During the Easter weekend, I have been doing some" catch up" work, completing some orders and finishing a little art doll I started a week ago as well as eating a chocolate Easter egg or two and going out to dinner and movies with friends - perfect weekend! Here is my little Forest Friend, rescuing a nest of eggs at Easter... and here are the basic steps:
1. Have a good friend to inspire, motivate and help...
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| Bobbi (Lambo Art) explaining anatomy and armature |
2. Make an armature from wire and check the proportions against an anatomy chart.
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| Wire armature, secured with insulation tape. |
3. Flesh out the armature by covering with lots of aluminium foil.
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| Armature covered with foil |
4. Make foil bases/ armatures for head, hands and feet
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| Foil armatures |
5. Cover and sculpt with polymer clay. I used Sculpey" Living Doll" and I made two pairs of hands because the first lot looked like lobster claws! Cure in an oven at 130 degrees C for 30 -40 minutes.
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| Sculpted pieces ready for the oven. |
6. Colour the pieces. I used acrylic paints, powdered pastels and chalks and wax rubs. I also sanded the face a little to smooth out a few wrinkles I didn't want - I did leave a few.
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| Head : first colouring. |
7. Put the body together. The hands and feet and head fit onto the wire armature. I also added and stitched a thin layer of batting to the foil armature, and then another stretch layer of underwear ( like a skin) - I used a sock.
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| Work in progress ; layer of batting, and"underwear". |
8. Now that the doll's personality is beginning to make itself clear, add some clothing. I intended this doll to be a Russian woman like a babushka, but he wanted to be a little forest friend, a bird lover and protector. All the clothes are recycled from old bits and pieces, discarded jumpers and scraps of fabric.
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| Clothes from re-purposed jumpers and fabric scraps. |
9. Make accessories. In this case, this forest friend has rescued a birds' nest , so I made a nest from painted and textured wire and some birds' eggs from polymer clay (a mixture of translucent, turquoise, and pearl white Premo Sculpey) .
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| Nest and eggs |
10, Straighten out the wire limbs and pose the doll to stand up on its own.
Whatever your beliefs are, I hope your Easter weekend was filled with peace, love, laughter and creativity.
Thank you so much for your detail on how to make art doll ive been looking around for a while how to make a doll like this.
ReplyDeleteI will get busy now.
Cheers Lyn xxx