Being increasingly frustrated by the lack of good articulation in cheap dolls (and the price tag on the good ones), I decided to experiment with making my own. Clay is not my medium at all (plus my oven is crap so I can't bake it anyway), so I decided to try wood. Woodshop class was one of my favorite subjects at school, and I still had a few scraps of basswood laying around (most likely nicked from the wastebin some time in junior high).
The open torso+head thingy is just a placeholder while I figure out how the joints work. Initially I more or less modeled them after Barbie/MH/similar joints, but that's not going to work in the long run. I'd like to try to make proper double-jointed limbs like the ones showed here: http://morezmore.com/myblog/2010/01/16/bjd-2/
Lessons learned so far:
• Radial symmetry is not optional.
• Tilted hip joint sockets a la Barbie do not work on stringed dolls.
• I need to work bigger to have some margin for error (or buy a really tiny drill).
• Drilling through 5cm (2'') of basswood with a Phillips screwdriver is entirely possible, but I wouldn't recommend it.
• *insert wood related pun here because I'm actually 12 years old*
Process pic...
wip wooden bjd 1 by Anderson's All-Purpose, on Flickr
Notice improvised rigging/tightening of the string.
WIP wooden bjd 7 by Anderson's All-Purpose, on Flickr
It can sit! Or it could, before I messed up the hips.
Hip joint mistake 1
This happened after I cut the slits, due to the placement of the sockets.
Arm parts (I made this first, but then the string broke and I haven't bothered reattaching it)
When I tightened the string, it started cutting into the socket. I could blame the soft basswood, but really I need to place the hip sockets in such a way that nothing interferes with the string.
Next up is some kind of functional torso. It'll have to be in two pieces because that's the only way I'll be able to hollow it out with my limited skills and tools. I'd like to try a slightly harder wood like pine, but as I don't have a workbench I'm limited to materials I can work while holding them, and anything too hard would be downright dangerous. That also means I have to work small, although I'll have to scale up a bit so there's room for drilling the holes.