Saturday, December 18, 2010

OW.

So I cut myself the other night... badly enough that i had to go to the emergency room!  A tetanus shot and some liquid stitches later, I am recovering but I can't work on any dolls in the meantime. :<  i've got a new boy done except for cleaning his sprues.  I hope to get back to work after christmas! 

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Woo!

Finally got my resin last night!  There was a mistake on the address which led to me waiting all day wednesday, thursday and friday for the delivery and having several heated discussions with their hotline.  It ended last night at 8pm with me almost literally chasing down the delivery guy.

But last night another boy was successfully brought into the world!  Just gotta recast one hand, then I'll go through and shore up any small bubbles.  He is a pure, paper white and very pretty if I do say so myself.  Hopefully he'll go up for sale next week.


I thought I'd give you some random facts about my process so you get an idea of what it's like to cast.

  • It takes me about an hour to set all the molds up for casting.  Each mold has to be powdered with talc on the inside- this encourages a smooth fill and a matte surface.  I also pre-pour my resin so that hopefully even the tiniest of bubbles will rise to the surface and pop.
  • Once set up, the casting takes me about an hour, sometimes two.  If there are any parts that didn't come out to my satisfaction I have to start the process all over for that mold.
  • I can only cast one complete doll every few days even working at my fastest.  because...
  • I am allergic to the hardner in the resin.  Too much exposure and I break out in hives all over my arms.  I cast with a respirator, gloves, and long sleeves.  When the cast is complete I leave the room and leave the window open to ensure the fumes dissipate.  Most people are not nearly so sensitive as I am.
  • The resin I use has a work time of about three minutes before it turns to a gel state and heats up.  I have to work very fast.  It's sort of stressful because I hate wasting resin.  If I hesitate at all, there's a good chance I won't get to use all the resin I just mixed!
  • In some resins, like Smooth-on, adding color can cause the resin to set up faster and not give up it's bubbles so easily.  For some reason I don't have this problem with Alumilite or Polytek.
  • I have to remove the casts from their molds before they fully harden.  If they're too soft they'll warp, but if they're too hard they can damage the molds and the sprues are harder to remove.  
  • The little star-burst shaped marks you see sometimes on the casts are where a sprue was removed. I usually sand them out, but sometimes I miss a few.
  • While I don't sand the entire doll, I will often run a 400 grit paper over any seams that seem sharp to me.  I have actually cut myself on the seams sometimes.
  • The process for the doll goes: Casting, filling any minor imperfections(which sometimes involves mixing up a matching color of apoxy sculpt), drilling the hands and feet, cutting and filing down the bars for the hands and feet, stringing the doll, and then gluing the bars and magnets in place.  This takes a lot longer than it sounds. XD
That's all i can think of right now.  :3

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sold!

Thank you!  He is now sold.

Hope to get another doll finished sometime this week. :D  yay!

-----


Woo!

About this doll:

This is a default Machina Gamma in ivory.  I am switching resin so the next one will be pure white, so if you're wanting ivory, get him while you can!

Like all my dolls he is hand made without the aid of pressure pots or vaccum chambers.  Possible defects include pin holes, specs of color, vent marks, and seams.  Any holes larger than a pencil dot are filled with Apoxy Sculpt and are not present on stress bearing parts or on the face.

Accessories:  Gamma head and helmet (no eyes or wig)

Wig size: 5
Eye size: 12mm

Face up: I will do a simple face-up if asked, however it will not be custom.  It will be an additional $25

Line Painting: Painting the lines in the color of your choice- $50  Please remember the lines and dolls are not perfect and neither am I.   

Full paints:  I offer full paints for an additional $100.  Sample here: http://g36.net/ocdesigns/photos/twins/cy_05.jpg  Please be aware that dolls painted in such a way are hot glue suede to help prevent damage to paint, however, careful play is recommended.  Wait time for this is 1-2 months. 

Price: $300

Shipping is $7 US, please contact me for shipping prices outside the US.

In order to keep cost down, I do not use custom boxes or pillows.  The doll will come wrapped in bubble wrap and inside a priority box.

Eventually I hope to be able to offer wigs and eyes on my etsy, but at the moment I'm out of everything!

Please feel free to ask questions here or email me at batchix at google dot com to lay in a claim!  I will be receiving my new shipment of resin this week, so hopefully I'll get another boy done before christmas!

I require feedback on either DOA, Etsy or Ebay!  
You can find feedback for me on those sites as well(ebay is kodachi_batchix)








Well, i finally have some news!

The bad news is that due to problems with casting I won't be using a professional casting service at this time. What this means for you is that I can't produce as high quality of doll or the volume a casting service can meet. It also means no pre-orders, dolls will be sold as they come available. This insures that I don't get burned out and that you get your doll in a timely fashion. Dolls that are not sold will be put up on my Etsy site when I get it up. :3

The GOOD news is I'm going forward and casting them myself. I just got my originals back about ten minutes ago and I'll be starting the new molds for them later this afternoon! Depending on how things pan out I may have a doll done by monday!

Due to me making these dolls from home they won't have a set release schedule. I have to cast around my full time job and other various obligations. I hope to make at least one doll a month, but it depends on how the molds turn out. As I said, they won't be as high quality since I don't have access to vacuum chambers or pressure pots. What this means is the dolls will have minor surface variations and pin holes, especially along seams and at the rim of joints. I'm taking that into consideration and I'm lowering the price accordingly. Also to keep cost down the dolls will be mailed in simple priority boxes carefully wrapped. Right now the dolls should be around $300 a piece without eyes, sanding or painting.

As soon as these molds are done I'll be starting work on new helmet, hand and armor designs. I've already got a chest armor piece ready! Epsilon, who has a larger chest and longer legs as well as different face and helmet, will hopefully be available at some point as well. :D Since I'm casting these myself I'll also be able to offer individual parts for sale, so you can get different helmets, heads, and armor parts as they come available!

I can't tell you all enough HOW EXCITED I am to finally get the ball rolling on the boys! I can't wait till I see what everyone does with them!

I'm not sure about sanding services since that's extremely hard on my wrists, but I'll be exploring some options on that as well as with full paint. Face-ups are available for an additional fee and if you've got a specific type of line painting you'd like on their face(see the original Alpha doll for an example) I am happy to carve or paint that on for you.

Next time I write I hope to have the first doll ready for you! Wish me luck!


Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for sticking this out with me!

-Batchix