How to Make Angel Wings for Dolls

The first thing you're going to want to do is find some reference photos of actual wings. I learned this lesson after being confused as to why my drawings and paintings of wings always looked so wonky. I find a lot of winged custom dolls wings often have the same problem. Usually, I'll see wings that are a straight line, kind of like these costume wings.

But on real birds, wings have three different joints.

You can see this a little more clearly on the below screenshot of Lucifer, from the show, Lucifer. Though he has an extra joint that I am going to ignore for the sake of this tutorial. I just think it looks better if the wing stops at the third joint.

A perk of looking at references is also to get a good idea of how to lay the feathers. Speaking of feathers, I use white goose feathers. White is good because you can recolor them, but it doesn't really matter. They're easy to find online. With a quick eBay search, I found a listing for 100 goose feathers for $7.99 with free shipping (to give you an idea of the price). I used about 150 feathers for this set of wings, and I was very close to not having enough. It might be safe to order 200 so you have as much as you need.

Now that we have a plan in mind, it's time to make a skeleton, something to attach our feathers to. I'm using 12 gauge wire. You want it to be strong because these wings will be heavy. You'll also want to hold this up to your doll when you're bending the wire so that the size is appropriate.

Once you have that done, sew some white fabric around the wire. The reason I do this is because most types of glue won't adhere to smooth, hard surfaces like wire. With fabric sewn around the wire, there is something for the feathers to attach to. Also, the fabric allows for a level of adjustability. So if you want to fold your wings up, you can push feathers in another direction since the fabric will slide over the wire.

Before I attach the feathers, I trim them. You don't have to, but trimming them makes them more to scale with the doll. Otherwise, the feathers can look really bulky and awkward.

Be sure to keep some of the trimmings. We can use these later to fill in any gaps.

Next, start hot gluing your feathers to the base you made. I started from the far end and filled them in starting with the longest feathers at the bottom. As you finish one layer, add a layer of shorter feathers on top (following your reference photos). I trim the long feathers to make them shorter, and I also salvage the smaller cuttings to use on top for later.

Here are the wings all finished.

Don't forget to flip them over and glue down more feathers on the back. Personally, I don't put nearly as much attention into the back, as long as the fabric base is covered.

To attach the wings, you can drill a hole in your doll's back. I rigged a harness out of some leather cording so that I can remove the wings and use them more as a costume piece.

I attached a picture in case anyone wants to try it out. It doesn't work great since the wings are so heavy, but it does work with some finagling.

Here's our finished angel! If anyone follows this method and posts pics on Instagram, tag me @HaleysRepaints! I'd love to see your repaints :)

Love, Haley #dollrepaints #howtorepaintdolls #dollrepainting #repaintingtips #customdolls #customactionfigures #custombarbies #custommonsterhigh #blog #artblog #customcollectables #artdolls #dollart #Mrsuperclear #msc #rerooting #toycollector #Etsy #Etsyseller #monsterhigh #barbie #balljointeddoll #bjd #dollhair #customdollhair