FEMALE ARMATURE

Start with a wire (in ) that is long

enough to go from the top of the head
to the bottom of the feet on both sides.
Give a little extra on the bottom lengths
because bending it to the widths (and
twisting it) will take up some of the overall
length. It’s better to have extra than not
enough wire (you can always trim it off).

secure arm
to body

Bend and twist the wire

to the proper dimensions
along the form. You will be
starting at the loop of the
humerus

head (folding the wire in half)

I highly recommend using pliers
to make a sharp bend. Use a
marker to mark each point on
the wire while holding it up to
the pattern.
ius

For the arms it will

d
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be a separate piece.
Start with the hand
and end with the hand.
one easy “U” shape.
Hand

After completing the arms and body,

attach the arms with thin wire at the
designated spot. Then refer to the
following page on the anterior and
posterior bends.

Note: you can cut the hand off and substitute

a hand armature with independant fingers. Leave
a stub of the hand wire for the wrist section to
attach. Depending on scale, this may or may not
be practical.
SIDE VIEW
Bend the armature at each point. This is known as
reference pose. From their you can bend the form
into any pose you’d like, just be careful to remember
two things:
1. The body only bends at the joints.
2. The body does have natural restrictions on
how / where it bends. (for example the rib cage has
very limited twist or bend, but the lower region of the
spine tends to bend quite a lot)

top view:
bend to make collar bone

One other thing to note as you bend the

side angles - the height shrinks slightly. There
should be enough tolerance to allow for this.
If by chance something is off, you always have
a little extra length in the leg wire, so just borrow
it back from there. The final armature, should
be a little shorter than your piece. The head
particularly does not go to the top of the skull
as this tends to cause problems if you are the
slightest bit off when adding clay to the form
(who wants to pound the wire with a hammer
after it is already covered in clay?) It is also
easiest and most accurate to add the clay from
the midpoint outward, remeasuring your length
in the clay for the parts of the body. However,
before you add any clay, make sure you have
your mechanics figured out to support the
clay (pipe system) and any hose clamps to
attach the armature to it.