My friend Claire teaches art classes and workshops, including one on doll-making.
She learned this skill so she could make 3-D models of the characters she wrote about and drew in her first published book, Little Wing.
Some of her students wanted to try their hand at making dolls too, so the workshops were born.
I recently spent a day photographing Claire and her students. When I arrived they were making hands, which I know from my own doll-making attempts are VERY fiddly.
And very rewarding when you get it right.
Zimmerbitch 
Love the hands. Also love the fingernail art!!!!
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There is something a bit creepy about seeing that tiny hand in the big hand! At first glance I thought it might be the hand of a preemie.
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I hadn’t thought of that. It is fascinating to watch the various “body parts” take shape.
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omg – that was my reaction too!! A little too life-like!
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🙂 strange how disembodied, they are a bit creepy, but attached to the doll they are fine. If the hands were less life-like on the dolls — that would seem creepy.
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Even neat!
Leslie
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My artistic wife has made quite a few dolls a few years back. But they are not for playing. A very interesting hobby and pastime!
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It’s interesting how many people do make them. Claire uses them to make sure she draws here characters well from lots of different angles, but I think most of us just sit them on a shelf 😀
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That is amazing work.
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I was impressed. I did the workshop a few years ago and really struggled to make hands that didn’t just look like baseball mitts 😂
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I’m mosaicing an orangutan at the moment, including one of its hands. I think I’ve done the fingers okay but the palm is a mess. The picture I’m basing it on is poor quality. I can kind of manage 2D but 3D,… impossible.
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Frustrating. Perhaps Google could supply some better reference photos?
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That tiny hand looks very realistic, in fact creepily so
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😀
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Amazing
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I don’t think I’d be very good at this. 🙂
janet
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I’m all fingers and thumbs (so to speak), but I did manage to eventually make little hands for my dolls. The women on this workshop were much better.
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Okay, feeling a bit better about my own doll fetish…I mean obsession.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit to having a collection. But knowing other people still are involved as adults, makes me feel more normal!
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Hehe. My mother in law collected Barbie dolls from when she was in her sixties until her death. She had to have special cabinets built and eventually they took up a whole room in her rather large house. I was amazed to learn just how many other people shared her interest 😀
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Oh man, I was totally into Barbies as a kid. I’d run to the aisle and check out the clothes and tiny shoes. I saved what little money I had to spend it on that stuff. How can I judge my son’s crayon addiction so harshly? I’m a monster.
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I was never into dolls, but art materials ….. I totally get your son’s crayon addiction 🙂
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I’d love to take part in these workshops, I’ve never made a doll. What material does Claire use? Hands are sooo difficult, both in painting/sketching as in the 3D modelling.
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They are fun!!
The dolls are made from polymer clay; Claire uses Super Sculpey because it comes in big blocks and is “flesh-coloured”. It can also be painted with acrylic paint. She taught us to use a ball of aluminium foil as the basis of the head. You wrap that in wire so it will attach to the body, and then cover it in a layer of Sculpey. The features are shaped onto that. The advantages of using the foil are that you use a lot less clay, so it’s a much cheaper solution than a solid clay head. It’s also much lighter and bakes more evenly. The body is a wire armature with the hands and feet wrapped around wire too. We padded the bodies with thick wadding — the stuff you fill cushions with — and held that in place with thin strips of fabric. The actual construction depends a bit on how you want the finished doll to look. You only need to form the clay for the bits that will show — head, neck, hands. Feet can be clay (bare feet or shoes), or made out of fabric like soft toys. We used all sorts of stuff to finish them. One of mine has “hair” made from a mix of fibres knotted onto a little cap and the glued on the head. My other one has polymer clay “hair” made of little bits shaped with a very fine tooth comb and layer on in pieces before I baked the head.
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Ooh! That sounds so interesting and exciting! Thanks so much for sharing the details of forming these dolls. I used to work with polymer clay when I was little but never since I had the possibility to work with clay. But I really like the looks of it (just had a peek online). And I hope you’ll share pics of your dolls soon!!! 😄
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I used to think of Fimo as a “kid thing” too. I didn’t even know there were other brands. These days I realise it’s a bit toxic and probably not great for little kids. 😂
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Yeah, I remember not having been much of a fan of its smell! 😂 Clay is much better though a bit musty at times.
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😀 I do prefer the feel of polymer clay though 😀
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