Supplies
This last Christmas, some friends and I decided to have a gift exchange. I decided for my contribution, to make an Elsa figurine (the girl I’d picked loves the movie Frozen).
The supplies I used to create her are
- White Sculpey
- Wire (I used some 20 gauge silver wire I had)
- Sky Blue Sculpey III (Could substitute with a darker blue if desired)
- Beige Sculpey III
- A mixture of Beige, Lemonade, and white to create the hair tone. This could be done with white and yellow. I wanted mine to have a tint of pink to it. This takes a bit of work. I would find a picture of Elsa to compare it to her hair. Or if you know someone with a light blonde hair color, ask to borrow it for a model.
- Iridescent Acrylic Paint Medium
- Blue acrylic paint
- Blue Glitter
- Elmer’s Glue
- White acrylic paint/sharpie
- Black acrylic paint/sharpie
- Red Sculpey or red paint/sharpie
- Clay press/acrylic clay roller
The first thing to do is to create a clean work area* and then cut a piece of wire double the height you want the figurine to be, with an extra two inches. Then cut another piece of wire, the length you want her arm span to be, or from one hand to the other, with about two inches of extra wire.
*Polymer clays are good for two things. Sculpting and picking up every single trace of anything on your hands or workspace.
Take first piece of wire, and fold it in half. From the folded end, measure the length of your Then begin to twist the wires together, leaving an inch loop untwisted. This will be the base for the body of Elsa.
Take the second piece of wire you cut and fold it in half. This will be the arm span. Slip the twisted base into the fold. Adjust to where the arms should be on the body and twist the arm wire around the base several times (tightly so the arm wires don’t slip), leaving the arm wires extended from the body
The next step is to cover the wire armature you’ve created with white Sculpey. This will be your figurine’s base and will be baked before adding any more clay. Build it up to resemble a basic body. I left the arm wires uncovered at this stage and simply used the beige clay to create the arms.
*If your doll is having weight issues at this stage, you can add more to the bottom or one of my favorite tricks to put a washer on the bottom and cover with clay. Washers are cheap, add enough weight to keep my figurines from falling over, and best of all, don’t melt when you bake them.
At this point, you’ll need to bake your base figure. Follow the directions on your package of clay.
*If at this point, the clay you’re baking is white and will be your outer layer, tenting a piece of aluminum foil over the clay can keep it from discoloring.
When your piece is done baking and cooled, it’s time for the next layer. The skin and dress. This is where a clay press comes in handy. I used my clay press on the second lowest setting to make a thin sheet of flesh colored clay. Cover the top portion of the figurine with your flesh tone. At this time, also cover the arms and make the hands*.
*Leaving the hands to the very end of this stage can be useful so you don’t disfigure them. If hands aren’t your forte, fists are useful as are mittens. I made small balls of clay, flattened them into pancakes and then cut the shape of the fingers into the pancake. There should be six sections: the palm, and the five fingers. Roll the edges slightly to look more like fingers and the palm and then use a rounded tool to push into the palm of your pancake.
To make the dress, Make a thin sheet of blue clay*. Cut it into a rectangle the height and width needed to wrap around the figure. Then carefully press it onto the body. Blend the blue sheet together, but be careful not to blend it too much into the skin tone. This will ruin the effect of it being clothing.
*If you are skilled at making doll clothes, or want to try to make a cloth dress, kudos to you. I’m not…so a clay dress is what my girl got.
Mark the waistline of the dress with a sharp tool, a stylus, pen or otherwise pointed object works well.
Now it’s time to sculpt the head and hair. What fun.*
*I struggled a bit with the face and decided to paint it on later, rather than sculpting anything other than the nose.
To make the head, roll an oval shape. Elsa has a button nose so add a smaller ball of clay to the area her nose should be. Blend in gently.
Her hair is done with small blonde clay ‘pancakes’, laid over one another and then two clay logs twisted gently to form the braid.
Now, at this point, i cut the wire loop and shortened the wire sticking from the body before sliding my head onto it, however this part is entirely up to you.
After the head is added, take a small bit of your flesh clay and roll it into a log. This will be your figurine’s neck. Place it between the ‘shoulders’ and head of your figurine and gently blend together.
After this is done, it’s time to bake your doll for one final time.*
*Again, follow the directions. I would definitely tent your figurine with aluminum foil this time to avoid discoloration.
The last few steps are what make Elsa look like Elsa.
To do the face, if you didn’t sculpt it, paint on a pair of red lips with either your paint or a sharpie. For the eyes, I painted a small white circle, let it dry, added a small drop of light blue paint to it. Let it dry and then used the black sharpie to draw eyebrows and eyelashes.
To make her dress, shimmer I used only a few things, glue, glitter, a bit of paint, and iridescent acrylic medium. For the top part of her dress, I poured a bit of elmer’s glue on a plate and then mixed in some blue glitter*. Then I painted the glitter glue mixture onto the top of her dress.
*The finer the glitter the better it looks. If you don’t want to make your own, using an actual tube of blue glitter glue would work just as well, if not better.
I then covered the bottom portion of the dress in iridescent medium.
You may have noticed the figurine still has no sleeves. This is where the paint comes in handy. However, I wanted Elsa’s dress to have the same gauzy effect that it does in the film. So I mixed the iridescent medium with a drop or two of blue paint and then painted in on both thickly and thinly over the arms. This part doesn’t need too much precision because varying in thickness and thinness help aid the illusion of the dress being gauzy and material like.
*At this point, you can add a cape. I used a piece of blue gauzy material I found at Hobby Lobby, but you could use something else or clay or leave off the cape. You should also seal your figurine, although be careful to check that your sealant is polymer clay safe. Most spray sealants cause clay to degrade and eventually becoming sticky and weakened.
Now you have a beautiful Elsa figurine to call your own. Some fun things to try with this character are to change the colors used for her skin, her hair, and/or her dress. This is the same technique I use for all of my figurines. A wire skeleton, a white base, and then a thin over coat of other clay.
And iridescent medium works wonders with adding an extra touch to your princesses. Because it can be mixed with other acrylic paints, it’s easy to make match your project. It would work to add a sheen to a mermaid’s tail, or to create gauzy looking ‘pants’ such as for Jasmine. Because it can also be added over clay, it is wonderful for creating that sheen that a princess’ dress has.
Cleverly Disguised as an artist 