Introduction: Clay Bust of Dobby the House Elf

About: I love woodworking and making fun stuff on the lathe, I really enjoy making stuff and posting it on this website, and I love the Hobbit

Dobby is one of my favorite characters from Harry Potter and someone in the family wanted a little figure of him. So I got some sculpey clay and went to work right away.

Step 1: Start at the Bottom

I decided to make this a bust kind of thing instead of a figurine, so I started by taking a lump of clay about an inch tall and wide and I shaped this to be his chest, shoulders, and his back. Then I put a slightly bigger piece on the top for his head. From this piece I started the nose and also the neck and a little bit of the head. Next I added his big floppy ears on the sides and I widened the head a little bit.

Step 2: Get Into the Detail

Now that the basic shape of Dobby was done, it was time to start all the detail work. To start, I lengthened the nose and, using a barbecue skewer, I dug out the little part where the nostrils meet the face. Also, poke two little holes where the nostrils go. I took my smallest finger and started to scoop out the eye sockets. I noticed in pictures of dobby how his eyebrow section extends or is even raised above the rest of his face. so to do this I rolled up little tiny logs of clay and just squished these above the eye socket place. I kept doing this until I thought that it looked pretty good. Next I made two small spheres of clay and squashed them flat and I took these and put them in the eye sockets. Dobby's eyes are really big so try to get them just right. I also used the barbecue skewer to make all the wrinkles in dobby's face. Be sure to get most of them.

Step 3: Bake and Paint

I put it in the oven for 50 minutes at 220 F degrees. Once it was done baking I took it out and let it cool down for a half hour or so. Once it was cool to the touch, I mixed up some tan/cream paint and painted him. Don't worry about the spots that his rag shirt will cover.

Step 4: Painting the Eyes

I used white paint to paint the whole eye. I let it dry for a while. Next, I used some light green paint to paint the iris of the eye and then I just used some black paint to paint the pupil. While I had black paint on my brush, I carefully dry-brushed some on the ears, nose, and neck. 

Step 5: Make His Shirt

To make the shirt, cut out a shirt pattern (see pictures below) on a piece of cloth. Wrap it around your clay dobby and stitch it in the back. Make sure there isn't any cloth hanging off the bottom. If there is, then you could just cut it off scissors. Now get the kettle going because were going to make tea. Once you have your tea boiling turn the heat down a little bit and let dobby's shirt soak in it for a while. Take your shirt out of the tea and let it dry. When it has, super glue it onto Dobby. Now, you are done! Please comment and tell me what you think. Rate and subscribe!