Life Size Doll Armature - Adding Volume

I have been working on the doll this week.  As I wrote in a previous blog post, two important considerations have been the weight of the piece and how much it will cost to construct the project.  I am trying to keep the weight down by using light weight materials.  So far, the materials for the project have been PVC pipe for the frame, cardboard, newspaper, aluminum foil,bubble wrap and tape.  I used 1/2 inch diameter PVC because we had some scraps of it left over from another project.  At the moment, the legs are looking a little shaky.  I am hoping that once other materials are added over the bare pipes that the structure will tighten up a bit.  All in all, if I were starting over, I would use a larger diameter pipe.  However, that runs into my other consideration: cost.  I did not want to spend the money for new pipe.  At this point I am still hoping that the smaller pipe will hold up.  I have a Plan B if things don't work out.

 Once the basics of the form were on I started adding shape to the piece. Circles were cut from newspaper and folded into quarters then opened fully.  One line was cut from the edge all the way to the center.  This allowed the circle to overlap and become a cone shape.  It was taped inside and out at the overlap.  The cones were half -way taped to the torso to form the breast shapes.  The were shapes stuffed with newspaper to form a firm surface.  I had originally planned to stuff the shapes with foil, but I kept poking holes in the cones while trying to tamp the foil into place.  I had some polyester fiber fill (left over from another project) I could have used as stuffing, but the newspaper was free and I paid for the fiber fill.  Anyway, all's well that ends well.  Once everything was stuffed I taped over the entire area.

The next step was to cover the upper torso with bubble wrap.  One side of the bubble wrap has the bubbles and the other side is smooth.  I put the smooth side outward.  I kept working at it until I had a figure that fit the upper dimension I was looking for.  What was that dimension?   Basically I was looking for 36 inches (15.4 cm.) at the bust.  At the moment, the figure looks a little high chested, but that is as it should be.  The head for the doll has a fairly long neck that flares out at the base to give the head stability.  To accommodate the flare at the base, the shoulders will have to be built up about two inches.  That will give the torso a more normal look.

The hips for the figure were already in place.  I wrote about creating them in a previous blog post.   I added some more cardboard to the top of the hips to form the waist area.  The cardboard pieces were taped together.  Once the cardboard was secure, the form was stuffed with newspaper so that it would remain rigid and not collapse in on itself. 

More bubble wrap was added to cover the waist area.  I would have kept going and worked on the hip area as well, but I ran out of bubble wrap.  I had only purchased one roll because I was uncertain how much I would need for the project.  I would rather make another trip to the store than stuck with unused rolls of bubble wrap.  My studio is seriously overstuffed with materials and projects  and I need to do another purge of unused stuff.  Purchasing bubble wrap is on the agenda for this week.  Maybe I will go ahead and buy two rolls since I still have the arms and legs to complete as well.

The 4th of July falls on a Wednesday this year.   Some holiday activities will be on the weekend of the 1st and other activities will be on the following weekend.  I expect to be pretty busy the whole time.  I don't think I will have time to post anything until Sunday, July 8th.  How did it get to be July already?

More on Life Size Doll Armature

Last blog post I was writing about beginning to fill out the upper part of the torso.  This post I will be showing the first part of the hip area.  Each section will be built up in layers until the body has a fairly natural look to it.  The goal is not to create a perfect body form, but to make a form that will serve as the base for a dressed doll.  It does not have to be completely correct, it just has to be proportional enough to a fair approximation.

Right now, the top looks too small to go with the current hip construction.  That is because this is the first layer.  There will be more layers, on the upper torso and I have to allow room for the layers to come.  I am building up areas one at a time so I can see where I need to make changes as I go along.  At the moment, I think the hips might be a little wide, but it is a little late to be taking the frame apart.   Everything is glued in place.  I would have to use a hack saw to cut out some of pipe and the glued joints and replace it with new joints.  It might creating more work than it is worth.

I was having a little trouble visualizing the hip area, so I started taping on balls of paper to the supports until I had an idea of where the hips should be situated for the pose I want the doll to hold.  (This doll's position will be static.  Since the frame was glued in place it does not move.)  That step was not really necessary, but it did help me understand the underlying bone structure.  Once I figured out how high I wanted the hip to be, I taped on cardboard front and back and stuffed the area with balls of newspaper.  The rest of the newspaper stuffing was not taped.

