Meet my clay dolls

LABYRINTH!! Such an awesome movie. Every now and again I'll get Magic Dance stuck in my head.

And now, an incredibly long, rambling story about my journey to the world of clay dolls.

It started with an urge. Still considering myself a beginner with clay, I had an overwhelming urge to try and make a doll. It was about a year ago. My plans were simple, I would try and use the dimensions on the ED site - because I would have rather not even tried to make my own dimensions. She would not have any detailed features, because I first wanted to see if making a doll was even possible. She would be joined much like the way Marina's first Cinderella's neck was:

But the way in which I tried to make the joints were incorrect. I had strung up the joints with heavy fishing wire, and soon enough, every joint broke. As a result, she is almost completely glued in place - the only exception being at her waist, here legs here have still stayed together with the string. But, the thighs-to-the-hip were not jointed like her arms and legs were, there was just a hole through each leg and some holes in the pelvis, and I tied them all together.


Seeing the way that bit of her held together gave me the idea of how to put together a second doll. The second doll was also the first time I used aluminum foil as a skeleton in any clay project - something I wish I'd done often in the past. I made her using my first doll for scale, and as a result of my... inability to stay focused on only one thing at a time, I ended up making her forearms 4 cm too long. Very noticeable to me. But I won't redo them. They are a part of her now. I made this doll, again, with an aluminum skeleton. So she's a bit lighter than her sister. Her joints all have holes through them, and are held together with very thin wire - the wire from twisty ties. I learned almost immediately that she would be more delicate, because the twisty tie wire is very fragile. Try and bend it too much and it will snap. Had to rewire a couple of her joints. But other than that she's held together rather nicely. I had actually given this doll a bit more detail - she has fingers and toes and a nose and mouth. Even though I don't much like them. Her fingers are so dang chubby... I think they are because mine are. I hate my hands.

And that was the end of my doll makings. I had sworn my second doll would be the last. While I had fun making her, her joints were too finicky, and she couldn't hold a pose because there just wasn't anything in her joints to make them hold. She is essentially, a rag doll made of clay.

I lied. I swore to myself the second doll was the last, and I lied. After a few months with only those two dolls, and after staring at various BJDs from different sites, I got the urge to try again. This time, she was made entirely different. I used my second doll for scale, but didn't follow it as closely as I had in the past. Her skeleton was hollow. I created each limb over straws. The straws were wrapped in a thin sheet of aluminum foil, so the pieces could slide off them easily. Her torso was made with a paper towel tube as it's inner. I made rounded joints at the thigh, shoulder, elbow and knee. I attempted to make her hands a little less chubby. She also had a nose, lips, and feet. Her hands and feet are attached to eye hooks, the smallest ones I could find at Home Depot. (an idea I got from the doll house my dad made me when I was five. He used eye hooks for the doorknobs. I still have the house, though it's a bit torn up because of my accidental destructive behavior, but it's probably closer to 1/12 scale, so it doesn't get used.)

I was incredibly nervous about this whole ordeal. While I'd seen plenty of pictures of BJDs, I wasn't comfortable with them. I really wasn't sure if any of this would even work, and then I'd have made a doll that would never come to be. The stringing up of the doll was the worst for me. I'd watched a youtube video on how to re-string a BJD, so I understood how it all goes together, but this was all new to me. I couldn't find the tool I know I have somewhere, that would have worked well to pull the elastic through the limbs, so I ended up pushing the elastic through with a bamboo stick. ROFL. That sounds so ghetto-ish to me. But it did work, and at the top of her head, all the strings are held there with a piece of that same bamboo stick, cut to size so it would notch itself in to the held nice and tightly. Before stringing it all up, I did something else I had never done to clay before - I sanded it. So she's a LOT smoother than my other two dolls.

I'm a lot happier with the way this lady came out. She can actually hold a pose, and I love that. She makes me want to eventually try making more dolls.

And that's enough rambling without pictures. Now I'll ramble with pictures. Hahaha. Most of these pictures are of them clothed and wigged, because I didn't have a camera to picture them beforehand. (the pics of the first two dolls were all taken with a borrowed camera)

One of the many annoying things I did: I glued her head on sideways. D'oh.


And I used a TON of glue, I hate how it's just gobbed in there. Her hair is mine, form my last hair cut. I saved the hair with intent on using it as wig hair in the future.


A pic of her entire body... before she began to break further. Her outfit is sewn by hand.


When I first glued her together, I was not happy about it. I was basically killing any chance to pose her. Mayhaps for that reason, I didn't do a very good job. One of her feet broke off, and I was so frustrated, that I didn't glue it back on. She went months being footless.

Doll number two.


I made her outfit with the intention of covering up all of her joints. She also has a long pink skirt. Eventually though, I began to despise the restrain the skirt had, so I got rid of it. I added embellishment to the bottom of the shirt, and called it a dress.


Here she is with a necklace I lost. I made Biscuitbear a similar one for Christmas. Don't have a clue where that blasted necklace went. I also lost a hat and scarf I made this doll, and mittens and a scarf I made for my first doll. So frustrating that I can't keep track of things. UGH. Her belt is actually a bra strap from one of my bras. It was a convertible bra, and I only bought it to serve as a strapless. But the straps were cute so I saved them.

