Wired Dolls?

I have wired at least half my dolls, and so I've got a bunch of experience! The wire is slid into the joint channels where it sits next to the elastic. I usually do this while restringing, but I've been able to stretch the limb out and push the wire in while strung before as long as it's not too tight to pull.

Most dolls have plenty of space for both the wire and elastic, and if you have super thick elastic you probably won't need the wire since it will be stable enough. If you look for it, you can probably see the wire, but it's not super noticable unless the joint is really bent out of its natural range of motion.

 

I have handled wired dolls, and tried it on one of my own and....I don't like it. I prefer my dolls to be cuddly and I (usually) like how they seem to move on their own when I handle them. They were just way too stiff for my taste. If you're wanting a doll that poses well and holds those poses without being kicky or moving out of place, then wiring could be a good option for you. You'll want to use a thick enough wire, or it'll be pretty pointless. I've heard some of the thicker floral wire works well, and also that putting a little bit of hot glue on the tips of the wires can prevent scratching the resin.

This thread offers more information and tips.

 

I find that I prefer to just get dolls that are engineered well enough to hold poses on their own, or perhaps with some sueding. I've had a few artist dolls arrive to me pre-wired, and to me that's a red flag. Like "Why did they feel the need to wire this? Is there something wrong with the engineering that necessitates wiring?!"

And those dolls actually posed better with a restring and suede than they did wired.

If I were to guess I'd say that wiring is more important for single jointed dolls. They're probably a good option in that case to achieve the mobility of a double joint without actually having one.

 

I'm the opposite of @CloakedSchemer I guess as I basically wire everything and find unwired dolls frustrating floppy messes.

I have a wiring/stringing tutorial here.

I tend to use anodized aluminum wire. Yes even anodized it can leave marks on the inside of your doll. If you care you can use some other form of coated wire or close the wire in shrink tubing or the like. Of course this limits the size of wire you can use which makes the hold less effective. I will say avoid raw aluminum wire through as it leave residue EVERYWHERE. In your doll, on your doll, on you, on your floor, etc. etc.

Also since you specifically mentioned standing, I'll point out that wiring can only do so much for that specifically as wiring will not help the ankle joint at all so it generally remains the weak point that still makes everything a careful balancing act. Sueding is about the best you can do for ankles without serious modifications.

I'll also note that doll engineering still matters. A poorly designed doll will still not be a great posing doll even wired, but it can make them tolerable. But once all wired up with enough patience and a well engineered doll you can do things like the poses in the following links.

BJD Stories - Cat Ballet

BJD Stories - Cat Dance

BJD Stories - Cat Dance 2

 

I’ve wired most of mine though I only wire the limbs. I prefer hot glue sueding the other joints and wiring the arms and legs since it’s harder to suede those. I use aluminum craft wire and haven’t had any problems with flaking or scratching. It’s cheap, thin and soft so it’s not hard to get in the channels and if it starts to weaken I can just switch it out with a new piece. If a doll comes tightly strung I don’t usually wire them at all.

 

@scripple Those are some really impressive poses! Your girls are gorgeous, and an excellent example of what wiring can do!

 

Mostly it doesn't show but if you wire a tiny doll (I've done my Bangis) with pilecleaners, pick a colour of fluff on the pipe-cleaner that is close to the doll's skintone, or it will show at the joints. I dyed white pipe cleaners with tea to get them closer to "normal" skintone, an used a blue pipe cleaner on the whiteskin Banji I dyed blue.

I tend to wire AND hot-glue "suede" my DollsTown Minis as they are terrible for rotating limbs and/or joints popping out of sockets, and they behave so nicely once wired and sueded.

Tedd

 

I have wiring in the arms of some of my single jointed dolls so that they can touch their faces, but I usually don’t bother in a doll that doesn’t need to overextend a joint to pose. Wiring limbs is fairly easy—you just shove some wire (I use bits off a spool of electrical wire I’ve had forever) into the joints with the doll still strung. It does require periodic checking to make sure it hasn’t shifted somewhere weird, but it’s fairly low maintenance.

I find it doesn’t really help with standing, though. I went so far in one of my old Delfs (with their notoriously kicky legs) to extend the wire all the way up through his hips into his torso, and he was only slightly more stable. If your doll is already a decent poser, sometimes sueding helps more than wiring when it comes to holding limbs in place.

 

I have wired some of my dolls. I use copper electrical wire for SDs and MSDs-it has a plastic coating so only the ends are bare. It's cheap at the hardware store. Of course, they don't make a flesh color, so I use white. It's mostly good for the kickies and if you want your dolls to hold a pose for photography. I have a fair number of single-jointed dolls and it's good for them. It will stabilize legs a little, but it really hasn't helped my noodle-legged Elfdolls every much. I have also wired inside the torso for dolls with problems there-I stick an m-shaped squiggle big enough to fill the cavity in to stabilize them and that works pretty well. I second @Teddy on the pipecleaners for tinies. Next challenge is really small white covered floral wire-I want to try wiring some jointed hands.

 

I should add that I always wire strung dolls, I just pull on the elastic and slide it in. @scripple Your cat ladies are awesomely flexible!

 

Hm, I've thought about wiring but haven't really felt the need. The only one I would've considered was my Bobobie Elfkin but I'm not sure it would've helped.

 

Thanks @CloakedSchemer and @Isabeau for the nice comments about by dolls.

I guess I should point out these dolls are sueded in addition to wired. I typically suede the wrist, ankle, hip, and neck sockets. For many dolls I'll also add a silicone washer to the neck joint.

@Isabeau I do wire all my jointed hands, but I just use tiny silver wire. It's so small it doesn't show much.

 

A secondhand zuzu delf I recently bought arrived to me with wired legs, likely to compensate for how floppy he is! I'd like to experiment with wiring him again in the future for a similar reason other have given, to give a single jointed doll a better range of motion. But I will probably try pipe cleaners instead of whatever he came to me with, those wires left very noticable marks on the doll that I have to clean out.

 

Hmm.. I do that with all of the ones I wire (one length of wire up the first leg, through the body as far as the upper chest, U-turn and back down through the other leg) and it helps a lot with both standing and with slumping at the torso joints.

Teddy

 

Pipe cleaners don’t work for me, either. My dolls are too big and have too much tension in them for that tiny gauge of wire to do anything, so your earlier suggestion was contrary to my experience as well.

Your mileage may vary on all of these things depending on a number of factors. (Did I really need to add that disclaimer to a post describing my personal experience?)

 

I did only suggest it for very tiny dolls. The ones I used pipe cleaners for are Banji's so less than six inches tsll and very slim. And I wasn't actually suggesting the use of pipe cleaners, just suggesting that IF pipe cleaners were used to wire very tiny dolls, it's a good idea to match their colour to the skintone of the doll as much as possible.

No more than I thought I needed to with my post.

Teddy

 

Yes, that was my point.

 

I used floral wire on my Resinsoul Gang, his arms never held pose and he was kicky. The wire really helps him to stay in place.

 

Would wire help a doll whose knee won't stay bent? I had assumed it would but reading some of the posts here I'm not sure if it's the easy fix I was hoping it was.