making dolls

[nuttiwebgal]

Ive started this thread for those of us with many questions for those of you who have had success with dollmaking!

first....

what kind of clay do you use?

I used original skulpey oven baked clay

problem: it seems to break easily

I have reglued an arm and a leg and an ear

2nd--how do you glue things back together so the cracks dont show?

and if you cant... how do you hide them(cracks) or camoflauge them?

but for these things my journey into dollmaking was fun and Im ready to make another...but thinking diffferent clay might help the problems Im having.

I think I have made a fairy...lol...well thats what she started out to be.

I bought a mold ...its full sized with face and all

question: do I leave out the face part if I want to use one of the other face molds I have? I like their expresions a little better.

I had thought about buying a book but I tend to shy away from instructional books due to being such a visual person.... if there is a photo than Im good.

thanks for all the help!!

nutti

also I bought some butterfly wings from wal-mart...what is best way to attach them

and shouls I put the colorful part facing her shoulders or facing the rear...where they cant be seen well?

[CatColorado]

I'm sure there are others who can give expert advice, but I will help if I can.

I have had problems with sculpey breaking if I over bake it or roll it out too thin. I have heard many of the artisans use Puppenfimo and speak highly of it.

Breakage: I use more clay or the liquid form to glue things back. Be careful not to over bake. Camoflaging the breaks? Depends on where the breaks occur. You can add to the costume (shawls, sleeves, etc), a fairy could have randomly placed greenery and flowers. Jewery can disguise breaks as well.

[havanaholly]

Nutti, I use Super Sculpey, the 1 lb package is a sort of light pinky beige. I found a 1 lb pack of translucent last year in Canada, but I haven't seen any more since & I'm getting frustrated. I mix 4 parts "flesh" color Super Sculpey with 1 part translucent and then pinches of chocolate Fimo until I get the flesh tone I want for the ethnicity of the doll I want to sculpt.

I warm the clay by ether sticking it under my armpit or in my bra or sitting on it, depending on how large a lump I'm trying to work with lol. Once it's pretty much body temperature I start mixing my colors together; I use a combination of handrolling and using a dedicated rollingpin to do this.

Once it's mixed to my satisfaction (can take two or three hours) I'm ready to begin to play.

Making Miniature Dolls with Polymer Clay by Sue Heaser has patterns for different sexes & ages of dolls that are GREAT for starting out. I traced them out and use them for gauging amounts of clay for various body parts. Of course prople don't all fit one particular mold, so by now I do a bit more "freehand" stuff, but I still use those patterns, especially for making sure I don't have two right hands or feet! Fortunately when that happens, or I don't like the way a face is turning out, I can roll the clay between my hands & start over!

Another book, the one that pushed me over the edge into actually taking the clay and making dolls out of it, is 1/12th Scale Character Figures for the dolls' house by James Carrington, which is so profusely illustrated, Nutti, I think you could follow along. One of his suggestions is to observe people's features very closely and then to try sketching them. No one needs to see these sketches, you're getting a "feel" for where eyes are on the face and where the rest of the features more or less relate to where & how the eyes are situated. Once your sketched faces begin to look like people you've seen you can translate that into clay.

(As an aside, when I was a little girl Mother bought me plasticene from time to time and I used to model faces & figures for my dollhouse; unfortunately plasticene clay always stays soft until it becomes very brittle, but you might pick up a small packet to play with and practice modeling doll parts until you no longer immediately squish them back into the wad of clay. Then you're ready for polymer clay.)

Baked polymer clay is brittle. I bake mine for 25 minutes at 225-250 degrees F & do any reshaping needed while it's warm. Fingers are most susceptible, I learned when Grinnin' Granny's forearm dropped onto the floor & her thumb broke off. After I finally found her thumb I learned that Elmer's white glue glued it back on & I had no obvious cracks. She still has her thumb, her new owner advises. You can also fill cracks by taking a pinch of your clay and working it until it's warm & pliable and work tiny bits into the cracks & smooth them out like you would the cracks in paperclay. Then bake the repair in 10-minute intervals until it looks liike the surrounding clay.

My early dolls were totally articulated per Sue Heaser's book, but I have gotten a lot more flexible about that. I still like to sculpt all the body out of clay. I made my first dolls anatomically correct for a joke and people who don't know that comment on how well the clothes look on them, so I've continued to do that (don't look, Ethel!).

I have a wee tiny hobby knife and some dental pick-type tools, a crochet hook and a couple of different sizes tapestry needles and a couple of ornamental frosting tools I use to sculpt with. I've posted elsewhere I use acrylic paints out of the tubes and I add to the flesh tones with acrylic washes, burnt siena for Caucasian skin & raw umber for Hispanic & African American tones.

I use chenille stem wire for the joints to permit poseability.

I sew all the clothing, glue and fabric do not like to be together in my presence unless it's upholstery.

I'm planning to try making dolls out of different media later on, but I love seeing what sort of person wants to emerge each time I start to play with clay.

Hope this helps.

