Japanese Obitsu Dolls

I know, I know, dolls are beyond creepy (especially when you happen to stand in a room filled with them *shudders*). Even though I am generally not a fan of dolls, the process of doll-making triggered an insatiable urge to experiment. When I was 9 years old, I had sewed a couple fabric dolls and stuffed animals...but I had never worked with other mediums such as resin, plastic, etc. Hence, I decided to venture into the world of Japanese ball-joint dolls---simply because this type offered a wide range of flexibility in creating custom dolls. Most of the popular ones measure 60 inches in height and can range anywhere from $300 to the thousands. However, there is also the option of creating one...which is much cheaper. Unfortunately, not many people take this risk. Since the separate body components of the 60" dolls are ridiculously overpriced, I decided to go with the less-popular 21" body. I mainly found all of the neccesary doll parts on eBay for pretty reasonable deals. The body came preassumbled...but the head requires a considerable amount of rendering.

The process was a little bit more time-consuming than I anticipated...mainly because the diameter of the head (where the circumferance is the largest) is equivalent to that of a quarter. For those who plan on working with resin anytime in the future, keep in mind that the material does not allow for easy cutting. All of my incisions were jagged because it was difficult to maneuver an exacto knife smoothly through the "rubber-like" texture. I needed to cut open the head in order to cut out eye slots and insert 6 mm eyes via super glue. I would have to say gluing in the eyelashes was probably the hardest part. They were so tiny, I could barely even get a firm grip on it to keep it in place before the glue dried. Eventually, I had to resort to a toothpick to achieve this task. Acrylic paint was used to define the facial details and glaze was added to the lips for a glossy look.


Nothing strikes more horror than a head on a stick (which happens to be a pen in this case).

Finished product (named Fuschia).

Depicted below is Nadine (who shares the same body as Fuschia). The heads aren't supposed to be exchangeable, but I haven't secured them in place yet. Unlike Fuschia, Nadine's face does not require eye incisons of any sort. It was just a pre-molded component that required facial details to be painted on. I was stupid and did not draw anything out in advance (not even outlines of the eye shape) before whipping out my 1 mm diameter paintbrush and attempting to "wing it." As a consequence, I think the eyes may be slightly crooked...

Finished product (named Nadine).