Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 1 ***

Posted By Natasha Red October on January 2, 2010

January 16, 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 Chinese-speaking 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.

Spread out the fingers, made a

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.

Marina sent a good link about making BJD - in Russian http://mstrok.ucoz.ru/publ/69-1-0-292

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.

January 08, 2010 Good morning. After more poking at the head, I baked it. Then sanded. Then covered with a very thin layer of the mixture of Translucent Liquid Sculpey and Prosculpt smoothing oil - to cover the sanding marks. Baked again. She looks pretty good, I think. The ball joint works! The head is strung with a simple rubber band at the moment. I am going to make the socket for the ball a little more snug - by adding clay and rebaking, but the general concept - the head is posable and retains the position when

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!

January 10, 2010 This morning session was wasted because of a rather annoying accident. I made a part out of Magic Sculpt - chest cross, put it into the oven to cure - without any protection, just plopped it on the glass. The Magic Sculpt got fused to the bowl of the oven - with a deadly grip. I spend about 40 minutes chiseling Magic Sculpt from the glass - with an exacto knife and a chisel and a hammer!! At every blow of the hammer I was pretty sure the bowl is going to explode into pieces. It did not, although I did scratch the bottom. Took an awful oath to NEVER do it again. I put the next part on a

plate sprayed with a tiny bit of Pam (cooking oil spray - for my non-American 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.

January 14, 2010 Good morning - back to my BJD after a break. Things were busy with the Morezmore sales and also I had a power outage AGAIN. Decided to go buy a generator - got it, we set it up and it is ready to go for the next time. I put a little bit more work in - here is what I have - will continue tomorrow. Those two separate constructions - one of them (the chest one) has four tubes and the tummy bead has three tubes. If it looks unclear, it will make more sense when I put the clay around it. The beads and tubes are very strongly fused together with Magic Sculpt.

January 15, 2010 Good morning, I have a little more - more clay bulk on the body - baked - now I will be able to add a rather thin layer of clay on the surface and sculpt the body details. I am also going to make another pair of hands and feet - with new a hook structure made out of magic sculpt and wire. Here is what I have - thank you for watching

Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 2 ***

Posted By Natasha Red October on January 16, 2010

Continued from Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 1

Last Update: February 16, 2010 Good morning. I got my elastic finally, put everything together – the elastic is one continuous loop. Well, folks, she STANDS – barely, but definitely stands. So now it is a matter of shaping, and refining and making all parts symmetrical – right now one leg is shorter. Better symmetry, better fitting leg joints will improve the standing balance. So far I am happy with the progress, although she looks rough, I know what to do to make her look better and stand better. Will be back tomorrow – thank you for watching!

January 16, 2010 Good morning. Hands again – for the third time. I decided to make the little hook construction inside the wrist out of and redid the hands. Took pictures too – to show that thread armature idea. Not every step is photographed, there is quite a bit of poking and smoothing and pulling, but it will give you the main idea. 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 clay isPuppen Fimo Rose.

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 don’t 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.

Girls don’t need much to start flirting

Here is what I have – will continue tomorrow. Thank you very much for watching

January 17, 2010 Change of plans. I came to the conclusion that I am going the wrong way about the whole thing. I am trying to think ahead and reinforce the parts which I think will be weak – nothing but a guesswork. Instead of that I am going to sculpt the entire doll in polymer clay and FIND the spots which are weak in reality and not in my imagination. Then I will reinforce them. So, back to square one, I will keep the head and the hands, the rest will be redone. Alan and Pat from ODA forum suggested using plastic straws inside the clay – for the sake of stringing. So this is the plan. Thank you for watching – be right back. This morning, I tried to make a single ball joint in the elbow – instead of what you see in the picture. It works, but the range of movement is rather restricted – pretty much 90 degrees bent in the elbow and no rotation in the elbow, definitely not as much fun as the double ball joint, so I discarded the idea. Now the double ball joint, although very posable, is all over the place – so I need to figure out the shape which will restrict unnatural bends in the elbow. It is almost 11 am, need to do some work – talk to you later – thank you for watching

January 18, 2010 Change of plans again – Polymer clay without reinforcement is not going to work – I see it already. Back to the original plan – reinforced structure out of Magic Sculpt with polymer clay on top. However, plastic straws sounds like usable idea – inside the Magic Sculpt – instead of tubes. Another bunch of Russian links on BJD – thank you, Marina! http://forum1.kukly.ru/forums.php?forum=58

January 20, 2010

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.

