FAQs

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Hey did you know it's really rude to go up to someone and say
"Hey I love what you're doing! I don't want to pay for it though. Tell me how to do it so I can try myself."
If I had a shop you wouldn't come into it and ask for all my secrets, would you? The same applies here. Don't get butthurt when I give you a grumpy rebuke - this is my living!

1. How do you attach the fimo to the fur?
I glue it on with hot glue or bostik multi-purpose. Some artists like to make holes in the sculpt and sew it on.

2. How do you dye fake fur?
You CAN'T! It's impoooosiblleeeee. I tried masses of "confirmed" techniques, involving messy and sometimes stinky dyes, and none of them really worked. The best way I have found is to use dylon fabric paints and just brush them with a nail brush. Here's a video tutorial that is along the same lines, although I wouldn't use acrylic paint personally: youtu.be/RPA8Y6GcD6E My favourite method is to buy fabric in the right colour though.
Wood-Splitter-Lee uses fabric spray paints she got in Michaels, but Michaels doesn't exist in Scotland and neither do fabric spray paints so I don't use them. :}
You could also watch this acrylic dyeing video by Beetlecat [link]
Or use copics, there is also a copic airbrush (the pen just slots in) which I hear teddy bear artists use to colour their bears.
SnowFox102 has mentioned that Jacquard make a good line of textile paint which is also suitable for brushing into synthetic fur, essentially the same as the dylon fabric paints. it doesn't change the texture of the fur. 
Also you can colour in white fur with sharpies but I find this more expensive than buying a pot of fabric paint.

3. Where do you buy your fake fur?
www.mohairbearmakingsupplies.c…, www.christiebears.co.uk, www.ebay.co.uk. Search for 'teddy bear supplies'. I buy it in fat eighths because for dolls the size I make you don't need much more than a fat eighth. Keep an eye out in charity shops and in sales or bargain bins for furry clothes, I once got a huge afghan coat from Primark for £2.50 which I'm still using to make dolls with and has really high quality fur that would have cost me a LOT if bought by the meter.

4. What gauge wire do you use?
I dunno it's gardening wire, about 2mm thick, galvanised steel I think. don't use aluminium, copper or zinc wire. This is all to do with softness of metal, if it's too soft then the metal will get nicks in it inevitably and nicks make wire break when it's put under stress - EVEN the tiniest little mark. Brass and galv. steel are very hard to nick (altho not impossible) whereas aluminium, copper and zinc are really easy to nick.

5. How do you MAKE WINGSSSS!!
I'M NOT TELLING YOOOU because then my tiny niche business would be pointless PLEASE STOP ASKING

6. Why you so mean and not tell me how to make dolls
Because this isn't a hobby it's my life and how I make my money that I live on ;^; and and I learnt how to do it from the internet, it took me a year of experimenting with materials to get the basics sorted which isn't that long, so you can do it too.
There is a more in depth and serious reason here

7. How do you stop the wire from breaking?
All metal gets fatigued after being bent a LOT and there's not much one can do to stop that. The biggest cause of armature breakage is nicks in the metal though which can be caused by using pliers to bend it or by the epoxy used to hold the joints together nicking it. I combat that by not using pliers and making sure the epoxy is nice and smoooooth around the joints. The other thing you can do to stop it breaking is not bend it a lot in one sitting, I don't know the science behind this but in my experience the metal gets all hot when you bend it a lot at one go and then it breaks, but if you bend it then let it cool down over an hour or two then it's good to go again. Of course I'm sure that heat is caused by some sort of ion breaking or somethin so eventually it's gonna break but that'll be years and years down the line (hopefully). When I try to break my wire when I lose my pliers it takes freaking forever... which is encouraging.

8. How do you hold the armature together?
with milliput

9. How do I stop the clay spinning on the legs?
put a loop at the end of the wire (´ ▽ `)/

10. How hot does the oven have to be to bake the clay?
I used POLYMER CLAY so it can go in a normal oven and there are instructions on the packet. I bake the head first for 30mins at 110ºC, then sculpt and bake the front legs at 110ºC for 30mins, then I sculpt and bake the back legs at 110ºC for 30 mins (starting to see a pattern here?) 
I have read that burning polymer clay is very very bad for you but I have burnt plenty of polymer clay in an oven I had once that didn't have a thermostat and I have also eaten food from that oven and my flatmates and I are all fine and none of us have been diagnosed with cancer.
READ YOUR PACKET INSTRUCTIONS, each polymer clay brand is different. For example sculpey cures at 130ºC and Fimo at 110ºC.
Turning the oven up hotter and baking it for less time doesn't work, the clay won't cure properly and it will be really brittle.
DON'T cure polymer clay in a microwave.
Underbaking polymer clay is also a bad idea as only the surface will cure and eventually oils in the middle will leach to the surface. In saying that some artists (including :devscenceable and SovaeArt) like to "set" the clay by baking for 10 mins just to make it firm then working on more detail and giving the sculpt a long bake at the end of sculpting. I had a lot of problems with this method as the parts couldn't flex and crumbled off very easily (I obviously work very roughly haha)
You can bake polymer clay multiple times, ie you can put it in the oven again and again with no bad effects.

11. Can I put so-and-so in the oven?
If it melts at 110ºC then no, don't do that. If you don't know if it melts then put it in the oven at 110ºC and see. I haven't put synthetic fabric in the oven because I'm pretty sure it'll melt and I haven't put natural fabric in either because it would go on fire. Use common sense when putting junk in the oven.
In my knowledge resin is okay to put in the oven at 110ºC
Tip: You CAN put batting/stuffing/wadding in the oven as long as it doesn't touch the heating element, it won't melt. Use it to support droopy horns and stuff. 

12. Is there a risk of polymer clay exploding in the oven due to trapped air?
Not that I'm aware of but you can get these things called moonies which are a pain in the butt. You just need to condition your clay well before using it, which means kneading it until no cracks form when it's squished into a disc shape. (Or running it through a pasta machine a few times.) Fresh clay is the best clay.

These are the questions I get asked the most. If you have a question you would like me to answer, then go ahead! If it's a FAQ that I forgot it will be added to this glorious list! Please don't ask for clarification on answers as these are the answers I'm prepared to give. I WILL NOT spell it out for you. Because I'm grumpy and mean and I don't like sharing anymore. (See #6)


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Arashiwildcat's avatar
Seeing the wonderful art by you and woodsplitterlee finally have me the courage to make the creature haunting my dreams for a really long time, and this helped a lot to reaffirm the ideas I used in my practice plushie, thanks so much! Only a few more practice ones and I'll hopefully start the real one....