How to Create a Cameo Framed Art Piece

Hello and happy Friday everyone, Cinnamon here and I am going to show you how I created this cameo framed art piece.  Follow the steps below to see how this was done.

Supplies:

• Creative Paperclay®
• Small hand roller or something to flatten out clay
• Decorative frame
• Exacto knife 
• Sand paper
• e6000 glue
• Acrylic Black and gold paint
• Sealer, Varnish
• Sheet of black felt

 I have a few of these pretty frames that I brought from my local 5 Below discount store. It has a very vintage and distinguished look so I wanted to create a cameo piece and place it in the middle. I have always admired vintage cameo portraits and wanted to try to recreate one of my own.

***This is not a necessary step****, but I chose to create my own silhouette from an image I found online in Adobe Illustrator. You can just grab a silhouette from a quick Google search online or draw one by hand. 

I took the silhouette and made it to the size of the opening of the frame and cut it out. Again, you can just do this by hand and not get on the computer to do this step.

Once I cut out the silhouette, I used it as a guide to make sure that I create my piece to size.

I have a flat tool that I use to shape clay which allows me to cut pieces of the clay as needed to create fine details. You can use a pin or anything that allows you to shape those little details while the clay is still pliable. It's important to get you basic shape down at this point so that you don't have to do as much sanding and cutting into the clay later.

Keep building up the piece and focus on getting the profile just right. 

I wanted to add a braid to the hair of the piece. My clay was a bit dried out so it broke in a few places when I tried to rolled out thin pieces of it. If you use fresh paperclay, you won't run into this problem. If you do, it can easily be corrected by brushing a bit of water onto the pieces and blend them together.

I took the braid and pressed it into the piece with a wet brush to help it stick in place. I brushed the pieces on the braid with the damp brush to join some of the pieces that were splitting from each other. Set the piece aside and allow it to dry.

Once the piece dried, I did a light sanding to clean up the details and smooth it out.

Be sure to try the piece out in the opening of the frame to see if you are happy with the size. Adjust as necessary.

After I was done with sanding, I moved on to painting the piece with a black undercoat of acrylic paint.

After applying the undercoat, I painted gold acrylic paint onto the piece using the dry brush technique. The braid was fully painted in gold so that it could be the focal point. Set aside to dry and then seal it with varnish.

Take your felt sheet and cut it down to the size of the opening of the frame. After you cut it down to size, glue it onto the back of the frame with the the e6000 glue.

If your piece is dry, glue it onto the frame with the e6000 glue as well.

And this is how it turned out!

Thank you all once again for stopping by, and I hope that you enjoyed 

today's tutorial! You can find Creative Paperclay® at the following 

retailers Creative Paperclay® Online Store, Michael's, Amazon, Joann's.

See more of my work at Melandolly.com, catch updates on 

my Instagram page and here is a link to my shop!

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How to Create a Mask With Creative Paperclay®

Hello everyone! My name is Cinnamon Willis and I am going to walk you through the steps on how I created this mask. I wanted to create another persona for this doll and I figured a mask would be the right way to go about it.

Supplies:

Creative Paperclay®
Saran Wrap
Masking tape
Sand paper
Acrylic paint
Sealer, Varnish

I first placed saran wrap around the head of a doll that I previously made. Make sure to wrap the head really tight and secure with masking tape when you do. This part is crucial so that the mask fits snug around the face.

Place a layer of clay over the wrapped face, make sure to press the clay down into all of the crevices under the nose, and eyes and wrap it around the face as close as possible. This will help ensure that the clay will fit snug onto the face when it dries. Also be sure to add clay to the sides of the face going back towards the ears. It’s better to have more clay that ends up being sanded down in the long run then to not have enough to work with later. 
Optional: While the clay is still moist, get a needle and make a hole on each side to attach a piece of string later to tie the mask onto the doll’s head to hold it in place.  

Allow the clay to dry overnight. Do a light sanding to get it to a level of smoothness that you are looking for. At this point you can start to work on some of the facial features.  

Here I let the mask dry and sanded down some of the sides to get them both even. I worked on the eyes a bit and allowed it to dry so that I could come back and work on it in a few more stages.

At this stage the features are all done and the mask is all sanded down and smooth. It is ready to be painted.

While creating this piece, I had some of the colorful masks that I seen in New Orleans in mind. The design for this one in particular came from a porcelain one that I brought as a souvenir. Make sure that you seal whatever design that you create with varnish when you are done.

Thank you all once again for stopping by, and I hope that you enjoyed today's tutorial! You can find Creative Paperclay® at the following retailers Creative Paperclay® Online Store, Michael's, Amazon, Joann's.

See more of my work at Melandolly.com and be sure to catch updates on my Instagram page!