BTW, if you want the colors to show no matter how you pose the doll & her wings, if they face forward people can see them, even if she folds them back. On the other hand, when they are on the butterfly the colors are on the back because the pattern is part of its defense. Your doll, your choice

[nuttiwebgal]

hmmmm...ok some sculpyII

next time I have to make a trip to HL Ill have to get some.

the mold I am using is a full body mold.

it worked out well. at this point I would just be happy with some already posed dolls. I also dont care for the painting of the body.

so my next attempt will be beige,white and translucent.

I went without doing minis for so long that I think I was suffering from withdrawl.

lol

so today I dressed my fairy and wigged her and put her wings on...but for the touchups and doing something about her cracks...oh and painting the face

its done and for a first attempt I feel good.

nutti

[Peggi]

Nutti I like your fairy! I'm going to watch this post closely, so I can get up the nerve to try something to.

I have the clay and I have tools, but I don't have any idea where to start. Maybe I'll try another book, I order one and though the artist does beautiful work, I think I'm still missing the basics somewhere.

Peggi

[havanaholly]

YES, Nutti!

Going ahead and DOING it is the first step, Peggi.

While visiting DS my DH decided to run in a 5K (3.1 mile) charity race with him (DH hasn't run since he got out of the USMC nearly 40 years ago ), and he finished in a few seconds over 42 minutes. He ran another 5K yesterday and finished in just over 38 minutes. So now when we aren't cycling (we rode 31miles today) he is running. I walk, but since he is running now, I have begun to increase my walking pace & got a pair of running shoes so if I break into a run I have shoes to protect my feet & joints from road impact.

The point is, it ain't gonna happen if you just sit & think about doing it. You are going to have fun trying. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. Mine will probably never be perfect because I'm having too much fun playing & experimenting.

[Peggi]

Holly, I love your attitude and wish I had half your energy. You are an inspiration. Now if I can just talk myself into getting out of this chair.LOL

Peggi

[smallhouset]

Nutti, I love your fairy, she is so cute. I'd like to make some dolls too. Where did you get the full body mold?

terri

[nuttiwebgal]

Where did you get the full body mold?

terri

off of e-bay.

she is 5.5 in tall and the mold comes with fairy or human ears.

rudimentry instructions...with full color shots. a bit pricey for me but as I hope to make more than one it should pay off in the end.

nutti

[Minis On The Edge]

Nutti I love your fairy! You are doing Great! You are so inspirational. You just jump in and do it! This is one thing I want to do but after my naked troll just sit there staring at me, I feel I need to do another group class to do another one :o .

Any classes soon Cat? :o

[havanaholly]

Tracy, Do you want me to dress your troll?

[Missymew]

Nutti, your fairy is amazing. The expression is a "cat got the cream" look. You've got to be feeling a great deal of satisfaction over the results you got. Even though painting the doll isn't one of your favourite tasks, you did a very good job. I love the wings!!

Susanne

[strudles]

I bought a box of Super Sculpey too and I really like it. It's great to work with, doesn't get too sticky like regular Sculpey can tend to do. Doesn't show your fingerprints as bad, holds facial features nicely... I use a crochet hook, toothpick, knitting needles, pin, x-acto knife and/or whatever else small things I can find around the house. I start the head by rolling a small ball of aluminum foil and then covering it with Super Sculpey skin. The first time I didn't put eye sockets in, but that was a problem so now I make good indents where the eyes should be so that my dolls don't end up bug-eyed, lol. Also, before baking the head, you must make sure that there is a vent hole either in the back of the head, or at the bottom of the neck or your doll will distort rather badly during the baking process (I learned the hard way). I make my arms and legs and head/neck/torso separately to be attached to a pipe cleaner body later. I make holes in the ends of the arms and legs so that the wires can be glued into them. Also, I put a groove around the tops of the legs and arms so that if I sew a cloth body, strings can be tied into the grooves to hold the body part on. I really am just a novice, don't have any books, just look at pictures of people's faces (my kids, family photos...) to get dimensions and facial expressions. I check out my own hands and feet when making those too. Doll making is really so much fun, I now need to work on proportions, so that I'm not making them way to big for 1/12 scale. Easier said than done I think...

Good luck,

Trudi

[havanaholly]

Trudi, I posted this under "greatest mini fear" in the " Question of the Day" forum:

I nearly forgot! The articulated wooden artist figures come in 1:12 scale & some of the big bookstore chains carry them. If you imagine an oval for a face and divide it into four equal segments the eyes usually line up along the middle line, the hairline (in younger folks) usually starts at the line above & the mouth at the line below, with the nose from the eyebrows to 2/3 the distance from the eyes to the mouth. The tops of the ears are generally in a line with the eyes.

Hands are at least the length of the face (3/4 the length of the head). Feet are at least the length of the head. One of my college art classes' professor was of the pencil & thumb school of drawing: You hold up your pencil to what you're trying to draw & place the pencil point at the top of what you're trying to measure & your thumb at the bottom along the pencil. It worked really, really well in perspective drawing class, but was also useful in determining proportions.

This is just a general idea, not cast in stone.

