Create a Miniature Faux Animal Head Sculpture

Hello everyone, Cinnamon here again! Today I am going to show you all how I created this faux mounted animal head. After seeing the Stettheimer Dollhouse on display in the museum of the City of New York, I was inspired to work in small scale. You will need the following supplies:

Supplies: 

Creative Paperclay®
Masking tape
Small wooden base
Twigs or anything that could pass for antlers
Cardboard
Exacto Knife
Small hook with a screw for mounting
Drill
Sand paper
E600 Craft Glue
Acrylic paint
Sealer, Varnish

I started out with a piece of cardboard folded up and taped with masking tape to form the neck for the animal head. 

Start to build your animal onto the tube that you created with the Creative paperclay. Make sure to set your ears in the right position according to the type of animal that you are trying to create. Keep in mind that this will be later glued to a baseboard. Try to sculpt the piece so that it sits on the angle that you would like it to be on once it is hung on the wall to avoid having to alter it later. (I will show you how I altered mines below.)

Once you are all set with the positioning of the ears, take your twigs or whatever you decided to use for antlers and stick them in the clay while it is still wet. I used some dried up stems from my orchid, use what works best for your piece. Set the piece out to dry.

Once the piece is completely dry, if you are not happy with how the base sits on the piece, you can alter the bottom of the neck as I did here. As I have mentioned earlier, it's much easier to sculpt with this intention in mind so that you could avoid this step. Sand the back flat so that it can sit flushed on to the wooden base.

Here I am using a drill and securing the hook on the back of the baseboard with a screw. Make sure to place a block of wood underneath so that you don't drill into your table!

Okay, I know what you are saying, "oh another gold sculpture". I apologize, I just love making metallic gold and bronze pieces now! Feel free to paint your piece whatever color you would like, spray a coat of varnish on it and then glue it with the E600 craft glue to the base.

Behold, a tiny mounted animal head sculpture! 

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! 

Susan's January tip & game: Wood armatures for sculpting.

Greetings from Susan at theboredzombie.com! I'm so glad you stopped by today for a few thoughts on wood armatures for sculpting. Armatures are important in your work for several reasons:

• Strengthen your work by giving the clay a stable surface to adhere to through the entire sculpture
• Can be used to permanently attach your work to a base
• Saves clay and money by using inexpensive materials (such as wood or foil) for thick areas

One benefit of Creative Paperclay® Modeling material over polymer clay is that Creative Paperclay® can adhere to wood.  Wood is a natural material that shrinks and expands with varying amounts of moisture. It almost always leads to damages and cracks when used in polymer clay pieces. Creative Paperclay® is unaffected by the wood shrink which opens a world of options for this polymer artist.

I went on a trip to the craft store to take a look at some of the wood shapes they had. Here's a selection of them that have potential and all cost less than $2.75, most around $1.00.

Being able to use wood is so exciting to me! There's so many options and things to be made I just can't seem to make a decision. I thought it might be a fun challenge to make it a little game. You've all heard about the Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material Blog Hop coming up on February 8th right? I'm going to let you pick my armature! Choose which shape you like best for whatever reason you like it, even if that reason is to challenge my brain! Put its number in the comments and any suggestions you have to help me along. I'll buy the armature with the most votes on Jan 27.

If you're feeling really froggy, maybe you'll try the winning shape too?