Ryan Friant's Dream Syndicate

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Today Iโ€™m going to share my process for making poseable art doll hands withโ€ฆ get this, paper! Well, more accurately, I use medical paper tape to make the hands for my mixed-media art dolls in a technique thatโ€™s sort of half-assed paper mache. This techniqueโ€™s suitable not only for art dolls, but also for stop-motion animation puppets.

You can watch how I make this poseable wire armature hands on YouTube and Iโ€™ll also try to give as brief summary of how I craft these hands as possible. Iโ€™ll also put links to where you can get the supplies you need for this project. This method will allow you to craft a variety of hand shapes and forms and when you become well-practiced at it, you might be able to make a new set of art doll hands in about two and a half hours.


Watch Making Poseable Art Doll Hands with Paper?! ๐Ÿ‘ Timelapse Art Doll Tutorial ๐Ÿ‘



The supplies youโ€™ll need for this art doll hand tutorial

Poseable Art Doll Hands Supplies

Aluminum tubing that will compose the characterโ€™s forearm and also hold the wires for the hands

Here Iโ€™m twisting wire to form the shape of the hand

For purposes of this poseable art doll tutorial, I used 16 and 18 gauge wire and a particular diameter of aluminum tubing, but you can adjust the size of the materials youโ€™re using to accommodate whatever proportions you would like. The first thing youโ€™ll do is use your pipe-cutter to cut lengths of the aluminum tubing that will form you characterโ€™s forearms. Afterward, cut two pieces of your thicker gauge wire at about 5-6โ€ long (though whatever scale youโ€™re crafting at will effect this measurement), create a loop- this will determine the size of the art doll or stop-motion puppetโ€™s palm and back of hand, and then braid the two ends of wire.

Basic shape of the hands attached in aluminum tubing

You can then cut the braided ends of these loops so that thereโ€™s a piece left almost as big as your pinky across. Youโ€™ll then wrap the medical paper tape around this piece and you want to place this inside of the aluminum tubing pieces. You want this to fit in the tubing snugly, such that if you lightly pull, the hand wire wonโ€™t come out.



โ€œUโ€ shape to form the art dollโ€™s pinky and thumb fingers

Next cut a longer length of wire, about 14-16โ€ (I typically use the tip of my middle finger to the crook of my arm as a rough measurement), this piece is going to form the characterโ€™s fingers. Youโ€™ll leave a length of wire for the pinky finger, wrap the wire around the thicker gauge hand wire, have the wire create a gentle โ€œUโ€ shape, and then wrap this wire around the hand wire with itโ€™s placement roughly where the thumb would go. I typically find the outermost fingersโ€™s placement, the pinky and the thumb, as I craft the art dollโ€™s hands. In all cases when youโ€™re wrapping the finger wire around the hand wire, you want this wire to wrap around tightly- you may want to use your pliers to help in this process.


Completed art doll hand armatures

Now weโ€™ll find where we want the index finger, wrap the finger wire around the hand wire. This will create a broad partial oval shape and the index finger and thumb will be connected. Next loop the finger wire around the โ€œUโ€ shape and back up to the hand, then wrap it around to create the placement for the middle finger. Then youโ€™ll create another oval shape, winding a bit of the remaining finger wire around the hand wire and snipping off any excess with your wire-cutters.





Paper tape helping to lock the finger locations into place

You can adjust the spacing between the fingers, possibly even clamping them down with your pliers. Once thatโ€™s done cut thin strips of paper tape, and place them such that about the middle of it goes across the hand wire and each strip is going between our fingers. This will help keep your finger wires in place and you can take the wire-cutters and cut in between the connected finger wire pieces. You can take a sharpie marker and mark-off how long youโ€™d like each finger to measure then cut them down to size.

This is our first layer of paper tape- it looks pretty rough, but itโ€™ll come together in the end

Wrapping paper tape around each finger

Next you will wrap strips of paper tape, that are a little longer than twice as long as the finger, over each fingerโ€™s wire, smoothing it over one side and then having the paper tape overlap itself, wrapping around. Youโ€™ll typically do two layers on each finger in this manner.





As you place strips, follow the contours of the hand

Using thicker strips of medical paper tape, youโ€™ll cover-over parts of the palm, usually folding over the wire at itโ€™s mid-point. Itโ€™s going to begin to cover over the hand and also cover the tape from in-between the fingers and also the paper that coats the fingers. You want the paper tape to go where it wants to go, it may not form a mirror image of itself as it folds around the contours of the hand.

After youโ€™ve a base layer of paper tape covering the hand armature wire, you can wrap pieces of tape around each finger. These paper tape pieces should be just a little shorter than the length of the fingers and about one and half times to twice as wide as the width of each finger.


You can bulk-out the muscles that comes from the thumb and pinky on the palm by placing strips that go across the length and width of these areas. At this point, you can also wrap a piece of paper tape thatโ€™s almost as long as the aluminum tubing and overlaps pieces covering the hand wire.

Next youโ€™ll use as broad of pieces of tape on the hand as will comfortably fit- the wider the pieces, the less seams will be apparent on the hand. As you start to get a hand shape that you like, you can place a long strip that you might taper on the hand that will then wrap around the aluminum tubing and then you can wind another piece of tape around the tubing.

Wrapping a larger strip around the aluminum tubing
















Painting a flesh tone on an art doll hand

โ€œโ€ฆPaint your art dollโ€™s hands at the same time youโ€™re painting other areas of itโ€™s flesh so that you wonโ€™t have to try and color match itโ€™s skin tones later.โ€

Other than patching areas that might need more tape, the poseable art doll hands are constructed. You can now apply heavily water diluted Mod Podge and let the hands dry. At this point you can trim the finger tips as they will have a blunt and malformed appearance. You want to trim a little bit of the paper tape material at a time. Once this is done, you can also patch any areas of the hand that look like they need it. Youโ€™ll apply a coat of less diluted Mod Podge, let that dry, and then you might mix-up a base coat tone with some Mod Podge and water that will serve as an under painting for whatever flesh tone you want for your art doll. The under painting color should be one that if the flesh tone paint was thinly applied over it and it showed through, it would add rather than detract from the piece. One tip I can give you is to paint your art dollโ€™s hands at the same time youโ€™re painting other areas of itโ€™s flesh so that you wonโ€™t have to try and color match itโ€™s skin tones later.


Thanks so much for stopping by. If youโ€™ve read this post and watched the YouTube video, but still have questions, be sure to comment them below and Iโ€™ll do my best to field it. If you use this technique, tag me on social media so that I can see what youโ€™ve made. You can find me on these platforms:

Prints of my art are available through my online store.

You can find my process videos by subscribing to The Dream Syndicate Arts here for more fantasy art doll polymer clay sculpture videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFMoEW3xC740tWfQNSixs_Q

Until next time: Make. Believe.