Taking a break

Not from posting on my blog, but from working on my poseable doll mocha. I haven't really felt like working on her, and when I force myself to, it becomes stressful and things don't turn out as well.

Such as her hands. I think I'm going to have to break them off and redo them. That's not going to be fun.



They actually look a bit better in real life, but still, I think I am going to redo them. I mixed some sculpey mold maker in the clay to make it more flexible and durable, but it seems it reacted badly with the heat gun, turning yellow and bubbling. I am also not sure if they really are more flexible now because a crack developed at the base of one of the middle fingers. 

On the other hand, I started on her make up and I Iike the way it is turning out.



I still have to add her eyebrows. I think I am going to make them a medium brown so she can wear many different colors of wigs.

I am going work on doll repaints for now, and that is what I will be posting about instead the above.

Thanks for visiting.

Toes, toes, toes, toes....

...are what I sculpted today.

Cute but so annoying to make

This was my second try. The first totally failed. I find toes and feet even harder to get right than hands. It seems so difficult not to make them look short and stubby but not creepily long.

And here are the legs those feet are attached to.

I like the way the legs turned out. I still need to sand the feet, they look a little gnarled right now. I'm planning on making the arms and hands tomorrow or the day after. Then I can get to painting, padding, wigging and clothing!

I also made more eyes today, but they don't photograph well without sunlight and my cameras batteries keep on dying. I love making eyes, shame they never look as good in pictures as they do in real life.

Thank you for reading!

My Tools and a Torso

Hi again, I'm here to keep my promise.

I don't have as much to say as I did yesterday.



So far today, I've basically finished mocha's torso sculpting. I still have a bit to refine, but I need to finish her arms and legs first. Above you can better see how she will be able to pose. The bare wire will have cotton batting glued on it, and then a pattern of stretchy knit fabric as skin will be glued across the gap onto the clay and filled with polyfil. Therefore she will be the right shape under clothes, but soft enough for the wire to bend. That's all after she has been completely baked though, to eliminate any risk of fire/burnage.

You probably can't see it in the above picture but she has developed a crack in the corner of her eye, so here is a close up shot...

Click to enlarge

I think it is from the Prosculpt in her clay mix, as I've only ever gotten cracks from simply baking using that. It's small and should be easy to fix, I only hope no more happen.

Today I also wanted to show the tools I have used for mocha so far.




From upper left to lower right:

• a mirror to check for symmetry
• a cup for holding tools less often used
• plumbers epoxy for armature strength
• rubbing alcohol that I use with q tips and a brush to smooth and clean the clay
• pliers to bend wire
• toilet paper to clean up spills and my ever running nose (damn allergies!)
• clay in a baggie to protect from dust
• floral tape that I wrap around wire or epoxy to help the clay stick
• my two sanding sponges and rough sanding sponge
• vaseline to smooth clay and get rid of white marks from sanding
• picture hanging wire made up of about 15-20 thin wire coiled together (I usually use plain steel wire of various gauges, but since she is poseable, I think coiled wire will be more durable)
• calipers to check more symmetry
• wooden tools of various sizes (including another tool useful for smoothing large areas, a wood tool with a square end that has notches cut out of it, I think its called a rake)
• a needle tool
• metal embossing tool...

I have even more tools that I use crammed all about my two rooms (my parents are divorced), but that would take hours to catalog them. : D

Wooo, I'll post again tomorrow. That's all, thanks for reading.

And as always please feel free to ask me any questions!