Playing with Polymer Clay

So somehow I missed the last week. I’d use the excuse that it was definitely “one of those weeks” (ie: where I had the attention span of a squirrel on drugs), but that would just be an excuse. And truth is, I was up playing in the craft room, which means I have pics to share (and hopefully a tutorial coming soon.)

So, what have I been up to? First, I was working through some books on making miniatures with

3 scales of teapots

polymer clay, and wanted to try my hand at caning (particularly using the Angie Scarr books). And of three attempts, the first two didn’t work. I wanted to make an orange cane (so I could use orange slices to embellish and decorate stuff). The first didn’t work because I didn’t follow the suggested recipe and the contrast wasn’t high enough to see the segments. The second didn’t work because I had a block of clay that is evidently flawed somehow (after baking, it becomes unexpectedly brittle – and it was that particular clay, since everything else I baked simultaneously was fine.) Third time’s the charm!

And, I have lessons to share (so you don’t have to make the same mistakes):

1. Follow the recipe and directions closely, especially if the technique is new to you. (This should have been a no-brainer, but apparently, it wasn’t).
2. Be sure when you’re lengthening the cane that you do more of the squeeze and pull rather than rolling it on the work surface. Working with an “open” cane (I experimented making candy), I could easily see how by rolling it, I twisted the segment lines of the cane instead of just extending them.
3. Try an easier cane first – especially if it’s something like orange segments, try it without the outer pith and skin first – or make something like candy where you can see the divisions and differences in clay color (and what your manipulations are doing) when you extend the cane. This made everything much clearer to me, and made my third attempt successful.
4. Be prepared to use up excess clay in the color of the canes (failed or otherwise). Hence why I suddenly have orange teapots … and cupcakes … and cakes. And I don’t even like orange!

As small as I can go (so far) – the smallest teapots are about 5mm or less in diameter.

Next, I wanted to play with teapots. I love those in real life, but they’re starting to take up a lot of room (don’t tell my husband, but I suspect the number is nearing 30). Anyway, making them in miniature works much better (and they take up less room). My teapots are non-opening, since I usually lose the lid anyway, and how would I add water (or why)?

Which of course meant that I had to keep trying to make them smaller. And this is the smallest I was able to make, what should work for 1/48 scale. Sorry the picture isn’t the highest quality. I did have to use a magnifying glass a bit to get some of the details, but since it kept annoying me, most of it I just squinted.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading, and have a good one. 🙂