Personalised Clay Doll Tutorial... And Announcement! // Clay Dolls For Bows. // Hair Bow Tutorial.

Hello, everyone hope you're all doing well. Today, i'm excited to share with you my first ever video making a clay doll. This one here was actually my second ever attempt and bearing in mind i am a complete beginner. I was really happy with how she turned out. Isn'T she cute and to make her? I used nikron clay after struggling on my first to make. I soon realized that the clay quality is a big thing in this craft and this clay was an absolute dream to work with so much so that i actually checked out nikron australia on facebook, and i found that not only do they stock clay, but they also Stock, the molds the eyes, basically everything you need to make your own clay dolls, so i sent them an inbox and i'm excited to announce that i am going to become an affiliate for nikron australia, which means i can share with you all their amazing products and Also, some brand new releases coming soon so watch this space, but to begin my claim making journey, i found these molds on etsy. I bought a three to four centimetre doll, mold from art, mary and these ones here make a six to seven centimeter doll, and these came from susie tagani on etsy, and i got this mould here, which has two different style dresses and a hair mold to fit The six to seven centimeter dolls - i also purchased some eyes. The five millimeter eyes are for the three to four centimeter dolls and six millimeter eyes for the six to seven centimeter dolls. I also got this little pack here with some freebies in so thank you for that got a little pot of glitter and some extra eyes. The clay we're going to be making today is going to be a personalized one, but i'm just doing the word princess using these beads, which i got from aliexpress. I will link everything in the description below and to put this word together. I basically use these jewelry making metal pins, which i also use in my clays and i glued each letter to the rod to help give it extra stability, and i used my gorilla super glue gel. So i just popped each letter onto the rod one at a time, and i also popped the glue in between each of the letters and just put them together. But you could also use a toothpick instead of the metal rod. Just cut it down to the size of your word or your name and use a toothpick instead, so it is important before you start to make sure your surface and your molds are clean. I use these fragrance-free baby wipes and i've wiped all of my surface, and i've also got some coconut oil rub that onto my hands and that will just prevent the clay from sticking to your hands. You can also condition your molds by painting a little bit of the coconut oil into your mold, and that will just help the clay demold easier. So we're going to start off by making our doll's head and to do that. I'M going to take some skin color clay and i'm just using up my clay from my beginner's kit to begin with, so i'm going to take a bit of skin this yellowy color, i'm going to use for the blonde hair. This is the skin color. So i'm just going to take a lump of this for now and i try to take a little bit more than i think i need not less and i just condition it in my hands first. So when you first get the clay, it might feel a little bit stiffer, so you use the warmth from your fingers as you can see. Look when i break it apart. It breaks apart quite easily, so by conditioning it in your hands with the warmth of your hands. It should then make it a little bit softer and then, when you pull it apart, as you can see, it's now sort of pulling apart less easier than it did before. So just keep doing that until it feels nice and soft and pliable. That'S how you want it like that and then once you're happy that your clay is nicely conditioned roll it into a ball and i'm just checking the surface to make sure there's not any bits of fluff or lumps in there and i'm pushing it into my face. Mold pushing it right in using my fingers to begin with, and then i'm going to take my roll and pin i've got this acrylic rolling, pin here making sure that it is lint free, i'm going to roll the back of it, and that just makes sure that The back is nice and flat, and it's well pushed into the mold and then to demold the face. I'M just going to push it inward slightly first, and this just helps to loosen the edges and then pull it as well. To make sure it's not stuck. I'M just going to use my nail to push in any little bits that are overflowing but, as you can see, i did guess just right for the amount of clay in there. I didn't need to take any off there and then i'm just going to push her out onto my silicon mat. So there's my face done as you can see. If there's any imperfections on there, you can just sort of use your finger and gently smooth that off. There'S a little slight one there so i'll, just smooth it off a little bit like that, but other than that. I'M quite happy with that. So now we're ready to add the eyes now this little groove here as you can see, there's a little indentation. That is where the eyes will sit, so i'm just going to grab my tools now. I'Ve got these tools here, which i purchased from aliexpress and i'm going to get out the ones i use most, which are these ones here and then using this rounded end, which is not bigger than the eyes you want it about the same size or smaller. You can then just mark where you want the eyes, don't push it in too far just mark where you want them to give you a guide and then grabbing my six millimeter eyes, because this is a six to seven