New Tiny Doll

       I started working on doll to go with a miniature gazebo (miniatures,my other favorite pastime!). She will be my version of Rapunzel. This is my first time time trying to make a doll this small. It will be slightly larger than a 1/2 scale doll as the gazebo is more of a 3/4 scale to me. I am making her in polymer clay cause I think that's easier to work with in smaller scales plus I wanted to be able to pose her. 

 

I decided to try a different hip joint than the one I am using for my bigger dolls, a regular ball joint. I can say this joint has room for much improvement; but for now I am sticking with it. I thought it was too small to make hooks with elastic so I'm just using wire with for limited movement. I wanted her to at least be able to sit down.

                                                                                                

New paper clay doll

This is the beginning of  my new paper clay doll that I started on a while ago. I keep starting dolls but can't seem to get them finished. She is  inspired by a Degas ballerina. I took pictures as I went along but just couldnt keep my blogs going.:( 

Since I have finished her I wanted to post some pics of  my progress. I like working in paper clay but it does take a while to dry.

The original face with cut outs for glass eyes.

Got the glass eyes in then attached the head and started the body on a wire armature.

The legs are in the pose I planned but I didn't like them. So I decided to brake the left leg and repositioned it.  (This is something I can't do with porcelain. Lol)

Ready to paint

 

 Finally ready to paint! I mixed some colors that I already had (I'm supposed to be using existing materials and buying nothing!lol )to get a shade of Brown I was happy with. The problem is I didn't mix enough. So I had to do it again and this time I made a lot.

 

 

 

     Painting her was pretty fast. The paint went on really even with the second coat. I used a dark brown drawing pastel to shade the body here and there. Not too much painting was needed on the face since her eyes are closed. Just a little eye shadow and lip color. ( I do like my lipstick don't leave home with out it.)

I decided to glue the mohair directly unto the head instead of making a wig. Not the neatest job I've ever done, but its ok.

 

                  To give the hair a nice wavy look I wet the hair after the glue dried and added a little mousse. I forgot I hadn't put any sealer on the paint so I needed to drape her in plastic until the hair dried.  

Well she is basically finished aannnddd I am not happy with the face.

 What a surprise!!

 I am just not feeling the face so a little plastic surgery is needed; just a little.
 

 Just a little nip and tuck around the eyes, chin and mouth. And thank goodness I still have paint left.

 

 

And after the new face she needed a new hairdo. Just like the salon; wash and set. It took me a good few minutes to roll the hair. I used toothpicks for rollers and foil to hold them in place.

 

 

And finally a nice even coat of matte sealer; before I style her hair. The sealer dried fast but it has a little more sheen  that I would like it.

 

before surgery

after surgery

Attaching the head

My last minute change was to make the head movable.  I drilled a hole in the neck for the loop which I made from a paper clip.  Then I needed to drill a hole through the head for the elastic and hook.

 

 

 

She needs a little more sanding then I am ready to paint. Yea!

I will say I liked my original hand better, these look small but I am not changing them!!!

Almost a disaster!

     Ok I didn't remove the entire arm. Since I had let the clay dry it was harder to remove the forearm and hand but I finally got it off without to much damage.
     Working with the doll on my tripod, I started my new arm with the hand covering more of the bust. I keep forgetting that the legs of the tripod are pretty long and once again I tripped, the doll hit the floor and needless to say she completely broke in half. Now if I had a better armature inside maybe it wouldn't have been so bad.



I tried putting the body back together just by wetting the pieces and adding some wet clay. This did not work! I wet the pieces so much that they became a little distorted while trying to reattach them. So I decided to let the pieces dry completely before I tried to reattach them again. While they were drying I realized it would be easier to sculpt the arms and hands with just half the torso. This time my accident worked in my favor. 

 

 

    

My not so great armature.

                                                                   

 

On the second go around, I filled the pieces with clay added some wires to anchor both pieces together and finally added a little glue to the inside edge.

 This worked! I just needed to fill in the seam with clay and then sand it smooth.

 



Adding arms and hands

I decided to have the arms criss-cross over the bust; I was going for a semi nude look. I am anxious to finish this doll and didn't spend to much time making a great armature, just foil no wire. Working with paper clay is not as easy as I hoped. It takes a while to dry but its easy to sand.

    After I got the right arm finished, I wasn't happy with the placement of her hand and the arm looked short. (Here I go again, lol)  The torso on the other hand I can live with.

All right even though I like the body I decided I am redoing the arm. (This is why I never finish anything!)

Back to my first paper clay doll

      It's been awhile since I've accomplished anything with the 2 BJD's I was working on. I was getting very frustrated with my progress, I keep trying to perfect every little detail then in the blink of an eye I've ruined it. I redid one face 6 times,UGH.
     Sooo I decided to revisit  my first paper clay doll that I started a few years ago.
I had left her with a torso, one complete leg, one broken leg and a head that was a little too big:) Plus her one leg was too short for the body.

I really just wanted to finish something after all this time of stopping and starting. My plan was to finish her within a reasonable amount of time and not to be so picky!I penciled in her features to see if I still liked the face. I decided to cut down both her legs and just have a torso. This was going to work out much better for me.

I started to reshape the body a little; something I could be a little happy with.(not perfection)