Meet a New Clay Artist: Oksana Dyachenko

Summer Flowers, closeup

Oksana Dyachenko is an artist from the Ukraine who creates dolls and toys.  In her profile she says she has enjoyed creating bears and dolls for a long time. She calls them her "kids" and, roughly translated, says:  "My kids are very different, funny, sweet, thoughtful, loved. They are all alive, warm and genuine. I have put into their creation a piece of each one's soul.  I work with ease, love and inspiration and I'd like to have my work pleased you with warm and uplifting feeling."

Clearing Up Some Mis-information About ADC

Happy Independence Day to our friends in USA!

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I'm going to take an opportunity today to rant a little!   Hope you don't mind!  I'm tired of seeing websites passing out mis-information about air-dry clay and I want to set the record straight.

I do a lot of searching and surfing for new air-dry clay information and tutorials and in the past week or two I've come across a number of websites writing about air-dry clay but they don't really know what they're talking about.  These sites are passing around bad information.  It's become my new pet-peeve!

Paperclay Dolls by Anna Zueva

Today I'd like to share with you the works of Anna Zueva . Anna is a professional doll artist from Russia. She has been a doll maker since 1990. Her sculpted paperclay art dolls are highly rated in the artistic world by doll art professionals and her customers.  I'm attracted to her unique simplicity in design combined with detailed decoration.

Tips for Working with Creative Paperclay

Creative Paperclay is a unique air hardening modeling material that requires no firing in a kiln or baking in an oven. It is clean, odorless and easy to use. It feels similar to an earthen clay; however, it contains no clay in it at all!

A page full of tips for working with Creative Paperclay from the people that make Paperclay can be found at paperclay.com

        

Make a Decorative Apple Tree

This looks like a fun project.   Create this decorative "Apple Tree" with Creative Paperclay and an apple-shaped gourd.   Click here for instructions written by Barbara at Creative Paperclay.   If you don't have a gourd like the one used by Barbara, there's inexpensive foam apples that look very real and can be purchased in various colors or you can shape your own from Paperclay.

Air Dry Clay Name Tags or Ornaments

Stephanie shows us a no-calorie way to use candy molds. She uses air dry clay (Creative Paperclay) to create name tags or ornaments.

Demo: Paperclay Dolls by Polka Dot Pixie

Air-dry clay tutorial from The Polka Dot Pixie showing how she makes her small dolls/fairies using Styrofoam, Paperclay and a wire armature.  This is an easy tutorial for a basic painted doll figure, with your choice of paperclay painted hair or applied hair!   Head, hands and feet are made of clay but body armature is padded out with foil and wrapped in white floral paper tape.

Sculpting a ball-jointed hand for BJD

Pat Lillich has written a tutorial for sculpting jointed hands for a large doll (BJD). She's using Paperclay and Polystyrene tubes to create the hollow finger units (and add strength).

Part 1.  Fingers
http://www.shadows.4oni.com/blog/?page_id=121

Part 2.  Palm & Stringing
http://www.shadows.4oni.com/blog/?page_id=149

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! ;-)

  

Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD), Step by Step

BJD from BlueFairy dolls

What is a BJD?   A BJD is a ball-jointed doll .....any doll that is articulated with ball and socket joints.  Body elements are held together by thick elastic cords, making them fully articulated and highly poseable.  BJDs are capable of standing on their own, without a stand or other support, and are also capable of very natural looking poses.

WIP by Morezmore (OOAK)

Such a doll is sometimes called an 'articulated puppet'. A favorite pastime among collectors and hobbyists are posing their dolls and photographing them in various positions that imitate real life.

How to Make a Paperclay Snowman

This is a 5-part video demo from MLB Studios showing us how to make this folk art snowman with stick legs that can either stand or hang from tree.   Creative Paperclay is used but many other air-dry clays would work as well.    Using an instant papier mache (such as Celluclay) could give it an even more vintage look and feel!

Part 1... Making the Armature



Part 2... Adding the features



Part 3... Adding details



Part 4... Adding color



Part 5... Finish

Paperclay Christmas Ornaments

Martha Stewart shows us how to make ornaments with Creative Paperclay and cookie molds.   Delight Clay is from same company but is ultra-lightweight, so might be an even better choice for ornaments!

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

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!

What is a BJD?

BJD stands for Ball-Jointed Doll.   It's a doll with ball-and-socket joints in its body, arms and legs.  Sometimes the waist and fingers also have articulating joints.    Making and customizing BJDs has been a popular hobby in Japan for a long time but popularity has now spread all over the globe.  Commercially made dolls are made of resin (and are quite expensive) but it's possible to make your own BJD with air-dry clay.  This is not a project for the beginner or the faint-of heart!   LOL

LaDoll and Creative Paperclay are two popular clays for creating BJDs.    Polymer clay is sometimes used but doll quality air-dry clays seem to be the most popular for one of a kind BJDs.

There are many variations in the way to join each part of a doll, but essentially all limbs and joints are joined together by hooks and loops of elastic that are string as shown in image below.

