A Guide to Making Dolls with Wire and Paper

A doll built from a length of wire, a little paste and some torn paper, then posed, wigged and painted by hand. Nina R. Jordan's method, set out plainly enough for a first attempt.

Everything in A Guide to Making Dolls with Wire and Paper is pitched at the beginner, taking a maker from bare materials to a finished figure.

The sequence is the whole of it. Bend the skeleton, cover it, settle the pose, build up the feet, make and attach the wig, then paint the face. Nothing here asks for special equipment or much outlay, and the results have a slightly wonky charm that shop-bought figures never manage.

This edition features:

• Step-by-step directions for forming the skeleton, covering it and settling a natural pose
• A recipe for homemade paste, with guidance on materials that cost next to nothing
• Full instructions for feet, heads and wigs, including wigs made from stockings or real hair
• How to paint a face so that the figure holds its expression once it is finished
• Illustrated with the author's own line drawings, reproduced from the original text