Plush Art Toys

A plush art toy is a soft toy built to be shown off as much as hugged: a poseable doll on a wire frame, a needle felted creature, a plush that talks or lights up, a faux taxidermy head for the wall. At Skazkodrom custom toys start from $350 and usually take 2–4 weeks. Toys with a wire frame or joints often take 3–4.

Every one of them is made to order. We don’t keep ready toys on a shelf. We sew yours after you write to us, and you approve photos of it before it ships. We’ve worked this way since 2009, more than 2,100 toys so far.

A regular plush is made to be squeezed. A plush art toy is made to be looked at too, so something in it goes past stuffing and fabric. Usually it’s one of these:

• A frame inside, wire or ball joints, so the toy stands, crouches or raises a paw and stays that way.
• Needle felted wool instead of sewn fabric, for bony fingers, hollow cheeks and fur that looks grown.
• A painted face: eyes, lashes and blush painted onto cloth by hand.
• Sound or light: a voice module in a hidden pocket, an LED that glows.
• A wall mount: faux taxidermy heads on a plaque, sewn from faux fur.
• Sheer size: a bear taller than most people.

One toy can carry several of these. If what you’re after is a one-off design of your own character, our guide to bespoke plush covers that side.

A poseable plush has a skeleton. Without one, a tall figure slumps over in a week. We use two kinds.

A wire frame. Wire runs through the neck, legs and tail, and the stuffing is packed around it. Our Faerie Dragon from Heroes of Might and Magic III stands 48 cm (about 19 in) on a copper wire frame and can rear up with its paws raised. Thrax from Osmosis Jones is about 50 cm (20 in) tall with wire through his arms, legs and body, so he can lean back with the yellow claw over his head. Our Toothless has wire in his paws and wings, so the wings fold for a nap or spread wide on a shelf.

Ball joints. Collectors know them from ball-jointed dolls, the resin dolls “articulated with ball and socket joints.” Our Murder Drones J doll has a wire frame with ball joints inside, so her arms, legs and tail move and stay put. Her hands come off too: two white ones and a mechanical claw, plus a removable sword. Renamon works the same way, with a jointed frame under yellow velvet. She stands on her toes, kneels or drops into a fighting stance.

Murder Drones J: ball joints inside, a claw hand and a tail that holds its curve.

Thrax leans back with his yellow claw raised. A wire frame keeps him there.

Needle felting builds a figure from loose wool with a barbed needle, stab after stab, until the fibers lock into a firm shape (how needle felting works). There’s no fabric skin and no pattern pieces. The wool itself is the surface.

That’s what gives Shishimora, a creature from a writer’s own fantasy novella, its long thin fingers, dark claws and wispy ear tufts. Our Theodore from Alvin and the Chipmunks is felted too, about 30 cm (12 in) tall, with layered browns on his forehead and cheeks.

Felt can also take a frame. The legs of our needle felted goat have wire inside, with the wool felted around it, so she stands on her own and her thin legs keep their shape. Felted wool is firm, not squishy. These are pieces for a shelf, a desk or a curio cabinet, not for rough play.

Shishimora, needle felted in charcoal wool from a novella’s reference art.

The felted goat has wire in her legs, so she stands and keeps her pose.

Yes. A sound module or an LED light can go into almost any custom plush on request. The one rule: it goes in while we sew, so say so at the start.

For sound there are two ways. You can send us a finished module, for example one recorded at a studio, and we put it inside. It can be removable, behind a zipper or Velcro. Or we build a compartment for a module into the toy. Our Little Witch portrait doll has a small fabric pocket with a lid on her back, under the dress, held shut with small metal fasteners. The Ugandan Knuckles plush hides a voice recording module with a battery in a zipped chest pocket, so its owner can take it out, record a new message and zip it back.

Light works the same way. Open the red ring box held by our Proposal Hamster and a small light glows inside, right where a ring would catch it. Glowing LED eyes, light in the wings or a belly that glows are all planned into the pattern.

The voice module comes out of Ugandan Knuckles’ zipped chest pocket.

The Proposal Hamster’s ring box has a small light inside.

Plush faux taxidermy is a hunting-lodge trophy turned into a soft toy: an animal head on a plaque, sewn from faux fur and fabric. No animal is harmed. We never use real fur, and all of it is handmade to order.

The Moose Head grins from a shield-shaped plaque, with soft fabric antlers. The Mammoth Head has a ribbed trunk and squeezable tusks. The Lemur Head is needle felted from wool on a dark wooden plaque. The Zebra Head wears a striped cap over a curtain of yarn braids. And the Stoned Fox is the meme itself, in long ginger faux fur. See them all in Plush Faux Taxidermy.

