Creative Paperclay® air dry modeling material: byglori

How to create a hollow Creative Paperclay® art doll

June 2017 Tip By Gloriann Irizarry

#artbygloricom

Wow, it is almost summer!

Weather is finally warming up, birds are chirping, and kids are playing outside. In this June tip I will include the way I make my art dolls hollow so that they are lighter and can be attached to the painted canvas to be easier displayed. I love making these girls: they are so much fun to make and they look great inside shadow boxes. Here is the process I came up with to make it a lot easier to remove all the inside armature without destroying the piece. It is easy to do so if you follow my instructions.

And if you DO like this post, feel free to share it with all your friends!

Materials

Creative Paperclay®

Heavy Duty Aluminum foil

Paper Scotch Tape

I like to use heavy duty aluminum foil because it is a lot stronger and thus easier to manipulate to create a strong armature for working on your art doll.

Find a shape that you want to use as the base for your figure and lightly shape and recreate it by manipulating the aluminum foil.

You can use your hands, hammers or the tape to hold the shape in place.

Make sure to move the piece around and that it lays flat - this will help you be able to create a even surface so you can later easier add your sculpture to the canvas.

Turn the piece over and create a string with the scotch tape so you can later attach a pen, pencil, or chopstick (something strong to assist you in pulling the final piece away from the armature).

Grab another sheet of aluminum foil.

Lay it flat over the already sculpted aluminum foil armature.

Press around the armature very lightly.

Work all the corners and edges so they are clean with the flat surface of the table.

Now you can roll a clay sheet to a 1/4 thickness and wrap it around the armature.

Make sure you press the clay all around the armature to make it lay flat, then set it aside to dry. I recommend you let it dry overnight or set it in the oven at very low heat for an hour or two depending on the size and thickness your sculpt.

This is how the back of the piece will look once the clay is laid over your foil armature:

Once the piece is dry, attach the pen or stick of your choice to help you remove the main armature core from your piece.

The image above shows how your figure will look like once the core is removed. Go ahead and carefully pull the aluminum foil away. Now it is normal that you may find a damp soft spot under this foil layer so be very careful when removing it.

This is how the final dry Creative Paperclay® hollow piece should look.

I hope you have enjoyed this article. If you find it helpful, feel free to share it!

Sincerely

Gloriann Irizarry

Social media @artbygloricom #artbygloricom

www.byglori.com

Be Mine Art Doll by Gloriann Irizarry

Materials

Small Glass Bottles

Paverpol Clear

Creative Paperclay Material

Cotton Cheese Cloth

Tshirt Dye Bright Pink

Scissors

Aluminum Foil

Wooden Sticks

Metal Wire

Paper Tape

Dress It Up Hot Pink Buttons

Brushes

Water mist

Clay Roller

Acrylic Paint Tuscan Red

Acrylic Paint Pale Yellow

Acrylic Paint Desert Beige

Martha Stewart Glitters Iridescent Ultra fine

Martha Stewart Glitters Iridescent Heart

Martha Stewart Glitters Red Tinsel

Let start by recycling some old glass bottles. Depending of the size you wan the final doll you get to choose what kind of drink will be the bottle you use.

Roll a think layer of Creative Paperclay to and 1/4 thickness and cover the bottle stuff a little of the clay inside and place the wooden stick inside the bottle and set to dry.

Cut a bunch of aluminum foil 1 inch to 1 1/2 inch strips

Now the wooden dowel will be dry solid wrap some of the aluminum foils around to create

the upper portion of the doll.

For the arms cut one piece a little larger for the arm length and bend it like shown in the picture.

Make sure the wire is extra long . The extra is to secure the big heart and give it support.

String the wire thru the hole and secure it on the wooden dowel.

Add more aluminum foil to fill the chest area.

Form the head with aluminum foil and shape the extra wire to the size

of heart you want the doll to hold.

If you want a bigger dress with out wasting Creative Paperclay® try cutting a larger piece of aluminum foil and fold it in half.

Then wrinkle it like a fabric skirt.

Secure it with the paper tape.

Attach the aluminum foil to the bottle and secure it with more of the paper tape.

Grab and extra piece of aluminum foil and sculpt the heat shape you want the doll to hold.

Place on the aluminum sculpt inside the wire armature.

Secure the sculpted aluminum heart with the paper tape.

I look at the doll and decided to make the skirt bigger. Repeat the skirt process. Cut a piece of aluminum foil and fold it in half. Gather it like a skirt.