After the hip area was stuffed, I covered the entire section with masking tape, including the top and bottom.  I use the masking tape as a buffer against moisture.  The external layer of the doll will be a form of paper mâché and fabric.  I have had projects fail when the cardboard absorbed too much moisture from the mix.  Although there should be some layers covering the cardboard, I prefer to give myself  some extra protection now rather than have to rework an area later if things become soggy.

Next, I will be working on the upper torso again in order to add more shape and bring it into proportion to the hip width.    Once that is done, the waist area will be filled to create a smooth and shapely torso.  The head will be mounted and the shoulders will be padded to match the neck area.  Arms and legs will be worked in to match the rest of the body.  Another layer (or perhaps two will go on to pad and soften the hard edges of the figure.  Then the "skin" layer will go on.  The hair will go on after the skin layer.  I don't want to get goo on the hair while trying to put on the skin.  I do want the hair on before I start adding clothes and accessories.

Check back next Sunday afternoon for the latest update on this project.

Padding the Armature for Life Size Doll

I have been working on the doll between travel and other things going on, so it has been slow going on this project.  I am sorry that I cannot get to it faster.  I know it is frustrating for some readers to return and see that the blog has something on it other than information about the doll.  It is frustrating for me too.  However, at the moment the time just is not there for working on the project.

The plan was this doll was to be entered in a competition.  Because the doll is going to be moved around, weight is a consideration.  To get the doll to the competition, I will have to load it into a van, remove it from the van, and transport it from across a very large parking lot into a building.  I plan to use a dolly to move the doll across the parking lot.  However, once the doll is out of my hands, somebody is going to have to move the doll to the competition set up.  I don't want anyone to struggle with it.  As the degree of difficulty in moving the doll goes up, so does the potential of damage to the doll.  I want to keep the weight to a minimum.

Not only am I trying to keep the weight down, I am also trying to keep costs down.  While the outer layers will be purchased materials, the inner part of the armature is made of recycled materials; mainly aluminum foil, newspaper, and tape.  Many times I wrap and freeze baked goods first in plastic wrap and then in foil.  The foil is recycled, but it has never been food contaminated.  The newspaper comes from the free newsprint magazine that is delivered weekly to our home.  So for this section, my main expense was the masking tape.

Before I get into the armature, I need to say a word about the masking tape.  Masking tape comes in various widths and amounts of holding power.  The strength people may choose depends upon the type of job someone will be doing.  Some tape is low tack, easily removed and having little residue.  That is not the type of tape for making an armature.  It does not hold well on some materials.  You want a heavy duty tape that will grab hold of your armature and hold things in place.  Look for words such as high adhesion or heavy duty on the label.  You will be much happier with it in the long run.

This doll is supposed to be a dancer, or at least that was my first working premise.  I want the doll to be in proportion and fairly anatomically correct.  The padding of the armature is where most of this magic will take place.  The main thing to keep in mind at this point is that the padding will be built up in layers in order to replicate bone and muscle structure.  If you just start wrapping around and around  the armature with your chosen material, you might end up with a rather rounded figure.  That may work for some figures, but it will not look like a normal human figure.   By adding layers in specific areas you can have a more normal looking figure.  You have to keep in mind that each layer adds depth and you have to keep your finished image in mind as you are adding the layers.  This method takes longer than just wrapping the figure.  So factor that into your plan.

I started by adding "ribs" made out of foil across the armature.  To create some extra depth for the chest, I crumpled up balls of foil and attached them to the armature with tape.  I added two layers of crumpled foil balls to reach the depth I wanted.  The photo shows the armature after the first layer.  Then, I rolled to pieces of foil together to shape each rib.  These were taped along only across the front of the armature.  The foil is not tightly wrapped, but it is not loosely wrapped either.  It is firm enough to hold its shape.  Each rib is taped to the one above it more or less at the center to help it stay in place.  Inside of this area it was hollow. 

I added pieces of balled up newspaper to the hollow area to keep the ribs from caving in towards the spine.  Then the entire area was covered in tape.  This creates a fairly flat firm base for the layer that comes next.  More layers can be added without adding a lot of bulk to the back.

