Has anyone here made/sculpted dolls?

[NsMLPonies]

Hi!

I am thinking of starting my own collection of handmade/sculpted dolls, and would love to see what others have come up with, and what tips anyone has to offer on making dolls. Like, what air dry clay would work out well for doll sculpting? I've been using model air, but am not sure on how well it would work for sculpting dolls.

Thanks in advance everyone!

[alaskaallie]

Not sure what kind of dolls you're interested in, but super sculpey is absolutely your best bet. Check out sugarcharmshop on youtube, she has a lot of amazing tutorials (there are many others who are more specific to dolls I'm sure) and there are definitely forums and whatnot about dollmaking. I've never made a doll per say but sculpey is just the most versatile and easy to use medium as far as I'm concerened, I don't think I'll ever use anything else.

[NsMLPonies]

Not sure what kind of dolls you're interested in, but super sculpey is absolutely your best bet. Check out sugarcharmshop on youtube, she has a lot of amazing tutorials (there are many others who are more specific to dolls I'm sure) and there are definitely forums and whatnot about dollmaking. I've never made a doll per say but sculpey is just the most versatile and easy to use medium as far as I'm concerened, I don't think I'll ever use anything else.

I've seen some of Sugarcharmshops' dolls. They're beautiful. I don't use oven bake clay though, that's why I was asking what air dry clay would work best.

[Taxel]

I've been making OOAK dolls for like five years now. I strictly work with polymer clay, although I don't use Super Sculpey like alaskaallie does. I've used a couple brands before - Sculpey III, which is total garbage; Primo & Fimo, which are both okay; and Sculpey Souffle, which is my personal holy grail clay.

I highly recommend giving it a shot if you can. You should check out The Blue Bottle Tree if you have any interest at all in polymer clay. I feel like I'm always repeating this, but Ginger's advice is amazing. I've been sculpting for like 10 years total and her tips have improved my game so much. Her articles on baking are amazingly helpful and I cannot recommend her method enough. Since I switched to her's my work is so much stronger. How you bake will quite literally make or break your dolls, or whatever you're making.

Though I will add that you shouldn't just go buy a bunch of random polymer clay or just pick a brand based on other peoples' preferences. For example I prefer Souffle because I have damaged wrists and its incredibly soft, but you might prefer a harder clay or one with a different finish. There are many brands and types of polymer clay that all have their own pros and cons. Of course, Ginger has an excellent article that covers tons of different ones.


If oven bake clay is completely out of the picture, maybe you could try and research what BJD makers use to hand sculpt their dolls before casting? Most of the artists I've seen seem to use air dry clay.

[alaskaallie]

I've been making OOAK dolls for like five years now. I strictly work with polymer clay, although I don't use Super Sculpey like alaskaallie does. I've used a couple brands before - Sculpey III, which is total garbage; Primo & Fimo, which are both okay; and Sculpey Souffle, which is my personal holy grail clay.

I highly recommend giving it a shot if you can. You should check out The Blue Bottle Tree if you have any interest at all in polymer clay. I feel like I'm always repeating this, but Ginger's advice is amazing. I've been sculpting for like 10 years total and her tips have improved my game so much. Her articles on baking are amazingly helpful and I cannot recommend her method enough. Since I switched to her's my work is so much stronger. How you bake will quite literally make or break your dolls, or whatever you're making.

Though I will add that you shouldn't just go buy a bunch of random polymer clay or just pick a brand based on other peoples' preferences. For example I prefer Souffle because I have damaged wrists and its incredibly soft, but you might prefer a harder clay or one with a different finish. There are many brands and types of polymer clay that all have their own pros and cons. Of course, Ginger has an excellent article that covers tons of different ones.


If oven bake clay is completely out of the picture, maybe you could try and research what BJD makers use to hand sculpt their dolls before casting? Most of the artists I've seen seem to use air dry clay.

Sculpey III is suuuuuuch garbage which I don't understand since most of their other products are top notch! Seconding everything here, it's really worth it to give polymer clay a try. I will be curious to see what others have to say about which is the best air dry clay though! I haven't had great experiences with the ones I've tried but people always seem to make amazing stuff 

[NoDivision]

If you want a high quality air dry product that doesn't shrink when it dries you're going to want to work with an 2-part epoxy clay of some kind. My personal choice is Apoxie Sculpt made by Aves. https://www.avesstudio.com/shop/apoxie-sculpt/ It holds detail very well, is a very smooth texture, and dries rock hard. It's frequently used in the BJD community for repairs and modifications. Aves also makes a couple other 2-part products like Apoxie Clay and Fixit Sculpt - both of which are supposed to be good also, but I have never personally used them so I can't speak to their performance.