As part of the Dolls, Plushies & Toys Week I am posting interviews and features, there will also be contributions from other galleries as part of this week, check them out here.

Today's Special is all about BJDs.


What are BJDs?
BJD stands for Ball-Jointed Doll. These dolls are hand made by the artists and have ball joints that make it possible to pose the doll. They are often made from porcelain or resin, sculpted and painted by the artist and enhanced with hair and outfits to make a character come to life.
BJDs can be internally strung with metal spirals or elastics to put them under tension, thus allowing them to stay posed, sometimes even being able to stand by themselves without the help of a doll stand. These original artist dolls are often individually hand made and are beautiful collector art pieces.
Many amazing BJDs are to be found in the Dolls, Plushies & Toys gallery, here is a small selection of extrodinary pieces:

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Today I would like to introduce five of the best BJD artits here on dA! If you check out the Dolls, Plushies & Toys gallery, you will find an abundance of stunning works from a variety of great artisans.


Hello! Could you please introduce yourself?
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DreamHighStudio : Hello My name is Donny Harijanto. I’m a Ball Jointed Dolls artist of DreamHigh Studio. I’m 27 years old. I live in Indonesia. I started to sculpt BJDs 3-4 years ago, and love to sculpt it more than anything else now. Sculpting is always been my hobby since I was a kid, starting with playdoh and I never had a chance to receive formal educations in sculpting. So I just learned it myself by trial and errors. It have been my professional career for 3 years now.  My website is  www.dreamhighstudio.com and also my friend’s web www.luxour-academy.com she’s my exclusive dealer for my BJDs


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Anchi : Hello. My name is Anna Linberger, I'm 24 years old. I live in Germany for 3 years, but I was born in Russia. I made my first doll in February 2008 and decided, that is what I want to do all my life. And especial BJDs. I never studied sculpting/painting. Everything I can do is just the results of my own experience. I learn on my own mistakes. For 2.5 years dollmaking was just a hobby for me. But now it's my job, the best job I could ever imagine.

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JRDolls : My name is Julia. I'm a doll artist from Russia. I have an artist education, but talking about porcelain dolls I am a “self-taught artist”. I'm working with BJD's for around 2 years and I hope to make it my professional career
I don't have an online shop, but you can visit my website: JRDolls.com and contact me by email.

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BishonenHouse :
My name is Donn Kinney, I'm from West Virginia, I'm 38 years old and Ive been making BJDs for around 7 years now. I attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, during that time I took quite a few sculpting and mold making classes, some of these helped with what I do now but most of what I know about working with silicone and resin Ive learned from experimentation over the years.

When I began on my first BJD it was more of an art experiment than anything, at the time I was doing animation work for television and I was totally burned out on it, every year it became a little more corporate and less fun and less creative, I decided to try and sell some of my doll work on the side and it actually sold, After about a year of this double life I stopped doing animation and began to make dolls full time. The first couple of years I worked only as a doll artist and I nearly starved, haha, it was really rough getting started and for anyone who has always had a regular job with a regular paycheck its hard to convey how scary it is to have no idea if your going to be able to pay your bills unless you sell "x" many pieces of your work a month, but I worked as hard as I could, was very lucky and eventually my doll work took off.  

My work is available through my website www.bishonenhouse.com I make all of my dolls entirely myself, I don't use any outside fabricators, no parts are shipped to china to be cast or molded for me, aside from 2 very talented costume designers who I work with "Dreux Priore and Brian Earl" everything you see of my work is entirely crafted by myself.

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miradolls : I am 46 years old and live in Germany, near Chemnitz. I've been making BJDs for 4 years, but I hav been sculpting figures and dolls for a long time. It's a hobby and a job all in one, as for most artists. I sell my BJDs on conventions and exhibitions in Germany and sometimes through my website.

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When you create a BJD, how do you go about it?
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JRDolls : Hmm... inspiration is quite intricate thing and sometimes it's impossible to say what exactly is the source of it. It could be anything, even some small insignificant impression. The most important is to be in a creative mood. This mood is a persistent power, a motor of creation, which is pushing you forward.

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BishonenHouse : I find inspiration for my work everywhere, Movies, Video Games, Art, Fashion and Life.  

When I begin a new doll I usually do a very rough sketch (only to get proportions) then I enlarge it to the actual size of the finished piece to use as a template as I sculpt. I then begin to build out my armature using aluminum wire, I then build up a base of paperclay over my armature, usually I sculpt this in the shape of the basic skeletal structure (ribcage, hips, skull etc) the paperclay gives me a lighter sculpture and it saves on clay (remember my dolls are rather large at 27 inches) once this base is finished I begin to build up skin and muscle forms with clay, at the moment I use chavant to sculpt but sometimes I use polymer clay or a combination of the two, making hands, head and feet in grey firm sculpey and the body in chavant. Once the sculpting stage is completed I begin creating silicone molds of my sculptures, I then use these molds to cast resin duplicates of my sculpts which I cut apart and add jointing as well as refine the sculpture surface by repeated sanding and priming to get my final parts perfectly smooth and free of flaws. once I have all of my parts to my liking then I'll create a set of final high quality master molds,..from these I will cast my final parts I use to create my dolls,.. Once I have my parts cast I drill them hollow, embed magnets in the head to hold on the changeable face plates, use ground up pastels to paint on the makeups and blushing, string the doll with elastic to make it posable and then last but not least make the doll a wig....whew.... (and people ask me why I don't make a "simple" tutorial for my process) haha.