Even at this stage, adding layers is not just a once and done situation.  Sometimes the foil needs a little pressing and pulling to get it into the place it needs to be.  Int the photo showing the "back", you can see that the right side of the rib is lower than the left.  Things needed a little adjusting before I was satisfied with the result.

This is about as far as I have come on the project.  Next post I will be showing the creation of the hip and waist area.  I just want to remind my readers that this is an experimental doll.  I am just working intuitively on what comes next rather than following some specific instructions.  Sometimes things work out well, other times they don't.  Only time will tell if it all works out.  If you are making a life size doll and have a better idea, go for it.  

Check back next Sunday afternoon for the latest update on this project.

Cabin Trip May 2018

Blue Ridge red salamander

I did not post an update about the life-sized doll last Sunday because we were on the road again.  Between the physical therapy for my shoulder and traveling, I have had very little time to work on the project.  However, some progress has been made and I will be blogging about it again next week.  Today I wanted to share some of the photos from my trip.

We left on a day with sunny weather.  It was a nice change.  It seem like for the last year we have been starting out with it raining for almost every trip.  However, the nice weather did not last.  We planned to be up there for a week.  Every day the weather forecast went something like this:  showers in the morning, showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon, showers and thunderstorms till midnight, thunderstorms after midnight, rain and showers in the early morning.  The forecast was like that for the entire time we were up there.  Flash flood warnings were up each day and grew more numerous as the time week went on. It did not rain continuously, there were breaks in the rain, but when it rained it poured down ferociously.

Fortunately, the rain did not start until the evening we arrived.  We were able to unload and mow the grass.  Otherwise the grass might be well above knee height by the next trip up.  There were not many branches down in the yard, but there was one fairly large piece of a rotted branch that had fallen.  When my husband went to move it before mowing, he found a small red salamander.  We had seen salamanders in the yard previously, but we have not seen them often.

Woodson's Mill

The salamander is a sub-species called the Blue Ridge red salamander.  They are generally between 2.5 to 2.7 inches (55 -63 mm.)  Smaller salamanders tend to eat insect larva and worms.  Larger specimens may eat small invertebrates such as snails or even small amphibians.  In the winter, these salamanders live in springs or streams.  In spring they may live in burrows near the stream or under rocks or fallen trees.  Although the salamanders are red, which many times in nature means that it is poisonous, these creatures are not poisonous, but it may be an indicator that they are unpalatable.

Water at the bottom of the mountain

This trip up, our goal was to complete laying the new flooring in the attic.  The flooring has to be cut to fit.  The saw was set up on the front porch during the times that my husband worked on the floor.  If it was raining badly, or overnight, we had to move the saw into the house.  The flooring is complete upstairs.  We took a couple of pictures before we moved all the things that are stored up there back up there.  It is a relief not to have all those boxes stuffed into corners downstairs anymore.  However, now that everything is back in the attic, it no longer looks quite so spacious.

Where the paved road ends.

The weather held long enough for us to visit with friends one evening, but other than that it was a lot of sitting on the porch. Once in a while we were able to see the sun.  Since everything was dripping wet, when the sun did come out it made everything seem to glow.  The light was dazzling.

Since it has been a very rainy spring, the plants have taken off and everything is growing at full capacity.  The air was heavy with the scent of honeysuckle, wild rose, and rhododendron.   Between the nearly overwhelming floral fragrance and the rushing stream, the affect was enough that it made me very drowsy.  It was difficult to make myself leave the porch. 

Behind the cabin.

I think the rainy weather has made it a bit difficult to harvest the hay.  While we were driving up there I noticed that all the hay is still in the fields and has not been cut.  I guess they need several days of good weather before they start trying to cut down the fields.  I don't know how long the hay has to stay on the ground before it can be rolled into those large rolls.

Needless to say, all the rain has swollen the streams all around.  There was not a lot of snow this year, and the streams were not as large as normal after snow runoff.  The area has more than made up for it with all this rain.  The news has reported that this was the rainiest May that has been recorded since they started keeping records in 1800.   I think that even the normally placid stream that runs behind the house was running fast enough that it could knock you down. 

Dripping water caused everything to glow.

