How to Create an Artdoll with Creative Paperclay

Hello everyone! My name is Cinnamon Willis and I am going to show you all how I created this soft bodied art doll with fabric and Creative Paperclay® for the limbs and head. I normally sculpt my dolls completely out of clay but I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and attempt to make a soft bodied doll. There are many different ways to go about doing this, but I took the steps that I listed below, let me know if you try this method out and I hope you enjoy!

Supplies

• Pencil
• Cardstock paper
• Muslin Fabric
• Thread
• Skewers
• Scissors
• Sewing machine or be prepared to stitch by hand
• Creative Paperclay®
• Newspaper
• Masking tape
• Sand paper
• Wool
• Acrylic paint
• Sealer, Varnish
• E600 Craft Glue
• Beads and buttons
• Rocks or bean bag filler

I started out with drawing a basic shape of a torso and some limbs on a piece of cardstock paper. Next, I cut them out and traced them onto the muslin cloth. After tracking these pieces, I cut them out from the cloth making sure to cut two of each piece so that they could be sewn together. Save the card stock pieces so that they can be used again for another doll. Note that I only have the top portion of the arms and legs here. We will be sculpting the bottom parts from paper clay and attaching them with beads in later steps!

With your cloth pieces, line up the matching pairs so that they can be sewn together, use straight pins to keep them in place once the alignment is right.

This is where you will be sewing the pieces together for your doll. This can be done either by hand or by a sewing machine. As you can see from the photos above, I used both. My machine konked out on me in the middle of this project. Whichever method you feel comfortable using, make sure to leave a seam allowance or about a ¼ of an inch from the edges free when you sew the pieces together. Also be sure to leave about and inch free at the top of each piece so that they can later be turned inside out and stuffed.

Turn the pieces inside out, I use the eraser end of a pencil to do this so that I don't poke through the material. With the torso, I filled the bottom with little pebbles so that the doll could have some weight and sit by herself.

This can also be stuffed with bean bag fill. From the chest up, I filled the piece with fiber. I stitched the neck up by hand and placed a wooden skewer down the middle of the doll so that the head could later be attached to it. After stitching the neck around the skewer, I secured it with e600 glue and made sure that the skewer sat in a good place at the bottom where it wouldn’t wobble to much. I filled the limbs with poly fiber after turning them inside out and stitched up the remainder of the fabric by hand trying hard not to make the stitches visible.

Once the neck is dry, you can now move on to attaching the limbs. I did what was called a basic button joint for the limbs. What you’ll need to do is line up the shoulders to the top part of where the arms would meet, take a long needle and sew straight  through the button, arm, torso and, the other arm and button on one pass. Do another pass through, coming out the other side and lining up to where the other button is on the arm. Do this two more times ensuring each hole on both button sides have been passed through. Do the same for the the bottom half with the legs.

Now that you know how big the doll will be, you can start working on the head and the limbs in paperclay. Make a ball of newspaper and wrap it around a skewer that is the same size as the skewer in the torso with masking tape. (If you are more comfortable working directly on the doll, do so but try not to get any clay on the body.) Start adding clay to this, keep in mind that this will need to match the body of your doll so keep it in proportion to it. Since you are using masking tape here, you can pop it off of the stick and try it on the stick of the torso to see how it matches up to the body. Keep doing this until you get the proper size that you are going for.

Once you allow the head to dry, you could begin working on the details such as the face shape and features. This can be done by adding a drop of water onto the places that you would like to add clay to and blending the new clay into it. Don’t worry about getting things perfect when working with moist paper clay, most of the sculpting is done when it is dry with sanding. Once you are done and have worked out the face, you can sand it down with a very fine grit of sandpaper to smooth everything out. I usually work with a 400 grit sheet of sandpaper for getting Creative Paperclay® super smooth. Seal with varnish when complete.

At this stage you can start making the lower half of the legs and arms to attach to the body. Here I cut four skewers down about an inch smaller than the size of what I would want the limbs to be, and wrapped them with masking tape. Cover them with the clay and make sure to leave about a half of an inch at the top so that you can burrow a hole straight through. This will be where you attach the limbs to the body. Make sure to burrow the holes while the clay is still moist and in the right orientation as shown in the first picture above. (Ex. if the foot is facing forward, burrow the hole horizontally at the top so that the foot swings in the right direction.) The second picture shows the difference between the sanded and unsanded versions of the legs.

Paint the limbs and head to the color that you would like them to be. After the pieces have dried use a varnish to cover and protect the paint from chipping.You can also paint the muslin fabric as I did here. I used acrylic paint and thinned it out a bit with water for easier paint application. Keep in mind that this stiffens up the fabric a bit so try not to put paint that is too heavy on the fabric. I suggest trying it out on scrap pieces thinning the paint out with water first to see how it turns out before painting the body.

Now that the limbs are painted, you can attach them to the torso with the beads and thread. Make sure that the beads are sideways where the holes of the beads are facing the same direction as the holes on the button joints. This is important for the movement of the limbs, otherwise they will swing sideways which would be unnatural.

Last but not least comes the head, take the head and burrow it back on to the skewer to make sure it still sits on it. If it doesn’t fit, make adjustments so that it does. Take it back off of the skewer and squeeze a bit of E600 glue into the hole at the bottom where the masking tape is. Immediately position it back onto the skewer on the body and place it where you would like for it to sit. Set this aside and allow it to dry for at least 12 hours.

