Making Wire Armatures to Pose any doll or create stop motion puppets

How about a video to cover all the tools you need to become an expert at making dolls and puppets? Below the video you’ll find links to help you locate all these tools and time savers to making your doll and puppet making easy and fun.

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Need Help Finding Tools and Materials?

All of the tools I’ve shared should be easily available no matter where you live. If you can’t find these things at your local stores (see the table below), then check my Amazon list.

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examples of wire armatures for cloth art doll bodies, along with the tools and materials to make them
ToolWhere to Find itSome Uses
Wiresee below for the kind of wire I prefer. You can buy it at Micheal’s crafts, Hobby Lobby, or art supply stores in the polymer clay aisle. Or follow the link above to buy some on Amazon.

You can also use steel wire but it’s harder to bend and it’s more brittle so it breaks after a few bends.

Thinner wires like pipe cleaners can be used for light duty posing but they are not strong enough to make a cloth doll stand on it’s own.
creates a doll “skeleton” so you can pose them in different positions
Wire Tools
You can find needle nose pliers in hardware stores or in the jewelry-making area of craft stores. Some of them have built-in wire cutters or you can buy a pair of wire cutters (also called nippers) as a separate tool. pliers for bending wire, cutters for, well, cutting it.
Electrical TapeYou can always find electrical tape at home improvement store in the electric/wiring aisle. You can also find it at other stores that sell tools, like Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree, etc.covers sharp ends of wires and helps hold armature together.

A few samples of art dolls with wire armatures

Free Video Series

Learn the skills for making dolls, plushies, and puppets in my free video series.

sewing a puppet nose to the puppet face