Dollmaking Series | Armatures and Needle Felting in Storytelling Adventures
The year 2020 will infamously go in history as the very year that changed our lives, all of our lives, the world over. Yet, it was also a year of many adventures for my family. Needle felting and storytelling were some of those adventures.
As some of you know, my husband is a gifted storyteller and he is currently writing an epic tale. I fell in love with one of his characters and decided to bring him to life in wool and fabric, as is the medium of choice for my hands.
Knowing that many an eye would love to see the process take place, I turned this wool adventure into a magnum opus: a year-long series via my Patreon channel, with a monthly video tutorial documenting the process. This was as exciting for me as for my subscribers, who little by little got to see the evolution and manifestation of this fantasy creature.
I hope I can soon tell you more about him, but for now you can take a sneak peek into the content of such wondrous wool embodiment, by watching this little video on my YouTube channel: The Making of Fiber Art Dolls, Needle Felting and Wire Armatures
Dollmaking: Needle felting and armatures, the Making of an Art Doll, armature series via Fig and Me.
Naturally, I was able to think a lot about each step of the process, what would be coming next and how to best accomplish the task at hand. There was no real pressure to build the doll, and really no end in sight.
He will live with me forever, so I could take as long as I wanted in his creation, and the best part was to share that with those other friendly and eager needle felting hands of my Patreon members.
Even though my subscribers were not interested in building a replica of my creature, the process was very enlightening for them, from how I designed it, to how I constructed it and they were able to apply the same thinking and skills to their very own dolls.
I have seen so many of those techniques I shared with them now being used in the construction of many fiber art dolls and it brings me a lot of pleasure to know I paved the path forward.
My exploratory adventures and the storytelling of my husband, which was the seed for this series, have now reimbursed the world of the inspiration we’ve taken. Win-win in my book!
Now, why did I choose to go about using a wire armature, which is something I normally never use?
Well for one, this creature is very large and I didn’t have a real idea of how I was going to build him.
It seemed appropriate to use wire, as it is a raw material that could be used in a myriad of ways, in different gauges, to create the creature the way I needed him to be: poseable, free standing, articulated, with movement everywhere.
I used wool because it’s what’s most available to me as a fiber material. I could have used clay or foam or any other material known to men, but I wanted to keep the exploration within the natural fiber boundaries. Not just for my sanity, but to have some relevance to my subscribers as well, who are avid wool consumers.
There are several kinds of wire used for doll armatures, I recently discussed some via this video chat for the January 2022 dollmaking series. But let me repeat myself:
For medium size dolls, I recommend 12 gauge wire. This is the size I used on this creature.
For smaller dolls, you can try cotton covered wire, 1mm thick.
There are also things like chenille pipe cleaners or cotton covered wire of different gauges.
For a list of reputable online doll making international suppliers, please refer to the PDF offered to the Patreon subscribers or check this post here on the blog.
Wire is just very malleable and easily available. Obviously, you don’t want to use it in dolls that are going to be highly played with, as the wire will degrade with constant manipulation and potentially break inside the doll, which will remove the capability of sustained posing and movement.
But for the task at hand, building this handsome fellow, it was the perfect choice. I am so in love with him!
If you want to check out my latest vlog with some fresh tips about how I am building dolls in wool with armatures, check it out over here.
Making Art Dolls: needle felting over armatures and covering in skin fabric, dollmaking series via Patreon at Fig and Me.
Now if you are more attuned to creating smaller figurines or display art pieces, you can look to the following tutorials and classes.
I bet you will soon start feeling the itch to tackle some wire, wool and felting needles.
These dolls are not covered in skin like mine, so they are different in nature, feeling, sturdiness and play value, but that might be just what you want!
This Living Felt dollmaking series walks you through the entire process to needle felt an art doll. Very detailed videos from an amazing fiber artist.
My dear friend Phoebe Capelle, maker of Lavender & Lark, teaches amazing needle felting classes, you can find them all here.
And if you would like to hear my opinions on needle felting, this video of mine gives you the Top 5 Tips to Needle Felt Doll Faces, you can also find the corresponding blog post with some clever graphics to guide you.
So there is more than enough to get you started. Unfortunately I no longer have my Doll Armature series available on Patreon but I am planning on re-editing the content with some new improvements I have made to this art creature and put it up as an on-demand masterclass in my Dollmaking Academy website.
If you are interested to be notified when that class is available to you, please let me know and write me an email. I shall keep you on a waiting list of potential students.
Thank you for coming to check him out!