We actually returned home a day earlier than we had planned.  Flash floods warnings became more numerous and the radio news was starting to give reports of roads washing out and even people being washed away.  We decided that it was probably time to go.  Even if the roads held up, saturated soil can cause trees to topple.  We have to drive through a forest to get down the mountain.  There have been times when we have had to cut a tree that has fallen on the road to get up to the cabin or back down.  You don't want to be stuck up there if dozens of trees are down on the road.

I have also included a couple of photos that I snapped along the way.  Because of how the mill sits relative to the road, it is hard to get a good picture of it.  I snapped this one on the way up.  The pavement sign has a double meaning for me.  There is an illustrated book of poems called "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silversteen.  This sign always reminds me of that book.  The other meaning is that this is the point where we seem to jump off into the wild.  The road goes from pavement to gravel and becomes progressively rougher as we drive up the mountain.  Things are different out in the wild.

Field of hay.

Next Sunday I will be writing about the doll again.  I expect to have much of the filling placed on the armature by then.  Check back on next Sunday afternoon for the latest update.

Changes to the Life Size Doll Armature

Last blog post I showed my first attempt at an armature for a life size doll.  As I mentioned then, I needed to make a few adjustments because my hardware store did not carry a four way connector.  Basically, I added a rectangular section that allowed me to use another three way connector for the connection for the neck and head.

That section will also be used to help secure some of the material that will be used to fill in the body to normal proportions.  I am debating whether I want use longer pieces of pipe for the downward sides of the rectangle.  A little extra length would be helpful.  It would only have to be about another two inches on each side.  The sides are only slightly shorter that my own rib cage.  The advantage of having the sides longer would be that I would use less material in filling out the shape of the doll.  PVC pipe is not very heavy, so it would not add much to the weight of the piece.  I guess that I will go through my scrap pieces to see if I have some bits left that are long enough.  I am more or less down to the end of what I have on hand.

Other than than, I am ready to glue the armature together.  That would have been completed already if we had not had a slow-moving storm move in over the area.  It has poured down rain for days.  The weather radio has been going off at all hours of the day and night issuing flood warnings.  I did not want to glue this up inside because the glue stinks to high heavens and I am pretty sure that it is toxic.  I did not want the armature back in the house until the glue has cured.

I still have one other problem with gluing the armature outside.  I might have worked on this out on the back deck.  We have a little workbench there.  However, last Sunday, my husband and I learned that we have a mother skunk and her kits living under the deck.  She did not spray us, but I am not sure that I want to be dragging materials out onto the deck at the moment.  I guess I will have to work in the shed.

When I started this project, I was thinking that the doll would be about forty-eight inches tall.  I was wrong.  At this point, with the armature attached to a base, the doll is going to be as tall or taller than I am by the time the head and neck is mounted.  There is extra length in the legs because the hip area is not directly at the bottom of the torso.  By the time the body is shaped, some of that leg area now exposed will not be visible.   The forearms are also longer than normal because the measurement also takes the area for the hand from wrist to to the beginning of the knuckles.

Last blog post I had written that I would put in the measurements for the armature on this post, so here they are.  I will issue a caveat on these measurements.  This is my first attempt at making a life- sized  doll.  Things may change as the project progresses.  I may find out that something does not work as I thought it was going to work and could be changed.  So take the measurements with a grain of salt, and work your armature to your own satisfaction.  I will also give the number of connectors used in the doll.  Keep in mind that some of the connectors need not be used if you can find a four way connector to attach the neck, shoulders, and spine.  If you are using the four way connector, you will also have to add length to the spine to account for not using the second three way connector.  Also, I chose 45 degree angle connectors at the shoulders because it better suited the pose I plan for the doll.  You could choose to use 90 degree connectors.  The picture should give you some insight into how the armature is put together.

I used 1/2 inch diameter pieces of pipe for this project because that is what we had at the house.  In short pieces it is fairly rigid.  This is an experiment, so I cannot say for certain that it will be strong enough, although I believe it will be.  This is an indoor piece.  If you are planning to make this for an outdoor project, you might want to consider using a larger diameter pipe for added strength against the wind.  The base is for an indoor project.  For an outdoor project you might want to forego the base and pound rebar into the ground and set the pipes on them.  A normal base would just have four pieces of pipe and four 90 degree connectors.  My base has extra connectors because of the pose I plan for the doll and because I was working with scraps and needed to connect shorter pieces of pipes.

