your sculpts and miniatures are A M A Z I N G! the level of detail you pour into them is inspiring, especially since I've been hoping to try making similar tiny things this year. thank you so, so much for posting progress and notes on makery as well! it feels like not everyone really takes the time to explain what they've done to achieve something so intricate, so I have to say I really appreciate it.;; I hope you don't mind my asking, but would you happen to have/know of a tutorial or so on wrapping wire in thread as you have for your posables? I'm assuming there's little glue involved to keep things malleable but the idea is basically witchcraft to me. :o
Thank you! I'm happy to inspire.
The way I use thread on my minis is really quite simple for the most part- it's just something I figured out when thinking about how to make limbs for my first figures. It varies depending on the need for volume, flexibility, and that sort of thing from figure to figure, but it's all generally the same idea. This ask prompted me to take a few images of the process for my latest Hornet figure to try and convey a sense of how it works; so- impromptu tutorial time.
For a figure like Hornet, it all starts with a very simple wire base. Any figures for characters from this world tend to be highly segmented, what with being bugs and all, so Hornet- being mostly one flexible black mass- used more thread than most; her body not being based on the classic abdomen-thorax-head construction means it can all be based on a few bits of wire to start with.
At this point I'd already made the head, so the armature here has to fit snugly into the neck joint. I was going to use multiple pieces of wire anyway for strength; two pieces makes it fit alright, so those end up becoming the bases for the legs. I add a little dot of superglue to around the neck area to get the thread stuck, and bind the are that's going to become the torso just to hold it together.
Then comes the assembly of the legs. I made progress too quickly and neglected to take pictures of Every step, but it's still pretty simple to describe. What I essentially did was to- after making sure I had the proportions right, based off sprites and official art- block out where the limbs are segmented, then add additional bits of wire to where there are no joints. This makes it so that the figure's more appropriately poseable. I hold those in place with a bit of superglue, then bind them with a bit of thread. In places where there needs to be a bit more volume, like around Hornet's hips, I add layers of thread until it looks right, using some PVA glue (water-based, really basic stuff) to keep it in place.
So at this point it's two layers of thin wire (glued together, only one strand of wire where the joints are), one layer of thread holding the wire together, then additional thread layered as needed for extra volume.
I add bits on for the arms in much the same way as I did for the legs, just stuck on near the shoulder area and bound on.
At this point I decided that I actually needed a bit more rigidity for the neck joint and added one more bit of wire. I took that opportunity to finish the neck, which meant wrapping more thread.
Testing out the neck joint by adding the head:
Looks... very stick-bug. But at bit Too much. Time to flesh her out a bit. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to do it all in thread, as she'd end up being very stiff around the torso. But she won't be bending much there, so I figured it would be alright.
Cut forwards to some extensive thread-wrapping later, and the body looks like this:
That looks about right. So then I paint the thread with one layer of black primer, paint and stick on the head, and voilà, finished Slab Hornet.
(Cilantro.)
Again, most figures aren't as thread-intensive as this Hornet- she may actually be the most thready out of all that I've done, relatively to their scale at least. That makes her a good subject with which to answer this ask, though. With most figures, it's a question of making their separate body parts, sticking those together with bits of wire, then wrapping just the limbs and body joints with thread.
My Shakra figure is a good example of that, as she took rather a lot of thread, but just in those parts. Here are some old progress pictures of her, in which you can clearly see how I jointed the limbs and layered up the thread. Her antennae, too, are just one layer of thread around one single wire- you have to be extra neat with those, since any wrapping mistakes are more evident.
(And a bonus Shakra just for fun. I hadn't finished her bag at this point, but I was happy to have finished her and did a little casual photoshoot so I could alert my friends of her existence.)
(I mean, look at her. Poshanka.)
So there's a rather long-winded explanation of the process for you. It's really not witchcraft, just takes a bit of patience and a willingness to get some glue on your fingers. You don't need much to make little figures like this, and minimal tools besides, so I absolutely encourage anyone who's interested to try it. I may make a post detailing the process for more Shakra-style figures as well at some point if there's enough interest (or if I just feel like it enough).
Thanks for the ask! I'm always happy to talk about things like this. Any further questions are more than welcome.
