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We Are Seven is a one-woman art studio currently producing books, comics, and graphic novels. This blog chronicles my progress.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Resin Success

At last, my darling Emmy is a resin, ball-jointed doll. She's seen many incarnations, but this one should be her (more or less) final form. It took a LONG time, but here she is:

 She isn't perfect, but I'm very pleased with how she turned out, especially considering this was all new to me. For the first time, I made a BJD out of polymer clay; for the first time, I made silicone molds out of all the parts (this was a particular challenge); for the first time, I poured resin. I'd call it a success.

In the interest of fairness, though, here are a few of her 'flaws.'

The resin didn't completely fill the mold on the abdomen (and a few other areas). I'm experimenting with different filling-in substances.

Her one upper arm is some weird-ass mutation that I'll need to completely replace.

Nonetheless, she is beautiful, if I do say so myself. Now, onto wig-making. ;)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Let the Pouring Commence

Last blog, I showed off my almost-ready Super Sculpey ball-jointed doll original (namely created for the comic "Emmy: Self-Titled"). She needed a few updates on her limbs, but otherwise, she was a functional puppet.
Here's the finished original:


The next step was to cast the parts, creating silicone molds so that I could then re-make the doll with resin.

This, predictably, did not go smoothly.

The online tutorials I used were great, but I somehow managed to buy mold release that didn't work. After a few very frustrated attempts to make a two-piece mold, a couple people on The Joint suggested I use Vaseline instead of mold release. It worked splendidly, and since then everything's been going well.

My lil' Lego mold. That's a forearm you're looking at.



Side one is complete.



I started to get a little creative with the configurations. I had only so many Legos, after all.


It took many molds (16 total), but my Emmy is finally ready to be cast. Behold:


Another noteworthy update: I've managed to secure myself a rather fantastic boyfriend, who is so supportive of my puppet-making endeavors that he's volunteered to be a studio assistant. He'll be coming over today to help me make my masterpiece. :)