Using the unexpected for a drying holder - Tip #6 by LeeAnn Kress

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.  Thanks for stopping by the Creative Paperclay® Blogsite.  My tip today comes from an artist and dear friend of mine, Carly Smith of Boggy Bottom Bayou.  We were talking about drying our sculpted Creative Paperclay® heads in a low temperature oven and how we have to prop them up in various ways.  Carly shared the below pictures with me and I thought that I would pass this tip on to you.

It is such an unexpected holder ... a cardboard drink tray from a fast food restaurant.  Who would have thought that such a simple thing could work perfectly to hold your sculpted heads in?

Here you can see how Carly used this tray.  She is sculpting her sweet bat heads for Halloween and using the tray to hold the heads in place for drying.

Now, I would not suggest putting anything paper in your oven unless you are going to keep a good eye on it.  This oven was set at 150 degrees ( a very low temp as to not burn up the holder).  These heads were baked for 1 hour to dry.

If you don't want to bake your paper clay heads, you can still get one of these handy drink holders to hold your heads while the clay dries naturally.  It is really a perfect tool to prevent any smashing of facial features.  

In the above picture (the two heads in the back) - the facial features are already dry, so Carly turned them face down to dry the backs of the heads.  The head that is face up had some cracks repaired to the facial features, so it is turned up. 

Off in the oven they go at the low temp of 150 degrees.

 

Here is Carly's finished bat head.  To see more of Carly's work go to www.boggybottombayou.blogspot.com   Thanks for letting me share your tip, Carly!  

Just goes to show that you can find tools to add to your Creative Paperclay® toolbox just about anywhere!  Keep your eyes open for them.

To find out more about me and my Charmed Confections made from Creative Paperclay®, please visit me at www.charmedconfections.com

See you soon with a new tutorial!  LeeAnn

Using WireForm® as Armature for your Creative Paperclay® Sculptures - Tip #5 by LeeAnn Kress

Hi Everyone!

It's LeeAnn and I am back to give you a little more information on how to use wire contour mesh as a possible armature option in addition to aluminum foil when building your armatures.

Earlier this month, I posted a tutorial on how to sculpt a jointed bunny.  I showed you two different ways to create the bunny's ears.  One using aluminum foil and one using wire mesh called WireForm® (See the picture above.)  Today, I am going to give you a little bit more information on using the wire mesh.

WireForm® comes in a roll shown in the picture above.  I usually buy mine at www.dickblick.com  - this is a wonderful art supply company and has a multitude of items perfect for incorporating with Creative Paperclay®.

The wire mesh I use is very pliable, however it comes in several sizes and gauges depending on what you are going to use it for.  The roll above is 10 ft long - 20 inches wide.  It is the 1/16" pattern.

When incorporating wire mesh with your paperclay, the wire mesh (since it has holes in it) acts like re-barb would to cement.  Creative Paperclay® sticks nicely to it and fills in all those tiny holes for a super strong armature.  Because the wire mesh is pliable, you can bend it and form it any way you want. The sky is the limit to the possibilities of posing your sculpture.

Here are the suggested uses -- WireForm® is an excellent sculpting medium for light armatures and crafts, gently sculpt, pull, stretch, gather and twist the WireForm® into a shape or lift impression by pressing and stretching the mesh over an object.  Seam edges or join pieces by folding, crimping or hot gluing.

I love the fact that you can use scissors with this.  It is not hard to cut a piece off, in fact you can even tear off a piece.  I would suggest wearing some kind of protective gloves when you are scrunching it for a inner armature body shape.  The edges do get a little sharp.

I realize that there are a lot of us that use aluminum foil for inner armatures ... I do too.  But now that I have had some time to play with WireForm®, I have learned that I can also incorporate this with foil.  For example, maybe the body is made out of foil, but I want some really cool wings or a tall collar coming off my sculpture, with this wire mesh, it makes it so easy to do.  Personally, I think the mesh has more flexibility to bend and conform in the intricate shapes I want better than foil.

My suggestion is to use your foil for more bulkier parts of your armature and use wire mesh for your thinner more delicate parts like bunny ears, wings, long tails, horns, collars, etc.

WireForm® contour mesh is just another great option out there to put into your Creative Paperclay® toolbox.  That is why I love Creative Paperclay® so much -- it works with practically everything!!  I hope you give it a try someday!

