...look ma, no hands! (or arms, or foot, or back of cranium)

Here she is so far. I am completely amazed and thrilled with how she is coming along. I have had a lot of down time, just kind of walking around scratching my head trying to "understand" how it all works together. I have found that, once again, nothing works better than "doing". (The same way exercise works by doing...crazy concept!) Granted, she's not all together yet, I'm still working on making her hands, and arm joints. Her foot fell off today, which is good, now I know that I need to secure it better than just at the ball seam. (poor thing, you can see her foot just sitting there in the background) My goal is to have her completed, dressed and coiffed, so that I can take her for show and tell at the AFIC conference, that's the end of April, so there is still plenty of time, especially for a procrastinator like myself.

Now, onto her hands, and working on her torso so that she can sit all the way down...she's kinda has that dirty toilet seat squat going on right now... oh...you know exactly the position of which I speak! HA!

Smiles to All,
Brenda

...slowly but...not surely

This may look like I've not gotten very far...I've been fixing things like...the abdominal area, adding breasts...and trying to figure out how in the world all of this goes together. I've found a sight that has helped me a bit on the steps, but isn't very detailed. (Boy, I really wish I read Japanese!) Obviously, I'm not going to complete this perfectly, the leg joints aren't the way the are suppose to be, the doll isn't able to get to a full right angle...things like that...how deep the balls should go into the joints...how do the feet and hands get balled and then how does the hook work????..among other things of frustration....YET...it is coming along, and that I am extremely pleased with!!(what's the saying? Rome wasn't built in a day) : )
Smiles to All,
Brenda

...arrrgh!

yes, the title is me letting out some of my frustration. I am way in over my head with these BJD stuff, I'm still holding onto the edge, so that I am not drowning, but ...phew! Granted, I'm a newbie but I also seem to suffer from perfectionism. Now, I really didn't think I did, cause I put plenty of stuff out there that isn't perfect. But ohhhh, if you read the self help stuff, and I'm listening to Brene Brown's " The Gift of Imperfection"(wonderful wonderful book) um,but,  I suffer. Nonetheless, here I am in the deep end with all the swimmers. DIGging deep as she would say.

With all of that in mind, here is what I am up to. My first Ball Jointed Doll First, you make a Styrofoam model (never have done this, but pretty amazed that it actually comes out) then, you sand and form it a little more precisely....good...good....that seems to do fairly well too.

Now, cover the individual forms with the paper clay....EGADZOOKS! and actually make them look like a leg versus a tree stump? OK...a little stumpy, but here comes some magic....sandpaper. Ahhhh....a multitude of sins can be knocked off with sandpaper, and then what's pretty neat too, is that you can add more paper clay if you knock too much off.

Yeah!!!....oooowwww...now what? I've frozen.... it's time to cut my head in half and dig out the Styrofoam....let's cross the fingers and see what happens next....(I find that I'm hiding from this struggle with a cloak of gourmet jelly beans, and miscellaneous heads.) Forward I shall go!

Smiles to All, Brenda