Making Molds and Milagros

I love to add dimensional details to my art with Creative Paperclay®. These little items are the sweet part of my paintings that add POP to the piece like the heart in this piece of art.

This lesson shows how to make a mold with Creative Paperclay® and then use the clay to make multiples. You get two tricks for the price of one

SUPPLIES

Milagros or dimensional objects
Creative Paperclay®
PAM no-stick cooking spray or talcum powder
Polymer Medium
Black acrylic paint
Krylon's foil metallic spray (in silver)

After rolling out the clay, I impress a vintage milagro into the clay before letting it dry. When dry, I seal it with polymer medium to seal the surface.

To use this as a mold, I either spray PAM on it as a mold release or apply talcum powder to it. Then I apply my clay to the mold and pull it out immediately.

The cast object is cleaned up with an exacto knife and edges are smoothed with water.

I am a happy accident kind of person so when this heart came out of the mold with a crack through the center, I was thrilled. This will go into a piece about a broken heart.

I use sandpaper or Sand-Its to clean up the edges. Sometimes, I like a raw, aged look.

Now it's time to paint. For my milagros, I spray Krylon's silver foil metallic spray paint. When that has dried, I apply a black acrylic paint that I wipe off while wet. This sticks in the crevices and gives it an aged look.

Of, course, Creative Paperclay® can be painted any color, gold leafed and more.

Dream in Color!

DarleneOliviaMcElroy.com

Can we be Friends?

 If you don't like clowns, turn back now!

I had the opportunity to submit art for a Stephen King project in a local gallery.  I have loved Stephen King novels for years, much more than the movies.  I decided to use the image of one of his craziest characters and mix it with a one of his sweetest characters.  

If you are not a fan of clowns, especially Pennywise, click away and I'll be posting another cuter Halloween project soon.  

It all started with the idea of a sculpture, but I wanted it to hang on the gallery walls.  So I joined the sculpture with the canvas and I really enjoyed the process.  

1. cutting cardboard in the shape and size of the sculpture and making sure it fits within the size of the canvas

I layed tracing paper on the cardboard so I could draw out where the hands would be holding the paper boat.  

Originally I was going to have the boat covering some of the face.  That idea changed a lot.

building up the armatures for arms and face by using wire and masking tape.  

Putting on the first layers of Creative Paperclay

I downloaded some photos of gloves and started creating the hands.  

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Here I'm playing with the size of the boat and making a hood for the raincoat he'll be wearing.  

I lost so many of my face sculpting photos.  I have to say I was getting frustrated with him.  

This face went through so many changes.  I made the eyes by using molds and resin.  They turned out pretty creepy and seem to follow you around.

Silly clown shoes coming up

Added some waxed thread to create the shoe laces.  

creepy eyes

accessories 

The hardest part is waiting for the paint to dry so I could add the textiles and put him all together.

Wanna be friends?

Starting to add the lace of the clown suit and then creating the raincoat out of a plastic table cloth.  

 

This video is a quick slide show of the process.  Unfortunately I lost all my still photos.  

Materials that I used:

18" X 46" Canvas

Large piece of cardboard

masking tape

Heavy wire for armature

Creative Paperclay ( 2 large bricks)

acrylic paints

eyes / or create your own resin eyes or paint your eyes in.

glue

card stock for the boat

Lace for collar, pant and wrist ruffles

yellow plastic party table cloth

red balloon

red ribbon

red hair or yarn

waxed thread for shoe laces