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 to make 5 pieces

2. made clay fingers, and two pieces of clay for palm and back of palm. The clay is 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 .

6. Attached and formed the thumb – with , 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

9. Palm lines – in Russia they are called “Fate lines” – again, with .

10. Other tools used – a plastic straw cut at an angle to make nail beds, , 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 fresh , 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 of inside, the arm and forearm – also clay with 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 the 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

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!

To be continued at Morezmore #25 Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): Figuring Out The Mechanics. Part 3.

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