Polymer Clay Fan

This past weekend I took my kids to see the movie 9.  For those that are not familiar with the movie it is a post apocalyptic story where the human race has been annihilated by machines.   The basis for the plot has been used over and over again for decades now but the story of 9 separates itself from the predecessors in that in a last effort to save humanity a brilliant scientist has given his own life to bring life to nine different rag dolls.

I personally would rate 9 as one of the best animated movies that I have ever seen.  I loved the way the story unfolded before my eyes and the quality of the animation was nothing less than superb.  The characters and the creatures in the movie were brilliantly designed.  It was no surprise finding out that Tim Burton was one of the producers of this movie and you could feel his presence in both the landscape and character designs.

For those of you that have little ones and are wondering if this movie is appropriate keep in mind that 9 is rated PG-13.  There is a reason for the PG-13 rating and the movie is very intense with some scary action sequences.   This movie was a little more intense than I expected and some of the scenes were pretty scary for my six-year-old (I guess I won’t be winning the “Dad of the Year” award this year).  Don’t get me wrong my son did enjoy the movie but if you also have little ones you may want to screen the movie first a then decide if your own kids are up to it. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 22% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

What is Polymer Clay

Polymer clay is a material you can sculpt. It is based on polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material. It usually contains no clay minerals and is only called “clay” because its texture and properties resemble mineral clay. Polymer clay is sold in craft, art and hobby stores. It is used by artists, hobbyists and children.

All polymer clay brands include PVC and one or more liquid plastic. Pigments may be added to the base to create colors along with small amounts of kaolin or white china clay. Mica may also be added to make a metallic looking clay.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 32% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

If you have followed any of my other projects then you have most likely noticed that I like to jump around a lot when I sculpt. For me this keeps things fresh and also keeps me from hyper focusing on just one area (the Fiddler sculpting series is a great example this).

In the last lesson I covered how I sculpted the skirt for my African woman, in this lesson I will go into how I created the details for the hair. The hair is actually pretty simple for this piece but once done has a really nice effect. Since I’m adding a scarf around her head I only need to focus sculpting the hair for a small portion of the head, the rest will be covered by the scarf. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

In this tutorial I will go into more detail on how I created the textures on the skirt. Keep in mind that I got the idea for the design of the skirt from looking at various pictures of African women on the web. Most of my research was from images that the search results produced from the keyword “African scarification”. During my research I found several images where the skirt just seemed to overlap itself in various places around the woman’s legs. The design appealed to me, in some respects it was very simplistic but the design in the images still seemed to draw me to the beauty of the woman in the photograph. I really liked this design and wanted to incorporate it into this piece.

The skirt’s shape is really simple, just roll out sheets of clay in the pasta machine and wrap then along the legs of the sculpture in various stages. Once that is achieved I used my wire brush to scrape lines into the dress. I applied various pressure using the wire sculpting tool so that some of the lines were deeper while others were kind of shallow.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

OK, first off my apologies. It has been a little over two years since I’ve updated this project so I’m having to go through old pictures to piece it back together. This is still an unfinished sculpture so I will try to schedule time to work on it in-between my current projects. The good news is that it shows the durability of polymer clay. You can set it aside for a couple of years and in most cases pick up from where you left off.

As I commented in a previous post, I initially started out planning only to create a bust for this figure. I ended up changing my mind along the way and decided to do a full figure instead. In order to make this work a makeshift armature was needed to build out the lower half of the sculpture.

Ideally the best case scenario is to build out the armature for the entire figure from the beginning but we do not live in a world of best case scenarios. My designs are usually dynamic in that they change throughout the sculpting process. This tutorial is a good example on how I like to try and figure out how to “make something work” even after the original plans have changed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Looking for free polymer clay projects?

Whether you are looking for a few craft ideas for your kids or you are just young at heart, the possibilities for polymer clay projects are limited to your own imagination. Need help with some ideas? Here are a few examples that you can try at home:

• Christmas ornaments
• Refrigerator magnets
• Necklace or other polymer clay jewelry

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 14% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Creating a Marbled Vase

This is a quick and easy tutorial that will demonstrate how to take a plain Jane glass vase and turn it into a work of art with the help of a little polymer clay. This is the first time I have ever done something like this myself so at the end of the page I will cover some lessons learned.

This really is a simple tutorial and I’m convince just about anyone can easily create a marbled vase. If it seems a little challenging at first then just keep practicing and it will come to you in no time at all.

