CREATIVE CRAFTING

Archive for the ‘Polymer Clay’ Category

I found this fun Halloween  Haunted House at my favorite site Sculpty.com. They have tons of fresh ideas for Halloween and I couldn’t resist this little house. It has a battery-operated “flame” making it safe for even small children to use. I only made one for now, but plan on making a few more for around the house and yard.

Here is what you will need to get started:
Clays:

Sculpey® III: Black – 2 oz — 1 block
Sculpey® III: Chocolate – 2 oz — 1 block
Sculpey® III: Elephant Gray – 2 oz — 1 block
Sculpey® III: Emerald – 2 oz — 1 block
Sculpey® III: Just Orange – 2 oz — 1 block
Sculpey® III: Pottery – 2 oz — 1 block
Sculpey® III: Spring Lilac – 2 oz — 1 block
Sculpey® III: Tan – 2 oz — 1 block

Tools:
8” Acrylic Roller
Clay Knife
Etch ‘n Pearl
Super Slicer
Additional Supplies:
Glass tealight holder and tealight or battery operated tealight
Super Glue gel

To get started with your Halloween House preheat your oven to 275 °F. Test temperature with oven thermometer for perfectly cured clay. Make sure you condition all clay by kneading until it’s soft and smooth or running it through the Clay Conditioning Machine for several passes on the widest setting. Do this until the clay is soft and plyable.

Step 1
Use acrylic roller or clay roller to roll Black clay to ½” thickness. Roll Elephant Gray to ¼” thickness. Roll Spring Lilac and Tan clay into ⅛”-thick sheets.

Polymer Clay is a fun medium to use because it is easy to mold and it can be cooked in your oven. When making jewelry, and you have run out of beads that you want to use, take out your clay, and make beads. Here are some techniques that will make your bead making more intricate and unique.

I found a technique for making imitation bone or ivory beads using polymer clay. You can also maneuver the clay so that it will take on a wooden look. You start the process by making beads the size you need out of white. Some artist like to use more cylindrical shapes as they claim it enables them to “carve” patterns easier than more rounded beads, for myself I didn’t see a difference. So use your own ideas on the shapes (more fun that way too!)

After the bead has been baked use a small knife to carve patterns. You can also use on of your pointed clay tools or a sharp needle also works well. Once you are satisfied with the carving use either a tan or light beige acrylic paints and lightly rub the outside of the bead. Do not rub so much in that the paint goes into the carving you made, that part should remain white. While the paint is slightly damp still use either a piece of paper towel or a napkin to remove any excess paint.

There are some wonderful tools available for the Polymer Clay artist.   One of these that I have used quite extensively in my projects involving fairies is the flexible mold.

You can purchase them at your craft store.  There will be a wide variety of molds for you to use, everything from feet, emblems, leafs, flowers, hands, faces, even body molds.  These molds are made of a flexible rubberized material. However, I have learned there are some tricks to using these molds to your advantage.

First if you have never worked with Polymer Clay the first thing you should learn is to condition it.  That means take a small amount of clay off of the block and knead it with your fingers until it becomes very pliable.

Next pick the mold you would like to use and measure out the conditioned clay to approximate size of the shape you are trying to mold.  In the case of a face, pinch a very small end for the impression of the nose.  Press your clay into the mold.  Remove any excess clay around the impression.   You want the clay to be level with the mold do not want it to overlap on the outer mold surface.

To release the clay from the mold, gently rub clay off the edge of the mold toward the center of the molded piece.   This will give you a nice clean edge on your molded piece.  The mold is flexible so if you are careful you can release your piece by gently pressing opposite sides and your piece should release from the mold.

As many of my readers know, I have become a huge fan of Polymer Clay.  I like making yard gnomes, fairies, and little scenes to go with them.   Over the winter I made a lot of flowers, little houses, and some new fairies and gnomes.  All of which will find a spot in my garden this summer.

Here are two of my newest creations.

I hope you enjoy these little creatures as much as I enjoy making them.  In weeks to come I have some ideas on what to do with the miniature birdhouses I made..Stay Tuned.

It is a little early in the season for flowers to be blooming in my gardens.  The daffodils are blooming of course, and the tulips are starting to bud.   But I am anxious.  I love flowers, they make me feel happy.

Polymer Clay also makes me happy..so why not combine the two.   I made Roses, Tulips, Dahlias, Canna and a few that I am not sure what they are, but flowers are free flowing, so I used my imagination.

Now that I have this veritable garden sitting in my hobby/computer room I am not sure what to do with them.  I will put some in little vases to either give to friends or sell at my yard sales this summer, but I think I will make a few more and make them into jewelry!

Each of these flowers is between a dime to a quarter in size, just to give you some idea.

I have been getting bored since Christmas. There is only so much you can do in Michigan in the middle of winter. I don’t ski, I don’t ice fish, I don’t tobaggan. I do like the snow though and I love Michigan. It is a great state.

In the winter I have to find things to keep me busy. The months between January-end of March are particularly nailbiting for me!

I have been collecting for the last 10 years, birdhouses. The kind that you don’t hang outside, but are purly decorative. You find them at store thoughout the midwest that cater to folk art, country decor. So I have about 20 of the life size birdhouses hanging around the house (not literally).

So I decided with my love of Polymer Clay, why not make miniatures of them! So I have been busy. Each one stand about 2″ high and 11/2″ deep. The width depends on the style of the house.

Here are some samples.

The house is not crooked, just my aim of the camera!

Little pine trees and shrubs make the house complete

Ribbon Candy has always been a Holiday staple as far as I am concerned.  So this year when I found a way to make decorations out of polymer to look like ribbon candy, I couldn’t wait to try it.

I am using these on the tree, to decorate packages and a bowl of “fake” ones on the table in a candy dish.  I have no small children coming to my house, so I don’t have to watch for anyone wanting to eat them!

Click on picture for more instructions

So much for my 21 days of Christmas Crafting…my only excuse is shopping.

Design by Marie Redmond

Last year around this time I was just starting my exploration of Polymer Clay. I knew from the start that this was something I would enjoy for years to come. One of my favorite aspects of clay is the miniature scenes, characters, and villages one can make. I like doing things in a small size.

I ran across this on my favorite Polymer Clay site Sculptey.com. The complete instructions for this and other crafts are there for both novices and experienced alike.

Happy Holidays!