Almost any animal can become a wall piece, a real one or one from a fairy tale. Tell us the animal, the size, the face and the plaque.

A grinning plush moose head on a brown plaque, faux fur and fabric antlers.

A needle felted ring-tailed lemur head on a dark wooden plaque.

As big as you have room for. Our Ted bear from the movie stands 160 cm tall in cream fleece, big enough to hug back. Toothless can be made from desk size up to a dragon you can fall asleep on; the one in our photos is 45 cm (17.7 in) tall and 60 cm (23.6 in) long. Our realistic giant panda sits about 55 cm (22 in) tall.

A big piece needs more planning than a small one. The pattern gets drafted for the height you want, the stuffing has to hold the shape, and a wire frame may go in so a large figure stands without sagging. Give us the size in centimeters or inches in your first message and we’ll price that exact toy.

The 160 cm Ted bear with the person who ordered it, for scale.

Toothless with both wings spread. Wire in the wings lets them fold or open.

The extras are designed in from the start, because a frame or a module can’t be pushed in after the toy is sewn. This is how a piece like the Faerie Dragon or J goes:

1. Your brief. Send pictures through the quote form and say what it should do: hold a pose, stand on its own, light up, talk, hang on a wall. Add the size.
2. A price and a date. The quote is free and comes with a real time estimate.
3. The design. You approve the look, the pose and the colors before any fabric or wool is cut.
4. The frame first. For a poseable toy we plan the wire and the joints, so it bends at the neck, shoulders and tail and still carries its own weight. The pattern is drawn around the frame. Pockets for sound modules and spots for lights go into the pattern at this stage.
5. Sewing or felting. Body, outfit, small parts. The face comes last, because a millimeter there changes the character.
6. Your approval. You get photos of the finished toy before it ships. If something looks off, we fix it.

Want to know how a stuffed animal gets made in general? Our step-by-step guide walks through it.

J’s spare parts: two white hands, a claw and a sword, planned with her pattern.

The Faerie Dragon holds its pose on a copper wire frame, tail curled.

Custom toys start from $350. Size, the number of parts and extras like a frame, a module or a plaque move the price, so every toy gets its own quote. Real starting prices from the toys on this page:

• Poseable figures: Faerie Dragon from $360, Murder Drones J from $405, Thrax from $435, Renamon from $450
• Needle felted pieces: Theodore from $355, Shishimora from $415
• Faux taxidermy: Mammoth Head from $515, Moose Head and Lemur Head from $520, Stoned Fox from $525

Most toys usually take 2–4 weeks to make. A wire frame or joints add time: J, the Faerie Dragon and Toothless usually take 3–4 weeks, and Thrax, with his lined coat, 6–8. The estimate keeps a small reserve for handmade surprises. Delivery adds 7–20 business days, a bit longer around the holidays. For Christmas, order before 1 November.

A display piece mostly needs protecting from light and dust. Textile conservators put it plainly: “The most visible sign of light damage in textiles is colour fading,” and they advise against putting textiles in direct daylight (Museums Galleries Scotland). So:

• Keep it out of direct sun. A shelf away from the window keeps faux fur and felt from fading. White wool stays white longer.
• Dust with a soft brush. Long faux fur and wall heads only need a gentle brush now and then.
• Spot clean only. No washing machine, ever, and never for felted wool or a toy with a frame inside.
• Take the module out first. If the sound module sits in a pocket, remove it before you clean around it.
• Pose gently. Move wire limbs slowly and don’t bend the same spot back and forth over and over.
• Keep chewing pets away from felted pieces.

Two customers, in their own words. Sheba in Australia ordered Ellen and Viola from the horror game The Witch’s House. Dex in the USA had wanted a Rugby Tiger from Jim Henson’s The Christmas Toy since he was a kid.

“They’re also great at thinking outside of the box and making useful little extras to complement their creations (the Viola doll came with extra, non-bloody head and legs, for when company arrives :p )”

Sheba, Australia, about her Ellen and Viola dolls. Read her review

“Rugby is beautiful beyond words and I am truly proud to own one of your creations. I will treasure this doll for many years to come”

Dex, USA, about his Rugby Tiger. Read his review

You see photos of your plush art toy before it ships, and we fix what looks off. If it arrives and you still don’t love it, tell us within 14 days. On a personal order you get a full refund. Details are on our guarantee page. Your pictures and messages stay private and are used only to make your toy.

Send a picture, the size and what it should do: pose, glow, talk or hang on the wall. We’ll reply with a price and a time estimate. For Christmas, order before 1 November.

Custom toys start from $350.
A bigger size or extra details can cost more.