Secure the aluminum skirt with paper tape.

Secure it under the first layer with more paper tape.

To sculpt the doll skirt troll a big 1/4 thick Creative Paperclay® sheet.

Carefully place it on the doll.

Cut some extra pieces to help you attach the Creative Paperclay® skirt to the dolls body.

Little by little add the strips of clay to the bottle to secure the 1/4 thick Creative Paperclay® skirt.

Let it dry over night or can be speed up in the convectional oven for 1 hr at 250 degrees

After is dry add another layer of clay to shape the doll waist and cover all the heart with clay. I like to add clay to the hands at this stage and set to the side to dry.

While the clay is drying lets gets the cheese cloth fabric ready to use.

Follow the dye manufacturer instructions and feel free to start dying the

white Cheese Cloth to the desire color.

Make sure you wash off any excess dye of the cloth.

Set the cheese cloth to dry completely before you use it.

Make sure you add more clay to the hands, Heads and waist at this stage cover any imperfection and shape any form you want your final doll to look like.

Add some clay to the heart to make it plump and full.

Add more clay to create the chin and make the hand more fuller.

Lets add some hair to the doll. To make sure is not easy to break lets add some wire armature support to the dolls head.

Create an armature to fit the hair style you will like to make.

Place the armature to the head and secure with glue or just add some Paverpol and set aside to dry.

Once the armature is secure you can add the first layer of clay and set it to dry.

once the first layer of the hair clay is dry you can feel free to add the second layer. In this second layer is where the details are added and you can give the hair the final flow design.

To make some cute easy curls. start by cutting a 1/4 thick rolled clay sheet to the length you want the curl to be and roll it like in the photo above.

Place the curl to the dolls head and add the breast details.

Cover any imperfections with extra Creative Paperclay® and set the figure to dry.

Use the wet Creative Paperclay® stage and curl the dolls hair to the final flow you want the hair to look like. Check the doll for any cracks or imperfections from the drying process and cover it with more Creative Paperclay® then set aside to dry.

Use an air tight container to work your Paverpol. Any dye fabric might leech some color and you don't want that to ruin your entire big Paverpol tub. Work every time from a separate tub.

Pre measure the cheese cloth and cut to size various pieces of the light pink and dark pink.

Layer everything on the table so it is easier to work with.

Add to water to the Pavepol® if you want a more thinner and easier way to soak the cheese cloth.

Soak the fabric inside the Paverpol and removed with you finger any excess to be able to work the fabric on the sculpt a lot easier.

Star playing with the fabric and place the fabric all over the Creative Paperclay sculpt layer by layers.

Little by little. Layer by layer you can add the Paverpol soaked cotton fabric to the sculpt. Gather the fabric and use the Paverpol to adhere to the paperclay sculpt and secure it in place.

At this point alternate the color fabrics to create some depth and make the figure look more interesting. Wrap the neck and hands. More like rolling a mummy.

Let the first layers dry before adding another dress layer.

The second layer you can add some fabric to the dress and decorating trims. To create the wind effect roll some cheese cloth and open it up to create a shall.

Let the fabric dry a little so you can further add more movement and details to the fabric by moving or adjusting it while still a little wet.

Add has many layers of the cheese cloth soaked on the Paverpol to make the dress fuller.

Make sure every layer of the dress is fully soaked in the Paverpol and all the excess removed with the hands or pinched the fabric to the side of the container while pulling it out.

Once all the excess of Paverpol is removed you can open it. Gathered or further sculpt to later be placed on the art doll dress skirt.

If you want to add more details or interesting mix media effect. Use a paint brush and brush the Paverpol directly to the art doll.

Then add some of the Martha Stewart Heart Shape Glitter to the wet Paverpol and set aside to dry.

To the final fabric skirt dress layer you can add some more magic by sprinkling some fine iridescent glitter to the wet Paverpol soaked fabric. Make sure after your sprinkle the glitter use a water bottle mister and spray the glitter to help it attach better to the Paverpol soaked cheese cloth.

Sprinkle has much glitter you want.

Add has much Paverpol soaked fabrics to shape the dress skirt . There is not a calculated science since each doll is unique and is all matter of artistic taste. Some like the dolls fuller others might like them thinner, But once your are satisfy let the doll dry completely over night.

Ok let add some mix media to the doll. You can use buttons charms or any extras to the doll. I choose some easy Dress It Up because the came already pre pack ready to use.

Use the thick Paverpol to glue each button in place and let it dry.