Tutorial - How to Apply Hair to Fairies

A quick picture tutorial to show you how I attach mohair to my sculptures. I use a very tacky/quick drying glue to hold each lock together, then apply each piece to the head with fabri-tac glue.

Blue Pixie - Sculpted

This sculpt is finished and ready for painting. I meant to stop part way through to take pictures but as I'm sculpting I lose track of the world around me...even when my camera is sitting right beside me!
This pixie didn't turn out the way I had imagined. I think my brain is so used to sculpting in a certain style that when I try to make something different it still looks like my 'normal' fairies.
Maybe I should do some sketches to follow - keep me on track while I sculpt. I'll try again.

Blue Pixie - Work in Progress

I am trying a free standing sculpture that is larger than my normal 2"-3" fairy. The plan is to have really large feet (to help with balancing), odd proportions and blue skin.

The 2 pictures above show the wire armature wrapped in floral tape to help hold the clay to the wire. Head, body and feet cores are baked onto the armature and is now ready for sculpting!

Pixies, Fairies, and Hybrids - sculpting evolution

I just noticed something happening...

I normally sculpt 2" high pixies that have 3 fingers, 3 toes, stubby arms and legs, sometimes colorful skin tones or 4" fairies that have 5 fingers, 5 toes, more realistic proportions, and natural skin tones.

I noticed that I have started to make some sculptures that are 3", with 4 fingers, 3 toes and I'm having a hard time placing them in a category. Pixie? No, it's larger and has more fingers. Fairy? Not really, it does not have 5 fingers, 5 toes, and it's proportions are different.

So I think it's a pixie-fairy hybrid...but that's a silly category name. Anyone have any suggestions of a category name for these in between types?

May 28, 2009
I have decided to name all my fairies and pixies - 'fairies'. Whether they are 2", 3", or 4" high, or the number of fingers & toes they will all be in one category.

Sculpture Numbering Changes

I have 4" fairies and 2" high pixies that I have been numbering in 2 separate series, but now I am going to include the pixies in the fairy series, so all my sculpts will be numbered as I make them. Two numbering systems was making signing the sculpts a bit odd.
So now my 25th pixie sculpt that was made just after my 400th fairy sculpt is now sculpture #401.

Polymer clay doll sculpting tips & tools

Quick doll sculpting tips

-follow baking instructions on the package

-use separate ovens for clay and food

-use 1 or 2 additional thermometers inside the oven to find the true temperature

-bake sculptures fully each time, even when series baking

-let cool completely before touching the sculpt

-moonies are little crescent shaped marks or cracks that may be caused by handling a sculpt while still warm, pockets of air/moisture trapped in the clay, baking at too high a temperature

-I use an outline drawing of the doll to create the size of armature needed

-I like using a wire armature with clay baked onto places where bones would be, leaving the joints free of clay. This makes it easy to pose the doll after it is sculpted. Although sometimes a sculpt may need a super sturdy wire/rod and the armature will be posed before sculpting.

-I like using puppen fimo clay for its strength and flexibility, although it tends to get more moonies

-I also like a prosculpt mix (with super sculpey or cernit) for its creamy texture and few moonies, although it is more brittle than puppen

-some great tools are knitting needles, tapestry needle, pin, knife, 2-pointed compass thingy, wooden tools, and soft paint brushes for smoothing

-wash your hands before sculpting

-have a ball of scrap clay ready to clean your fingers and work surface while you sculpt, helps lessen the dust & lint

-studying reference pictures is very helpful -I like using genesis heat set paints to blush my dolls after they are baked -I paint the eyes with genesis or acrylic paints -sometimes I use glass beads for eyes/sometimes I sculpt the eyeball

Face sculpting picture tutorial

Here is a picture tutorial to see the steps I take in sculpting a child face. The overall fairy height will be about 3.5" and the head is about 1" high.

There is a pre-baked ball of clay inside the head attached to the armature, but not shown in the picture.

Studio pictures

My studio space is set up in my living room. It started out with just 1 table and chair. Eventually it expanded table space and shelving in 2007...


March, 2009 - expanded my studio space even more! Now I have tons of storage and table space. Finally glitter, clay, and paint all have separate areas!