Sculpt 6, Philip, a polymer clay baby boy

Polymer clay OOAK baby boy

 Meet Philip, my little One of a kind polymer clay baby boy. 

 

OOAK baby boy

Polymer clay OOAK sculpt

I made Philip today, out of Sculpey Living baby clay.  His eyes were hand made by me the other day.  They're not perfect but they're OK, I think.  I love the color.

He's wearing an outfit that belongs to my Blue tufted Elf, so I'll have to crochet something for him tomorrow.

His hair is soft blonde mohair.  The first layer was baked right into the clay and the rest was left loose, but I didn't like it so I glued the second layer down as well.

For some reason, I have an easier time doing the left hand and foot, and the left side of doll faces.  Maybe because I'm right handed?  I'll just have to keep practicing.  I don't know how the pros manage to sculpt an entire little doll in two hours...I tried to follow along with a DVD and must have watched it 10 times in total because I kept having to go back, lol.  It took me the entire day and evening to do this doll.

I really enjoy making these babies.  I'm going to have to make more eyes in this size.

Sculpting, Doll 3, First open eyed baby fairy

Ooak art doll, baby fairy, polymer clay

 Meet blue fairy baby, my 3rd sculpt overall, and my first open eyed sculpt.  He looks a little scared in the photo and I can't say I blame him; I'd be scared too if I were thumb sized, lol.

He's not perfect; heck, my Mom even says he's ugly, but I love him.  He's my favorite sculpt so far.  He makes me smile, just looking at him :-).

 I started with a some polymer clay: living baby, and sculpey 3.  I find the sculpey three too soft but love the colors, so I mixed translucent white and red to get pink, and then mixed that with the living baby flesh color (which looks pasty to me).  The little flower fairy I did the other day (earlier blog entry) was straight living baby, and I didn't like the color.  My first baby was straight sculpy three, in translucent white and red (pink) and I absolutely loved the color but hated how soft it was.  Her tiny facial features disappeared during baking.  The living baby (I think that's what it's called) is also by sculpy but it seems to hold the details better.

Anyway, here's the head I ended up with.  Not bad for my first open eyed sculpt. I  even used tinfoil as an armature.  I gave him big waggly ears, but in retrospect, not big enough.  Nest time I want really big, droopy ears.

Sculpting an OOAK fairy baby head in polymer clay

 I didn't have any wee human glass eyes, so I used bear eyes.  Since he's an elf, I guess it works.

Limbs and head, baked and painted with blush and eyeshadow

 I sculpted his wee limbs and put loops in the ends so I could later attach them.  Both arm loops fell out and had to be replaced, but the leg loops held. 

Sleeping baby elf

 His body is once again a finger of a glove; the thumb, this time, as I wanted him to be chubbier.

Thumb sucking OOAK

 I sculpted him so he can suck the thumb on his right hand.  He looks sooo cute in this pose. 

Thumb sized body.

 He's a cute little guy.

I was going to leave him bald at yesterday, but today decided to give him a big mop of hair.  I have some pretty blue yarn, similar to eyelash yarn, but fuzzier.  It looks like wefted hair, so that's how I used it. I crocheted a wig cap out of crochet cotton thread, and sewed the wefted yarn onto the cap.

 

 

Ooak art doll

I love his blue hair, but he looks scared, lol, poor tyke.

Ooak polymer baby elf

Here he is, reclining on his blankie (a baby washcloth), with a pillow of green wool batting.  I put this screensaver up for backgroumd, and it seems to suit him perfectly.  He still looks scared though, so I decided to give him a gift.

Here he is, investigating the box.

He's taking his time opening it.  What a polite baby eff boy ;-0.

Ooak polymer art doll with needle felted bear tody

Oh look!  A teddy was in the box.

He seems to love his new friend. 

We'll leave him to rest now, on his woodsy front yard, just outside his tree stump home.

Goodnight baby; we'll need to think of a great name for you.

Sculpting, doll 2, a fairy

Little Flower Fairy polymer clay, crochet, needle felt

 

I am having so much fun learning how to sculpt in polymer clay.  Meet my second creation, tentatively named Sparkles.

Polymer clay doll head 2

 For this doll, I sculpted a bit bigger than my first, and gave her exaggerated features because I'm learning how to do them.  Noses are very hard for me, lol.  I painted this doll with chalk and eyeshadow.  I love fairies and elves and think I will sculpt as many as possible, lol, hopefully improving with each one.

