sunlight. She'd yellow a bit but I'd consider it love marks. :)

Oh and that is true some resin mixes turn a pale shade of green. O_O hehee..

Yeah apparently the maker didn't seal it properly, and there was still a powdery texture to the doll. So the girl ended up being put into a dangerous situation because of bad sellers.

It's why doll makers and buyers are cautioned.


Actually another story I've heard is the woman who makes Lady Syuki (totally misspelled) is very pregnant and apparently very bad about not wearing her protective mask when sanding her dolls. She too has fainted from this. Now she gets harassed about wearing that mask.



------

On another note. I'm actually slowly getting into making doll clothes and accessories. Makrua's outfits in my gallery are of my creation. Granted his Dark Priest top is actually only a large ribbon wrapped around his chest. Teehee simple can always be best.

=) aww I love BJDs. I bought a used one off ebay, but it's been in it's box for a while... I need clothes for her =P

You could always just use a really big ribbon lol. Jk

Lol. Yeah. I love the clothes they make for BJD's. they're so pretty! I just found these they're so sweet!

http://doll.luts.co.kr/item-img/SDF_080214-4.jpghttp://doll.luts.co.kr/doll-imgs/daria-20080923-10.jpg

OwO Omg those are super amazing!

I really wish that I could make something that awesomely gorgeous. TwT My sewing machine needs to get up a running gosh durn it DX

I love sewing. it's hard to make stuff so small and detailed like that. i need to get better mad skillz

Same here!

But I've got a friend who's willing to help me out a bit with making outfits though, and my aunt has a whole bunch of doll patterns.

Doll patterns? That's awesome? These are pretty big dolls though I don't think the typical Barbie stuff will work.. O_o. But you can use your doll to custom fit stuff. :D

Not those doll patterns. And if you know how you could always just adjust the sizes until the would fit something an MSD or SD.

^w^ Though to be honest I like to freestyle it when I'm designing stuff for my guy to wear.

me too

all these pictures look sooooooooooo cool!!

Thanks! Do you like the dolls? Aren't they beautiful?

thats soooo cool. id love to have/make those. they are beautiful. the make up....is that air brushed on? they are stunning! OMG i cant get over this lol

BJDs are really cute.. and beautiful, they're like ideal girls and boys. I've seen some really cool photo shoots with them in Deviantart.
Although they're pretty and all, I think they're a bit vain.. but oh well, what isn't needless? : D It's just funny that girls paly with barbies when they're like six years old, and now they play with dolls when they're sixteen and so. Guess it's fun.

Yep it's an excuse for everyone over 12 to play with dolls. Girls love customization. It's the same with avatars.

And the face-up makeup being airbrushed? None of it. You apply makeup to these dolls with a brush like you would with humans in certain areas. The blush is applied with a makeup brush but it isn't makeup, it's pastel! The eyelids and lashes is applies with a brush and paint, very precisely. The eye shadow is done the same as the blush, and the eyebrows are maybe a little pastel for overall color and colored pencils for the lines. Exciting huh? Also they usually add some gloss for the all areas to highten the color: Lips, eyes especially tearducts, even eyebrows. Oh and the lips are... I think they're just paint then gloss. They could also be pastel then paint or pastel then colored pencil.