Thanksgiving Turkey Creative Paperclay® Sculpture by Gloriann Irizarry

 

Hello my dear friends. I wanted to introduce my self.
My Name is Gloriann Irizarry and  I enjoy so much to Sculpt, craft and create all sort of items. I do have to say one of my personal favorites mediums is using paper clay and  sculpting with Creative Paperclay has made it easy. I like Creative paperclay,  because its gives me great results. My creations always have a great finish.

 I wanted to create a scultp piece and since this is the month of giving thanks and enjoy our family. I decided to create a cute center piece for eveyone to enjoy at the table or even has a gift to a love one.
Now my kids and I decided there would not be nothing better than a little turkey. So here I will show you step by step how to have fun and be able to complete this cute little project. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Materials

 

One pack of Creative Paperclay

Clay Roller

One Styrofoam ball

One Styrofoam circle base

Tim Holtz Adirondack Inks (Ginger, Red and orange colors)

Old fashion clothes pin

Popsicle sticks

Saran plastic wrap

One pair of latex or plastic disposable gloves

Pencil

Little cardboard

Scissors

Acrylics Paints ( Walnut, Orange, Red, Black, Light blue and white)

Brushes

Disposable plate

White Glue

Glitter ( Green, Gold and Bronze) 

Water and paper towels

 

Turkey project instructions:

Stick 2 popsicle sticks to the Styrofoam ball. These will later be the turkey legs.

 

 Place the ball on top of the base. Make sure the ball is not too big since this will later be our turkey’s body.

I use a old fashion clothes pin for the neck and head. Make sure the neck length is the way you want your final piece to look like.

 

I place Saran plastic sheet on top of my working surface then I open the Creative paperclay package cut the bar in half and place it flat sheet. Then grab the Tim Holtz Alcohol ink in Ginger tone and place drops on top of the flatten paperclay and mix thoroughly. Check the tone you are looking for the feathers if not yet to the tone your looking repeat the steps until your favorite tone is achieved.

 

  

Once the color is all mix and ready to be used roll the clay to ¼  deep sheet.

Then cover the Styrofoam ball completely and run the edged completely smooth.

 

Now place the old fashion clothes pin to the ball to place the neck to the desired length.

  

Place a ball to make the head shape and cover the neck area with regular clay.

 

 

Cut a rectangle shape to cover the neck area.

Fold the bottom part of the rectangle to create the volume for the turkeys’ neck area.

 

 

Roll it and cut the sheet.

 

Smooth the neck area to create a seamless transition from body to head.

 

To create the turkeys head I find the position were I want my eyes to be place. I use my thumb and first finger on each eye the pinch to create the eyes sockets.

 

 
To create the chubby cheeks roll a little ball and cut it in half. Place each half to each side of the head below the eyes sockets and smooth.

 

Now let color the clay in orange for later used in the making of the Turkey peek, feathers and legs using the same steps to color the clay for the body.

 

  

 I used two triangle orange shapes to create the turkeys peek. Roll a little circle ball. Cut it in half. Place the circle halves on each side of the peek to give the turkey some cute peek cheeks.

 

Place the peek to the turkeys head to finalize the head.

 

 Using the previous coloring steps grab a little piece in red to create the wattle.

 
 

To create the turkeys base I roll a ball of clay and using the roll toll flat the ball in to a ¼ sheet. Cover the Styrofoam base and smooth it completely.  

 

I cut a circle to cover the top. Then a roll a snake and flat it to a ¼ sheet to cover the side of the base and I smooth the edges.

 
 

To create the turkey’s legs I grab 2 Pop sticks and some of the orange tinted clay.

I stick the legs pop sticks to the turkeys body and cover them with the orange clay to shape the legs.

 

Then I place the turkey on to of the base to cover them completely and create the correct length of the legs.

 

To create the toes. I roll a little to the thickness of 1/4 inches and cut it in half. I repeat the steps for each leg.
Attach them to the leg and smooth in with water and a brush. 

 Now I wanted to give some texture to the turkey sculpt. I grab a popsicle stick and little by little press it against the clay in different places to create the shape of the body feathers like shown in the photo above.

 

 
  

I create the wings I draw a little template of how you want your final wing to look like and cut it off. I later place it directly on the ¼ clay sheet lightly trace it. Flip the template and trace is again. Now cut the wings shapes out of the clay of sheet.

 

 Place the wings on the turkey’s body and smooth them in shape.

 

Now I grab the remaining Ginger and orange color clay and flatten them into a ¼ sheet.

 

 

I cut the big tail feathers like the one on the photo above.

 

 
 

I grab a Popsicle stick and break it in half. After I moist the feathers shapes. I use the rough Popsicle stick has a tool to create the feather lines by stroking the rought popsicle stick to draw in the veins.


Follow these steps for placement of the feathers
 

I place the big ones first then add the smaller ones after all until I create a beautiful feather fan tail.

Cut 2 big orange feathers for later be placed on the back.

Lay the fan flat to dry overnight. They need to be completly dry before attaching them to the turkey. 

Once dry attach the feather fan tail to the bird. After is secured and dry I grab my acrylic Walnut color paint and water it down to create a wash.

Little by little get the watered paint apply to the piece making sure all the details are wet soon after dap the piece dry with the paper towel removing all the excess paint out before it dry. This will enhance the sculpture details right out.

  

Do this water washed down acrylic paint technique all over the piece. It will sure make a total difference, once this technique is complete. You will notice all the feather veins and details done during the sculpting process.

Now to finalize the base I brush on the base a coat of white glue and sprinkle my glitter colors all over it. Yes a little glitter here and a little there in a random pattern. Feel free to add has much has you want.

Now I paint the eyes using a base of black to create the eyes.

After is dry I use now the light blue. I stroke the brush in the correct direction to create the iris effect.

After it dry I add the outline in black and round the center has well.

I use a very small brush use the white acrylic dab the brush once to add one big drop on the top of the eye and a smaller drop to the bottom of the eye. This will bring light to the eyes and gives personality to your character.  My Daughters found this little bowin my crafty box and could not resist to dress the little turkey up.

Well, I Guess this little guys is already dressed for the banquet.

 

 

 I hope you guys had fun creating this adorable little turkey. I wanted to take time and wish to all my family and Crafty friends a very bless holidays.
 Now stay tune for more projects to come and feel free to ask any questions at Gloriann@byglori.com

God bless you and happy crafting.

Sincerely

Gloriann Irizarry

www.byglori.com