Legs:  2 -28 inch pieces (5.08 cm.)
Hips:  1- 3 way connector 2 -1& 1/2 inch pieces of pipe (1.27 cm)
Spine:  13 and 3/4 inches (34.92 cm), 2- 1 & 3/4 inch pieces of pipe for lower edge of rectangle (4.44 cm)  2 - 90०   connectors, 2 - 4 inch pipes (10.16 cm)
Shoulders:  , 3 - 3 way connectors (Two of these attach the ribs to the shoulders. The center connector will be the connection to the neck and head.) 2- 1 & 1/2 inch pieces of pipe (3.81 cm.),
2- 3 and 3/4 inch pieces of pipe 9.525 cm), 2 - 45० connectors
Upper arm:  2 - 10 inch pipes (25.4 cm.)
Forearm and portion of hand:  12 inches (30.48 cm.)
Base:  wooden base 24 inches wide x 12 inches deep x 1 inch high plus connectors as needed for your project, strap hangers and screws to secure the pipe to the wooden base

Check back next Sunday afternoon for an update on this project.

Armature for Life Sized Doll

Finally! I am back to my large doll project.  It feels as if I have been away from it for months.  Today I have pictures of the first attempt at the armature.  I say the first because it needs a few improvements before I get on with filling out the body.  As with any experiment, there can be a few things that need to be tinkered with here and there before I get it right.   At this point, the armature is only dry fitted, not glued together permanently, but it is enough to give you a general picture of it.

You will note that the hips appear to be uneven.  That is   because the pose the doll will be holding will have the doll making a short jig step.  In that position the hip would be raised.

Some of the parts that I needed for the armature are not available locally.  Most of the fittings are readily available at the hardware store, but I found that some parts are specialty parts that I would either have to order online or find a work-around for them.  Being that this project is on a deadline, I decided to try to work something out from locally available parts. 

Note the bend in the leg.  Need to replace hip joint connector.

One of the specialty parts was a four way piece that would be used for the neck.  It is a four-way connector.  When I was looking at pictures of armatures online, the connector was used to connect the spine, neck, and shoulders.  There was no such piece at the hardware store.  I decided that I would have to cut down the length of the pipe on the spine in order to add an additional three way connector and some pipes to form a rectangle to represent ribs.  the top part of the ribs will have another three way connector to form the shoulders and neck.  That may be a bit complicated to visualize, but I will be posting new pictures of the re-worked armature next week.  I don't consider this new concept a total nuisance.  The "ribs" will give me another area of support for the materials used to fill out the body.

By the way, it appears that the pipe at the

Neck needs a four way connector.

shoulder says nine inches.  That is upside
down.  It is a six inch pipe.  I will give the
measurements for the armature once I have
reconfigured the armature.

Another specialty part that might have been helpful is a PVC joint that has been designed to articulate the shoulder joint.  I have seen them used in posts by people who do the haunted houses at Halloween.   However, I plan to have the joints for this doll fixed in place rather than be able to move, so I did not pursue trying to find this particular piece. 

Also, during the time I was traveling, one of my ninety-degree angle pieces seems to have vanished.  No doubt I will find it sooner or later under all the debris that has piled up while I have been dashing in and out between trips.  For the moment, one hip is being held together by a three-way connector.   That will be replaced with a ninety-degree joint when I fix the armature.

What I really wanted to focus on for the moment was the legs.  You will notice that one leg has a bend at the knee without having a joint.  I wanted to blog about that because I may have some useful information on the process.  It might save readers the cost of a few lengths of pipe if I can give you a heads up on part of the process.

I used a heat gun and softened the pipe.   This was the type of heat gun used to help strip paint, rather than the type used for craft embossing projects.  I did not try a craft heat gun, but from my experience with the one I have, I do not believe that it would be hot enough for this project.  Anyway, you aim the heat gun at the pipe and try to get heat to all around the pipe, not just the underside.  It took less than a minute.  That was easy enough, but here is the part that you need to know about.  It did not bend exactly where I had marked that I wanted the bend.  You will need to heat the area slightly higher that the place that you want to bend.  If you just heat it at the mark it tends to bend below it.

