More and more new bjd related things...

More interesting stuff, for me at least, are being prepared to go to the kiln. The large doll need to wait a little, because the kiln is almost full and there is no place in this firing to put that big pieces inside, but together with the normal dolls, and the new chibi ones, there is also some one of a kind pieces that we are making for future dolls. I am sure that most of our followers remember this particular doll that we made a few years ago:















Well, I always have very special feelings for that doll, which, for the record, is already sold, and for a long time I have been playing with the idea of make a new masked character, or, for being more precisely, three of them :) !!!

 

As in the Musicians series, this will be a series too, a very limited one, in this case of only three dolls each series, that I intend to make at a time, in a near future. The feathered head of the mask came out of the mold in a whole piece, so each one of the feathers was highlighted and detailed individually and each one of the masks has its own special face features. I don't want to say yet who this three girls will be , but I can anticipate some mythological roots for these characters, and that they will be decorated with the decoupage technique in a similar way than the doll top above.

But they will be not alone, because we are also preparing accessories for other doll triads.

I put a special effort in the details of this masks. Fernando made a lot of cool accessories and now I have a lot of fun making intricate details!!! In the mask on the left I engraved all the entire surface with stylized art nouveau motifs, wich match very well with the Moebius style of the mask. I love Art Nouveau, love the work of Moebius and love the Venetian Carnival, and these mask have a little of each one in it. Also I think there is an little bit influence of Juan Gimenez, but is difficult to say what exactly is the main source of inspiration. I have passed many time enjoying the art of those great masters and is possible that some things just stay in the bottom of my mind just waiting for the proper time to pop out. In the mask of the right I think I was a little bit crazy while working because I like to experiment new things and instead of just engraving the porcelain I begin to carve it. This is raw porcelain, so you can imagine how fragile is, but I prefer always to work this way, I am comfortable with the characteristics of the material and I was very, very carefull :D. Now, after all that work, I begin to imagine how would look a doll with her body engraved and carved this way :3.

The carved back, in progress.

There is a lot of projects coming, so I have no idea of when we can finish all of them, but just stay tuned and soon we will come back with more news.
Greetings for all!!!

New female ball jointed porcelain prototype doll

Hi there!!!
As I told you before, since from a couple of months ago we are in the process of filling the kiln and we are almost there, just a tray more and the firing will begin, not only with our usual dolls, males and females, also with several new projects that can finally give the final push. Lately my desk is a small chaos of the most diverse parts from new very small dolls, with only five joints to a new doll prototype, with a completely new body and from the beginning worked with a different method. These new parts are only prototypes, this is not its ultimate size because porcelain will shrink in the oven and then final molds will be made with these pieces. Unlike the first dolls, whose originals were worked in epoxy putty, in this case Fernando made a rough original  in plasticera, plaster casts were made to get a copy of this sketch and all the final details and polishing are being worked directly on the raw porcelain. These dolls will be much smaller than they look in the pictures.
And this is a preview of the new girl side by side with our first model!




























Arms and legs are still intact, worked in one big piece until they are symmetrical to each other and as anatomically correct as possible considering the round joints will visually interfere with the natural human shapes of the body. When this stage is completed the knees and elbows will be cut and the joint system will be worked apart.
This is the first time that all my usual tools seems too tiny T_T !!! While I was working on smaller faces and hands I got to use sewing needles and brushes number one, so for this girl had to collect some quite large tools , brushes and even sandpaper.

 I find the parts very heavy compared to the previous dolls,which measures only 29 cms. tall in contrast with this new project which in this stages measures more than 60 cms. tall. But i don't complain, because on this scale there is more freedom to work fine details, specially in hands, feet and, of course, face features. It is a new and different world and there is still too much fascinating work ahead !!!

See you soon with more news! Greetings!!!

New bjd dolls on process

Some new stuff in progress, working on raw porcelain.
There have been many projects during the past months on my desk and these are some of them.

Añadir leyenda

 You can see in the kiln how tiny is the torso in comparison with our normal dolls which measures 29 cms. tall of final height. See how he look in my hand, the left arm is not finished yet and some details need more work, but he looks very sweet right now.

There are at least four different heads, two torso types, two pairs of different legs and two pairs of arms in different positions. We will see how they work after the firing. This are prototypes pieces, and the final pieces will be much more tiny due to the shrinking process of the porcelain. They will have only five ball joints, but, who knows, I like challenges and the perspective of get a very very tiny articulation is too much tempting :D .

On the other hand, we are working on a very large doll prototype. Again, this will be not the final size, because the porcelain will shrink at the kiln and the final master pieces will be casted again in plaster to get the final copies of the doll. At the left of the picture you can see the normal feet of our dolls and, on the right, the new feet. 

At the bottom, a pair of arms of the little guys in the cleaning process and my two favourite homemade tools: a tape reinforced bisturí and an embroidery needle. Also we use very soft brushes to give a satin finish to the porcelain. The pieces are very fragile at the greenware stage, but you can work on it as long as you want, and because it is moisturized, there is no so much flying dust that can damage your lungs as in the dry cleaning system.

The Mandolin Player, one of a kind porcelain ball jointed doll figure

This doll belongs to an upcoming series of characters, wich each one of them will be a one of a kind character and it will be not reproduce, equal or similar, again, even under request. This series born as a way from our part of expand the horizons of our creativity. The technique applied to achieve the final look restricts the movement proper of a ball jointed doll but in exchange allows to experiment with more freedom with the elements of costume design and accessories, with other combinations of materials ,textures, colours and details. For each one of this upcoming dolls we have made new heads and body pieces, with different combinations between each other to achieve very different body shapes, more cartoonist and unrealistic and for this reason much more expressive.

One of the main inspiration sources for this doll came from the actual trend of the doll art from around the world, particularly russian, dutch and belgian. Also from different traditional theater and comedy characters, and from a particular historic era, the elizabethan era, when the theater develop most of its modern characteristics. We are not pretending to make an ultra realistic representation of the costumes and props of this era, we just take some elements of it and used it to enriches our vision of the final aspect of the doll.
As all our dolls, all the pieces are made in non translucent porcelain , fired at 1230 ºC degrees. As always,the original master pieces to make the master molds were sculpted by Fernando, while I , Paulina, made the finishing and costuming of the doll. For this particular doll, the head was slightly modified during the cleaning at the greenware stage, so no head will be totally equal to other.
This doll has 18 points of articulation: neck, chest, hips, ankles and wrists are simple joints, while the arms and legs have double joints. The doll is 32 cms. tall and is strung with elastic cords and metal strings. The joints are protected with synthetic leather in some cases and with decorative trim in other places. the trousers, sleeves,hat and shoes and socks are glued onto the figure pieces, the clothing is no removable. The lower and upper torso, and the arms are decorated with decoupage technique and protected with several layers of acrylic lacquer. The mandolin is made entirely by hand, without no molds, in epoxy clay, painted with acrylics and protected with lacquer. The mastil is reinforced with wood. The belt is attached with metal caps and is made with a dyed ribbon. The cape is detachable, made in velvet and lined with gauze, with gold trim and bead accents. The hat is fixed, embellished with dyed and curled feathers.
Includes a handcrafted stand.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/232765261/the-mandolin-player-one-of-a-kind-art?ref=shop_home_active_1