How to Make A Spring Base Sculpture

 

Hello and happy Holidays everyone! Cinnamon here and I am 

going to show you how I created this spring base sculpture. I chose to 

leave the piece as is but you could easily use the spring to put a skirt over 

it for the doll to appear to be standing on it's own, or use this to turn your 

doll into a tree topper. This can can come in handy in many different ways! 

The tools that I used are listed below.

Supplies: 
Creative Paperclay®
Masking tape

Pliers

16 gauge steel wire

Thin wire roughly 20-22 gauge

Cardstock paper or cardboard

Sand paper

Wooden Skewers
E6000 Craft Glue

Acrylic paint (optional)
Sealer, Varnish

Begin by getting your piece of cardstock and skewer prepared.

Cut the paper or cardboard down to the size that you would like to 

make your torso. Get your skewer and poke it through the middle

Make sure that it sits in the middle of where the shoulders are going

 to be. Get your masking tape and secure the paper to the skewer.

Start adding your paperclay to the torso. Get a second skewer and 

plot out where your holes are going to be for you to run the wire 

through after the piece dries. You would want to make these tunnels

before the clay sets and one should be in the middle where the waist 

would be and at the top where the shoulders are. The best way is to 

build up the torso around the second skewer

 and carefully slide it out before it dries.

This is the first rough layer of clay. Keep in mind that whatever weight

 you add to the front of the piece would have to be matched in the back 

as well for it to stay in balance on the spring. The holes are on the side

on the top and in the middle of the torso which is not easily seen here.

Set this aside and allow it to dry which would roughly be 24 hours.

Using another skewer for sizing purposes, begin creating the head for this

piece. I used a small piece of tissue paper so that the head is lightweight. 

It is important for the head to not be top heavy so that the piece

 can be in good balance with the body. Take a small piece of 

masking tape to wrap it around the tissue to secure it in place. 

Put the clay on top of the piece of paper while it is on the skewer. 

You will want to keep the front and the back of equal in the amount they 

protrude so that one side won't be heavier then the other. This is important 

to maintain the center of balance for the piece. Set the head aside to dry.

 

 

When the head and the body are dry, try fitting the head on the skewer 

of the body to make sure that it fits the way that you would like it to. If  

it looks good, take your e6000 glue and glue it on to the skewer. Set it 

aside to dry overnight.

Take your piece after the glue dries and cover up where the head

and the neck meets with the clay. This would be the time to build

up other pieces of your sculpture that you would like to fix.

Start working on the features of the face. I usually start working on the top

lip, let it begin to dry a bit and the begin working on the lower lip. 

I decided to sculpt the eyes closed. Make sure to try to keep

a sense of symmetry with the placing of the eyes. 

Scraping off the bottom of the lid to keep it to the same size as the

other one. Set the piece aside to dry again.

Use sandpaper to smooth down your piece. if you wish, this would be

the best time to paint your piece and seal it with varnish. I choose to leave it.

You should start out with at least 3 feet of wire, the longer the better. 

You can always cut off the wire that you don't need at the end. 

Take your wire and make a tight fold at the end so that 

there aren't any sharp parts sticking out. 

Start coiling up the wire in circles like a spring. Start with larger circles at

the bottom and get gradually smaller as you work your way up. You may 

need pliers to help you along the way, smooth out bends and try to 

shape the wire in a smooth circular pattern.

When you feel that your spring is at a good height, begin to run the top 

part of the wire through the tunnels that you made on the torso and the 

shoulders of the doll in the beginning of the tutorial. Run the wire from

the middle and make a loop up to the top as shown above. 

This is the hard part, getting your piece to be in balance. You will need to 

keep adjusting the coil of your spring to get the piece to sit right in the 

center of it. This part took me about an hour to get right, keep working 

on it until you get to a place that you are happy. 

This piece should be balanced in weight on the front and the back 

to make this work. If you are adding hair, keep it to a minimal so

 that the majority of the weight isn't in the back of the piece!

I added a little bit of reinforcement to the bottom of the piece with a 

thin piece of wire. Forcing the coil to keep it's shape and height at the 

bottom adds a ton of stability, this will help if you are having an issue 

getting the piece to stand up straight on it's own.

Here is the finished piece!

Thank you all once again for stopping by, and I hope that you enjoyed 

today's tutorial! You can find Creative Paperclay® at the following 

retailers Creative Paperclay® Online Store, Michael's, Amazon, Joann's.

See more of my work at Melandolly.com, catch updates on 

my Instagram page and here is a link to my shop!