Tutorial: Creating a BJD Head and Face

~ click photos to enlarge ~    

Linda Macario, the Italian doll-maker, has written a wonderful tutorial for creating the head for a BJD (ball-jointed doll) .   LaDoll air-dry clay is suggested.  Creative Paperclay would also be suitable for this project.   Lots of photos demonstrate how to sculpt the Styrofoam core, apply the clay, model the facial features, hollow out the head & insert the eyes and also create the head articulation.

Further steps in the tutorial demonstrate how she paints the delicate features (called "face-up") to create a doll similar to the ones shown in these photos!   Aren't they beautiful?   Linda is an amazing doll artist!   This is a great air dry clay tutorial even if you're not interested in making a full BJD body and just want to sculpt the face.   I hope this encourages you to make your first doll!   I'm excited to try it myself! ;-)

  

How to Make a Mosaic Box

Decorate a wooden box with mosaic tiles made with Delight air-dry clay.   Frame a photo for top of box!  See step-by-step tutorial at Paperclay.com

Video: How to Make Clay Leaves and a 5-Petal Flower

This first video below is from Ibenia at ColdPorcelainDesigns.com .  She shows us how to make an easy leaf with cold porcelain (or any other air-dry-clay).    The second video shows how to make a simple 5-petal flower.   This is a perfect project for beginners.  Use this idea for magnets, gift boxes & cake decorations, filler flowers, photo frame decorations, jewelry....etc,etc!





See more cold porcelain tutorials at Cold Porcelain Tutorials

Make a Chef-themed kitchen noteboard

Every kitchen should have a chalkboard kitchen sign to display the evening’s menu, a grocery list, or a To-Do list for the chef.   This one is made with Creative Paperclay, some white fabric and a purchased chalkboard.   This would make a great holiday gift also!    See how-to instructions for this project at Michaels.com

Easy Way to Make a Doll's Head Using Push Molds

Would you like to make clay dolls but find the task of sculpting the face a little daunting?   Especially the small features on a miniature doll!    A push mold might be your answer!    The face shown above was created with a 3" push mold.  Imagine making a Santa stump doll with this face, a beard and a festive robe!  For a miniature, the small 3/4" face molds should be a good size for a 1" scale doll.

In the following video, popular clay artist and instructor Maureen Carlson shows us how to make the best use of a push mold when creating a doll's head....plus how to customize the character's face!

She's demonstrating with polymer clay using her own molds (some of which have been discontinued since video was originally made).  Air-dry clay can also be used with push molds in the same manner as polymer.  There are a number of different push molds available for making dolls, flowers and other things (not just Maureen's).  You can also make your own push molds.   I'll guess we'll have to cover that topic another day!   ;-)

If you're looking for something more challenging or more creative than the easy-to-use push molds shown in above video, Maureen also makes and sells "Puzzle-Face" molds for creating faces similar to those shown below.

Puzzle-Face molds are also push molds but the facial parts are molded individually and then assembled onto a "blank" head.  Facial parts are also interchangeable.   The nose from one mold can be used with the mouth from another, etc.  Seems like there would be endless possibilities for giving them your own unique look!  In the following video, Maureen shows you how to get started with a Puzzle-Face.

      

How to Paint Eyes on Clay Figure

In today's video, clay instructor Marisol Romero shows us how to paint eyes (using acrylics) on a cold porcelain figure.   The eyes for the Jester Clown (from previous post) are shown in the demonstration, but, of course, these could be eyes for any of our cute air-dry clay figures!  She makes it look very easy!  ;-)

Make This Cute CP Clown

Please see my other blog, Cold Porcelain Tutorials, for a step-by-step, 4-part, video demo creating the cute cold porcelain Jester Clown figure shown above!

Make a Paperclay Pumpkin Pail

This clever Halloween tutorial from Carmen Ellis (Spooky Hollow Folk Art Designs) is full of humor and tips for using Creative Paperclay.    Create the miniature pumpkin pail shown in photo above starting with a hollowed-out Styrofoam ball and Paperclay  (makes about a 4 inch pail).   Go to this page for Carmen's "Poor Man's Pumpkin Pail".

Here's a sampling showing her sense of humor....some things you may relate to!

• If you are half blind like me you might want to put your glasses on. ( My glasses are pitiful due to the dog eating them one night. ) 

You'll need:

• Paper towel, ( I get super messy. Probably because of my half eaten glasses. )
• Exacto tool or a sharp kitchen knife…( Don’t run with pointy objects )
• Or whatever you can find around the house to sculpt with. (Please don’t use your cat.)

She also suggests placing the sculpt in a 200 degree oven to speed up drying.   I'd hesitate to recommend that.   Styrofoam could give off some toxic fumes when heated.    Even if the foam ball is wrapped in clay, it still doesn't seem like a great idea to me.

What does sound like a great idea is to make some miniature pumpkins from Paperclay using the designs shared last week in Pumpkin Carving Lesson and Pumpkin Carving Part 2 along with the ideas shared in the tutorial above!

Tutorial: Clay Narcissus or Daffodil

Seems like it's been posts about clay flowers all week, so let's have one more for Friday.    One of my favorite flowers!    This air-dry clay or cold porcelain tutorial shows step-by-step photos to create a miniature Daffodil or Narcissus.  I'm not sure what the exact difference is between those 2 flowers other than one is larger than other.  Speaking of size, this tutorial creates miniature flowers but I bet the same process could create some realistic full size flowers!

This tutorial is on a Russian website, but there should be no language barrier....there's very little text...just photos!   Enjoy!

Tutorial: Clay Peonies

Here's another flower tutorial from CreativeNimi at Crafts For All.    This time she uses Delight air-dry clay to show us how to make a Peony.   Cold porcelain and many other brands of air-dry would work as well (the softer clays seem to work best).   