centimeter size doll. So six millimeter eyes, i'm using a flat, ended tool to pick them up. These are actually not very sticky, so they're not sticking to my tool, but basically i use the flat end of the tool and use this to place my eyes where i'd like them to sit, and then you can just straighten them up before you push them into Your clay so i'll just grab the other eye again using the tip of my tool here to lay my eye down and then i can use the end just to slightly move them. If i need to and then once you're happy that they're nice and even and straight again using a rounded end tool, you can then push the eyes into the clay slightly just by a millimeter or two and that way as the clay dries, it shrinks a little Bit and that just helps to hold those eyes right in there plus that gives them some dimension if you push them into the clay a little bit like that, she's looking cute already and now to give her a smile, i've got this tool here, which i can Use for the smile, but if you haven't got one of these tools, you can actually make your own using a straw, a plastic straw, but i actually used the plastic caps on these paint brushes. They came with a protective cap and what i did was the same method. If you had a straw just take a pair of scissors and to make a half circle, just sort of cut diagonally from the straw or the paintbrush cover. So you're left with this semi-circle and that is just a little bit more of a narrower smile and that works well on either the smaller dolls or these bigger ones, and i just gently push it into the clay to begin with and make sure i've got. The smile in the right place and once i'm happy push it in by a millimeter or two like that, and then i like to give her a couple of little dimples in the smile as well to add a bit of interest so grabbing these tools. Here i've got all sorts of tools for my clay. I will link them in the description below you can use a needle for this, but i'm using this pointy tool and at each end of her smile. I just like to poke that in there a little bit just to give her a little bit of a dimple to a smile and make her look extra cute. Next, i'm taking one of these jewelry pins again and these metal pins are used to attach her head to her body. So i'm going to take one of these, and these are around two and a half inches i'd, say tall. I usually cut these in half because then you can use the other half for another clay next time, so taking some sharp scissors, i've just cut that in half and i'll pop the other half in the bag for the next clay, and then i'm just going to Use that to mark a hole you want it halfway down her face and halfway up the thickness of her face, make the hole and then using some white pva glue. I'Ve popped some in this pot with a brush, so i can apply it easier. I'M going to paint some on there bottom half of that pin and then pop it back into that hole that we just made. So i'm going to push it a little bit further, so it's in her head ready to attach to her body grabbing my paintbrush again. This time we're actually using the brush as a brush and some acrylic paint in black. You want some nice fine tipped brushes for this. I will link these brushes in the description below and i'm going to use the lid, because i've got some paint in there and we're going to paint her on some eyelashes and eyebrows. So i'm going to dip my paint brush into the lid of the paint, wipe any excess off the brush. You don't want it too bulky on the brush and then we're going to paint her a little eyelash in the middle and then two either side. So she's got three eyelashes coming out from her outer corner like that, and then i'm going to just turn her upside down, because obviously i'm right-handed and it's easier for me to turn her upside down to do the other eye again, three little eyelashes and then i'm Going to also do two to the bottom, i think as well yeah, so two little eyelashes on each of the bottom corners as well to make her eyes pop, and then we can do her eyebrows now so again, dip it in and wipe off the excess and Starting from her pupil, i like to line her eyebrows up from the pupil outwards so again from the pupil outwards. A little eyebrow on there now remember. Eyebrows can give you expressions so i like to do mine fairly sort of straight. If you do them higher, it will look like she's sort of surprised. If you do them sort of slanted down towards the middle, she will look angry, so you can make all sorts of expressions of eyebrows, but we're just doing little straight ones for this one, because we want her to be just uh, not expressionless. Just you know a nice rest and happy face, so this is what she looks like now. I'Ll just bring her closer to the camera. She can see her now she's got her eyelashes. Now we can give her some rosy cheeks. So i've got these pastel chalks. I got these from amazon and we're just going to add a little bit of blush and some shading, so i'm going to go in with the pink and i'm just going to do a little bit of shading just across the top of her forehead. You don't always see some of this, but i just think that adds a little bit of depth to her face and then, of course, we'll give her some rosy cheeks as well. I'M just using a cotton bud. You can use a soft brush for this, but cotton buds are easy to use as well and now for her body. I forgot we're not actually adding a whole body, so i need to trim this rod down to about. I don't know a centimeter, or so we may have to trim more when we get to it, but we're just doing like head and shoulders for this one. So i'm going