The polymer clay I am using for this particular piece is Premo.

	No need to cringe, you do not need that much clay for this tutorial. I was shopping at my local Hobby Lobby and went a little overboard on the clay. All is good since I will have plenty of clay for future projects. To give you an idea on how much clay you will need, I ended using less than one block of two or three colors by the time the vase was completed (My glass vase is around five (5) inches tall).Note: Make sure the glass vase that you purchase can be baked in an oven.
	The first step is to condition the clay. Premo is a little firmer then the clay I normally use, Super Sculpey, so a pasta machine comes in handy here. I’m only using two colors on my vase so I keep rolling out the clay until it is fully conditioned.
	The next step is the mix the two colors together and roll them both through the pasta machine. I repeated this step several times until I got a design I was happy with. Just roll the clay, fold, squish it together and roll it again. You don’t want to fully blend the clay, the key here is to keep the marbled look.
	Simply press the clay onto the glass vase. I started from the bottom and worked my way up on this piece.
	Still applying clay to the vase.
	Using one of my dental tools I blend the individual pieces together. Spend some time on this stage since you want the clay to look as if it was on piece. Try to avoid parting lines if possible.
	Once you create your own vase you will see how easy this tutorial really is. I personally like to try and take things to the next level when I create my art. A marbled vase is cool but a marbled vase with art hanging off of it is much cooler. I sculpted an Indian on my vase just to give it a little something extra.Tip: To cure the piece bake it in the oven at 275 degrees for 30 minutes (per 1/4 of an inch).
	A side view of my vase.Probably 98% of the colors on this vase are made up of clay. I added a little paint to tint the skin but other than that no paint was applied to this piece.

Lessons Learned

As I stated at the beginning of this tutorial, this was the first time I have tried something like this. The vase was a good learning experience for me and I did learn a few good lessons along the way. Here are a few tips I plan to use in the future:

1. Wear surgical gloves when sculpting a vase – No issues with the skin here, I just ended up with tons of fingerprints in my piece. Latex gloves would have been a quick and easy solution to avoid any fingerprints. Alcohol can remove the fingerprints but that is a lot of extra work.

2. Don’t rush the project – in all honesty this is not my favorite piece that I have created. I have a lot of other projects I should have been working on but just had to give this idea a try. I only gave myself a few hours for this piece and now looking at it I wish I would have set aside a little more time. All is not lost since I really did learn a lot by creating this vase.

3. Keep your area clean – key warning here, little clay particles lying around will somehow end up in your lighter clays. Also be sure to clean off the pasta machine before mixing different colors of clay.

That’s it! I’ll be sure to do more vases in the future and will probably show more of the sculpting stages in the process. The goal for this tutorial was to show you how you can mix glass and polymer clay to create a piece of art.

Until next time,

- Gerald

Popularity: 20% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Sculpting the scroll

Ok, soooo we have added the base (belly), a rough neck and now it is time to add the scroll (top part of the neck). The following steps are quick and easy and a good start to building a basic scroll. I still have a lot more to do to the scroll, like cleaning it up and adding the keys. However, as I have done in all the other tutorials, I always first cover the foundation or basic steps. Once you get a good foundation then adding the details is a cinch.

The polymer clay I am using for this particular piece is Super Sculpey.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Sculpting a new fiddle

Well, it is that time again where we need to get back to sculpting the fiddle. I started working on the fiddle and it was coming along ok but I just felt that I was going to have to put a lot of time into it to get it the way I want it to look.

I’m very comfortable sculpting things from life, like the human body and animals, but inanimate objects always present themselves as a challenge. The key to sculpting things like a fiddle is to make sure that the shape is symmetrical on all sides. Instead of spending a lot of time trying to get just the basic shape down, I decided to take the pumpkin carving template approach to my design.

The first step was to search the internet for a picture of a fiddle that I could use as my template. Once I located a picture I saved it to my computer and resized the image to the size that i need for my sculpture

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Sculpting the fiddle – building the design

Ok, you are probably going to see me jump around a bit during these series. I don’t like to focus on only one area while I am sculpting, I like to move around a bit so that everything stays fresh. That being said, I have found for me that it is important to get a good base for the face before I begin to work on other parts of the sculpture. I have found that when I save sculpting the face towards the end I usually end up making mistakes that throw the rest of the sculpture off (for example the head is too big for the body). We have a pretty good start on our face, although it is not finished, so I think it is time to move on to a few more areas.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!