A well-balanced, well-constructed doll can sit, bend and stand by itself and imitate human movement very accurately.  Arms are attached by elastic running through the armholes and torso.  In each leg, loops of elastic run from a hook inside the ankle up through the knee, through the leg-hole, and up to the head.  All loops being hung on a hook inside the neck.   Another band is attached to hooks strung inside the wrist joint.

Of course, to have this type of joint stringing, the doll must be hollow.   There are several different methods for accomplishing this.   The one thing they all have in common is that dolls are made in sections which are formed over some kind of removable armature.    Many tutorials suggest using Styrofoam, straws and other material as the removable armature when creating hollow parts.

Tutorial Links:

"How to Make Noah's BJD Doll"    A lengthy and detailed, step by step set of instructions previously featured here at NewClayNews.

"How to Sculpt a BJD Doll using Paperclay"    Another excellent and detailed tutorial we've previously featured.

How to Create the Aimi BJD (Google translation)  The traditional Japanese method with very detailed instructions to create the doll shown at top of this post. Original Japanese page

"What is a BJD" is a lengthy, multi-chapter article explaining BJDs, their manufacture, wigging, costoming, stringing, repairing,etc

"How Ball Joints Work"   A series of photos showing the inner workings of all the joints.

Paperclay Project: A Spoon Full of Stars

Isn't this a cute and decorative idea from Julie Haymaker Thompson?   Creative wall art made from Creative Paperclay, a wooden spoon, wire and glitter!   Complete instructions here.    Most crafters will have the necessary supplies on hand but, if you prefer, you can purchase a kit from her blog.

For a short while, you can leave a comment on her blog to enter the giveaway for the finished piece.   

Sculptures by Allen & Patty Eckman

The stunningly detailed sculpture shown above and in the video below may only be made from paper - but they are being snapped up by art fans for equally stunning prices!


Husband and wife team Allen and Patty Eckman create clay molds and then put a specially formulated paper pulp into their molds and pressurize it to remove the water.   Allen explained their technique:  "It should not be confused with papier mache. The two mediums are completely different. I call what we do 'cast paper sculpture'."


The pieces depict traditional scenes from Native American history along with some wildlife vignettes and commissioned subjects.  The artists write:  ..."Some of them we create are lifesize and some we scale down to 1/6 lifesize" ...  sometimes taking up to 11 months to make each piece.  





In 1987 Allen Eckman stumbled onto cast paper as a fine art medium and instantly recognized the beauty and possibilities for creating high detail, strong, acid free, pure, fine art sculpture. It took the Eckmans many years to unlock the secrets to the medium. Discoveries included paper formulation, equipment and tool innovations and their unique paper processing methods.  You cannot get where Patty and Allen Eckman are by pulping cotton linters in your kitchen blender.

However!....if you're interested in trying this exciting new technique, you'll be glad to know you can purchase a booklet from Eckman Fine Art where you can see an overview of exactly how the artists create their work at a master level or buy one of their DIY kits "Patty's Flowers".  

Patty's Flowers are a series of beginning level products for creating beautiful life-size fine art cast paper sculpted flowers taught in the Eckman Method® program. They are the first level introduction to the Eckman Method.  Read more about these products at Eckman Fine Art.  

Also in development is the complete Eckman Method® Program in a dowloadable format.     The process taught through the Eckman Method® includes working with museum quality hand made Eckman paper and bonding agents, using casts from Eckman paper pulp, then altering and transforming them into finished works of art using Eckman techniques such as forms, templates, other casts and freehand sculpting with various hand made paper products and tools manufactured by Eckman Fine Art. 

Spotlight on ADC Artist - Pat Lillich

Pat Lillich describes her work as Figurative Art.   She creates a variety of fantasy figures...some that are part human, part animal.   Many of her figures are created with air-dry clay.   Pat is also known for her OOAK BJD dolls.

See the step-by-step photos for creating the kitten shown in above photo (a WIP)  on her blog:  "In the Shadows"  plus photos of other WIP sculpts.   (Some good armature examples to see!)

In the "other pages" category you'll find a BJD tutorial for creating hands with jointed fingers using Paperclay.    See more photos of her fantasy figures and  BJD dolls in her website gallery.

Create This Delightful Bear

This cute bear was made with Delight air-dry clay following a tutorial from the makers of Creative Paperclay.

Delight clay is one of my favorites.   It is extremely soft and easy to shape or mold.  It holds its form while shaping and then air hardens to create an extraordinarily lightweight (about ½ the weight of Creative Paperclay) finished piece.

Water base paint can be kneaded into Delight to make an infinite range of colors with which to work. Of course, it can be colored with any kind of paint after it's dried. Note:  When you add acrylic craft paint to tint the uncured clay, it will dry to a slightly lighter color.

This teddy bear tutorial is suitable for beginners....modeled with basic shapes, mostly teardrops!

How to Make a Frog

This step-by-step tutorial from UltimatePaperMache.com shows you how to create this realistic frog using the 'paper mache clay' featured in yesterday's post.   Author says: Make this frog out of newspaper, masking tape, pipe cleaners and paper mache clay. ..... if I did it again I’d use stronger wire in place of the pipe cleaners so I could get thinner fingers and toes, but that’s the only part of the process I’d change.

Read more.....
http://ultimatepapermache.com/paper-mache-tutorial/paper-mache-clay