...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

...progress

What a great weekend. First a sunny warm day in the middle of a Northwest Indiana winter. (giant smile) We got the rest of the wood pile moved to the front porch. My great new book arrived. Michaels had great coupons and I was able to start getting my supplies ready for Ohio. (even bigger smile, I used my Michaels gift card that I got for Christmas-thanks Mom and Dad). Dave was able to get out on the bike!!!(jumping while smiling) and I worked on learning about paper clay and painting faces...here are the results so far.

you can definitely tell both the progression of sculpture structure and painting. I've e-mailed our high school Japanese instructor to see if she can help with the translation of the book. Let's keep our fingers crossed, that would be AMAZING!Smiles to All, Brenda

...it came!!

I finally got my book from Japan today! So exciting. Now...I really wish I read some Japanese! What I find so funny is that the pictures and numbers are in English, and under each heading is the English word...and then to add insult to injury a specific square with the only language is English "Advice" and then the advice given all in Japanese. To be fair. I knew that this book was not written in English. I also thought that the photos and the sequences would be exceptional. I am not disappointed! AMAZING! It has got my curiosity up so much that it's a bit of a nuisance...it has me thinking that I need to talk with our local high school and see if the Japanese class can do some extra credit by interpreting....hey...I think its worth a shot.
Smiles to All, Brenda

...no, I don't read Japanese...

so, I'm sitting here eagerly awaiting my new book, Yoshida Style Ball Jointed Doll-Making Guide by Ryo Yoshida, and yes, all the instructions are in Japanese! Marina suggested it in her blog, and once I saw the photo's, eh...maybe I can muddle through with some help from the BJD bloggers. I am totally new to this, but I'm a lover of the "process" work, and from my understanding...gadzooks, it's a process!

These dolls are made out of paperclay, which is nice, it's inexpensive and easy to come by. So, I got my hands sticky and icky and full of goo. It was wonderful. I'm finding it to be sort of a fun medium. You can sand it, build it up, if you accidentally notch out the nose...just add more paper.So here are the results so far all are WIP (works in progress)...

The eyes in this guy were made by following Marina's tutorial. These are all much larger than the BJD's will be but it has been a good way to introduce myself to the medium. ALSO, I'm taking the Poppet class at the AFIC in Ohio with Lillian Alberti. This is also done out of paperclay...how cool, I'm learning!
It was pretty funny the other day my son came in and read the note on the oven, "Boys, there are heads in the oven, please remove them before you change the temp. Love you Mom" he is certain that there are some families where this is not only NOT the norm, but...would probably freak them out! Ha!
Smiles to All,
Brenda

...and the winner is...

Mila

#58 on Magic Carpet

http://bellbookandcandleseason.blogspot.com/

milamarchetti@libero.it

I can't belive my doll gets to go all the way to Tuscany, Italy. She will have a stamp in her passport before I. (I actually get to get mine March 24th) Yeah to Mila, and thank you. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and checked out the Comfort Doll Program and bwh2. It has been such a pleasure to participate with everyone!
Smiles,
Brenda