About The Rites Of Passage Series

Hello friends!

I’ve been away working on my second series of ball jointed dolls. I call this “The Rites Of Passage”. It’s a little silly, but the name came about because I really feel like this time around, these boys are my true rites of passage into the world of doll-smithing.

Wherein my previous series I drew inspiration from classical sculptures, this time I wanted to explore more comic and contemporary illustrations. I’m categorically in love with the art styles of M.oonmilla and Annedrawsstuff. I remember thinking, ‘omg, they’re just perfect! I want to make dolls that feel like these!’ and so the silliness continued…

I began sketching their concept in mid July 2019 and finally finished the last of the priming/polishing work of the master sculpts on 6th June 2021. Wheww!! It’s been quite a trip… I really love the design journey and the puzzle solving side of things, anything from figuring out how a joint works, to the materials I’m using and sometimes constructing a tool I need to sculpt with. But it hasn’t always been sunny, a significant part of the process is still crafted by hand and not going to lie, it took a serious toll on my health. I remember collapsing one day in my kitchen because I had been sanding for 10 hours straight that day, and these dolls didn’t take just one day to sand, in fact it took me 2 years to sand everything to a castable stage. I am grateful for this experience though, now whenever I go into a supermarket and I pick up a tub of yoghurt or a piece of banana bread, I think about all the efforts that many people before me had gone through just to put a product on the shelf.

Body Composition

I may have bitten more than I could chew, but this time around I made two sets of master sculpts for this series. One is for a doll that stands at 65 cm (Large size) and the other stands at 50 cm (Small size). I haven’t got a resin cast of the sculpts yet at this stage, so below are the prototype as they are in PLA material, hence why their texture is still quite rough and these colours are not their final form, but I include these pictures to give you an idea of their scales.

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Measurements	Large	Small
Height	65 cm	50 cm
Head circumference	20.5 cm	16.2 cm
Neck girth	11.2 cm	8.9 cm
Chest girth	30 cm	22.8 cm
Waist girth	22 cm	18 cm
Hips girth	30.1 cm	24 cm
Upper Leg girth	16.5 cm	13 cm
Lower Leg girth	13 cm	10.5 cm
Upper Arm girth	8.6 cm	7 cm
Lower Arm girth	9.3 cm	7.4 cm
Wrist girth	6 cm	5 cm
Ankle girth	9 cm	7.4 cm
Shoulder width	16.5 cm	13.0 cm
Shoulder circumference	38.5 cm	30.5 cm
Arm length	21 cm	16.5 cm
Leg length	33.5 cm	26.2 cm
Back length	14.5 cm	12 cm
Hand length	7 cm	5.5 cm
Foot length	9.8 cm	7.5 cm
Foot width	3.8 cm	3 cm
Pubic bone to tip of foot	36 cm	28 cm
Eye ball (sclera size)	12 mm & 14 mm	10 mm & 12 mm
Eye ball (iris size)	5 mm & 6 mm	4 mm & 5 mm
Weight (estimate)	2 kg	1.5 kg

Colour Options

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Name	Description
Daisy	An achromatic white, 0% hues
Peach	A light beige with gentle undertones of 60% yellow and 40% pink
Cinnamon	A warm lightly tanned brown with gentle undertones of 50% yellow and 50% pink
Mocha	A medium Taupe brown
Java	Dark brown like roasted beans with soft undertones of 20% yellow and 5% green

Master sculpt

Each set has two pairs of hand gestures and two pairs of feet (flat feet & pointed ballet feet). Below are some details of the finished master sculpts, which will be used to make the resin moulds.

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Posing the doll

The following are some photos of the PLA prototypes demonstrating some of the poses they may be able to do. Please note, the pointed feet are made solely to look pretty, I don’t intend for them to be load bearing, especially if the units are in resin, they will be heavy and I really can’t guarantee they will not break if anyone tries to stand the doll on them without due care. As much as I would like them to be, I would appreciate some understanding that these are these are dolls, not real humans, and there are limitations to how much they can pose or be bent.

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Head Sculpts

There are 5 types of head sculpts for this series. Let’s hope they all get along!

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Aquilo

“Curious, thoughtful, has illogical fears”

Erato

“Cheerful, whimsical, can’t read maps”

Geneo

“Aloof, spartan, has a soft spot for animals”

Lamento

“Brave fool, loyal to a fault, a bit of a sook”

Tresno

“You know that blue grey donkey character in Winnie The Pooh called Eeyore? Well, that’s him”

Credits and Thanks

I want to thank all of you who had so kindly helped me and cheered me on with this project, everyone who has ever sent very kind messages/advices and words of wisdom, your support gave life to my passion, absolutely everybody on the ‘3D Sculpting With Friends’ Discord Channel including Jennifer Tallman (the printer of my resin prototype units from which the master sculpt was literally made), Akiomoichi, Midspace, Georgia, LunaticParadise, LostchroniclesBJD, DollFacedStudio, Bonelace, Myrretah, TheBrokenMaiden, Ashuradark, SoftAlien, Gothiquezombie, Dolliciouso, and there’s a tonne more of you, I am so sorry I cannot fit y’all here.

Where to from here?

Well, the ultimate goal of this project is for me to turn the master sculpts into Polyurethane Resin models, which will make them more durable and can be painted. As much as I would love to cast these myself, I unfortunately haven’t got the skills nor facility at home to do that currently (maybe one day!), so I am currently researching a few casting services I can partner with. Please stay tuned for more updates and thank you.