Hand Tutorial - By: Jenna Zadymov
Author: Jenna Zadymov
Materials
- Pro-Sculpt Polymer Clay
- Wooden Tool
- Medium Soft Brush to clean and smooth
- Sharp Carving Knife
- Needle Tool
- Small Stylus
- Oven preheated to 275 degrees
Instructions
 |
- You will need: polymer clay (I prefer ProSculpt because it’s firm enough to create tiny details yet soft enough to make smoothing easy) a wooden tool (try to stay away from metal tools as much as possible as they make your clay dirty), medium soft brush to clean and smooth, a sharp carving knife, a needle tool (you can use a sewing needle if you don’t have the tool) and a small stylus.l
|
|
 |
- Shape a small rectangle and make 4 short cuts (no need to make them long, we’ll do that later)
|
|
 |
- Cut a small triangle from both sides of each finger and make them look like carrots.
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
- Some fingers might be a little too fat, so trim the edges with a carving knife, make them a bit more rounded.
|
|
 |
- Roll and shape each finger with your fingers. Be careful, it’s easy to tear them off!
|
|
 |
- Pull each finger so they are not so fat anymore.
|
|
 |
- BOO! No, we’re not making a Halloween monster, let me finish!:)
|
|
 |
- Cut about half off to about two-thirds of the final length.
|
|
 |
- Roll again with your fingers. See, it kind of begins to look like a human hand!
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
- Your hand should look somewhat like this now.
|
|
 |
- With a wooden tool indicate bones that you want to show. You don’t need to do this if you’re making a child. This makes your hand look fragile and feminine.
|
|
 |
- Now turn your hand palm up. With a wooden tool make a hollow for the thumb.
|
|
 |
- Here is your thumb. Make sure one half is thinner than the other.
|
|
 |
- Position the thumb. The thick half goes on the palm side.
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
- For the index and middle fingers roll tiny balls of clay to form the bones.
|
|
 |
- Smooth with a tool and spend some time smoothing and shaping with a brush. Using a needle tool, mark the nails. Create tiny lines on the palm with a stylus. Use your own palm as a reference.
|
|
 |
|
|
OMG! That is an awesome tutorial! I feel like I can go and make pretty hands too now. Thank you so much! I wish you had more doll tutorials on dollmaking. Thank you!
Super simple instructions! thanks!
great tutorial on hands,
the brush, should it be soft bristle, or medium/hard?
about 1/3 inches wide??
what does the needle tool look like?
thanks
Margaret,
The brush I used is not something you should be using. I got that one from a dollarstore just because I was too lazy to drive to get a good one, it’s a temporary solution
Try to get a natural (like weasel for example) brush. Don’t get synthetic, they are harder to crean from clay and eventually they curl up. The size of your brush dependins on the scale of your sculpt. I use 1/4″ brush for dolls 6-8 inches and a tiiiiiiny spotter brush for 3″ babies. When you’re accenting the bones, use the side side of the brush and when you’re cleaning/smoothing use the flat side, kind of like you would brush your pastry dough with oil
The needle tool is second from the top. Basically it’s a stick with a needle in it. As I said you don’t even need a tool, just use a lager needle. Or you can even make it yourself. Just roll some polymer clay and stick a needle in it hiding the eye inside. All you need is the pointed end, so leave 3/4″ out and bake. It makes a little easier to work if you have a tool.
You can make this tool another way, I call it “lazy tool” If you don’t want to sculpt your nails, make a nail bed with the other end of a needle, the eye (again, you can make a tool the same way) It does save a lot of time, but I gave up this way because it look less realistic. Hoever, you can do this, bake your sculpt and then fill the nail beds with some translucent clay and then bake again. This creates a natural nail look. EXPERIMENT!
Best luck!
Wow, so easy to follow! Thanks!
Are you going post more doll tutorials in the future? They are hard to find and those I came across on the internet are not so detailed and are hard to understand.
Thank you so much. So simple and so fantastic.
I want more!
Simply WOW! Thank you!
I have a question. I’m a beginner and don’t have many tools, including carving knife, can I use a small kitchen knife instead?
Mary,
A sharp kitchen knife would work OK, but it’s sooooo much easier to use a proper tool. Carving knives aren’t expensive, you can get a nice one for only $2-3 or even less. It’s easier to handle and if you’re working small, thickness of the blade makes a difference. My favorite size is 3″ dolls, so you can imagine how tiny the hands should be so there is really not much room for a kitchen knife when it comes to fingers
But if you can’t get one now and really want to get started, go ahead, just be patient!
I want to make tiny realistic dolls, i have a 1/12th scale collection and i want to make my own stuff, not really dolls, but doll’s dolls and little fairies to decorate ( like fairies in the attic, only smaller). When i make the tiny fingers they tend to break off when i’m tring to shape them, i even tried to let drops of super glue run down them to stregnthen them. Also i can’t get a clean coat of acrilic paint on the baked form, it always seems uneven and globy and tends to pool in the reseses i carve or shape for detail, and what is a good way to sand the tinys with out breaking them? When i saw your tutoral on hands i got really excited, hands were so hard and yours looked perfect! are there any sites or books that teach the fine scale clay art like your hands tutoral?
Hi Martina,
Are you talking about raw clay fingers braking off? I deal with this problem too. I found they don’t brake as much if your clay is warm. Work it in your hands so it becomes gummy, but not too gummy because it would be really hard to work with in such tiny scale. Or you can even hold the fingers only with your two fingers so that they get warmer. Then even if a finger brakes off it’s easier to attach it back.
For baked fingers braking off… there is no real solution for that yet, just have to be careful. But if a fingers brakes, don’t glue it back, sculpt a new one right on the hand and bake again.
I don’t use acrylics, so I can’t help on that one. I use genesis heat set oils. They are wonderful, they bake right into clay and create an even, natural look. And they don’t set until you want them to.
I can’t suggest any books either. I am a self taught and never used any books. But I did a lot of research on the internet and found lot’s of info. Try google. Patricia Rose (doll artist) has a few DVDs on sculpting dolls and they seem to be helpful.
About sanding. You don’t want to sand hands or faces on your dolls! Try to smooth and clean them as much as you can before baking. You can wipe raw clay with some alcohol to make it smooth, just be careful because it can eat your features.
I did another tutorial for this website on how to fire a standing doll for a doll house. You may want to check it out if you’re a 1/12 scale person
Thanks for the brilliant tutorial I keep having problems attaching feet and hands to my torso as the wire keeps popping through the end of the foot or palm is there a solution or do I just cut it of when baked or not make the wire go all the way down into the foot or hand.
thanks again Martina do you have a website.
Very, very helpful.
This one is a GEM!
Many thanks for a very helpful lesson and some humor to boot!!
To Martina Lacy
It is hard to find info. I also am a mini collector and wanted some elves for my Santa’s workshop. Here are a few thoughts based on my attempts to date. Book: try Fairies, Gnomes & Trolls by Maureen Carlson. I found it very helpful - gives good overview of the doll-making process as well as some different styles. Maybe not as realistic as you’d like but it’s a place to start. The brand of clay makes a huge differentce. Firmer ones are better/easier to sculpt - Fimo Classic or Premo. Orange stick from manicure set is a decent beginning tool. Also rubber tip dental tool.Altho it has been over a year since your post, maybe this will help. V.