WIP Sculpting tutorial showing both scratch building anime style fairy figure and elf girl using polymer clay press mold

 

Are using doll making polymer clay press molds simply "cheating" or just another helpful tool artists can use to finish their masterpieces? 

I was recently looking to buy more prosculpt polymer clay and I saw a banner at the top of the site that if I was a member of the “Professional Doll Makers Art Guild” I would save 10% on my purchase. So, I was like ok sure why not, what do I have to do to join? But I came across this in the FAQ: “As a rule, we do not allow artists who make their dolls from MOLDS or PATTERNS that other artist other than themselves created”  

I feel a blanket statement like that is so closed minded, but I understand where it is coming from. When I was younger and wanted to learn to sculpt, I felt that the ultimate achievement is obviously to sculpt my own figure from start to finish. I was able to achieve that some years ago. I actually started out using blank dolls and polymer clay press molds. The absolute best polymer clay press molds out there are by doll artist Patricia Rose. You can still find some of her press molds directly for sale on her eBay store.   

The problem I have now is not knowing what to do or having the skill but rather finding the time to actually sculpt something from scratch. Watching other artist create things using molds or otherwise making a great masterpiece but using some already made materials, I was thinking maybe I was being too elitist and hard on myself. For myself, there is more than just the form of the doll to my works. I hand paint the finished pieces, and the hair and clothes are hand sculpted. Is it so bad to start with a press mold to save some time and being able to move faster to the other stages of the figure? I just wasn't sure. To me honest, it would take me many months to do a complete scratch built OOAK figure doll between trying to juggle full time work and family responsibilities. 

Since I would like to sell my artist work, putting out 1-2 sculptures a year and pricing them not truly accurate to working time is not a great business model to strive for. I guess if I sell 1-2 sculptures but I price them at a few thousand each, that's not so bad. But I think it is more likely for people to buy my sculptures if they are much lower in price and still look great. I don't have real life sculpting friends or even acquaintances to bounce this off of them, but I know from before I already did think of anything other than complete scratch builds as cheating. 

So I asked my non-artistically-inclined circle basically if they really cared how a finished piece came into being. Did it make a difference if a mold was used? Did they want something only OOAK build from scratch? Would they pay more for something completely scratch build or would they ultimately buy a sculpture that started out from a mold because it was cheaper priced? 

They all told me, if all things looked the same, and they liked the piece, they will go with the cheaper priced item. Also they told me that I was being too technical. even using a mold, the item is still handmade 

Going back to the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild, I didn't attempt membership. While I do have completely hand sculpted pieces I could enter, I feel it makes it confusing if I am also making figures from other artist molds as well. I'll pay 10% more for my prosculpt. 

With that long introduction out of the way, I am making for Christmas gifts for my dear friend, one ornament made using a Patricia Rose cookie press mold. and the other I will be scratch building it without the use of molds. This is what the press molds look like. This one is small and is that of a child, though I will be making an elf. For polymer Clay I am using Sculpey living doll. I have a few bars of this left that I want to use before going back to prosculpt. 

I dont remember what gauge wire I used, but its not too thick. I measured out the wire longer and then cut it into place. 

Here I measure the armature to make sure it will be into the press mold correctly before adding the clay. Sometimes I still mess up this part and wire will be poking thru. 

I press the clay into the mold halfs. I find that its better to over fill and then trim excess clay off later, then to underfill and risk the two halfs not meeting to form the complete figure. 

Once enough clay is added to the mold, I use a rounded tool to press the clay into place further. you want to do this to be able to get a great impression.

Now the wire armature is added back on top of one half of the mold. 

Now the two halves are pressed together. you want to press against a flat hard surface, but I wouldn't get a good angle for the picture so i'm showing it this way. 

So this is the result. now the doll can be posed. 

The first thing to do is to trim the excess clay around the doll. So I know that I will be sculpting clothes on this doll so I am not too concerned if the body form gets messed up in anyway. But if you want to keep the form of the doll from the press mold as intact as possible, you must not handle the clay as much. The heat from your hands will disform the clay shape.

Now I smooth the seamline lines 

Now I try to pose the sculpture how I want it to be. 

Once I had the pose, I baked the polymer clay for maybe 10 minutes at 225. This will freeze the clay into place but still make it carveable. 

Next thing I do is finalize the face. The face from the press mold is nice but I wanted to do my own face. I basically smooth the face and then add clay back in for the nose, etc. Not my greatest face ever but I think it looks ok. 

I am now going to switch gears and show how I start off with a scratch built sculpture. I make a wire armature the same way. 

Instead of pressing clay into a mold, I just add it directly onto the wire armature. I also started with the pose already in place instead of a more neutral position. 

My friend had wanted a fairy, so I am adding the wire for the wings at this stage. 

Here is where I stopped to baked both sculptures before moving one. I am working on them side by side but sometimes the pictures may show one sculpture further progressed than the other. 

I did the face for the scratch built fairy before moving one to the clothes.

I did some sanding here. 

I started working on the dress of the elf girl. I added more polymer clay on top and if I got to a good point I would bake what I have so it doesn't get mess up 

I do the hair by adding individual pieces to the head. 

I do some sanding again before moving on. 

I add the trim of the dress. 

I added the hair and did a final baking. I did about an hour at 250-275F. 

As the last step, I used some fixit sculpt to finish some areas. At this point, I was not going to rebake the figure, so I used an airdry clay

back to my scratch built fairy. I continue to bulk for the shape. 

Here another WIP shot of the two figures together in various stages. 

I started working on these mid november and I did not want to work on them the whole christmas season afterall, so I sped things up now for the fairy. what I did differently was not stopping to sand and bake between stages of the sculpture. It looks alright but for sure It could have looks much better if I did not try to rush it. Basically I did individual clay strand for the hair and clothes. 

I used flat sheets of clay to make the wings and baked this now. 

here is the final sculpture before painting. I also used fixit sculpt to add the finishing touches. Well the hands yes are kinda bad. The elf girl ended up with thumbless mittens. Here I tried to do the fingers but they did not come as good. I actually already broke off the foot at one point. So I did not want to apply too much pressure sanding. So it is want it is. 

So what do you think? Did one sculpture come better than the other? painting will be posted next.