With 3 Peonies and some flower buds, she demonstrates this lovely floral arrangement.

Tutorial: Clay flowers-Make this festive rose arrangment

This flower arrangement is very striking. I like the red, green, white color combination.   This would make a lovely decoration for the Christmas holidays.   Maybe if I get started on making an arrangement like this now, I might finish it by December!  LOL  


Deco Clay was used to create flowers shown in demo.   Homemade cold Porcelain, purchased Craft Porcelain, Delight, Daisy, Hearty and Makin's Clay are a few other clays suitable for this project.


See tutorial at Craft Ideas for All


Red, white and green clay will be needed.   For cold porcelain and clay brands that aren't available pre-colored, tint your white clay with a little acrylic paint, with color paste made for cake decorating & sugarcraft or with colorants made especially for cold porcelain.    


If you're not familiar with colorants, Wilton Icing Colors, shown here, is one example of colorants that are available in paste form from cake decorating suppliers,  at Michaels and online at Amazon.   Jars of paste colorants can be purchased as individual colors or as sets. 


Colorants specifically for cold porcelain are not readily available in USA, but you might find a supplier on the web. 

Tutorial: Roses made with air-dry clay

Follow this tutorial to make a beautiful white rose floral arrangement with green and red accents.  The green buds are made with clay but the red berries are purchased fillers.  Delight clay (lightweight clay made by Creative Paperclay) is used in demo  but many other brands of air-dry clay would be suitable, as well as cold porcelain.   See step-by-step tutorial for beautiful clay roses.

Make a Pansy with Air-dry Clay

This pretty Pansy is a good flower project for a beginner who's tried a few clay flowers and is ready to tackle something a little more challenging.



The following demonstration is an excerpt from the new book "Amazing Clay Flowers: Creating Realistic Flowers and Floral Arrangements" by Noriko Kawaguchi.    In her list of materials, she lists "resin clay" which we know as air-dry clay.   In Japan, polymer-based air dry clays are usually called resin clays.  


Note: There are 4 general types or 'groups' of no-bake air-dry clays currently popular.  The paper-based (actually wood pulp) clays such as Creative Paperclay, the stone-based (pumice) clays such as LaDoll, and the polymer-based clays such as Deco Clay, Lumina, Luna and many other brands of "soft" clays usually used in crafting clay flowers.  The 4th group is the homemade and commercial cold porcelain clays, which are very popular for creating clay flowers.


Any of the above could be used to make these Pansies but the softer clays are usually better suited to making thin petals.

Another method for sculpting head with CP

Guilherme Pires, in another video, shows us how he sculpts a head using cold porcelain.   This is a different method than shown last week by Rosangela Alencar (where a foam ball is used as armature).   These doll heads are a little smaller.

Spotlight on clay artist Guilherme Pires

Guilherme Pires is a clay artist from Brazil who creates the cutest clown figures and other clever characters.   Using homemade cold porcelain, wire, foam, simple tools and a lot of imagination, he comes up with some very unique art dolls he calls 'guibonecos'.  Some have very sweet faces, some are funny and some are quite strange.  LOL  Visit his blog at http://guibonecos.blogspot.com/.

In the 3 videos below, he shares with us how it's done.  Quite the production line he has going in these videos!  *sigh*  He accomplishes so much in one day!!

In the first video, he makes the clay and takes it into his modeling room where he creates a series of heads and models the arms, hands and big feet for his clowns.
In the second video, he assembles all the pieces with wire and foam and paints the adorable faces.   The last video shows his creative costuming, wigging and finishing.

Make This Little Angel Magnet

Step-by-step instructions with lots of photos to create this cute angel can be found at http://porcelana-fria.com/paso-a-paso/angelito/

This angel magnet is made with cold porcelain, but many brands of air-dry clay would also be suitable for this easy project.  Soft, easy to mold clays work best.    

Pre-tint your white clay with a little acrylic paint, color paste  made for cake decorating & sugarcraft or colorants made especially for cold porcelain.   If you're not familiar with colorants, below is an example of cake colorants that are available in paste form from cake decorating suppliers and at Amazon.  Colorants specifically for cold porcelain are not readily available in USA, but you might find a supplier on the web.  

Tutorial is in Spanish.   If your browser doesn't automatically translate to your language of choice, you can find a translate tool at  http://translate.google.com/

Enjoy!

Video: Create a Dolls Head with Cold Porcelain

Yesterday we shared a step-by-step tutorial of how to model a basic doll's head with cold porcelain (or other soft air-dry clays).    Today we have a 2-part video demo by Rosangela Alencar, showing her methods for shaping a cold porcelain (CP) doll's head.   Very similar to yesterday's tutorial with a few added details....plus the benefit of watching it on video!  ;-)

Well worth watching to see how she neatly wraps the Styrofoam ball with CP and shapes the head.  It's amazing how quickly she shapes a nose!  She makes it look so easy!! ;-)    Also take note of how she uses her fingers to measure placement of mouth and chin and how she forms neck at the same time she is shaping those pudgy cheeks!

Part 1...Getting Started



Part 2....Adding Details

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.    

How to Make Cold Porcelain Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums come in many types and colors, but here is a good starter.   In this tutorial, Margaret shows you how to make a fairly simple white flower using cold porcelain paste.   Most any brand of air-dry clay could also be used to create these flowers.   Once you've made one, you could create a whole bouquet of different color mums!

http://www.celcrafts.co.uk/CelClub/TutorCPorcChrys.htm

How to make embellishments with ADC

Toodles and Binks shows us how to create embellishments with rubber stamps and air-dry clay for your scrapbooking project or some other clever project!  

Part 1



Part 2