to use the very top of this dress, mold so again grabbing some of my clay from my starter kit. This is a baby pink, it's already quite soft, so i'm not going to condition this too much. Otherwise, it will end up sticky. I'M going to place it into the very top of my dress mold, and i'm going to use my thumb nail to stop it from coming down any further, and i want a nice flat base on there and then just shape it with my fingers. If i need to, and yet i need to trim off a little bit more of that metal rod, so i'll just trim off another millimeter or two and then taking my white glue to attach my neck shoulder part to the rod, i'm just going to gently push That onto there and then i'm going to grab a tool with this uh flat end just to flatten the bottom and then my silicon tool here just to flatten the sides a little bit, because i'm going to add some little pink sleeves as well. So just flatten. The sides a little bit again flatten the bottom, because there's no gone out of shape again and then i'm going to take another couple of tiny little balls of clay around four to five millimeters. And these are going to be for her sleeves, so making sure they're. The same size, i'm just going to make sure i store my clay away in the bag, so it don't dry out and then just rolling these into smooth little round. Even ball shapes using my white glue, i'm going to pop that on either side of her top. If you like, and then we can attach her sleeves so just rolling them into a ball popping them on there rolling it into the glue and the other side. This is why this perspex um plate is handy, because you can lift up to work with your clay model. It'S really handy to have and then once you're happy with those on there. We can then make her arms, and this mold here has the arm shape on there as well, so again, taking my skin color clay again, giving it a little bit of a condition in my hands and then i'm going to pop it into my arm. Mold pushing it right in making sure it's in there fully. I don't need to take any off. I'Ve got just the right amount in there and then i'm going to push in the sides a little bit and then de-mold it onto my smooth silicon surface. So there's one on and then doing the same for the other arm, just pop it into the mold, and i've got a little bit too much this time. So i'm just going to scoop some off there by running my thumb along the back and then i'm going to demold this onto my smooth surface. Now, obviously, i'm going to have to trim this down because i've got the sleeves on there. So taking my metal blade, i'm going to cut off the amount that um i have used for the sleeve, so just uh about three millimeters. I'M trimming off the fattest end, which is actually supposed to be a hand end, and this will compensate for the size of her sleeves because you don't want to have really long arms. So i'm just going to smooth the ends where our hands are, where i've just cut off the three millimeters do the same on the other piece cut off the same amount, make sure they're the same length, so she's got even arms and again i'm just going to Smooth that end, that i've just cut off for her hand, make it nice and smooth and rounded, and then i'm just going to measure this against my princess word that i made earlier to make sure that they fit nicely and that's perfect, but that will fit nicely. So now i'm going to grab a thin half pointed sort of tool and i'm going to make a hole in the sleeves like a little donut shape, and this will just help me to place my glue and pop the arms in there to make them look like They'Re more sort of joined to the top, i'm not going to bother using rods, even though the arms look fragile because they're sticking outwards, because i will be using super glue to super glue on the princess word and that will add extra stability to the arms anyway. So, just using my white glue popping the thin end of the arms into the top, the sleeves like that just check it again against my princess to make sure the arms are going to sit on that beaded word and that looks perfect. The length of that, and now we can do our hair so using these hair molds, which i purchased to use with this doll, i'm going to go for this one here. I think these ones are nice for the curls, but i want quite a short hair, so it doesn't come to below her shoulders. So i've got this sort of pale, yellow color, which resembles a blonde. I'M just going to paint a little bit of coconut oil into my mould, because this clay is quite sticky, even though i've barely played with it. It is quite sticky, so i'm pushing it into my mold and, as you can see, the lines of the hair is going to be the front. So i'm going to use a little bit of my white glue place it onto the lined part of the hair, the textured part, and then i'm going to pick up my doll and lay her in the hair. So the bottom of the hair is in line with her arms and then using this tool, i'm going to fold the rest around her head, so it all fits nicely around her head and, as you can see, it's a nice length it's just in line with her Shoulders, i didn't want it to come too low down because of the style that we're making today and then we can add the curls to the side. But first of all, i'm just going to baby wipe my surface. It is important when working with clay to always keep your surfaces, dust, free and clean, so taking some of the pale lemon for her blonde hair. Again, i'm just going to push the clay into this left side of the mold and push it in and then this will just give her some curls at the side of her head and then i can just trim off