Redheaded Fairy

Hi!! I'm Carole Lassak, a new member of the design team and contributor to the Creative Paperclay Blog, I dabble in lots of craft areas, but jewelry, mixed media, and paper seem to be the ones that I come back to again and again. This Redheaded Fairy may morph into a jewelry piece at some time in the future, but for now the little sprite graces my work area.

Here are the supplies that I used to bring her to life:

• Creative Paperclay® modeling material
• Amazing Mold Putty
• Terri Sproul Mixers (Copper Penny and Gold)
• USArtQuest PPA
• USArtQuest Perfect Pigment acrylic paint (White Satin Pearl)
• Spellbinders Media Mixage Rectangles One bezel
• ETI Jewelry Clay
• Rubber stamp
• Coiling Gizmo
• Copper wire
• Clay extruder
• Dremel
• Assorted beads and rhinestone
• Eye hook and jump ring
• Wings reclaimed from a thrift store garden decoration

The original of her face was a pin and I used Amazing Mold Putty to make a mold of it. I piled Creative Paperclay® modeling material into the mold, taking care to press the clay into all of her facial features. After drying overnight it popped right out of the mold.

Next, I painted her face with White Pearl acrylic paint. When the paint dried, I drilled a starter hole for the screw eye at her neck and added three tiny rhinestones to her cheek.

I learned through trial and error that it was nearly impossible to completely cover the hair with paint. There are just too many tiny nooks and crannies. So I added Copper Penny Mixer into the modeling material to color it. With the Mixer thoroughly incorporated into the Creative Paperclay, I extruded the clay onto a teflon mat, and left it to dry. The clay extruder is just like a miniature cookie press, with several interchangeable tips. And SO fun to use. You'll be sure to see more projects from me that use it.

When her hair was dry, I mixed Copper Penny Mixer to PPA to make a paint-like substance. I used this to coat the hair.

Extruded hair

Clay extruder with painted hair

Her legs are coiled copper wire made on the Coiling Gizmo, with beads added for feet. I used the Dremel to drill two holes in the bottom edge of the bezel to feed the wires through. I crimped the wires inside the empty bezel.

I filled the bezel for her body with jewelry clay, dusted it with a Mixer, and gently stamped into it with a rubber stamp. The jewelry clay will permanently trap the wire ends from her legs and the Mixer gives it a permanent metallic finish. I also used jewelry clay to attach her hair to her face and her head and body to her wings.

I'm thinking of naming my redheaded beauty. Any suggestions for a name? Let me know what you think.

You can see more projects on my Create & Craft blog.

Carole