[strudles]

Great tips! I forgot about the ole pencil measuring trick, I'm sure I learned that in school somewhere along the way. The proportions are very helpful. Othwerwise, I was sorta stuck with measuring my head, hands, feet... and dividing the inches by 12. Not very scientific, lol.

Trudi

[Minis On The Edge]

Holly, I would love for you to dress the troll.

I want to add some green (sage color ) hair on his head too. But that is another thing I do not know how to do (Wig a troll :o ).

[Anna]

I want to add some green (sage color ) hair on his head too. But that is another thing I do not know how to do (Wig a troll :o ).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wigging is SOOO much fun I promise!

The way you add the hair depends on how you want it too look in the end, ie if you want hair to be pulled back from the face, or do you want it to be brought up and made into a hair do with clasps etc or would you like to have it standing on its end?

Last "hair do" I made was for my snoozing balding old guy which also was a lot of fun trying to create, too much glue is bad and to little as well, but the thing is that if you aren't content with the wig you can always soak the poor head in water and try again

Hugs

[Shakyshaky]

Well Havannaholly, you would be proud. I made some hands to go with a man figure that seems to have lost his somewhere before I got him. The right came out better than the left but I hope to do a whole doll soon. ( you should have seen the looks my kids gave me when they found out I had clay under my arms for hours! :o )

[havanaholly]

you should have seen the looks my kids gave me when they found out I had clay under my arms for hours!

Anything like the look DH gave me the day I got up off the sofa to go finish mixing flesh tones and pulled the packet of clays out from under my butt? Or out of my bra on another occasion?

Getting hands roughly the same size isn't nearly as big a deal as NOT giving the doll two right (or left) hands. I had just read James Carrington's book (he stresses taking care to make ONE of each) and I was chugging along with my first doll, a grandpa, and his hands were wonderful, proportional to his face with metacarpals & wrinkles on the backs & creases on the knuckles & lines on the palms and I was just finishing up detailing the fingernails on the second hand when it occured to me the second hand looked JUST like the first one; I has sculpted two right hands. Of course I immediately squashed them back together & began again, but the second time I made myself a way to make them opposite from the beginning, so not I don't sculpt one arm & hand, I sculpt a left hand & a right hand simultaneously, bginning with the thumbs & working my way up.

BTW I met a lady at the Wally World photo counter today who mentioned she makes dh dolls and we instantly began to talk "shop" & DH walked up just as she asked me if he thought I was crazy to make minis. Bless his heart, he said the only thing that bothers him is that no matter where we're going I always have something to finish on a project just before we go out the door.

[Shakyshaky]

yup I made two right hands the first time too. :o

[Minis On The Edge]

Okay, who is going to do a "wig" how to??? I wanna learn how to do this stuff myself. I have a LOT of bald people over here

I bought some beautiful lamb hair for my dolls (Naturally wavy and stuff).

I just don't know where to start. I also have lot of the doll hair from swallow hill dolls (Virose don't know how to spell the stuff :wub: ) in every shade. But still, my dolls are bald :o

It's a shame really. I am one of those people who need to see it to do it.

[Anna]

Okay, who is going to do a "wig" how to??? I wanna learn how to do this stuff myself. I have a LOT of bald people over here

I bought some beautiful lamb hair for my dolls (Naturally wavy and stuff).

I just don't know where to start. I also have lot of the doll hair from swallow hill dolls (Virose don't know how to spell the stuff ) in every shade. But still, my dolls are bald :o

It's a shame really. I am one of those people who need to see it to do it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"Taking a DEEEAP breath" I can do that as soon as my digi camera is back from the Camera doctor's . I have made some dolls and just fiddled until I came up to a method I like to use. But I don't know how long it might take though since it depends on the camera doctor guy :wub:

I love the dollmaking as well and at times those fingers get a fimo itch that just has to come out somehow so even if I have no place for the dolls I tend to make up the doll head blank just o have for future use or for swaps right now I have this ghost doll that I need to attend to, I think she will get a a white flowing hair do, (she is made in glow in the dark fimo clay ;) ) and I am going to try and swing by a fabric store when visiting my parents this weekend since that fabric store has sooo much fun stuff and I am on the lookour for cheescloth (atleast I think that is what it is called) for the ghost doll.

Mini-hugs

[havanaholly]

Tracy, I wigged my first doll using Sue Atkinson's book, Making & Dressing Dolls' House Dolls. When you send me your troll to dress, send his hair along & I'll try to take pictures of the wigging process to send you back. As I PM'd you, let me know if you want the "fright wig" style of troll-doll hair or someting less "electrifying" (to me they look like they stuck their hands into light sockets)

I use Elmer's glue and my fingers and a pair of fine-pointed tweezers to apply hair.

Next time we get together we can play serious minis, I'm still looking for a nice-sized foodprocessor at the thrift stores to use to make papermache. I've figured ot another way to do the basic fireplace based on the range-surround I did for the Westville.

[nuttiwebgal]

Next time we get together we can play serious minis

mmmmm I wanna come play toooo!

Ill bring the food as yall will be bringing the Talent!

nutti :o