Thanks for stopping by the Creative Paperclay® blogsite and if you have a little more time to spare, stop by my site at www.charmedconfections.com

Until next time!  LeeAnn

Make a Blissful Bunny with Me (Part 2) by LeeAnn Kress of Charmed Confections

Hi Again!

It's LeeAnn -- posting Part 2 of how to make a Blissful Bunny!  If you are looking for Part 1, it is the post below this one. 

Are you ready to sculpt a bunny head?  Come on it's fun ... you can do this!!

Materials Needed for Part 2

Creative Paperclay®

1 1/2" Styrofoam ball
Tooth brush

Ice pick

Wire mesh or tin foil

2 1/2" wooden dowel

Paint - your choice
White gesso used as a base coat before painting
Burnt umber paint / staining medium (optional)

Matte varnish

White tacky glue

16 gauge wire

Needle Nose Pliers

Bead stringing wire or fishing line

Ribbon for collar

Glitter - optional

I have taken my 1-1/2" Styrofoam ball and pushed in indents on each side of the head.  Bunny eyes are not straight on like ours, but more on the side of their head.  You can see a better picture of my indents in the next picture.

Here you can see the eye indents better.  Make a pancake of clay and lay it over your Styrofoam ball.   Smooth it over the entire ball, just like we did for the body in Part 1.  Use a little water if the clay is too dry or if you need to smooth it out better.  Once covered, let this set up for a little.  It is ok if it dries up a bit.  In fact, if you let it dry completely, when you add more clay on top for the features this base clay stays put.  It makes a nice foundation for your sculpt.

So while this is drying, let's make some bunny ears!

In this picture, I have shown you two different types of armature for the inside of the ear.  One done in a small wire mesh and one made from tin foil.  If you have this mesh, just cut out the shape of a bunny ear and bend to your liking.  I really love the wire mesh.  It is so fine that you can practically sculpt it into any armature and it is a little stiffer than tin foil.  I will be giving a tip on this mesh later this month.

Since we all have tin foil, I will be making my ears out of that.  Take a small piece of foil and mold it into an ear shape.  Make sure the foil is a few layers thick and mash it tight.  No flimsy ears for our bunny!  The width of the foil should be a little smaller than you want your ears to be since we are adding clay to it.  Make a longer point at the bottom of the ears to insert it into the head.

Poke a hole with your ice pick where your bunny ears should go and work your tin foil ears down into the hole.   Mine are nice and secure without gluing -- but if yours are not, use a little super glue in each hole and wait for it to dry.

Once our bunny ears are in place, you can now start adding a thin layer of clay to the foil.  Just little bits of clay to build up the armature.  Get it nice and compacted down at the base of the head and ear.  Do not worry about detailing the ears now.  This is just a rough cover up.  We will detail those ears later.

Now that my ears are covered in clay, I am going to shape them a bit.  Bend them into the curved shape you want.  The clay will dry holding your shape in place.

Let's move on to the face.  In the picture above, I have rolled out three balls, two for cheeks and one for the chin.  The cheek balls should be the same size and the chin ball about half as big.

Use a "little" water to dampen your bunny face.  Press the clay balls into the face like shown.  You might think ... gee, this bunny looks as if he has eaten way too much candy.  He is a chunky monkey.  No worries, we are going to blend the clay and smooth it all out.

In this picture, you can see that my fingers are damp.  I pushed the top part of the round ball of the cheek into the eye socket.  Then went around the entire outside of the cheek ball pushing the clay towards the back of the head.  I am just blending and attaching the cheek ball to the face.  Do this on both sides.

 With the chin ball, I am blending it down towards the neck.

In this picture you can see that the three balls of clay used for his cheeks and chin have been smoothed out.  Switch to using your damp paint brush to get into the space where all three balls connect (in the middle of his face).  Smooth all around, but keep your chin and cheeks rounded.

Now, I have taken a small round ball of clay to make the nose.  Wet the ball and place it where the nose would go.  Press down on it to adhere it to the face.

Shape your nose ball into a bunny nose shape - wider at the top and tapered down in a "V" shape.  You can do this with your paint brush.  Smooth the clay around the nose to blend.

If you look at the picture above  this one to compare, you will see that I added two small balls of clay under the nose to form the upper lip. I have marked them in the picture above with black circles.  I have blended them into the clay and smooth out the ridges.  Once you do that, take a pointy tool (I like my ice pick) and draw a line in the clay from the tip of the nose down to where you want your mouth to be.