I hate her lips, but I couldn't make them any better... not for lack of trying though.




Chubby hands




Full shot of her


Some pics of doll one and two together:

Side by side with the broken foot. Haha


Hand comparison


Foot comparison


Always thought this was a cute shot.


The next pics are of doll three, there's more to her, because this was after Christmas. My dad got me a camera for Christmas.



The claystation. On a folding card table, with was paper taped on. You can see the straws wrapped in aluminum foil and the exacto knife on the right, on the left you can barely see my stylus tool, upper left you can see a paintbrush I also use, (the thing with the rubber grip) and upper right you can see doll number two, (with a broken leg... the wire snapped and I left it off to be able to use the leg freely for scale) the perfume bottle I use for a rolling pin and some pencils, that I also use. Beyond doll number two was my painting station. Haha.


Working on the limbs, and there's the second doll's leg, to better compare.



From left to right: foot, upper arm, lower leg, upper leg, lower arm. Bottom: hand
I ended up adding to make the upper legs slightly thicker, but not by much.


Bottom of torso


Beginning the upper torso



All the pieces baked and beginning to be sanded



Doll three, strung up, sanded, and painted. I feel her forearms are long too... serves me right for using number two for scale.


Here she is, chillin' with Ethan's instrument before it got strings. Looks like a guitar to her. That's intentional. It's why I made it more shallow...


than normal ukuleles.


Close up of her face. No lashes. Forgot them.


And here's some pics of the three of them, wearing crowns biscuitbear made me.



They do have names ya know, I just didn't feel like using them in the story. Doll number 1 is named Corinne. You can see here that she's changed a bit. Well, I couldn't find the foot that fell off all those months before, and then one of her hands broke. So, I made a "cast" for her hand and her leg. But then I didn't like her other foot, so I ripped that off and made her a boot.... yeah... I know, I could have just made her TWO boots instead of a cast and a boot. But yeah, that's me not thinking clearly. Then I broke the glue at the knees and her broken arm elbow, to bend the joints a bit before regluing, so she could sit a little more naturally. I had originally planned on making her a wheelchair. But that's on hold. For when I feel a little more confident in making one.



Doll number two is named Gemma. I had lost the necklace I made her by now, so she's wearing a silly plastic necklace that was on a My Scene Barbie I have. And she's no longer wearing that skirt. Her belt has an embellishment now too, I really don't remember what it used to be. Some form of jewelry that had broken. It lost the center gem too, so I glued a pink pearl there, and glued a safety pin to the back of it.


Doll number three is named Arietti. Etti for short. She's wearing "knee highs" that are actually supposed to be thigh high and for an ED. Fitz sent them to me.


I like this picture... not quite sure why. LOL



Three closeups. You can't much tell from these pics, but Corinne has a pink complexion, Gemma's is paler, and Etti's is the palest. She was made with Twilight vampires in mind. Hence the gold eyes.

And... I think that's it. Yep. Those are my clay dolls. Corinne, Gemma, and Arietti. I could tell ya how I came across the names I guess.

I have favorite books that I read often, some more than others. The Twilight and Harry Potter series I read four or fives times, while I've read the Flowers in the Attic Series only twice. I was in the middle of reading the Flowers series around the same time as I made doll number one. Corinne is their mother's name. I thought it was a lovely name. Mind you, she's not named "after" her, because really, that mother was horrid. Rather they happen to share the same name. LOL.

Gemma was a name I came across when I was addicted to Lonelygirl15. Do you know of the series? It was a pioneer of it's kind I suppose. A blog show. People went insane when they found out "Lonelygirl" wasn't real, but whatever, I loved it. But then they killed Bree. (the main character) And I was sad. I tried watching further, and got slightly hooked again, when "Bree's sister" was introduced on the show. But... then they killed HER too. UGH. I was so frustrated. I sorta watched one more season? I think.. but I lost it. I didn't like the direction it was going, they split up the characters to the point of me not even liking the show. I haven't watched it since... last August?
Er... ANYWAY... Gemma was a short lived character on the show. She was a friend of Bree's, only to find out she was part of the bad guys or something like that. But her name stuck with me, and I had originally thought of naming doll number one Gemma. The name just didn't suit her. So doll number two became Gemma.

Arietti was founded due to my obsession with Harry Potter. I think Draco Malfoy in the movie, i.e. Tom Felton, is a cutie. I had looked him up on IMDB and found out the first movie he ever did was The Borrowers. I never forgot that, and remember seeing the movie once, but I don't own it, nor do I know anyone who does, and didn't want to rent it. I came across the movie earlier this year. It was on Starz. Yay! In the movie, Tom Felton's sister is named Arrietty, Ett for short. I like my spelling and nickname better, but I still think it's a cute name.

Now what... now... well, okay, we've reached an end. It's not the end of my attempts in dollmaking however. I do plan on trying to make another few dolls in the future. Just, not sure when. I'm fairly happy with the way Arietti came out, so I believe I'll be using similar techniques. I'd like to try making a child or two, and then mayhaps a faun. We'll see.