Nyamelia

January 28, 2024.

My second attempt at making a doll-- this time a quadruped. The project started coming together in mid-December and was finally "completed" in early January. It was a lot easier to make the skeleton a second time, since I had some practice.
To make the skeleton, I twisted thick wire in the vague shape of an animal-- 4 legs, a neck, and a tail. To make the skeleton more sturdy, it was wrapped with some thin jewelry wire. Then, the skeleton was wrapped with some athletic bandages and stuffed with puffy cotton. Her head is made of paperclay and painted with acrylic paint. Her skin is made of soft purple fleece, which was sewn around her body.

This time, I made her a wig (as opposed to the pony doll, whose hair is glued directly to her head). To make the wig, I wrapped her head tight with plastic wrap, then applied clear tape over the plastic wrap to serve as her scalp. When it was thick enough, I took the hard tape-helmet off. I cut off the excess plastic wrap around the scalp and made room for her ears. I glued synthetic hair wefts to the tape-scalp, and after it dried, it made a good enough wig. The super glue I used was hard and messy, and it was difficult to make the wefts in the first place. Some of the glue application was not as neat at it could have been, so there are some hard bits on the top of the scalp. It looks good enough, though! I made her some clothes, because she looked cold. The fabric is from an old t-shirt, as usual.

She's fully poseable thanks to the wire armature! She also feels soft and plush thanks to the cotton stuffing and soft fleece. I didn't have a good way to hide the gap between her neck and head, so it just has to be hidden. It could probably be glued to the head, but I wasn't sure if the wig would fit then. It'll be fun to make some more clothes for a quadrupedal character in the future. Her having a wig also means that she could potentially have different hair colors in the future.
She looks really cute and is fun to play with! In the future, I'd like to improve me sculpting and sewing skills, but I'm overall very pleased with how the project came out. The next wig I make will have to have some improvements. I'm looking forward to making more dolls in the future!