To the people that decided to finally bless us with an old!Genkai figure, I hope both sides of your pillow are cool forever.
That said, the fucking ice block monstrosity of a fig stand was ridiculous. Luckily my Creative Union Genkai has plenty of room on her stand for them to share (with some stickytac under their feet for extra security).
That dreadlock wig is so so pretty holy shit???? Please tell me you have a tutorial 😭
Thank you! :D I haven't made a tutorial myself, but I'm more than happy to write out my process for y'all!
TLDR: I roll felt merino wool roving into single dreads and hot glue them to a wig cap I make using a stretchy tshirt type of knit fabric, and fabric glue.
The Wig Cap
I make mine with just plain, white fabric you'd use for things like tshirts (the thinner the better, especially if you're dealing with a look that'll have a visible hairline). There's plenty of guides online about making wig caps, but essentially you're stretching the fabric as tight as you can get over the doll's head (remember to put saran wrap on the head first), using rubber-bands and clips as needed to secure it, and then using glue to set it to shape.
Most people like to use tacky glue, but I personally use Aleene's Fabric Fusion for my doll wigs. For my non-dread wigs, I also like to add a thin* layer of Elmer's Glue-All Max (a resin glue) to make sure the cap doesn't try to roll in on itself when not on the doll's head. I don't bother with the dread wigs because the hot glue will do that.
If you plan to use the Elmer's glue, I'd suggest trimming the wig before applying it when it's just the tacky or fabric glue since then it'll be easier to cut to shape.
*Glue-All Max foams up while drying, so seriously stick to thin layers at a time. Remember to use gloves while handling this glue too.
The Dreadlocks
I used merino wool roving* for the dreads and simply roll felted them using water (hot is best, but I did just fine with room temperature since they're such small pieces) and soap (most felters like using olive soap, but I just used regular bar soap since that's what I had on hand).
All you do is cut the wool to size (you generally want it to be a little shorter than you want since it'll stretch out as you're rolling), separate as needed for however thick you want the dreads to be, and then spray and roll on a towel. If you need a visual, this is the video tutorial I followed for making wool dreadlocks (the "double ended" version is what I make).
Since I'm not a fan of the "grinch finger" look, I bend the end portion of the dread onto itself, spray and roll it again so it has a more blunted end. I leave the other end as is since that'll be glued onto the wig and not visible (plus that thinner bit of felted wool will be handy for making loose top layers that can be played with a styled slightly). A felting needle can also come in handy with blending the blunted end as well.
How many dreads you'll need will just depend on the size head you're working with and how thick the dreads you want are. For thinner sizes, you'll need a lot, but if you want to do really thick dreads (or even wicks), then you really won't need as many as you think.
*I purchased my roving from Sarafina Fiber Art Inc., but you can find wool at plenty of places online and locally that deal in fiber crafting. Sarafina just happened to be the first option that showed up in my googling when I was looking for wool. xD The DO have a lot of wonderful colors available though, and it's great quality! 1oz was enough for two wigs for my girl (she's a mini with a 14.5cm head circumference), and I still have some leftover.
The Wig Cap 2: Electric Boogaloo
Once the cap is all set, I like to flock it. I just cut a bit of the wool up into as small of pieces as I can stand to deal with, and then apply even more glue to the cap and press bits of the wool onto it to help mask any edges that'll be visible and generally just help the dreadlocks blend in with it. Doesn't have to be perfect since most of it will be covered up. Just a step I go through because I use white fabric for the base ahaha.
Attaching
After all that prep work, then you just glue the dreadlocks on! You'll want to use hot glue because the dreads are heavier and stiffer than material like suri alpaca. They just won't stay put long enough for something like tacky or fabric glue to dry.
Yes, it is going to be a mess and you'll probably burn your fingers a few times (and you'll probably be ripping dreads out too as you go hahah).
So far, the two dreadlock wigs I've made were kind of like their own unique puzzles that I had to figure out as I went, so I don't really have any specific tips about how to glue the dreads on.
All that said, you don't really want to do it the traditional way with lots of layers because it may end up way too big and poofy than you want (depends on the specific dreadlock look you want).
For the long wig I made for Marika, I placed the dreads at the parting line first that I wanted to be loose and semi-stylable, and then added a layer of dreads under that that's fully glued to the cap. I'd say Marika's wig is generally 1 to 2 layers of dreads deep (3 in a select few places) for the most part. I used shorter dreads to glue to the bottom portion of the back of the wig to kind of fake there being more than there actually was and not add too much bulk.
For any visible glue spots, you can use the flocking method to mask it. :)
Annnnnd...that's about all I can think of about the process. If anyone has more questions, feel free to send them my way!
On my hands and knees begging the BJD community to just use the C word (Counterfeit).
Stop fucking replying to newbies with gotdamn walls of text about how a recast is made when they’re asking what they are and just fucking call them a counterfeit doll. THAT’S WHAT THEY ARE AND EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT “COUNTERFEIT” MEANS.