As always, when working with any type of material, you should use appropriate safety equipment.  Wear eye protection.  Use heavy gloves to protect your hands.  I did not notice heavy fumes, but I worked outside when I was bending the pipe.  If you can't work outside, make sure your area is well ventilated.  The heat gun is very hot, make sure that you have a fire extinguisher nearby, just in case.  Also, make sure that you have a safe area to set down the heat gun when you have finished using it.  It takes a long time for the heat gun to cool down.

The bend in the leg was not just a random angle.  I decided on the pose I wanted the doll to hold by striking the pose myself.  Then I measured that angle of the knee with a digital angle ruler.  Once the intended angle is found, you can tighten the device to hold the angle so that it can be transferred to the material. 

The angle finder is somewhat expensive, and replacing the button battery can be a little pricey.  If you don't have one, there are other means of determining the angle.  You could use a flexible curve if you have one, or even a fairly rigid piece of wire.  You could even make your own angle finder out of two straight pieces of cardboard and a brad.  Once you determine the angle, tape the cardboard so it won't move.  If the actual number of the angle is important, you could use a protractor to measure it.  There are plenty of ways to determine the curve, so don't let the lack of a particular tool discourage you.

You might also notice that the lower arms seem a little long.  This was not a mistake.  My plan is that the pipe length includes the length of the palm of the hand.  When I make the hands, the pipe should end at the beginning of the knuckles.  More on making the hand in a future post.

That is about all for now.  By next week, I plan to have the armature reconfigured.  I should be posting new pictures.  Check back next Sunday afternoon for an update on the project.

Road Trip and Mars Trip

Life is finally starting to get back to normal after a long trek on the road.  I did not post all the pictures from the road trip on the last post because the blog post was getting too long.  I thought I would share another photo today.  Next week I will have photos of the doll project.  I am woefully behind on that project, and really need to get going if I am going to meet the deadline for it.

Sorry if there are formatting issues.  Sometimes when I make a long post, the format messes up when I insert the pictures

I grew up during the space race and my childhood was filled with memories of things such as the test flights sending animals into space, John Glen's flight with its dramatic countdown and seeing people land on the moon.  There are many place names associated with the space program that draw may attention back to those days:  NASA, Cape Canaveral, Goddard Space Flight Center and Vandenberg Air Force Base.  The news focuses so much on the rockets taking off from Florida, that I sometimes forget how much of the space program is close-by.  I was reminded of mid-Atlantic states' role in the space program when we drove past a sign for the Goddard Space Center.  Goddard is in Maryland.  Virginia is home to a NASA site and a test site called Wallops Island.  Some days, when the weather is right and you can find a place without trees blocking the view, we can see a launch from Wallops Island.  Although it may sound  a little silly, I was delighted to get a photo of the Goddard Space Flight Center sign while we were on the road. 


I have also been fortunate enough to tour Cape Canaveral and tour inside the building where they house the rockets used in the space program.  I was even able to see the crawler that transported the rockets to the launch pad up close.  The rockets and crawlers were tremendous.  You just cannot get any idea of the size of these things from viewing them on television.

Given my history, you can probably guess that I have stayed interested in the current space programs.  I did not sign up to be an astronaut (no girls allowed then, strictly a boy's club).  I did not sign up for Elon Musk's Mars project (too old), so I did the next best thing, I sent my name to Mars.  The InSight spacecraft lifted off yesterday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on its mission to Mars.  My name, (along with many others) is inscribed on a memory card showing that I had an interest in the space program.  Six and a half months from now, the InSight spacecraft will land on Mars.  It may not seem like much, but at least my name arrived on Mars before anyone set foot on the place.  As my husband quipped this morning, "Someday someone's going to find that thing and say 'who are all these people?'".

I suspect that the program to send your name was really started to get children interested in space, but I am sure that many of the names that signed up are adults.  At any rate, when I signed up, they emailed back and they said I could download a virtual boarding pass and a virtual mission patch.  So for a family account for generations to come, here they are; pictures of my mission patch and boarding pass.

For the record, my name is also inscribed on a memory card for the Parker Solar Probe as well.  I don't expect anyone will be finding that memory card. 

Check back next Sunday afternoon for the latest update on my projects.