I have several special techniques I use for getting the slightly translucent "skin like" look to my resin, as well as my soft porcelain finish,..but Ive never shared those with anyone   

Most of the dolls that I sell are limited editions I create in very small numbers, usually editions of 25, 10 or 5,.. because I make all my dolls myself I usually can only produce around 45-55 dolls a year. About 1/3 of my commissioned pieces are one of a kind dolls as well as the ones I create simply for the fun of it

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DreamHighStudio : My inspirations comes from many source, mostly  folklore, fairytale, movies, and also real peoples that I found interesting.  It depends on the situations actually, most of the time  I sculpt straight from scratch without any concepts or ideas. Sometime I also do some scetches, and refine it in the actual sculpts. But for Joints systems I always draw a concepts for how it suppose to works.  Nothing in particular just a normal process, maybe just mix and match between one material and others depending on which part of the doll I made.
I always duplicate my dolls for production, since I produce BJDs professionally.

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miradolls : Pictures, books, the internet and of course deviantART are my biggest source of inspiration. I always start with a sketch, I sculpt the head first and then the body parts. Once everything is perfect and smooth I start building casting forms from silicone. Then I cast the parts in resin.
I do a maximum of ten casts for each head sculpt within one to two years. Painting and accessories vary greatly for each doll and I never duplicate the look of one of my dolls. Through this customization, all my BJDs are OOAK dolls, though the sculpts are cast in mini-series.

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Anchi : I find the inspiration everywhere. In music, in books, it could be in art or just the mood, that I had in the moment of creation. I try to look at the world with open eyes and see the little things, that for others are casual and uninteresting. I try to be attentive. Then I make the sketches, but the main sketch is in my head and I always reform it. The porcelain doll making process is simple and difficult at the same time. I can divide it into several steps

1. Idea,sketches 2. Sculpting 3. Sending 4. Mold making 5. Casting 6. First fire 7. Greenware Cleaning 8. Hight fire 9. China Paint 10. Fire 11. Assembly 12. Wig+eyelashes 14. Clothes 15.Thadaaaa!! The doll is finished It can take a half of the year or more. That's why I make the duplicates of nude dolls. All of my costumed dolls are unique.

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Where do you work and what materials do you use?
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miradolls : Of course I have a work room, uncured resin is a toxis substance and safety clothing and a respirator are essential when working with this material.
For my sculpts I use Premix (airdry clay). The hollow parts are formed from plastilin. To build my casting forms, I use Smooth-On silicone and then a special resin for the casts themselves.
For very small dolls I use polymer clay.

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DreamHighStudio : I work in my garage studio. I use sculpey and also epoxie putty for sculpting tiny pieces. For bigger BJDs, I use paperclay.
I have a work room, most of the material is toxic, so I definitly need to work in safe working area  
I use normal sculpting spatulas, cutter, and dental tools. Since I live in Indonesia, I have to import the material from US. But I also produce some material myself . EPOXIE PUTTY is preferable for It’s durability for tooling, sanding , and even drilling.

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Anchi : I have a special craftroom for my work. I wounder myself how many tools I need to do one small doll. I make my Mastermodel from LaDoll, then I make the molds from plaster and cast the porcelain slip. I have a big Kiln, it is my best friend and business partner

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BishonenHouse : Right now I do all of my work out of a spare bedroom that Ive turned into a workshop but I'm currently building an expanded studio space that should be finished this summer .

Aside from my sculpting tools (some which Ive had for 25 years) the only two pieces of equipment I use are my vacuum chamber (I use this to pull the air bubbles out of mixed silicone so I can make bubble free flawless molds) and my pressure chamber (I use this to pressurize my mixed resin after its poured into my molds, pressurizing the resin causes any tiny air bubbles trapped in the resin to be crushed down to microscopic size allowing me to get perfect resin casts), when I started doll making I had neither piece of equipment but after the first year I realized that I would have to invest in both to help me create the look of a perfectly smooth matte skin that I wanted for my finished pieces.

The materials I use to sculpt vary, right now I'm using sulfur free chavant which is a dense non hardening wax like clay, but I still sometimes use polymer clay to sculpt a hand or a face, I also use magic sculpt when I'm creating and refining my joints,.. the resin I use now is a special mix but in the past Ive used smooth-on resins and Ive always used smooth-ons mold max 30 for all of my molds,..Its my personal favorite silicone for doll casting.

Places id recommend for supplies are www.smoothon.com for silicone and resin, and the complete sculptor for all sculpting supplies and clays www.sculpt.com/

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JRDolls : I was starting with LaDoll but later turned to porcelain.
I work at home but I dream of my own studio someday, because my kiln, buckets with porcelain and other stuff take too much place.
I buy tools and materials at Moscow online shops or via eBay.

