List of materials to make realistic dollhouse miniature animals

Discover the fun of making dollhouse miniature animals! Perhaps you wanna make a mini version of your pet to put on your collection? Or just wanna learn how to make miniature pets? Or start a hobby? Start a mini business? Here’s my list that I wanted to share with you on how to start.

1. Crafting Area  

First thing is first, you will be working with polymer clay and it is not the kind of material you wanna work everywhere in your place. You gotta have a corner, a table and a chair you’re comfortable to work with! Take note, you will be sitting on that chair for many hours if you’re really into it. Have some radio beside or something to listen to.

2. Oven
 You need to bake polymer clay in order for this to cure. Of course you can use your oven but I would not recommend it as polymer clay is not safe in contact with food and has a special smell when it’s warm. I would recommend that you get a mini oven  that is only for your hobby. Mini ovens usually have timers where you can just sit, just relax and wait until it’s done.

• Mini oven
• Glass oven dish – use when curing the finished sculpted miniature in the oven.

3. Polymer clay

There are tons of polymer clays out there and of course they have different textures! I have tried a lot of them! But my favorite is Sculpey III. I always have cold hands so sculpey III is the best to work with! Are your hands always warm? Use Premo! You can try different kinds of clay too! Just try which works best for you. I always recommended applying translucent liquid clay to strengthen your little artwork after its cured then bake again. 

• Sculpey III
• Premo
  
• Translucent liquid bakeable clay

4. Sculpting Tools

Sculpting tools are probably one of the difficult thing to choose which ones that work best but trust me you don’t have to buy all those tools out there like what I did in the beginning! You probably have that somewhere hidden at home. These are the list of tools I use when sculpting:

• Sewing needle – Yes! A needle! It’s probably the most used tool I have and my most favorite tool! Use when sculpting the face of the animal and those tiny paws.
• Knitting needle – Use to sculpt the body of the animal.
•  Dotting tool/ pens – I usually use these tools for sculpting the ears of the mini cat for example.
• Aluminum foil – ‘Body’ armature, use as an inner torso of your miniature so that every part of the miniature animal will be baked equally with the other parts such as the legs and it also holds the wire for the tail.
• Wires – 1mm hobby wire for the tail and jewelry wire for the ‘skeleton’ of the legs, which is inserted after sculpting.
• Cutting Plier and snipe nose plier – To cut and bend the wires.
  
• Glass surface board – You need to have a glass surface when you work with polymer clay. I personally use a glass cutting board.

  6. Colors 

• Acrylic paints – use for painting your mini.
• Pastel colors – use for finishing touch.
        

 7. Brushes

• Brushes in different sizes and form, tip! Use make up brushes.
• Fine detail brush – tinniest you can find, to color the tiny features such as the eyes, nose, pads etc.

 8.Color sealers

• Sculpey glaze gloss – use when painting the eyes to give that ‘glass effect’.
• Sculpey satin glaze – to seal the acrylic paints.
  
• Lisa Pavelkas Magic gloss – Use to make cat eyes.

 9.Glue

• School glue – use to glue the ‘coating’.
• Super glue – use for tail making. 

 10.Coating materials

• Yarn – as its ‘fur’, such as merino, acrylic, cotton, wool, alpaca etc, find the fiber that suits your mini.
• Sewing thread – coating on the mini animals face and the paws.
• Feathers – Use when making hens or birds for example.
• Eyebrow comb – use to comb the yarn.
• Nylon thread- tinniest you can find, for whiskers.
• Tweezers

11. Cutting tools

• Hair scissor – Use to cut the yarns and thread.
• Eyebrow scissor – use to cut the yarns and thread precisely.
• Cutter – Use to slice the clay block.
• X- akto knife – Use to to cut the edges for detailed precision.

12. Cleaning materials
It will be messy and dusty when working with these so you will be needing some:

• Little vacuum cleaner 
• Wetwipes
  
• Lint roller

13. Optional Materials

• Pasta machine – Use to condition the polymer clay.
• Magnifying glass lamp

These variety of materials and tools can be overwhelming and it should’nt cost you much because you might have  some of these things hidden somewhere in your home. This list makes it easy as possible for you to start your hobby, make your own mini or start a small business. You may be interested on how I started with miniature animals? Hope these tips will guide you to make your first steps on making your miniature animals! Good luck and have fun creating!