Learning steps in creating a clay over cloth doll

First off, I would like to let you know that this will be my first attempt at creating a clay over cloth doll. So a bit of trial and error is going to be the name of the game here...lol  
I will try to take pictures and give you a before and after look at the progress I am making.
I hope you get to learn a bit more with the experience. 

For those of you who have used it before, you know that paper clay can be at times a bit stiff and hard to work with, but don't be discouraged... it's possible to make it work.
I found that if you apply very little drops of water to a golf ball size chunk , you can knead the clay into a more pliable medium that works quite well. But be careful, too much water can give you a smooth finish to start with, but the end results will show cracks and cause the clay to crumble when the moisture is all dried out. If your doll does crack, this can be mended by filling in with some wet clay and when dry, if it bulges out a bit, sanding it smooth with a fine grade sandpaper.

Okay, to begin with you will need a cloth doll to cover. I am using one that I made a while back just for this purpose. She stands 14 inches high and is armless at this point, which makes it easier to do the body sculpting. (The arms will be made separately and positioned before they are attached and smoothed over with clay to the finished body.)


 Melania

 This is my first attempt at applying the clay...not a pretty sight. The clay kept peeling back off the fabric and I was very disappointed with the texture. A grainy, sandy residue developed over the molded bottom and I was ready to shelf it and move on, but...I had a plan...

 My plan was to ask a friend how could I get a better result when applying the clay. She suggested that I first coat the fabric with gesso as a primer..and you know what? She was right.  With the gesso giving the fabric a bit of tooth the clay was able to cling to the fabric without a problem.



The problem now was that I had already made my doll's posterior and wasn't about to take it off. ( It just looked too good...) Solution: put a coat or two of gesso over the girl's bottom as I painted the rest of the doll and hope that it will hold up with the rest of the applied clay...

This was the result I got after a bit of sanding and some clay molding. To get a realistic look to the arch of her back. I first sketched what I felt the body would look like.. .

The shaping of the clay was done in a two step method I found worked for me. First, with the wet clay, you block in the basic shape of the doll's anatomy over the cloth doll. As you manipulate the form, the clay begins to dry and you can press the clay firmly to the gesso coated fabric. Wetting the tip of your fingers slightly you start to smooth the clay in a dragging motion that melds the shapes together. The slight two tone coloring, is due to the wet clay against the dried gesso.
                                    Click on either picture for a closer look.

Here I just added two pull caps from a couple of juice containers, covered with some fabric and stuffed with a fiber fill and glue mix


These caps made a perfect size placement for the paper clay molding.