Now take a ball stylus tool or a small tool with a round end on it and make three indents for the mouth.  See picture below!

I have marked these in yellow.  Once you have these three landmarks, draw another line in the clay (a curved one) from the outer indent to the center nose line.  You can also add a tiny bit of clay to pout out the bottom lip.  Blend it all with your damp paint brush.  Let this dry a little before moving on to the eyes.  There is nothing worst than smashing a feature that you just created, because you moved on too quickly.  Let this set up a little (at least 15 minutes) and then move on.

Are you having fun yet?  I sure hope so.  Next, make two small balls for the eyes.  Try and get these the same size.  These are about the same size as your chin ball.

Now, wet the bunny's eye sockets slightly and press your ball of clay into each indent like in the above picture.  Once again, take your paint brush and smooth around the edges blending it all in.

Use your tooth brush to give the backside of the bunny head some texture.

Let's draw in some lines for the eyes.  My eyes are pretty simple.  Think of drawing an arrow.  The point of the arrow starts in the corner of his eyes.  Curve the line of the arrow down and out to the outer corner of his eye.  Do you  see the arrow?  Once you get the arrows in, draw in a few wrinkle lines above and below the arrow.  Cute!

Now, I am going to let the eyes set up again before putting my finishing touches to those ears.

Roll out tiny snakes of clay and lay them on the outside rim of the ears.  Build up the outer rim of each ear so that you have an inner ear look.  (Compare this picture with the one above it.)  Also, if your ears are looking a little thin on the backside of the head, build it up there too.  Once the ears are how you like them, let's call this sculpt done.

Let everything dry completely.  This could take a few days or if you have a drying station that could speed up the process.  For best results, let your sculpt dry all the way through.  After all that hard work, it is time for you to sit back and relax a while.  Where's that Easter candy?  :)

WOW!  Look my bunny is already painted.  Yes ... I didn't elaborate on this.  I did not do too much sanding either.  Since we used our tooth brush to pounce in texture, you really don't want to sand it off.  However, if there are some rough edges, I would sand them down for a pretty finish.

Important!  Before you paint, take your ice pick again and put it through the holes in your bunny's legs and arms.  Make sure that hole is open and that the 16 gauge wire fits through nice and easy with a little room to spare.

Back to painting ....paint your bunny however you like.  I usually paint a base coat of white gesso to give it a smooth painting surface.  I dry brushed in some various tans, and added a little pink to his cheeks and inner ears.  If you want to give him a more vintage look, stain him with some burnt umber paint mixed with staining medium.  When he is completely dry, varnish him with matte varnish.

Let's start to assemble him!  When doing the next steps, don't be scared.  I always get a little apprehensive when poking holes into my finished pieces, but I just put my big girls pants on and trudge ahead.  The worst that can happen is I might need to patch a hole and Creative Paperclay® is fabulous for that!

Find your center in the top of the body (where the bunny's neck would go) and poke your first hole.  Just poke about a 1/2 inch down.  Here goes nothing!

Now we are going to take a small wooden dowel (roughly around 2-1/2" long).  You can see that I sharpened each end with my handy, dandy pencil sharpener!  This is going to be the neck.

Work the dowel into the hole in the body leaving about an inch or so for the head to fit on.  Once the dowel is in, take your head and hold it up to the body to see how you want to position the head ... straight on, tilted, looking up, looking down.  Wherever you like it, mark the point on the head with a pen so you know where to poke the next hole.

Ok ... Here I go!  I am using my ice pick to poke a hole in the bunny head.  Ok ... see that "M" on my thumb, my daughter did that as she was walking by my worktable.  It's stands for Mom!  LOL!  She is a silly girl and wanted to leave her mark in my tutorial.  Moving on ...

Important -- take the dowel out of the body and now poke it in the hole in the head - not too far, you can always adjust later.   If you try and put the head on with the dowel unglued in the body, it will push the dowel down further in the body.  We don't want that.

Now, do a test run assembly.  Since the dowel is in the head, put the other end in the body and adjust carefully.  Cute!  I think this bunny is happy!  I am leaving some room between his head and body so that I can make him a collar.  Now, take it all apart and let's create the holes for the arms.  We are not ready to glue the dowel in just yet.