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Do you have any tips for beginners?
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Anchi : The main tip I can give is just to believe in yourself. Be persistent and self critical. You must believe that you can everything, you need just a little bit of time and practice. If you want to begin to make your own BJD you probably need to look at this page www.aimi-doll.com/howto/index.… And have no fear, there are many pictures there

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BishonenHouse : If you want to make dolls/figures of any kind the first (and most important) thing id recommend is learning to sculpt,.NOT just learning to sculpt dolls, If you learn to become a proficient sculptor it will make your eventual doll work really stand out from the rest. If your able to, take figure sculpting classes, if not check out the DVDs by John Brown available through the Gnomon Workshop www.thegnomonworkshop.com Id highly recommend them, even if you already have experience as a sculptor.

If you want to jump into making bjds but don't have the time or money to buy silicone and resin id recommend creating your first doll in La-doll clay, polymer clay or magic or epoxy sculpt, you can make a perfectly beautiful doll with these materials but you wont need to get into the expense and technical difficulty of casting or molding

And last but not least When your finishing your work take your time, don't rush the final finishing stage, the sanding of your final sculpt can make the difference between having an armature looking "experiment" or a professional finished piece.

The best book available for creating one of a kind BJDs is Yoshida Style, ball jointed doll making guide by Ryo Yoshida,..its entirely written in Japanese but there are so many step by step photos that the lessons are pretty much self explanatory. Ive been working on a book for years on how to make resin BJDs but I'm so busy making dolls its hard to get around to finishing it.   Soon as my new studio space is complete I plan on hosting advanced and beginners doll making and casting workshops for anyone interested.

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JRDolls : I am a beginner myself and the best advice I can give is: don't be afraid of doing anything, and try! Internet is full of tutorials. Learn by doing!

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miradolls : Ball-Jointed-Doll Making Guide from Yoshida is a very good book for beginners. It's japanese but can be universally understood.
The first step should always be a proportional sketch. Some anatomy books are very helpful for this process. Airdry clays like LaDoll and Premix are perfect for beginners and professionals. It's better to start small and be realistic. Once you have sculpted a doll from Premix and painted it you will be able to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Then you have a good starting point to practice again and again.
The forum The Joint (www.bjdartists.com) was very helpful for me and still is. It's a treasure trove for doll creators to find answers to all their questions.

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DreamHighStudio : The best thing to learn things well is through trial and errors, never give up when your experiment project looks like crap. Everything will be better each new project You do. Talents and technique is just help You 25-30% of your success , the other 70% is experience. So.. that’s what I do. keeps making something and keeps learning in every little bits I made. and I don’t mind if my sculpt ends up in trash, as long as I’m learning something through it
For BJD making You can try BJD making Yoshida style or any online tutorial will do
Usually beginner can use sculpey, it’s very convenient and simple to work with.  Learn anatomy as a basics in art, Anatomy is a basic foundation which makes You learn a lot of things through it. I keep learning anatomy, it’s complicated but yet so useful.
Patience and determination leads to virtue

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Mature Content

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Which BJD in your gallery are you most proud of and why?
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miradolls : Fortuna - she is the lady luck. It took a long time to go from the first idea to the finished doll and she is my first BJD with double joints.

All her accessories and clothes took more time to finish than usual. My thoughts were always with her and several times I thought she was finished - but then I kept working on her. Now I only have pictures of her left because she was sold to a very nice collector.

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JRDolls : The most important to me is my very first BJD. She is not shown here in my gallery but she gave me the firm belief that I want to make dolls.
In my gallery it's Mila. I just love her ambiguous character


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DreamHighStudio : I love most of them but I can say I’m proud with any of them just yet

I love my BJD called IVA, it never came to production and it’s the best BJD sculpt I ever made so far.  Maybe it’s accidentally looks like my fiancé, I never intent to sculpt her face but the sculpt turns out to look like her..

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BishonenHouse : For me this is a bit of a complicated question because I create two types of dolls, ones that are meant as a component of complete image and dolls that stand on their own as dolls, my favorite doll that was created for the purpose of creating an image is the gift giver as I call him, I created the image after the end of a 14 year relationship, I took all of my feelings and wrapped them up into a single creation and that image was the result, it was an important healing piece for me and because of that it will always have (not to pun) a special place in my heart .

But my favorite doll who simply is just my favorite "new" doll would be Logan I think the reason I like him so much is because he gets passed over all the time, people always mistake the tan Logan photos for a real person.. Which is really flattering and also very disheartening, I'm sure he gets passed over by people all the time just thinking its a generic photo of some random "model guy" meanwhile I spent 3 months of my life creating every bit of him with my own two hands, I think he only has 60 faves or something like that, even a generic photo of a generic model would get more attention that that, lol..for petes sake i painted his stubble on one hair at a time!! haha ;-D , oh well

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Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this special feature! I hope you go on creating amazing BJDs for all of us to enjoy.

Cheers,
MyntKat