Mature 1/6 Dolls - part 3

This is my problem right now. I need to re-string my Akhmel Nathan, which is a bit daunting as his body is supposedly strung with 1mm elastic. What's worse is that I need to re-string his hands (the original elastic broke) and I need to use beading elastic to do it. I've never strung hands period so I'm pretty nervous to do this but I literally have no choice.

 

You could use thread. Put the thread though the elastic loop and thread the two ends into a needle to pull it though the resin piece. You can also use very fine wire.

 

It took some patience, but I used a pipe cleaner to restring my myoudoll bettina with thicker elastic than the original one, and it went well (the doll stands like a rock now, too)
I'd just say to be careful though because those small dolls are a bit delicate. While restringing I noticed a crack near one knee, and I'm still not sure if that happened during normal play or during the restringing

 

That's one thing that terrifies me about smaller, more delicate sized resin-strung dolls, that they will potentially crack or chip somewhere due to the continuos tension. I've wondered since I got my mature tiny, if Myou, did any quality assurance testing before releasing the mature tinies. Simply because the Myou tinies are so delicate, and thin, like the tiny little fingers despite them looking sausage-y in photos -- I was incredibly surprised when I got my boy, because none of his fingers were broken yet they are so tiny and thin. I know they are not Mattel and probably can't afford to do as vast QA as a mass-producing/large-toy company can (and even they suffer from quality issues somewhere along the products lifecycle). However, I did notice that my Bettina male is also a bit more loosely strung than I remember any of my much larger dolls were. I am wondering if it's specifically due to avoid cracking or chipping in the long run, and that's why they picked such thin elastic rather than going for a thicker one, and seem to string them so loosely. I wondered if it was to avoid damage and not just because they thought a thicker elastic wouldn't fit/work in the doll's smaller limbs. I am not looking forward to restringing my Bettina anytime soon (I don't really feel I need to so far), but I know that I'll need to eventually and I'm a bit scared of doing it so tight, it chips or cracks his resin as a result.

I haven't restrung any of my BJD in a decade or more, but I was never scared of any of them getting damaged, because none of them feel as delicate as my Myou (not in a negative way, more like he is very thin and kind of tiny compared to most of the other BJD I own, except for my SoulDoll Bebe, whom I've also never restrung but he's kind of a chubby marshmallow cat baby). DX

 

I'm very close to being afraid of bringing my DC Clemans anywhere as his fingers are insanely delicate. There's also the edge detail of his tail fin that I'd be worried about but it's his fingers that concern me the most. Oddly, I'm not as worried about my Granado 15Lucent even though he's got even smaller fingers (he's only 15cm). He feels surprisingly sturdy though.

The needle and thread method may work for my Akhmel Nathan. I hadn't thought of doing that. Thanks @nancy_schroeder_ca for the suggestion. Still not sure when I'll be brave enough to actually do it. Poor guy has been languishing in his box in several pieces since the elastic broke in his hands months and months ago.

 

@Iron_Dog I would recommend getting some beading needles for those hands!

 

@nancy_schroeder_ca I actually have some! His hands are jointed but it's only the first joint where fingers meet palm. The fingers themselves are one piece, thank the gods. I'm still dreading having to string them.

 

Do you remember what size elastic you went with?

Yeah I literally just had an incident last night restringing an SD13 where she chipped (luckily very small and on an internal channel, so no visible or structural damage) because my partner who was helping me did not realize that even the larger dolls can be damaged pretty easily if you’re not careful, so he let go of a metal wire that snapped back with a lot of force. It was an accident- he didn’t have a great grip on it, but he would have been more cautious had he known. It was fine, I just sighed, explained that they’re more brittle than they appear, and we finished stringing her, but that would have been a lot worse with one of the tinies.

 

no idea, sorry orz I have several sizes of elastics around so I just went by eye to find something that could fit

but yeah, accidents happen. Resin is both a very strong material, and very fragile at the same time, you just learn to deal with it

 

I'm struggling to find a wig that fits well for my Gina, they seem either too small or slightly too big. Anyone have brand suggestions for myou 1/6? Along with size?

 

Mine are using artist made wigs for popovy! Expensive but awesome! I will try to get a picture.

 

I have my Bettina in a 5" Parabox wig & it's a cute, affordable option. The downside is that it doesn't really behave realistically, at least for the long, straight hair styles. Instead of flowing/draping over her shoulders/furniture/etc, it just sticks straight out at an angle. It's not too hard to hide that if I keep her hair behind her, but it makes it less versatile. Other Parabox wigs I have (long wavy & pigtails) on my Obitsus are better, though. My Gina & Reid are in 4-5" faux fur wigs that look cute enough, but also have issues. I'm honestly just planning on trying to make my own for all of them, because the other brands I've tried (jusuns & DollandCraft) were waaay too voluminous and while their currents are cute, they're not what I want long term.

edit for photo:

 

Wigs for the smaller heads are a pain to get right. I find that many are just too pouffy when made with sewn wefts (especially if it's a size 3). I saw a cool video on YouTube for making a ventilated wig and the person who showed how to do the ventilation also showed how (in another video) how they make their caps without the use of elastic (or very minimal elastic) and it didn't appear overly complicated *she says before actually attempting this herself*. I'm leaning toward giving this a go for my smallest noggin guys (Batchix Clever Littles at 2.75" & Granado 15Lucent at 1.25" heads) as a friend of mine gave me 1/3 of a grocery bag of various coloured hair for wig making (she doesn't make wigs and was given the hair by a friend of hers).

Ventilated wigs are time consuming to make but I'm assuming the overall time would be reduced by quite a bit considering the size of the wigs I'd be making. I believe the person who did the video on YouTube said a typical minifee sized wig (7") takes about 30-40 hours. I'm also thinking that ventilating a wig for these smaller heads would/should solve the pouffy issue *fingers crossed*. I just need to purchase a ventilating tool as the one I currently have is a bit too large and not comfortable for prolonged use.

 

I have a 12cm Mettis Cliff that now has a faceup and needs a wig! I am going to try to make one also. I think I will try gluing the hair directly to a head cap. I have wigs made this way and they are lovely.

 

If the ventilated wig(s) don't work out, I may give the hard cap a go. Just gotta find the time to do it.

 

Time to do something is always a problem for me too!

 

Making my own hard cap wigs has been my way of addressing it, personally. Finding wigs that work otherwise is such a pain... And the small ones really don't take TOO much time. Good luck with the ventilated wigs, @Iron_Dog you're a braver soul than I.

 

It looks like the ventilation is basically latch hooking but you only use like 2-3 strands of hair per hooking. The method/hand movement is not hard but because you use so few (thin) strands, it is time consuming. But hopefully because the wigs I'm intending to make are quite small it won't be so bad.

I have some netting I'd bought previously but I may need to buy some with finer/smaller spaced holes. The netting I have is small but maybe not small enough? I'll need to test it out I think.

 

Has anyone ever restrung a tiny from Lumedoll? Their legs are strung separately, so restringing them might improve their posability, or at least their ability rTo stand. They came with thicker elastic than my other tinies. And where do you get elastic from?

 

I've got 3 of them (Koit, Blaze & Zero) but I've been fortunate enough to not have messed with their stringing. I didn't even realize their legs were strung separately. I got a lot of elastic from a local person when they closed their shop. Aside from that maybe Amazon (so shipping doesn't totally kill you)? I think I remember hearing some people use shock cord (from like Home Depot/Lowes/Canadian Tire) but I don't think it comes in the thickness you'd use for a tiny?