Creating Armature & Body for Art Doll

These are instructions for creating a sturdy wire frame doll armature that is also padded and wrapped to complete the body of an art doll.   This type of art doll body is designed to have a clay head, arms/hands and legs/feet attached and to be permanently covered with clothing.   This body form is bendable and positionable, but, once placed in desired position, it's not usually re-positioned again and again like a jointed doll would be.

A is for Armature

This doll was made by author using Creative Paperclay and
following instructions in  book "Sculpting Dolls in Paperclay"

I'm often asked, "Which is the best armature to use for dolls?"    The answer is....there isn't one easy answer!  Which type of armature might work best for your project depends on many things, including whether you're making a doll or a figure, how big will it be, which clay are you using and how detailed do you want to make it.

How to Wrap Foam Balls Without Trapping Air

Many air-dry clay projects call for Styrofoam shapes as armatures for figure modeling. On my other blog, "Cold Porcelain Tutorials", we've featured a series of videos from Marisol Romero showing the proper way to wrap Styrofoam shapes with cold porcelain (without getting cracks or trapped air).   The very same methods could be used with any brand of soft air-dry clay.    Check 'Cold Porcelain Tutorials' for video demos showing how to wrap small and large foam balls, half-spheres, double-spheres and more.

How to Wrap a Styrofoam Ball with Clay

Many air-dry clay projects call for Styrofoam shapes as armatures for figure modeling.   Quite a few people have mentioned they are having trouble covering the foam with clay without getting cracks or trapped air.   In the following video, Haydee Miranda demonstrates the proper way to wrap a Styrofoam ball with cold porcelain.

Spanish is the language spoken in this tutorial but I think you can follow along even if you don't understand what she's saying!

Build Your Own Armature Stage and Armature Jig

Finished Stand with Armature

Chuck Needham has prepared a step-by-step tutorial for creating your own "2-bit Sculpting Stage".  It's a lazy-susan style armature stand made of wood and easy-to-find supplies.   Suggested dimensions are for a 1/6 scale figure and can be adjusted based on your own favorite scale.   

Instructions are also given for creating an armature jig in various scales along with instructions for making an body armature using the jig.

Armature jig and partial armature

I came across this tutorial at a Spanish-speaking forum, however the tutorial and downloads are in English.  Go here for tutorial:
http://porcelanaenfrioooak.ning.com/group/todomasillaepoxi/forum/topics/arma-tu-propia-rueda-y-tabla
The same tutorial is not currently available on the writer's website (Chuck Needham, 2 Bit Studio)

On the same page, following Chuck's tutorial, are instructions for making an armature using an image reference.

Fetcher: Figure Modeling with Hearty Clay

Fetcher

'Fetcher' is one of the comical pack-rat characters seen in one of my favorite claymation movies, 'Chicken Run'.    For my first project with Hearty Clay, I thought I'd try to re-create Fetcher.   Following are the steps I used to create him and the problems I ran into!   (This is a follow-up to my Hearty review posted yesterday)

Hearty Clay is soft, pliant and easy to work with.  Ready to use right out of the package.  Cured Hearty is lightweight, firm and a little flexible.   Because this clay is very soft,  it does not hold detail well when modeling.  Definitely not suitable for making fine-featured dolls, but OK for whimsical figures, flowers, push molds and such.

#1 Armature

Step 1 is making the armature.  This figure is about 6" tall, which is large enough where it will need some support.  First I made a 'stick' figure of wire.  Then, to save on clay, I filled up parts of it with rolled up aluminum foil.    Next, I used floral tape to wrap everything up and hold it together.  I usually use white floral tape, but I happen to have a roll of brown that needed using up!   Wrapping the wire with floral tape (or any tape) helps the clay stick to the armature. 

#2  First layer of clay for 'pants'

Photo #2 shows where I have applied the first bit of colored clay to my armature.   Hearty Clay stayed moist enough to handle for quite a while, even after going thru pasta machine a dozen times to custom mix the colors I needed to match the movie character.   The pants for my 'Fetcher' figure had a lot of wrinkles in the clay as I worked, so I used water to moisten and smooth the surface.   But!  When I wet the surface to smooth it, the color in the clay transferred to my hands.....so hand washing is important.   I didn't see any color transfer on my hands from clay out-of-package,  just when water was added.

Lots of shrinkage around tail and cracks on back of knee and elsewhere

Twenty-four hours have gone by and my first application of Hearty Clay to the 'Fetcher' armature has dried.   It has a matte suede-like appearance that looks soft but isn't.   I think it's attractive.  It was easy to mix the colors and easy to apply clay to the armature.   The only problem I had was a lot of shrinkage and some cracking when dry.   It shrank quite a bit and pulled away in the length and around the tail.   Cracks are not too bad and mostly my fault for wetting surface too much when trying to smooth it.  One of the reasons given for surface cracking is ..."when there is an excess of water or when there is water added on top, varying the degrees of humidity in the same mix".    Well, I DID get surface pretty wet....and it DID crack...no surprise!   But it looks repairable.

Cracks repaired.

The photo above shows the cracks and gaps all filled in and repaired.   I just took some fresh clay in the same color and blended it in.    It was easy to patch and you can't even tell where the cracks used to be on back of knees.  (Those cracks you see around the tail and around the waist are just rough edges.... I haven't finished that part yet!)

Beginning of final layers

For the next step I added more clay for his shirt and shoes.  This is just a base layer and will be built up with more clay and more detail as I work.

I found in working with Hearty Clay that building up thin layers of clay seems to work best.   Hearty is very easy to work with, but thick layers of clay seem to crack.  For most air-dry clays, adding clay in layers or sections seems to work the best, especially when working with an armature....but it seems especially important for the soft air dry clays like Hearty Clay.  The thinner layers allow the clay to cure more evenly.   Uneven curing causes cracking.

   

Here's the finished 'Fetcher' character!   I didn't have any more trouble with cracking once I learned to limit use of water for smoothing.    What looks like cracks around the sleeve and neck edge of his sweater, isn't.  It's "torn".  Fetcher is a pack rat and he is wearing a sweater made from a recycled argyle sock...with 'torn' edges for neck and arm holes!

Sorry, I forgot to take more photos as I was finishing his head, his sweater and other details.   The main focus was to discuss Hearty Clay and I wasn't even thinking of step-by-step photos as a WIP demo!   But, if you have any questions about how this was done... I'll try to answer!  ;-)