How to Create a Dolls Head with Cold Porcelain

Many cold porcelain figures, dolls and animals, all start by modeling a basic cute head and then adding the eyes, expression, hair, etc to create the character (such as the doll shown above).   This 'basic cute head' tutorial was originally published in a Portuguese magazine and I have done my best to translate the instructions into English for those that cannot read the Portuguese.  .

Materials needed are some cold porcelain paste (or other soft air-dry-clay) and a Styrofoam ball.   Tools used are your fingers, a cutting tool, a crochet hook and a ball-end tool.    The first step is to tint your clay/cold porcelain a peach tone or other flesh tone unless your prefer tinting or painting after it has cured.   

   

Next, wrap the Styrofoam ball in clay or cold porcelain (CP).   Select enough CP paste to completely cover the foam ball (approximately 2" ball shown here).  Press the foam ball into the CP and shape the CP around it 

      

Close any gaps that appear as you wrap the CP so that you completely enclose the foam ball inside.  Avoid trapping any air. 

With the palms of your hands, smooth and shape the CP into an egg shape.   Using your thumbs, enhance the curvature of the nose and forehead.

Refine the shape of the head and pull some of the clay into a neck.

With a crochet hook, push the CP paste from the bottom up and then form the nose with your fingers 

.....leaving a pointed nose shape.

Strengthen the shape around the area of the eye with your thumb.   Add nostrils.

To mark the mouth, envision an imaginary line that creates a cross between the nose and neck and from one cheek to the other cheek.    Where the imaginary line crosses,  insert the tool straight in to form a mouth.

(note:  The numbering of photos in original tutorial skipped #4...it's not missing)

With the end of a crochet hook, create a diagonal crease in each corner of mouth.

Using the diagonal mark as a guide, use your thumb to lift the cheek and indent the chin, smoothing down toward the neck.

With the small end of a ball-end tool, shape the lower lip....running tool from one side to another.

Shape the upper lip with the same tool, using gentle movements.

Define the corners of the mouth by dimpling with large end of ball-end tool.

With smaller end of ball-end tool, create small mark on top of the upper lip.

Ears ... create 2 ears and glue onto the head of the doll.   Shape 2 equal amounts of CP into 2 small ovals.  Roll between fingers to indent slightly.  Attach an ear to each side of head using round-end tool to apply pressure to center of ear.  

After CP has dried and cured, flesh color can be painted (if you didn't pre-tint) and eye decals can be glued on or eyes painted on.  Hair can be molded from additional CP paste or various types of doll hair material can be glued on.  Lots of  different characters can be made by varying the embellishments.  The boy doll and girl doll shown below both started with this basic "cute" head.   The boy's hair is molded clay, but the girl has purchased doll hair glued on.   The head for the little kitty was modeled in a similar way as basic doll's head.

More about cold porcelain at Cold Porcelain Tutorials

Create Clay Flowers: Orange Jasmine

 

These gorgeous Orange Jasmine flowers were created by Thai Flower Art using air-dry clay. Thai Flower Art is a small company based in Thailand.  The clays used for their flowers are Daisy Clay and Luna Clay, but cold porcelain and many other brands of air-dry clay are suitable for this project, especially the soft clays  like Deco ClayCraft and Crafter's Clay.  

The clay you use should be the soft and pliable type that is also strong and durable when molded very thin.  Some brands of air-dry clay (such as DAS terra cotta) are too heavy or not soft enough for flower crafting.   Techniques used in this flower tutorial are similar to those described in Clay Art for All Seasons: A Guide to Soft Clay Art using DecoClay. 

The free online lesson* for the Orange Jasmine flower is found in the online classroom at Thai Flower Art, along with a few downloadable lessons.     The Orange Jasmine lesson consists of a series of videos for each step in the process, showing you how to make the stems and petals in addition to the flowers.  

Update:  The original tutorial has been removed by author and replaced with this 6-part tutorial to create Orange Jasmine flower.   Click on each image for more info and video demo.

Thai Flower Art also sells various supplies for clay flower crafting.   If you want to obtain the Daisy Clay, it may be purchased thru Thai Flower Art in Thailand or, in USA, thru Arakina , a distributor for Thai Flower Art.    

Make This Silly Yellow Bird

Is it a canary or is it a chicken?   LOL   I don't know but I think it's cute!   Good  project for beginning clay artist or something to make with the kids!

Another tutorial from Makin's Clay.....  http://www.makinsclay.com/US/eng/project_gallery/kids/kids10.htm

Twitter, Facebook and the modern way!

I couldn't resist posting this fella's story ....if you're over 50, you'll relate...and get a good laugh!

------------------------------------------------------- A Twitter Tale....... I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great-grandkids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space. That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific, Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world. My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag. The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then, going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Bluetooth phone [it's red] I am supposed to use when I drive.  I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud. The GPS looked pretty smart on my dashboard, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-u-la-ting".  You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good. When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and, while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me. To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 5 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose 3 phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings. The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me. Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual."  Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, "No, but I do toot a lot." Then I thought about the business I ran for 30 years with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos and pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter. *sigh*

How to make a clay Hibiscus flower

This Hibiscus tutorial shows you how to make a Hibiscus flower with Hearty Clay.  Many other brands of air-dry clay would work, as well as cold porcelain.   A set of flower-shaping tools are recommended to make this flower but you might be able to substitute tools you already have.

This flower is a bit challenging to make and is probably not a good choice for your first clay flower!  ;-)