In the above picture you can see the hole for the neck.  We need to make sure that when we run the wire through the body to hold the arms on, we do not cross the neck hole (since there will be a wooden dowel in the way).   See where my yellow line is.  That is the path we need to take.  Right behind the neck.  Position your arms to the body.  Make sure both arms are even on the body.  Hold one arm and poke a small placement hole through the arm hole into the body with your ice pick.  Scary stuff, but you can do it!!

Now, do the same for the other arm.  We are not poking a hole through the entire body ... just creating a place marker hole for each arm.

I am going to use 16 gauge wire in a pretty brown color.  Cut off a long piece of wire.

Before we poke our wire through the body and out the other side.  Glue your dowel into the body.  I am using white tacky glue that will dry clear.  Next, glue your head on and set the position you want.

Since the dowel is now in place, our wire will have to go around it.  This is a good thing.  Take your ice pick and poke deeper holes in each arm hole you created.  Work this path from both arm holes, poking a little bit at a time on each side until you reach the middle and they connect.  Watch your angel.   When your hole is all the way through, string your wire through and add your arms.  Glad that is done!

 To secure these arms to the body, I just make a tiny loop in the wire to hold the arm in place.  Take your needle nose pliers and curl the wire on itself. Pinch the wire tight on to itself, so the end of the wire does not scratch your pretty paint job.  You do not want the wire to be tight on the arm holes - make sure you leave just enough wire length to let your arms move around and dangle freely.

When attaching the legs, do the same as I mentioned above.  Position both legs on the body, make sure they are lining up correctly and poke a small hole through the leg hole into the body.  Do that on both sides and then gradually use your ice pick to deepen the holes on each side until you meet in the middle.  Watch your angel again.   Go on, be brave!

Once the hole is all the way though the body, string your wire through and secure like mentioned above.

Congratulations!  The hard part is done.  This little bunny is looking sweet!

What is a bunny without whiskers?  Naked!  So let's add some.  I am using bead stringing wire.  It looks like fishing line, but there is a nice silvery sheen to it.  Perfect for whiskers.

Using your ice pick again, poke very tiny ... very tiny holes in the cheeks of your bunny.  I make a triangle pattern of three holes.  Did I say tiny holes?  Yes ... good.  These holes do not have to be deep.  I use white glue here too.  A tiny amount - just enough to hold the whiskers in.  The white glue will dry clear and you won't see it.  Let that dry completely before you embellish your bunny!

 Ta-da!  Here is my finished bunny.  I decided to glitter his inner ears and paint a sparkly heart on his tummy.  He is finished and just as cute as can be.  Here's to another Charmed Confection!

Look at his sweet backside!

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial!  There were a lot of steps to create this little bunny, but the results were worth it!  Again, please leave a comment if you have any questions.  I am more than happy to help you make your little handful of sweetness!  

If you have time stop by and see all my Creative Paperclay® creations at www.charmedconfections.com

I am also on facebook too!  

Happy sculpting!

LeeAnn

Make a Blissful Bunny with Me (Part 1) by LeeAnn Kress of Charmed Confections

Hi Everyone!

It's LeeAnn and I am back with a sweet tutorial for you on how to make a blissful, sleeping bunny for Easter.

Since this process takes a little bit of time, I have broken this tutorial into two parts.  In Part 1, you will begin to make the below bunny, his body, arms and legs.  In Part 2, we will sculpt the head, sand, paint and assemble.  Part 2 of this tutorial will be posted on Sunday, March 9th.

I hope you will give this a try.  I will post lots of pictures for you to follow the process.  Please feel free to post a comment with any questions and I will get back to you as soon as possible. All my instructions will be below the pictures.

Materials Needed for Part 1

Creative Paperclay®

Small bowl of water

2 1/2" to 3" Styrofoam Egg -- (my package says 2 5/16 x 3 1/16 inch)

Paper towels

Ice pick or something that can be used to poke a hole with.

Toothbrush - preferably one you are not using on your teeth. :)

First off, set up your work space.  I have a silicone mat I sculpt on, but you can just put down some paper towels or paper.  Just as long as your work space pretty clean.  We will be covering the Styrofoam egg first.