any bits that are overlapping. So i'm just going to trim off this part here, so i've got a couple of curls smooth off the edges with my fingers and then i'll measure it against my head. Now that's a little bit short. I want it to come down to her arm. So i'm just going to flatten and stretch out the top, and then i can bring it down to her. Shoulder like that and then once i'm happy with the look, i'm going to apply some white glue and place it. So it sits the shoulder length or arm length, and then we can do the other side. So this time pushing the clay into the right side of the mole again. Don'T worry about any overlap, because we can trim that off once we've demolded it, we can trim off what we need so just smoothing off the outer edge and i'm just going to trim off some of the curl part that i don't need. So i'm just going to start from the top and follow the curl round again, just smoothing it out with my fingers, lengthening the top part as well and then measuring it against my face yeah, i'm happy with that. Just trim off a tiny little bit more from that inner side and smooth it off and then again we can attach this using the white glue. So i'm just going to paint some white glue along the top for now and place it where i want it to sit and then i'll grab some more white glue and gently pull her hair out and attach it to the bottom and then just curl. That round against her face, so it just sits on her arm like that, and now she just needs a fringe, i'm just using this uh edge here just to smooth off any bits and pushing it all in around her face for her fringe. I'M going to do that free hand, so i'm just going to make like a small sort of teardrop shape around sort of two to three millimeters thick. You don't want it too thin and make like a sort of teardrop shape with a pointed end, and then i'm going to use this flat tool to give it some texture like hair and then again just making sure it's a nice shape, checking it against her face. So it's a little bit wide, so i'm just going to trim off some of this inner edge and again make it more like a teardrop shape and then checking the size again and i'm happy with that size. I'M just going to make the end more pointed and making sure it's all even again adding some texture, because i lost a little bit with playing with it and then using my white glue. We can then attach her fringe part, i'm going to do it to the side, so she's got like a side fringe and i'm going to slightly curl up that little pointed end, so she's got like a little flick and then i'm using this tool just to push It all in and add texture at the same time blend it in with her pattern. There smooth off this edge piece, curl up the end, and now i'm going to make a thin little piece of fringe just coming down from her pattern. This will help to cover the pattern and add a little bit more interest and detail, so i'm rolling it, but i'm making the end extra thin. So it comes down sort of pointed like that and then taking my white glue along her pattern, i'm going to lay that over the top to the length that i want it. So she's got like this little piece of stray hair coming down and that just adds a little bit more interest to her hair, i'm just going to tuck the end round and then just underneath that piece. Once i'm happy with it, i'm going to place a little bit more white glue and stick it down to her forehead and curl it round, and i think that just finished her hair off really nicely and there she is so far now she's got a little gap At the side, so i am again going to just fill that in because i do like to check her over at the end and just add in any little more bits that i need to add in so i'm going to roll another piece. This time a little bit thicker than that fringe part around sort of four to five millimeters thick again, you want the end to be thinner. As the hair comes down, it naturally sort of thins out at the bottom, and i'm just going to measure it up against her hair curl up the end, trim off any excess and then again i will white glue this in that little gap and that will just Fit in that little gap between her hair and where her fringe comes out just in there look, we need to fill that in a little bit so put my white glue in there pop in that little curl and there you go that just finishes that off and Fills in that gap perfectly and there she is, and now we're ready to glue on our princess word and i'm using my gorilla super glue gel. So her arms come from the r to the s. So i'm placing my glue along there and i've got it laid on a piece of scrap paper because i didn't want to get super glue on my work surface and that glue sets pretty quick 45 seconds to one minute, so that should be pretty much set. So i'm going to now carefully peel away my paper, so i'm just going to fold it away start folding it under and then i can grab on to that princess word and just pull it away and that's just saved my work top from getting gluey. I might have to add a bow to her hair as well, but i'll do that off this video, because i think it's been long enough, but this just gives you a rough idea of how you can make your own personalized clay doll. I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial today, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and keep an eye out for future clay videos when, hopefully, i will be using my nikron products as soon as they arrive i'll be on here in the meantime, if you could hit That, like button, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and press the bell button to turn on notifications bye for now.