Test bodies in the shop

Still not sure if they will be two or three fingered, but here are latest body blanks

Hands in the vice

Hands locked into the vice, ready for spraying with varnish to seal

Colouring hands

I have said it before, but Promarkers are fantastic. These little manuals are crafted hastily in Fimo, then baked.

The base colour is a mixture of Yellow Oche, Burnt Sienna and Alizarin Crimson Acyilic diluted to a thick but runny wash with a dash of washing up liquid squirted in to make it stick to the plasticky Fimo. (Amazing - makes water paint stick to water-resistant plastic!)

The Promakers are used to apply smudged washes of delicate colour and slightly sickening shades of green, pink, yellow, etc. This gives depth and richness.

Smaller hands

Hands, lovely hands...

Doll grade Fimo is pink, soft and easy to use. Cooked on gas mark 1/2 overnight, which is probably rather too long. They look good, but I am not sure how well they will paint, and more importantly whether they are too brittle when smacked into another puppets head!

Hands inside hands

What a lovely hand...

Fimo hands

I have been thinking about how best to make some hands, and Fimo is looking top candidate so far. Easy peasy to mould, but can be set hard - fabulous. This is rose coloured doll making Fimo, which is quite soft to work.

A new video of how to make hands using Fimo is available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8WmgD_HQDY

There is a similar setting modelling material that sets as an eraser - that is rubbery, but I have not tried that.

Hands

Blessed Fimo. Having started carving hands from oak, only to have a (puupet) thumb sliced off with hasty chisel action, I have reverted to modelling, but this time the rather handy Fimo. These hands are too big for their owners heads I fear.

Lost in the woods

Here's what is going on in the darkened shed... I am sure this sewing machine is an antique, well vintage or something...