Take some Creative Paperclay® and make a pancake out of it and smooth over the entire egg.  You want to get a good layer over the egg, just so that the Styrofoam does not show or poke through your clay. Paperclay is an air dry clay and will get a little dry in between working with it.  Use a little water on your fingertips to help you keep the consistency of dough.  Remember, not too much water - too much water can make your clay sticky.  If this happens, set your piece aside for a few minutes and let it dry out a tad before smoothing it out again.

Once your egg is covered, I took a little more paperclay and made an oval shape (about 1 1/2" tall by 1" wide) - make another pancake.  This is going to be the bunny's tummy.  Wet the back of the clay and adhere it to the side of the egg.  Make sure you pick where your front is going to be first.

Once you stick your tummy clay to the egg, take a paint brush, wet it a little, and go around the outside of the oval and smooth it to the egg.  We do not want any harsh lines and we want the tummy clay to stick seamlessly to the egg with no gaps.

Next, I took my husband's toothbrush (just kidding) and pounced in some texture on the egg.  I did not texture the tummy clay.  I left that smooth.  If you create holes in your clay, just push the clay to fill back in.  No worries!

Now it is time to make a cottontail.  Roll out a little ball of clay (the size you would like for your tail) and pounce it again with the tooth brush.  Wet the clay where you are going to adhere the tail and push lightly to the egg.  Just give it a few twists while adhering it to the desired spot - it helps the clay bind together.

Look!  Our sweet little tail is looking good.  Take your damp paint brush now and go around where the tail connects to the egg.  Smooth it out just a little.

This bunny needs some arms, so roll out some clay into a long snake (about 1/2" thick).  You might need to refer to the below picture when doing these arms.  My arms are approximately 2 1/2" long.  Cut your rolled out clay to that length.  Now, take your two pieces and make somewhat of a banana shape - see picture below.  Make your arms thinner at both ends.  You might have to hold your arms up to the body to get a feel for how the arms will fit with the body.

When you are happy with the fit and shape.  Use your ice pick to draw in the indentation of the paws.  Remember to bring those finger lines all the way around to the inside of the paw.

Here is how my arms fit to the bunny body.

Next, take your tooth brush again and pounce some texture into the arms.  Remember to do the backside too!  Lastly, poke a hole into the top of both your bunny arms.  Set aside and let dry completely.

Here is a picture of my arms all finished and drying.

Now, let's make some bunny legs!  Basically, it is the same process as the arms.  Roll out your clay to about 1/2" thick.  My bunny legs are about 3 1/2" long - depending how they look next to the body, you might have to trim them down a little.  For now, cut your rolled out clay to 3 1/2"  - making two!

You can see in the above picture how I flatten the top of the snake, bent it at the knee a little and then again at the ankle.  I used my ice pick to cut in some bunny toes and then put in a couple of wrinkle lines at the ankle.  Don't be afraid to play with your clay until you get the look you want.  If you mess up, cut another 3 1/2" rope and try again.  The more you experiment with your clay, the better you are at sculpting with it!

Here is the backside of my bunny leg.  You can see a different angel from this perspective.

Here are my two bunny legs.  I have pounced them with my toothbrush and poked holes in the top.  Remember, they do not have to be identical.  Just have fun and get both legs to compliment each other.  No two legs are alike!

Now, if you want to take it a step further, add little clay balls to the bottom of the feet for the bunny's pads.  Make three tiny balls and put one on the underside of each toe.  Use water to adhere them.  Next, make two larger balls and adhere one to the middle of each foot.  This step is optional.

 To get a good fit to the body, hold your legs up to the body.  You can see how the white arrows point out where the clay is thinner and shaped to fit the egg.  You can get this by pushing the tops of your bunny thighs to the egg.  Now, we do not want the clay to stick to the egg, so push gently and do not add any water.  We want to be able to take it safely apart without any damage to the body.  However, you can always fix it if this happens.  That is the beauty of this clay!  Getting the curve of the egg on the inside of your bunny's upper thighs is important.  This will make his legs fit nicely to the body after the pieces are all dry.

When you are happy with the fit, let all your pieces dry completely.

This is the end of  Part 1.  I hope you have enjoyed it so far.  Part 2 will be posted, tomorrow, Sunday, March 9th.  We will sculpt the head, paint, stain, seal, and assemble.  Again, if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will get back to you.

To see more of my Creative Paperclay® creations, visit my site at www.charmedconfections.com

See you tomorrow!
LeeAnn