Baby house elf in polymer clay

I haven't sculpted for awhile so I thought I'd try my hand at something tiny and whimsical.  This baby house elf is about the size of a strawberry.

polymer clay house elf

 He's not as realistic as my other polymer clay sculpts; I wanted him to be more cartoony.

 He has a wire armature connecting his head and torso, arms, and legs, and wow, was it a pain to sculpt over wire. 

 Here he is with my strawberry plants, in the bottom pot.  As you can see, he's about the size of the ripe red strawberry on top.

Sculpt 7, Pouty girl in polymer clay

OOAK baby girl in polymer clay

 This is my latest attempt at sculpting, and my biggest baby doll yet (I still have to measure her).

OOAK baby girl, sculpey living baby

 I wanted to make a pouty faced toddler and this is what I came up with.  I made her eyes by hand, and they're a pretty green, but I ended up covering most of the whites as I sculpted.

OOAK pouty baby

 I made a scull for her first, out of tinfoil and polymer clay; baked it, added the eyes, baked it again so the eyes wouldn't move while I sculpted.  I think I'll do it again this way as it's the only way I can make sure the pupils are facing the same way, lol. 

 I ran out of the normal wire that I use to put loops in the limbs so they can be sewn to the body and the wire I used broke as soon as I pulled the sewing thread tight.  I had to saw off the end of all of the limbs and redo them.  I had to open another bar of clay, and even though I used the exact same brand and color, the  new clay was several shades darker so this poor baby has limbs that are darker on all of the ends. 

OOAK baby girl

I tried adding a layer of clay to her head so I could root it and it was a huge disaster.  Not only did the hair look awful, the extra clay distorted her poor head, so I had to use a big wig to cover it up.

 Thankfully, the wig does a great job of returning her head to normal proportions, especially after I trimmed it.  The wig suits her, too.  In my mind, she's about 2 years old.

 Her feet are so cute; these have to be the best feet I've made yet.  I love her little round toes, lol.

Peek a boo!

 Here she is showing off her discolored upper thighs while playing peek a boo, although her diaper (pull ups, lol!) and panties cover most of the worst of it.

 I really am going to have to learn how to sew as I'd like to be able to make some nice doll bodies, and clothes, too.  I love crocheting but it would be nice to be able to make some cute little onesies for the dolls.

All in all, I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.  Now she  just needs a name.

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 baby dolls, 4, First human: It's a girl!

OOAK baby girl

This is my first baby human, and I'm so pleased with her .

Tiny Ooak baby girl

She's another tiny girl, and I really struggled with her facial features as I had to use a 5 times magnifying glass just to see what I was doing.  I should have bought more clay when it was on sale for half off, as I'm running out, and thus have to sculpt small, lol.

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It took me more than 12 hours to sculpt her head.  I rushed on her arms and legs because I was so tired, and just wanted to get them done, but they still came out OK.  Not perfect by any means, but my camera still selects infant setting for her, lol.

Tomorrow I'll add more, but for now, I just wanted to get some photos of her new outfit, which I finished this evening.  Isn't it adorable?  She chose the colors herself ;-).

Good night!

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.