January 21, 2010 Good morning. So, elbow joint pictures, as I mentioned yesterday. First, I made a working joint prototype – crude and out of scale, but working. It bends to allowing the hand to be brought to the shoulder (almost at the moment and it can be made to close completely), it holds its position and it does not bend backwards and it does not rotate, because as Heather helpfully pointed out in the comment below – a human elbow joint does not have any rotation.

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.

8. Named the balls – I will need it.

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.

January 23, 2010 A little more of arms. The shoulder joint does not work yet – it needs the second (torso) socket. The arms need shaping – carving with a knife and sanding. The old torso was discarded – does not work, I will make another one. Thank you – talk to you later.

January 25, 2010 Good morning. Made the chest and the tummy ball. The shoulder joints are being redone – to fit the balls in the shoulders. The old shoulders were too bulky. The progress is very slow. To cheer all of us up, we performed a little dance for your enjoyment.

January 26, 2010 Good morning. Sculpted the shoulder joints and baked. They are still rough – meaning I did not sand them yet to fit the sockets in the torso, but they already work pretty well – this is very exciting. I will fit them better tomorrow – I have a lot of packages to ship today and want to start working early, but here are some ball gymnastics with a glass bead – to celebrate our newly acquired shoulder joints!

January 27, 2010 Good morning. More cutting and fitting and testing and pushing those shoulder joints to their limits – exploring the range of the movement. It is fascinating. The discoveries include the shape of the shoulder joint, the shape of the torso socket and the neck joint limitations. For shoulder joint shape – please see below – that is what seems to work best (and I am sure it can be improved). The shoulder sockets in the torso are more open in the front than in the back – this way the elbow can come further towards the front.

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!

January 31, 2010 Good morning. After a few very busy days at Morezmore, I am back! So, the legs and lower torso. I have a very vague idea of how it is going to work, but I have to start somewhere – so here are the parts. The ankles have the same ball joint as wrists, the knees have the same ball joint as elbows, the hips – same ball joint as shoulders. That is the plan for now. Will continue tomorrow – thank you for watching!

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

Evening of February 3, 2010 I searched the internet for Nepali dancing and there she was – my Teenage Nepali Dancer BJD doll concept – in flesh – dancing away!

Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind – it is a perfect fit. Enjoy this dance – the girl is amazing

The supersized pictures can be found here: http://www.morezmore.com/BJD.html

February 13, 2010 Good morning – long time no post. Between the snow, internet outage, increased sales volume (people are snowed in and shop online, it seems) and replenishing the inventory (after the spike in sales my shelves were empty) – I was very busy. Well, I am back and continuing. Here is our first attempt to stand. She stands on her own, not well – barely, because the joints are not fitted and because I still do not have good elastic – the delivery of the box with elastic is delayed due to the weather. So I strung her with rubber bands again and working on the shape of the legs. I did receive new needle files – they make things much easier – I am doing a lot of filing and sanding and cutting and fitting and filing again and trying again. The progress is very slow but it is moving along again. Here are the pictures – thank you for watching!

February 14, 2010 For a while I was thinking about bringing the tummy ball lower – into the tummy. This way she will be able to bend at the waist in a more natural way. So, while I am waiting on the elastic, decided to cut the lower torso and lengthen the upper torso part. Working on it – thank you for watching!

February 16, 2010 Good morning. I got my elastic finally, put everything together – the elastic is one continuous loop. Well, folks, she STANDS – barely, but definitely stands. So now it is a matter of shaping, and refining and making all parts symmetrical – right now one leg is shorter. Better symmetry, better fitting leg joints will improve the standing balance. So far I am happy with the progress, although she looks rough, I know what to do to make her look better and stand better. Will be back tomorrow – thank you for watching!

Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 3 ***

Posted By Natasha Red October on October 2, 2010

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.

Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 4 ***

Posted By Natasha Red October on October 29, 2010

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 Let’s 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, doesn’t 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, I’ve 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 doll’s 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).

Removed the excess clay from inside the socket.

Made sure that the sockets are vertical.

————————————————————————————- 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.

Looking good, I think. It is definitely working out!

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 12 – Lower Torso

To make it less bumpy:

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 10 Piece 12 – Lower Torso

————————————————————————————- 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: