Atelier Garçonne

Being a somewhat fictionalized account from the studio of Jonathan Spats. Contains dollmaking and the associated arts.

[thedandydollmaker]

*Hank Hill voice* haunted dolls and haunted doll accessories

[thedandydollmaker]

*Cecil Gershwin Palmer voice* haunted dolls and haunted doll by-products

[thedandydollmaker]

Actual footage of me working on Shime's double joints today:

(I have been continuously tinkering with Shime's joints, which just aren't as stable as I want. And then I had an epiphany: I can make them single joints and be perfectly happy and move on to the aesthetics stage!)

[thedandydollmaker]

Every time I read a post from someone about how it's impossible to make a BJD from air-drying paperclay, I feel a little more like a wizard 💫

[thedandydollmaker]

It's a truth universally acknowledged that I am very, very bad at doll hips.

The short version of the long story is that I just do not have a spectacular grasp of anatomy, either 2D or 3D, and I tend to be a little lazy in my thinking, so I frequently end up getting to the test stringing phase of a doll before I realize that I've stuck the hips on the front of the doll. Again.

Alas, the almighty automod has decided that the image of his left leg, showing not a twinkle of his wee clay willy but rather illustrative of the original forward positioning of the joint, is far too lewd and obscene for viewing. But perhaps you can imagine it a bit from the illustrated right leg.

Technically speaking, with the old hip sockets, Shime was able to stand. However, it was a rather precarious procedure involving a lot of hoping that the Apprentice wasn't going to start in on kitten parkour. With the new hip socket placement, Shime is much more stable when standing.

(Picture forthcoming as I've stashed the dolls away as I am expecting a tradesman to come repair the accursed clothes dryer today--fie on these newfangled electronic appliances!)

[thedandydollmaker]

I needed to keep Shime away from the Apprentice's sharp little fangs for a moment...

Ayup, that'll do.

[thedandydollmaker]

Hopeful automod won't be afraid of my dolls today

I made the executive decision that I am ninety-eight per cent happy with the sculpting I have done for Shime, and proceeded to drill the stringing channels on his joints. It was a surprisingly painful endeavor, as I do not have a proper manual drill but rather use just a plain drill bit, and I lost a fight with a dryer vent this weekend. Yet I persevered!

He is woefully wobbly when standing (partly owing to the fact that I haven't finished his right ankle), but he sits like an absolute champion! I am so very pleased to have my daimon/faerie/marotte back together to keep me company! ...Although I will be promptly disassembling him tomorrow for engineering revisions, of course. I can't not tinker.

[thedandydollmaker]

I have finally solved a twenty year old personal mystery: why doll artists put piano wire in their ball joints.

(Stolen from Noah's BJD tutorial)

My terrible attempts at translations said things like it "protects" the joint. Which... I suppose! I don't string my clay dolls that tightly, and I've never noticed any stringing related wear on 13 year old Shimeji. Just sort of shrugged and forgot about it.

I've been doing some research on jointing, as you do. I was thinking about the elastic, which I've always largely ignored. When you stretch the elastic, you're storing energy in it, but the elastic doesn't want to exist in a high energy/high tension state, it wants to be in the lowest energy state it can be in. (No, I'm not explaining it properly. I'm a doctor dollmaker, not a physicist.) Basically, the elastic wants to rest in the shortest length possible.

The shortest length seems like it should be when a limb is posed straight, but it may actually be when the limb is bent--hence, the existence of 'kicky legs' and 'Hound arms.'

But if you could make the length of the elastic uniform in all positions, you would end up with a joint that is able to hold in all positions without any snapping or buckling.

And you can do that by introducing a "guide" in the joint, which keeps the elastic nearer to same length throughout the range of the joint.

Such a fun concept! I'm going to be Pondering My Doll Orbs for a bit.

[thedandydollmaker]

I return, triumphant, with another monthly update! Huzzah(?)

I was speaking with another doll collector the other day and they mentioned that they didn't like visible joints on dolls. All I could think was skill issue how much I enjoy the joints on dolls! Especially these days, there's been such a proliferation of style and engineering; I enjoy when a company has an interesting 'house' style of joints. And so...

I started giving Shimeji a bit of a makeover. (Left: previous update; right: doll's left limbs with modified joints)

Of course I did, since I was considering Shimeji's makeover to be the 'quick and easy' one (head, hands, feet versus whole new body). What's the fun of making things easy on myself? It's a fitting look, actually, because the one instance I can think of Shimeji being depicted with joints in the manga, he has this sort of old school aesthetic.

I haven't strung him up with this new style yet, so I'm curious to see if he'll be as unstable as I imagine. I'm sure it won't be anything that a proper sueding and wiring can't fix.

...I swear this isn't all just an elaborate way to continue to procrastinate on his hands.

[thedandydollmaker]

I have reached the Tedious Point on both Shime and Shimeji.

I am refining Shime's joints, which involves many tedious, tiny adjustments that need to be fully dry. And, alas, the weather has warmed up so I can no longer put parts next to the heating vent to dry. (Past experiments with using a toaster oven have been less than stellar, producing a fragile, dry "skin" over the still wet parts.)

I began working on Shimeji's hands, which are fiddly work regardless of the weather. They're also one of my least favorite things to work on so I am prone to procrastinating them.

And procrastinate I did!

I've had this idea for years in the back of my mind. This is an easy way to keep track of what work I've done in a given sculpting session and what still needs to be done. Pixel art is not my forte, but it work for the purpose.

[thedandydollmaker]

Listen, I know it's the middle life crisis talking but what if I became a 40 under 40 doll luminary (sculpting 40 unique dolls before I turn 40??)

[thedandydollmaker]

(The sculpting part would be easy; finishing, faceuping, wigging, and clothing them all would be the hard part lol)

[thedandydollmaker]

Listen, I know it's the middle life crisis talking but what if I became a 40 under 40 doll luminary (sculpting 40 unique dolls before I turn 40??)

[thedandydollmaker]

Well, I certainly didn't plan to disappear for two months; I had every intention to make more regular updates (in spite of tumblr's insistence that my dolls are Too Lewd For The Internet and must be Content Filtered, lest anyone see some non-existent paperclay genitalia).

Well...

I was slightly distracted.

But I have managed to eke out some dollmaking progress in the midst of kitten-induced chaos:

I've spent quite a bit of time on Shime's new body; I also altered the existing feet. Shimeji's new head is finished, pending some fine finishing and the eyewells. I've been procrastinating working on his hands and feet as they are my least favorite things to sculpt.

And I haven't made any great strides on Mithrun's body, but I can't wait to finish him:

[thedandydollmaker]

I still need to sand and finish him, but oh, I do love Shimeji's new head!

I might attempt to make my own anime-style eyes for him... but considering my history with self-made eyes, I will end up purchasing a set.

[thedandydollmaker]

I have seen the errors of my ways, sculpting the totally shameful human/elven body.

Henceforth, I will only be creating my conpletely wholesome mixed media owl sculptures. 😔

[thedandydollmaker]

I was hoping to use my unexpected burst of motivation this week to work on my new dollmaking space, but, alas, my brain wasn't having any of that and instead I've been doing quite a bit of sculpting.

(Incidentally, it's turned out to be a wonderful week for sculpting! The weather is single digits, so the heat is running quite often, and doll parts dry so quickly when you pop them in front of a heating vent.)

Shimeji's new head is coming along. I think I'll tackle his ears tonight. Ears are one of those weird features which are a right pain to sculpt but it's so satisfying when you get them right, so wish me luck.

I've also gotten back to work on Mithrun's body. I'm trying my hand at a more exaggerated style a la Doll Chateau; for some reason their spindly bodies sprang to mind when I thought about what sort of physique he should have. I'm quite excited to start working on his head, which I'm leaving for last as motivation, but also lowkey procrastinating because I can't find my eye stash which has both the silver and black eyes I want to use for him.

[thedandydollmaker]

Huzzah, truly a Saturnalia miracle, I began working on Shimeji's new head!

It poses an interesting challenge, stylistically. I don't have a realistic sculpting style by any means, but the reference art is very different from my own. Not conveyed in the sketch, I will be taking some cues from my Obitsu/Parabox boys for this. I am looking forward to trying a very anime, well, manga-inspired face up! I'm considering trying to make my own anime eyes as well (although truthfully, I will probably end up ordering them, if my previous eye making attempts are anything to go by)

Foil core to build upon

The first layer of clay--this was a bit of a rough job as my clay's on the dry side and I was too impatient to bother rehydrating it

Evening out the base (just on the right)

(Oh bother, I need to redo tags...)

[thedandydollmaker]

After a certain amount of pondering and consulting with my partner in doll crime, I have reached a decision!

Two Shime(ji)s!

I am going to make a new smaller head for the existing body, and a new larger body for the existing head.

It is actually a rather neat solution: Shimeji started out as three dimensional fanart for the manga Lovers Doll by Mishima Kazuhiko. Shime has been my absolute pride and joy of my collection and I have shoehorned him into all sorts of silly costuming and persona projects over the years, so he has drifted into original character territory.

My plan now is to style the smaller Shimeji after the manga character again. In his very first doll iteration, I simply burnished the paper clay as his 'skin.' I plan to do this again for the small Shimeji, so I'm working on stripping the paint off the body at the moment. (It doesn't make for terribly exciting photos because there's not much contrast in colors.)