Johnston Original Art Dolls

I just found this forum and love it! The way I embed the hair is to cut a divet or pothole in the top of the head. Depending on the size and depth of the hole, you will either take one large or several smaller pods of hair and glue together. Glue the ends together to secure the hair. When dry you can place and glue the pods into the hole in the top of the head to set. Once dry, the hair will fall naturally and be ready for styling.

Thanks for the great ideas, Joe. Would love to see some of your work, do you have a website? I am going to try embedding some hair along the hairline of my next doll. Linda

Hi guys, I had been making wigs for theatre and movie set for a long time! I have use a very small crochet needle for making the wigs on a very fine toole fabric, this is what is use for the front hair line in movies like "The lord of the Ring" and so forth. but in the wax museum quality I use a very small beading needle wich I have cut the eye open and shorten the shaft or lenght of the needle and the put it in a small dowell, then I put the hair one by one for the front hairline and put it in place so you can get a good natural hair line. Now on polymer clay make sure you press a little each time you put a hair so in this way you'll closed the hole produce by the small needle so the hair is secure and looks natural. Hope this helps!!! Joe MacPhale

Hello Claudette and Jack! I would love to share with you a technique that I have developed to root my sculpts. I am also a reborner so I love to root the hair! Sculpt the head as you would normally (not baking yet) when finished, gently cover the area that you wish to root. Use a heat gun (for Genesis Paints)to set the top layer (outer skin) of the clay. I usually just aim the air towards the face, ears, neck and nape of the neck areas. This will dry the clay to touch so that the hair does not stick to the clay while rooting or baking. Do not heat the scalp, once it has a hard skin you will not be able to root this area smoothly. When you are finished rooting bake as you would normally. It is best to bake the head in an upright position making sure that only the hair follicles are attached to the clay. If you have any questions please feel free to ask as I would love to share. Sincerely, Falicia

There are several ways to apply hair to a new born baby. You can root the hair into a soft skull if you like, this is one of the best looking methods. You may cover the soft uncured clay with a slurry of ProSculpt mixed with Smoothing Oil (to the consistancy of vaseoline) and then lay the hair in the slurry and cure it for ten minutes at 275 degrees. A third method, is to purchase a wispy wig to fit your sculpture. We carry wispy wigs for life scale babies, but not miniature babies. The last method is to complete your head (front and back) and then drill a hole in the top of the head (at the crown) and glue a tuft of hair down in the hole. Once the glue is hardend you may style the hair to cover the head. You may wish to hold it down on the skull with a small amount of Fabritac glue. If you need more detailed information you may write me direct at jack@artdolls.com. Let me know how this works for you.

I have been running into a problem lately and I know I'm causing it, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I "sort of" using your techniquethat I learned in your class, Jack, of sculpting and baking one-half the head. It's a GREAT way to help keep the clay clean. The only difference is that I sculpt the face part first. For some reason, this works better for me. By the way, I am concentrating on babies - between 5-8 inches long and am using ProSculp Baby. After the face is baked, I sculpt the top and back of the head, attach ears and neck. After that I use the ProSculpt Softener to make the top of the head sticky and attach mohair. Then I bake it for about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour, depending on how thick my clay is for the back of the head. After my baby's head cools, the top of the head looks like she's got cradle cap kind of whitish. And it looks worse as time goes by. What can I be doing wrong? Is there a better way other than glueing. I find glueing is difficult for a baby as they have such a small amount of hair. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!! Thanks, Claudette