Putting a clay face on art doll?

Home & Garden Discussion and Questions
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#1

I have been wanting to make an art doll, and I do follow a youtuber who gives a lot of tips and tricks. But she uses mostly a whole head for her creatures. And I want to make a plush with a clay face.

My biggest concern is how to attatch the clay face to the head. I dont want to use just glue. Although as it is supposed to be an art doll and not a plushie, it shouldnt matter, as its not for play. But I want to know that it is secure and not just with a glue gun.

Do any of you have any tips on how to attatch the face?

This bear have its faced sew on, which it an option. But what if I want to hide the stitches?

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This little one though. How is that face attatched?

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As I have come to understand, when the artist makes the faces they mostly use a ball of aluminum foil as a base, sculpt the face and bake it in the oven (when using polymer clay).
I guess I can do it that way, and when the face is baked on time, attatch some wires or such on the back and bake again. That way I could secure the face even more, through the fabric.

#2

Last time I attached clays somethings to a plushie I made holes and sewed it on. It pretty much disappeared in all the floof. However, that was teeth and not a full face. I really need to find pictures of that monstrosity…

Edit: Ohhh… Apparently I did save a picture.

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Not a fantastic picture, and you can see the black thread holding the teeth. I guess I could have picked a better colour :laughing: I went for strong thread instead of looks. (”Björntråd” if I remember correctly)

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#3

I understand your choice of thread! Thanks for sharing your creature and how you did! :smiley:

#4

Some things you could try (I haven’t and can’t claim they work):

When making the face, build loops on the back, either from clay or embedded wire. Then sew it on (before stuffing) like a shank button. Wire loops would probably be stronger than clay.

Make the eyes just holes, and make beads a little bigger than the holes. After baking (and before stuffing), anchor thread inside fabric, bring to front, out one eye, through a bead, back through the same eye and achor. Repeat for the other eye. oooh, do something similar with the tongue and let it waggle!

Embed the faux fur in the back of the clay face when making the face, so the clay grabs the fur. After baking, cut and stitch as a regular piece of the pattern. Some fur might discolor or get weird in the oven.

Embed one side of velcro on the back of the face, and stitch velcro on the fur. You could make interchangeable faces! Similarly, you could try magnets or snaps

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#5

Ooh, that some nice ideas you have there! I like the one with the eyes, and yeah, tongue/teeth.

Thank you so much! :smiley:

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#6

Most of those cute little front-face critters are done by creating a ridge and moat of clay at the back of the face, and then sewing the fur with a running stitch and drawing it over that ridge, behind the actual face edge, and pulling it tight into the moat. The fur can then be secured with some glue if you wish, but likely won’t need it.

Please enjoy my terrible attempt at drawing this method:

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#7

Yeah! Thats how I have thought too! But I wasnt sure, as I havent been able to find someone with a video/photo showing. Thank you so much!

Now I need to sit down and start design my creature :smiley:

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#8

From memory I had a couple baby dolls like that as a kid, but I didn’t get the fancy bisque ones, they were just plastic. Which was probably a good idea because the heads came off more than once and we had to retie them on.

ETA link https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1107847728/vintage-vinyl-doll-head-zapf-baby-doll