Ball Jointed Dolls are held together with elastic cords that are strung through their limbs and body and hook to their hands, feet, and head.
Over time, these cords loosen, making it harder to pose the doll or causing the doll to become floppy. Sometimes even brand new, straigh from
the company, dolls will arrive looser than you'd like.When, not if, you find yourself in a situation where you think restringing may be necessary, don't fret. It's generally not complicated, and is a basic component in BJD maintenance.
In alot of cases, you may not even need to replace the elastic, so much as tighten it. If your elastic isn't frayed and is still in good condition, you can actually just untie the knots, cut the elastic to shorten it, and tie the knots back. If your elastic is damaged or old, you will need to purchase some new. Different dolls take different elastic cord thicknesses, so you'll have to do a little research to see what kind will work best in your doll.
What you'll need
-elastic cord in your doll's size
-white ribbon (or a stringing hook if you have one)
-a clean soft surface (I usually put a blanket down)
-hemostats also help, though they're not absolutely necessary
I only recommend using white ribbon, as the dye in colored ribbon can stain your doll. The ribbon is used to help you pull the elastic through the small stringing holes in your doll's body. I recommend doing all doll assembly on a soft, clean surface. The tugging and moving around of the doll you'll be doing can cause stains and scratches. I generally will lay down a towel or blanket and sit in the floor to restring. Hemostats are pretty handy to have, as they clamp down on the tightly pulled elastic and give you less tension when trying to loop the string around a hand or foot hook. It can be done without hemostats by holding the part with your foot and pulling the elastic out of the bottom, then looping the hand or foot on, but it's harder to work with tight elastic.
Taking apart
Sort of take a mental note of where the knots are hidden in the body while you're taking your doll apart. These knots will need to go back into those places.
1. I always start by removing the head. Take the headcap off and you should see a hook (or something similar) holding the elastic. Normally, to take off the head, you pull up on the hook and twist it. The head will come right off, so be careful.
2. Now you should have just a fully assembled body with an S-hook for a head. Creepy, no? I like to remove a foot first. Pull your doll's foot until you can see the hook and slip the elastic off. Either both legs should come apart (if your doll has one piece of elastic for both legs), or that one leg will come loose (if your doll has a piece of elastic for each leg). Remove the loosened body parts and set them to the side. If you have a separate elastic piece for each leg, unhook from the other foot and repeat. Pull the loose elastic from the neckhole and set aside (or throw away if you're using new string).
3. Ok, now you have a headless torso with arms. Just keeps gettin' better huh? If you have a two-piece torso, the bottom part should have come loose when you removed the elastic for the legs. Use the same method to remove the arms as you did the legs. Remove the hand and pull the elastic out.
Now your doll is disassembled. Don't freak out.
Assembling
1. I always start with the legs/body. Fold your elastic loop in half and hook the S-hook onto the middle (with the larger hook side down). If you have a string for each leg, then hook the larger end of your S-hook through the top of both loops. If you have a one-piece body, you may want to go ahead and lace your ribbon through the elastic loops one by one, thread the ribbon through the body, and pull the elastic through the leg holes. If you have a multi-piece body, you can probably just poke the elastic through the holes and thread through until you get to the hip piece, then you may need to use the ribbon.
2. Now you'll need to thread each leg joint onto your ribbon (attached to your elastic) and pull the elastic all the way through to the point where you'll attach the foot. You may need to stick something in the loop for the other leg so the cord doesn't pull through the body while you're working on the leg. Alot of people use hard objects, like a pen or a chopstick. I've had hard objects actually dent the resin, so I roll up a rag and stick it in the other loop to hold it outside of the body.
3. You'll need to hook your foot on the current leg. If you're using hemostats, clamp them down on the elastic, leaving yourself a little loose loop at the end. Hook the foot on. If you're not using hemostats, try to do the same thing with your fingers. Or pull the elastic out far enough that you can hook the foot on while the string is still tight.
4. Repeat for the other leg.
5. Exhausted yet? ;P Don't worry, it can be frustrating (especially the first time), but it's worth it. You'll start on the arms now. Thread the elastic through the one arm hole and out the other side of the body. Stuff your rag into the elastic loop on the other side to hold it. Thread your elastic through all the arm joints with your ribbon just like you did with the legs. Hook your hand on. Repeat on the other side.
6. Now your doll's body should be back together. Sit the head on the neck and loop your ribbon around the head's S-hook. Pull up and twist to lock the head on. Replace headcap.
Tada! You did it! Don't worry if you didn't get it perfect the first time. It'll get easier the more you get accustomed to how your doll works.
A tip for Tinies
Tinies mean tiny stringing holes. Instead of ribbon, try dental floss or thin wire to thread the elastic through easier. You can also try using a crochet needle to pull the string through, though you may have to bend it slightly for some dolls.
Below are some tutorial links to help give you a better visual:
For more detailed stringing, Google search "your doll's brand/sculpt name stringing tutorial"
Kagen-no-tsuki's 1/3 BJD Restringing Steps
Balljointedwoman's Stringing or a U-noa Qu'luts Sist doll
Places that sell stringing kits
Junkyspot
Cool Cat (also has some neat tables for string sizes)
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