Dollmaking & Sculpting Books
   Includes polymer clay and paperclay

This is a wonderful book for those who wish to make scale characters for the doll's house, and also for those who wish to make larger dolls. Whilst all instructions are for miniatures, the techniques in this book are invaluable for anyone wanting to make dolls of all sizes in the new clays. This book covers everything you need to know, including:

• Setting up a work station
• Using polymer clay and sculpting tools
• Making a mould
• Assessing body and head shapes and proportions
• Making the basic body and features
• Sculpting hands, feet, facial expressions and detail
• Assembly
• Painting and wigging
• Simulating movement

Basic rag dolls and richly-embellished sculpted cloth figures come alive in this colourful and complete dollmaking manual. Construction techniques for every type of fabric doll imaginable—and some you would never imagine—are shown and demonstrated, stitch by stitch, in a book without peer in this field.

Never before combined in one resource, patterns for simple dolls teach beginners the fundamentals of the craft, and more complex instructions offer an abundance of ideas and methods for more sophisticated doll sculptures. Dollmakers, textile artists, quilters, and craft enthusiasts are guided through detailed illustrations of everything from bending wire and cutting cloth to advanced finishing techniques. Examples used include work by top dollmakers.

Beadwork, which has typically been used in fashion, home decoration, and jewellery, is reaching for new horizons and showing up on quilts, journals, knits, crochet, and fibre arts of all kinds. In this book, author Patti Medaris Culea and beading experts Anne Hesse and Laura McCabe illustrate new ways of using various bead techniques to embellish the cloth doll.

Sections include the basics of beadwork, beaded flowers for the doll's hair, bead embroidered faces, starbursts (using crystals to enhance the figure), wings and things (creating wings, crowns, and shoes with beads). Each chapter presents a different type of beading application in detail, with full instructions. Techniques are highlighted with step-by-step photos. A gallery of interpretations of the same pattern by leading artists is included for further inspiration.

Design couture fashions for an 18" cloth doll by constructing garments from various decades of history: 1940s suit; 1960s collaged and layered outfit; formal gown; fantasy fairy ensemble.

Patti Medaris Culea is a talented artist who makes unique art dolls and cloth doll patterns.

The face is the most important feature of a doll—it is also the most challenging. So it is surprising that there is so little instruction available on creating doll faces. This book fills that void.

Author Patti Medaris Culea began her career in art as a portrait painter and she puts that experience to work when creating her doll faces. In this book, she shows readers a simple technique for easily creating faces using her step-by-step approach. She gives her tips for how to divide the face into quadrants, graft features together, and much more. Every aspect of dollmaking is covered—from the basics to detailed techniques for making the various faces to instructions for putting a pattern together.

Readers will learn how to use watercolour pencils, acrylics, and fabric paints, as well as learn techniques for using collage, stamping, and beading, and will find tips for working with stretchy fabrics to create indented eyes, separate eyelids, and sculpted lips.

Though dollmaking is one of the oldest forms of artistic expression, contemporary artists continue to expand the boundaries of this craft by creating exciting new work that incorporates all types of media.

In this book, artists from around the world release their creative forces with glorious abandon as they take three simple dolls patterns and turn them into one-of-a-kind works of art featuring hand-dyed fabrics, beads, stamping, coloured pencils, and much more. Internationally known cloth doll artist and teacher, Patti Medaris Culea brings together a collection of projects ranging from simple and elegant designs by emerging artists to elaborate dolls from premiere doll designers. These artists offer easy to follow instructions, tips and special insights, along with creative variations for each of the projects.

Covering a wide variety of construction methods for dollmaking, this excellent technical resource shows how to develop ideas and then translate them into reality.

In this book, noted dollmaker Doris Rockwell Gottilly shares techniques and knowledge gleaned from 25 years of sculpting experience to help even the novice dollmaker fashion impressive, unique creations. Gottilly provides clear instructions and step-by-step photographs and illustrations to help you create a wide variety of characters including Queen Elizabeth, Baby Doll, Harlequin, Beast/Prince, and even a goat and bunny!

Every step of the dollmaking process is explained and illustrated in full detail. You'll learn how to make hair, bodies, armatures, costumes, and of course, how to sculpt heads and faces, arms and hands, and legs and feet from papier-mache and paperclay. The book also includes patterns for doll bodies and costumes.

Here is a dollmaking course that combines sculpted clay with cloth bodies. It begins with making the armature, then presents each step in sculpting the head and body, curing and finishing the materials, constructing the costume, and even creating the display.

Brilliant doll artist Susanna Oroyan taught us to create figures with depth and imagination; now she focuses on designing their presentation—costume, accessories, furnishings, and embellishments.

Book covers everything from pattern drafting and basics of costuming to settings, photography, and beyond. Learn how to use elements of design to enhance your figure's presentation and reflect your own style. Detailed instructions and illustrations, plus the author's insightful tips accompany each phase of the process.

This book is aimed at teachers, students, and anyone with an interest in art principles, defines traditional fundamental design elements and illustrates their applications in beautiful, modern polymer clay. Straight-forward design concepts such as colour, pattern, shape, dimension, texture, and composition, which apply to all media, are explored. After studying each concept, readers create a project, complete with step-by-step instructions and clear illustrations, which reinforces it. These numerous exercises are geared towards stimulating and improving the reader's design quality and creations.

This is sure to be an art principles resource book readers will use over and over.

What happens when you take three simple cloth doll patterns and send them to five doll artists with instructions to make the "blank canvases" their own? Creative magic? Wonderful projects for you to sew! Each designer brings her own technical knowledge, distinct specialties, and original vision to the task. The result is 15 wholly different variations that you can try to duplicate—or better yet, imprint with your own unique style.

Novice stitchers will find "Don't Call Me a Square" a perfect first project: this brightly clad and bejewelled goddess uses an easy traditional "napkin" fold, supported by a single wire. Its charm lies in the choice of fabric and shiny beads that dazzle and delight. Ethereal colours and patterns, including heavenly batiks, give Pamela Hastings' "Clarity" doll an angelic glow. Arlinka Blair's "Kuba Spirit" features exaggerated animal characteristics and wears bold African textiles. They're all beautiful and rewarding to make!

Be led on a mystical journey, filled with metaphor, magic, and special friends that will reshape and restore your soul through dollmaking.

This book shows how, using a variety of techniques and materials, you can express and embody your creativity and feelings through dolls.

Clear projects and patterns to inspire you.