The Doll Forum

What shore hardness is ideal for a silicone doll? I'll take a shot at making my own.

Currently sculpting a body out of oilclay, but i wonder what kind of silicone i should use to make the final product.
Currently the plan is to sculpt a doll body, create a mold, craft a stainless steel skeleton and secure it inside the mold (by the neck, vertically) and pour the silicone in the hole around the neck.

Any suggestions? I'm currently thinking about 00-10 and 00-30.

Here some links where he shows different hardness
of silicone and how soft they are compared with different bodyparts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKyeFFytypI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZL69oUZthI

Good luck on your project :DD

Thanks mate, lots of good info on that channel.

Anybody knows what alternative materials to stainless steel can be used for the skeleton? Wood, plastic, aluminum?

That's been talked about many times, Stainless is a pain to work with. Aluminum oxidizes so probably not a great choice, steel oxidizes, galvanized steel is zinc coated which may discolor the silicone and would still rust wherever a joint was welded so it's a moot point. Plastic / Nylon would be my go-to, or possibly steel with a good epoxy coating or something.
It's also debatable as to whether the steel would even rust after it's encapsulated inside the doll. Chromoly hasn't been discussed that I recall but I think that leaves you with TIG welding (don't quote me on that) so might as well go with stainless and come full circle.
There's also the thought of using fiberglass or carbon fiber, neither of which I personally could see a problem with because the mat is encapsulated in resin.
It's entirely likely that stainless became the standard as it was the best choice for mass production.

You can't make plastic or carbon fiber joints worth a damn. And there is no good way to bind a steel joint to a CF or nylon bone. Even a stainless skeleton has raw steel joints.