Polymer clay fairy

She was sculpted without molds, in Sculpey Living Baby clay.
 I did her head first, on an armature made of wire embedded in a tinfoil ball, then covered with tape.
Then I sculpted her hands and feet and placed them on an wire armature that i made myself. Then I sculpted her hands and feet again because I ruined them while putting them on the armature :-).

Armature for polymer clay doll

 I needle felted her a body, around the wire.  That was the easiest part of dollmaking, for me.  The wire armature gave me the most trouble.

Needle felted body for polymer clay doll

 She's very bendy and poseable, but with closed eyes her poses are limited.  I want to learn to do an open eyed doll next.

Needle felted armature for polymer clay doll

Poseable polymer clay doll without clothes

 She looks very comfy, doesn't she?  I am very happy with her, considering she's only my second try.

Crocheted outfit for polymer clay mini doll

 I glued on some mohair for her hair.  It's a bit of a mess. I've trimmed the bangs since these photos were taken and she looks nicer now.

I crocheted this cute outfit using embroidery floss instead of yarn, and gave her flower "wings". I didn't have enough of the light green, or I would have made most of the outfit in green, with only a bit of the orange.   I've ordered some crochet cotton in pretty colors and it should be in next week. I can't wait!

Polymer clay fairy asleep

I do like the vibrant oranges and yellows of the embroidery floss, even though they were my second choice for colors.  This little doll makes me smile.  My aunt loved her.

I am really excited about learning how to sculpt because it's allowing me to combine so many of the crafts I already do (needle felting and crochet, reborning (the painting).  I can even make some plastic canvas furniture for the dolls.

Thanks for taking a peek at my flower fairy.  Should I keep calling her Sparkles, or can you help me with a better name?

Take care!

Sculpting a mini baby out of polymer clay

I am so excited!  I am finally learning how to sculpt babies out of polymer clay!  Here's my first shot;the baby parts are in the oven here.  I did the torso as practice; I'm planning on using the head and limbs with a soft body, probably a crocheted one.

Sculpting a mini baby in polymer clay,  for the first time

I had a lot of fun working doing this little guy, but it was also very frustrating because the clay kept getting so  hot in my hands that it was melting, lol.  A new sculpting friend from facebook gave me some good pointers; to put the clay in the fridge for awhile, or roll it between white paper to leach out the extra oils.  I tried the fridge and it worked so I didn't bother leaching the clay but will do so next time.

mini baby in polymer clay, parts in oven

The other problem I ran into was sculpting in such a tiny size.  My eyesight isn't great, and I wear glasses.  I couldn't see what I was doing on this doll's features until I borrowed my Dad's reading glasses, and then I could only see if I held the clay an inch away from my face, lol.

Tiny polymer clay baby bum, lol

Here's a shot of the little torso, with it's cute little baby bottom, in my hand  The torso is the same size as two joints on my baby finger, so very tiny. The head is even smaller.

Putting polymer clay baby doll parts in oven

Smoothing the head

 Here's the head, next to my finger tip, for scale. It's sitting on a toothpick.  I had to sculpt this head twice because the first time, it fell off the toothpick and splatted on the floor after I had it the way I liked it, lol.  Live and learn :-).

Cute little elf or fairy head

From this angle you can see his features.  I really like his cute little face, and was really surprised that I could get it the way I wanted my first time.  I was thinking I'd like the nose a bit smaller but it grew on me, so I'll probably leave it as is. It's really hard to get nice shots of such a tiny head. 

I ran out today to get an oven thermometer because my toaster oven wasn't getting hot enough when I set it at 275.  After I came home with the thermometer, I found out why; my oven, set at 275, only really heats up to 100 F!  I had to set it at just under 400 to get 275.  The baby is rebaking now.  I put some foil over him so the smaller parts won't burn.  I hope it works; I'd hate to ruin them. The little arms and lets are sooo tiny.

I also bought a hands free magnifying glass while I was out. I can't wait to try it!  Polymer clay was on for half price so I bought more clay as well.  My friend Albert wants me to try to make Smaug the dragon from Lord of the rings. That should be fun!

I can't wait to try to paint this baby.  I sure wish I had my genesis heat set paints and all of my good artist brushes, but they're in storage, along with my good convection oven and oven thermometer.  This is so addictive, and since I can't reborn here, I'm glad I'll still be able to get my baby fix!

Have a great day!