And when they ask why counterfeits in the BJD section of doll collecting is such a big deal to a lot of us? The answer is also pretty simple:
A majority of the people that make the dolls we all love are independent artists or part of a small business operation (with a handful of exceptions). Those same people are often collectors themselves and are members of the community. One kind of takes it personal when they see their FRIENDS getting ripped off. We really don’t have many companies that are at the level of like…Mattel or Hasbro here.
Something I’ve been working on the last week or so. I found a coat pattern for JID boys recently, which have pretty similar torso measurements as the Elder Unoa boys, and made some modifications to it to make it into a blazer for Sylus.
Did a test run with some scrap (on the left) that worked out pretty well (other than fucking the sleeves up so bad I didn’t bother trying to attach them lmao)). Made a few more alterations and got some muslin to test out a second time.
Also finally got some clips for holding fabric together because ya girl tired of stabbing her fingers. D;
To my fellow character doll collectors, what’s important to you regarding picking out a sculpt for your blorbo dolls?
For me, I need to actually like the sculpt itself on top of it having a ~vibe~ of the character I have in mind to use it for, so I often end up picking heads that maybe not everyone would think of snagging for a specific character. Like…I don’t think everyone would think to use a Souldoll Kid Bonnie for Shin Okazaki from NANA, or a Migidoll Jina for Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul (I seriously feel like the Charlie Day meme of him in front of the conspiracy board when I’m blorbo posting about a potential doll and am not sure everyone else sees the vision like I do lmao).
I rarely ever really like the actual licensed dolls outside of a few Volks releases. Like, I forget who did them, but there was a Levi from Attack on Titan, Ken Kaneki, as well as Medicine Seller from Mononoke that Dolks did a preorder for the other year, and I didn’t like the sculpts for any of them. xD; Some of that might have just been the faceups tho…..
…of people telling newbies that all they need to do to fix their doll’s posing issues is to tIgHtEn ThE sTrInG. I’m coming for you people with a squirt gun.
How to Actually Make a Doll Handle Better:
Tighten/Loosen the string - Okay so yeah this CAN be helpful sometimes. Plenty of companies, artists and previous owners send dolls out too tight or too loose and it needs adjustment. This is basically 101 doll troubleshooting.
Note: Your doll shouldn't be so tight that you cannot comfortably pull hand/feet part out of their socket to replace them. I don't know why some of y'all do this shit, but I want to shake your head like an 8-ball every time you complain about not being able to get the doll's head off. OF COURSE YOU CAN'T! THE STRING CAN'T STRETCH ANY FURTHER! (also don’t keep the knot in the head because that’s making life harder for you too)
Elastic cord gauge is too thick/small for your specific doll - This, in my experience, tends to be the most likely cause of issues. Lot of people are under the impression that all dolls of specific sizes use the same size elastic, and that is not the case at all. I got dolls that need different size elastic for their arms vs their bodies. What thickness you need is completely dependent on how much room is available in the individual doll’s string channels.
As for why that is…
If you use too thick of elastic cord, it won't have room to move and thus won't pull back as well if at all (had this issue where my Raccoon Doll boy's hands wouldn't suck back into the wrist socket and his arms would also not sit nicely at his sides. Completely fixed when I used a thinner cord).
If too thin, then it won't have enough strength to pull pieces back together and you'll have an expensive rag doll.
Do yourself a favor and buy a pile of different sizes of elastic cord and experiment with what works in your individual dolls. I personally buy my elastic from Dollmore since they got a good collection of sizes with good strength for dolls, and even offer beige and brown colored cord (but if you have a local craft store with a good collection of elastic cord, that’d likely be even cheaper).
Elastic is complete garbage - If that shit stretches for days super easy, throw it away. Yes, we want stretchiness, but we also want that shit to snap back into place so all the parts pull together. Resinsoul and Iplehouse are two companies completely guilty of shipping their dolls with useless string in their dolls (not sure if that is still the case, but it was in all the times I purchased directly from them). It does not matter how tight you make this shit, it will not make your doll behave any better (if anything, now your doll is kicky, still floppy, and also it's impossible for you to switch hands and feet out).
Resin is too smooth - Lot of people love that silky smooth finish on their dolls, but now the parts have no friction and nothing to grab onto in their sockets. Hot glue sueding in the sockets helps a ton with amending this.
Wiring - If you want action figure level of control, this will get you at least partly there lmao. I've only bothered shoving wire into my dolls when they have truly bad joint designs (RIP Dust of Dolls and Lillycat lmao), but it’s always great to have this extra stability in more competently designed doll bodies.
String style is some cockamamie horseshit - A rare occurrence, but it happens (looking at you, Iplehouse and your fucked up cross-elastic-at-the-groin-before-going-down-legs nonsense). A majority of BJDs are strung in the one specific way because it's what works best and allows the elastic to do its job without hindrance.
If the doll in question isn’t over-engineered, you can sometimes restring them the Correct way, but usually dolls that are like this have to be modified to behave right.
