caitejay Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 I'm getting very ambitious - I'm considering making some items for my dollhouse out of polymer clay. Of course, I've never done this before (and I'm just starting my first dollhouse ever, the Beacon Hill), and am wondering if anyone can relate their experiences with doing this, or if anyone can provide links / pictures of their own creations. Although I'm confident I'm going to dominate the Beacon Hill, I'm not so sure I'm going to be successful with this clay idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Caite ... I took a polymer clay workshop in which we made food for a roast beef dinner. Look in my blog. There are some general hints for working with polymer, even if you aren't going to do food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Caite, In my "dollhouse" album in the Members; Gallery I showed the bathroom fixtures I made from poly clay, including the pipes & taps; also in my Team Orchid blog. I have made Belfast sinks from poyclay (described in my "finishing the pub" album in the gallery. I made the veggies in the Coventry Cottage garden (see that Team blog) from poly clay. And, of course, I use it to sculpt my dolls (I have a Gallery album marked "dolls"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuttiwebgal Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 http://sculpey.com/Projects/PDF/Dollmaking.pdf I found this the other day while I was surfing the web! I have most of the molds so maybe I need to drag out the clay and see what I can come up with! I really like charactor dolls...the stuff found in shops are so generic! pretty...but not for me. nutti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Give it a whirl, Nutti, you already know how to manipulate the faces from the molds to make them more unique and once you start "playing" with the faces in that size you can begin to experiment sculpting some of your own features. Among my sculpting tools are a large tapestry needle, a glass-headed pin, a small steel crochet hook, a set of craft knives & some cake-decorating tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caitejay Posted January 6, 2007 Author Share Posted January 6, 2007 Interesting...I wonder if there are other doll molds you can buy? I don't like most of the affordable dolls I've seen - they all look like mushy Barbies with buns in Victorian clothes. But the dolls I like most are way out of my price range (isn't that always the case?) I don't know if I'm talented enough to mold a doll from scratch... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenlaine Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Caite, I've made quite a few objects out of polymer clay, some more successfully than others. In my webshots link, you can find items under Little Accessories and I'm also making books from a great tutorial that jennybee did and you can see those in my White Orchid link below. My White Orchid is going to be a library. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiffanyjewel Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 I have a friend who makes custom babies out of it, I love her work and she sells a lot! Maybe I can talk her into making the babies for my home :music_band: about furniture what a good idea, wonder how hard it would be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggi Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Thanks Nutti for the link, I too have some molds, but I didn't get those instructions. I've saved them and maybe will try it once again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniMadWoman Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 I used the clay for my December swap items and the only trouble I had was 'conditioning' the clay. My hand hurt for days! Otherwise, it was fun and fairly easy to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peggi Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 I used the clay for my December swap items and the only trouble I had was 'conditioning' the clay. My hand hurt for days! Otherwise, it was fun and fairly easy to use. Thats one of the reasons, I bought the pasta machine when I saw it on sale at Michaels one day. Boy is it worth the money!!!! But, I did find out that I was a tad bit clay challenged in working with such small stuff. had to change my swap items about 3 times cause my artistic abilities with teeny things are very limited. (I think I must have failed playdoh in school) :music_band: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 My White Orchid is going to be a library. Wendy, you've been so quiet making your books that I missed your photos completely! I love the way the White Orchid looks with a dark, dark, roof. What is one-way velcro? This is new to me. And the dark carpeting is a perfect foil for the white interior and wonderful books. It's lovely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallowell Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Hi Caite, I've also never used polymer clay, but I'm gonna give it a try. I love the food made from clay. I'll learn with you and if I fail no big loss, it's fun trying. :music_band: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterfieldzoo Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 I've never used it either. I look forward to seeing everyones efforts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tams Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 After my hubby bought and built my first dollhouse, the first thing I learned to do was some polymer clay items. I found the book "Making Dollhouse Miniatures of Polymer Clay" in some book club into offer and snatched it up. I followed the directions in there, mostly for food. It took me awhile. I never went to kindegarten so never played with clay LOL! There are quite a few good tuts for clay online as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonsaikathy Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 love the push mold doll making site. I have most those molds also. Will have to give it a try. Kat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wenlaine Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 What is one-way velcro? This is new to me. Kathie, thank you! One-way velcro is new stuff on the market, it's just under an 1" in width and comes in 12 meters (DH says approx. 35ft) It's used for tying things up. You wrap it around something and attach it at the other end to itself. No matter how hard you pull it won't come apart, DH and I tried. So when you do a roof, you do your bottom row as usual, but the next row and every row after that, attaches to the row below. Then you can just lift from the top and use your glue gun to attach to the house. I absolutely loved it. The only downfall was I needed 6 packages and they cost $ 7.98 per package. For some reason the pictures don't show a nice clear picture but I couldn't have been more pleased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennybee Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Caite, I've made quite a few objects out of polymer clay, some more successfully than others. In my webshots link, you can find items under Little Accessories and I'm also making books from a great tutorial that jennybee did and you can see those in my White Orchid link below. My White Orchid is going to be a library. Good luck! Holy moly lady you been making some books al right. LOL They look great! I'm still learning too when it comes to polymer clay - I think the local library knows me by not only name but from the types of books I request - they all have to be borrowed from other places. Here is the link for the How to on the books clay books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Love to play around with the poly clay, and when starting out with the polyclay I found Angie Scarr's site as well as book very helpfull. She even has some tutorials up on her website if I am not misstaken. http://www.angiescarr.co.uk/ it has been a while since my last visit. One thing about poly clays that is a very positive thing is that you can bake the item in steps, ie if you are sculting a doll and you are happy with some of the facial expressions etc you can bake it, then you can add more clay in the areas still not "done". Might sound complicated but it really isn't, it just takes some time to fiddle around until you are happy with the result! Hugs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 I started out sculpting my dolls "from scratch" using the books by Sue Heaser & James Carrington (as I mentioned elsewhere). For fun I used the push molds for the pub owners: The other couple, in the lparlor, are "from scratch". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.