You can now accessorize your doll if you wish with hair, clothing and whatever else you would like to add. I had a beautiful piece of African print fabric, some tulle and a brand new sewing machine that I wanted to try out. For the hair, I used some beautiful Border Leicester grey wool with caramel tips that I had in my supply bin.

Thank you 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

The paints that I used can be purchased directly from Plaid at https://plaidonline.com/brands/plaid

See more of my work at Melandolly.com, and head over to my Instagram page to see other projects that I am currently working on!

Holiday Angel Tealight Candle Holder

Hi!


 For my last project of 2016 I thought I would try using modeling metal mesh with paperclay.

I wanted to create a holiday candle holder. I don't have any angels, and I decided it would be fun to have my first one be one that I designed and created myself.

If you would like to create one yourself here is what you will need:

 Materials
Creative Paperclay®
Metal mesh
Container of water
Damp paper towels
Clay shaping and rolling tools
Sanding tools
Wing mold
Cardboard
Hot glue and gun
Acrylic paint
Gesso
Matt varnish
Weather wood paint product
Crackle paint
Antiquing paint
Glamour Dust
Paint brushes
Tea light

Instructions 

1. Cut a gumdrop shape of wire mesh.
2. Roll it to form a cone shape.

3. Roll out a thin sheet of paperclay.
4. Place the cone on the clay and roll it onto the form.

5. Roll a ball for the head and two tubular shapes for the arms.

6. Attach the head and the arms to the body form.

7. Roll out a small flat piece for the tray.

8. Attach the tray to the arms using more clay so that the tray, the arms, and body form one piece. (see image below)

9. Roll out several strips of clay for hair and lay it on the head. Let it drape over the arms and attach at the ends. Separate the hair in the back leaving room for the wings to attach to the body.

10.Use a wing mold or cutter and create the wings.

11. Trace the bottom of the tealight in the clay. Cut out the circle and a small strip to wrap around the circle to form a cup.

12. Set everything aside to dry.( Because parts of the angel might collapse during drying I suggest making cardboard props.)

 11. When the pieces are 50% dry, remove the cardboard and finish drying them in a 250 degree oven. Time will vary. When your piece appears white they are ready to remove. Let cool. Caution: Pieces may be hot.

12. Sand down all your pieces. Wipe down with a damp paper towel to remove any sanding dust.

13. Apply a coat of gesso to all of the pieces.

14. Paint the candle holder and wings. While the wings are still wet, sprinkle Glamour dust on the them. 

 15. Paint the angel hair brown, and the body with a cream colored acrylic paint. (I used titan buff).

16. Paint the body ( not the face) and tray with weathered wood and let dry.

17. Apply a coat of crackle paint.


18. Apply a coat of antiquing paint on the body and the tray. When dry, wipe off the excess with a damp paper towel until you have reached the desired effect.

19. Apply a coat of matt varnish on all of the pieces.

20. Attach the wings to the back and the candle cup to the tray using hot glue.

The wire mesh was really helpful in this project. I will be using it again.

I hope this tutorial helped inspire you to to make a one of a kind, handmade by you, holiday candle holder.

Happy creating,
Shari

Creative Paperclay® Cheese Markers

I'm a cheese lover!! We always have an assortment of cheeses in our frig, and when they are served I like to have them labeled so folks know the names of the individual cheeses. So, I decided to make my own cheese markers using Creative Paperclay®.

To begin, I drew several different shapes that I liked as patterns. I've included a PDF file of my favorite cheese marker shapes. I cut the patterns out of cardstock.

I rolled out a slab of clay to a thickness of about 1/8", and traced around the patterns. While the clay was drying, I turned the markers over every few hours so they would dry as evenly as possible.

Next, a bit of sanding and they were ready for a sealer. I used two coats of PPA from USArtQuest, letting each coat dry thoroughly before added the next. I made my own chalk paint by mixing baking soda into acrylic paint. The proportions depend on how "chalky" you want the paint. I added enough baking soda to make a fairly thick substance. I started added a small amount of baking soda, and added more small amounts until I was satisfied with the consistency.

You could use any color paint, but I chose black. Here's the sanded, sealed, chalk-painted marker before I conditioned it.

To condition the marker, rub the entire surface with a piece of chalk. Then, dust off the excess. Now you're ready for your next wine and cheese party!! Here's one of my finished markers.

Carole

PAPER CLAY MOD CANVAS

I have had the best time using Creative PaperClay! I am a Mixed Media Artist and I love using different techniques and items in my art. In this project I put some paperclay in a baggie and watered it down very thinly to a paste consistency. Once I did that I just smooshed it around as if it were dough until it was the consistency I wanted. I spread on my blank canvas over a stencil i had to make an imprint and let dry. Here is a quick video from my youtube!
When it was dry (which took 24 hours) I then painted a mustard and bright yellow to get some different colors and textures.
I took my regular paper clay and rolled it out and cut out different circle sizes.



I painted them different colors and glued them on to canvas. I added dots from bottles of fabric paint as decoration and drew swirls on the background with glitter glue and more fabric paint. I then put 2 coats of 3D Crystal Lacquer on to seal it. It is Mod looking and I am so excited to hang on my wall!!