How to Make a Dr Plague Mask

Hello everyone, Cinnamon here and I am going to show you how I 

created this Dr Plague mask, obviously inspired by current events.

Materials: Creative Paperclay®, cling wrap, masking tape, Exacto

Knife, Sand paper, E600 Craft Glue, Acrylic paint, Sealer, Varnish

I made a mold of this doll's head a while back and created a series of 

ornaments with it. I sculpted on top of the ornament version of my 

doll in this case since the head is the same. As long as you cover 

your piece with cling wrap, you can sculpt a mask on top of whatever 

you would like to customize. I took the easy way out since I normally 

man handle my work.

Take your cling wrap and wrap it as tight as you can over the 

surface of your piece so that you can get a good fit for your mask. 

Tape it in place in the back so that it is nice and snug.

Add your first layer of clay on top of the cling wrap. At this stage, 

worry about the basic shape of the mask and not the details. 

If you plan to have the eyes out for your mask, press into where the eyes of 

your face is to expose them while the clay is still moist. It took me a few tries 

to find them, but keep pressing and shaping the clay around them in this stage.

After you are happy with the shape of the eye cutouts you can start to build

up the nose here. I wanted to build the nose of the mask gradually, so I started

it out pretty small with intentions of adding more after it dries. When the clay starts

to dry while you are still trying to work with it, just dab it with water as I did here.

If you plan to add string to the sides of the mask to tie it onto your piece,

add the holes to it while the clay is still moist. It is a lot harder to add 

them after it dries, you will risk breaking the mask in the process.

Sit the mask out to dry. The top of the mask will dry but the bottom 

layer that is sitting on top of the cling wrap will take longer to dry. 

When the mask is completely dry, try it on your piece to check the fit. 

If it is too big, you can add a little more on the inside of the mask and

sand it away as needed. In this case the mask shrunk a little while

drying, so I had to sand a bit of it off to get a good fit on the doll's face.

I went back to revisit the nose, it's much easier to work on top of

dry paperclay when you are adding to your work. Just add a few

drops of water to the dry clay to attach the new clay to it.

I added a little definition to the eye sockets on the mask using the

same method as I did for the nose. 

Set the mask aside and allow the new layer to dry. Once it dries

you can rework it as much as you like. At this stage I decided to

finish it off by sanding it smooth. I used a mix of rough sand paper

to sand down the rough parts and fine grit sand paper to get 

the piece nice and smooth. I left a little bit of grit on the piece so 

that it didn't look perfectly smooth. I wanted it to look a little worn.

Use your paint and varnish at this point and you're done. The fit for this

mask was snug enough for me to just snap it on to the doll, rare for me!

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! 

 

Learning From Our Past, Creating a Sankofa Bird Sculpture

Hello everyone, Cinnamon here and I am going to show you how

I created this piece. The “Sankofa” is a symbol used by the Akan people

of Ghana, which translates to "Go back and get it". It's depicted as a

bird with its head turned backward taking an egg from its back. It is

 the importance of going back to our roots to learn from our past so

 that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward in the future. 

Materials: Creative Paperclay®,Wire 16 guage, Masking tape, Exacto 

Knife, Sand paper, E600 Craft Glue, Acrylic paint, Sealer, Varnish

Begin by shaping out the frame for the piece which would be the armature. 

This gives the piece a  solid structure to be able to build on top of.

When you are done with the wire portion of the armature, you 

can begin to bulk it out with either masking tape or aluminum foil. 

I use masking tape because I always have an issue getting clay 

to stick the foil. Use what ever you feel comfortable with.

Here I am putting the first layer of paperclay. I always have a

rough start with the first layer so I'm not looking for detail at this 

stage. Set it aside and allow to dry for roughly 24 hours.

After the piece dries, go on to working up the second layer. On this

 layer you want to smooth the clay out while you work so that you'll 

have less sanding to do after it dries. It helps to smooth a drop of water 

on while the clay is still moist to get some of the wrinkles out.

After setting the piece out to dry again, it is time to sand it smooth. 

I am using an 800 grit sheet of sand paper to get it nice and smooth.

This is a reference photo that I made of the Sankofa bird. I wanted to add

 my own twist to it and not necessarily copy one that someone else created. 

The first one is a popular one that is often used and the other ones I drew 

myself in illustrator. I took pieces from the first and gradually made 

changes to it in each version that followed.

I added a bump to the bird's neck so that it would establish the head of the bird.

I had a few details to work out with the the tail feathers so I used some

 of this product that was sent to me to try out from Creative Paperclay®. 

I don't know what it's called but the texture is a little thicker then modeling

 paste and it dries really hard. I was able to mush it into those hard to 

reach places in between the feathers without disturbing them. When it dries,

 it is just as sandable as the paperclay. I wish I could tell you what it is!

Here I am just painting the piece black so that it could look like 

some of the African wood sculptures that I have in my collection.

 

 

I decided to paint the egg gold since it represents knowledge

 and knowledge is golden. I just stuck a small sewing needle into

 the egg so that it would be easier for me to paint it. You can do 

what ever works best for you.

I decided to lay the egg on the back of the bird instead of putting

 it into it's mouth like I originally planned. You can use glue to

 put it in place, I just used Aleene's Tacky glue.

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! 

How to make a Robot Peg Doll

Hello everyone! My name is Cinnamon Willis and I am hoping that you all are enjoying the holiday season as much as I am! Today's project will show you the basic steps to create a wooden peg doll. I turned this one into a robot, but you can make yours into whatever you would like it to be.


Supplies:

• Creative Paperclay®
• Wooden peg doll
• Acrylic paint
• Sanding paper
• Aleene's Original Tacky Glue
• Acrylic medium or gesso
• Acrylic paint
• 20-22 gauge wire (optional)

First I start out with an ordinary peg doll. These can be found in almost any art supply store for a couple of dollars. I brought these from my local Michaels in a pack of four, so that means I have three more to work on!





After taking a good look at the peg doll, I start mapping out where I plan to place things such as the arms, hands and feet on my robot.





After deciding where things would be, I sanded down the parts of the doll that I needed to add my clay to. This step makes it easier for the clay to grip onto the wood, it's very difficult to attach clay to smooth finished wood.





Once I get those areas rough, I slowly began smoothing some clay over the wood to bulk out my figure.





During the process of me sanding down the wood, I managed to sand off my character's face. I just drew it back on in this stage.





In this shot, I am sanding the clay on the piece down and preparing it for being painted. I'm using a sanding stick that I found on ebay, they're really good to get into small places.





Here, I gave the piece a light coat of acrylic medium, but you could us gesso instead. I added the medium to give the piece a surface that would be easier to paint onto without having to paint many coats on top of it. i also made a little heart for it to hold.





I used about 4 coats of metallic gold acrylic paint here to get an even coat.





With the little heart, I painted about one and a half coats of magenta metallic paint.





I used some white pearlescent paint here to give the piece a few highlights.





I felt that my robot wouldn't be complete without some kind of swirly antenna on top of his head. I had some wire laying around that looks to be around the 20 gauge range and I just shaped it with my hands. I then made a small hole in the back of his head to poke the end into and put a tiny bit of Aleene's Original Tacky Glue in it to give it a little hold. After it dried, I shaped the wire to lay a bit more onto the robot's head.

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!