Custom 1/12 scale felted animals on a movable metal wire armature



My love for miniatures, animals and dolls has always been very strong. Drawing, sculpting and animation are also part of my passions. Since I am an eternal kid inside, I like to move and play with my miniatures which lead me to learn needle felting so that I can make movable scupltures on a metal armature. My sculptures can take many positions and are made from a mix of wool and silk. They are 1/12 scale and are made to fit in any dollhouse scene. I simply love to do custom sculptures of people's pets and am always looking forward to a new challenge. I also started to make ball jointed dolls which has been a passion of mine since I can remember. I am open for commissions, please contact me should you have any questions or comments.

How to make 1/12 scale miniature eyes tutorial


I have always wanted to make a 1/12 scale doll with glass eyes. I found some miniature eyes on ebay but their size being so small, the pupil was never constant from one eye to the other. I could not use the glass eyes that I use for my dogs because the pupils are too big. I have tried to make some out of scupley before but never achieved anything good (eyes always ended up looking different). I started doing miniature jewellery with beads when I finally understood how I could achieve my goal. I wanted to share.
This is the material you would need:

Miniature beads (the tiniest you can find), fimo deco gel, bendable sculpey black and white (I like to use the bendable brand because it is more forgiving and can bend to the form of the doll's face)

First I take a small piece of white sculpey, shape it into a ball.
 Then you take a stylus and slightly press to form a nice round hole.

Voilà! Then you take a miniature bead, it will become the iris of the eye. You take black sculpey, make a ball and press your bead in it so that the bead's center is filled with black sculpey. You remove the excess.
 Take your bead and carefully place it in your white ball.

Next use the deco gel and put a drop on the eye. If you make bubbles, remove them with a needle.
Bake it following instructions and voilà! You have a glass eye effect and both eyes are the same!
This is what they look on the doll I am working on.


I recently used that very technique to do 1/12 scale cat eyes and it works suprisingly well. You can see the results here

Hope you will like this tutorial as much as I liked doing it! It is so easy too, I wish I had thought about it sooner. If you have any comments or suggestions, I would love to here from you!

7 comments:

  1. Thank you for the tutorial! I was confused how to execute perfect eyes but now I am not anymore! I order a lot of tiny beads so soon I am going to try it!

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    1. Thank you for the comment, I am glad you liked the tutorial. Of course it is not as clear as glass or resin but the fimo deco gel is easy to use and gives a nice effect as long as it is not applied too thick otherwise it will become less transparent. I do a whole bunch at a time, that way if there are bubbles that form, I still have a lot of spare. Hope you have fun with it.

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  2. Thank you for sharing! Great problem solving! I used to use taxidermist's glass eyes (for model horse sculptures) but it's been a while and I don't think they were ever that small

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    1. Thank you for your comment. Happy to hear you liked this post

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  3. OMG I am so thrilled I found this.. been struggling to make eyes... thanks you cannot wait to make my animals now

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    1. I am super happy to hear your enthusiasm for this idea, have fun making your animals.

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  4. I think your tutorials are marvellous, clear to follow and well done. Thank you.

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