Polymer Poptart

So I decided to try my own thing this time. With the dango and the bowl, I was following a tutorial. This time I winged it and made a Poptart. The results were not quite what I hoped, but I wanted to try a bunch of different things, like texturing, applying pastel, using liquid clay and inclusions. So I think I accomplished at least that much! What I didn't accomplish was taking pictures of my progress. ( -___-)

I did, however, take a second shot at making a bowl, using a marble-like combination of metallic gold and white. It turned out much better, but needs some sanding and buffing!

To make the pastry color, which on a regular poptart is a fleshy tan color, I mixed some Caramel Fimo with White and then rolled it out.

I think I scrapped the pastry three or four times before I got something I thought was worth brushing with chalk pastels. I used small amounts of yellow, orange and a touch of brown. I tried the brown first and realized it was too dark, but it wasn't really noticeable after baking.

I also made some sprinkle 'canes' using small amounts of Cherry Red with Translucent and rolling it into a long thin snake, baking it and chopping it into little bits. I repeated the process using Tropical Green. And then I mixed the sprinkles into a TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) and Fimo mixture, which I then applied to the pasty. I put that in the oven for a few minutes while I mixed some red chalk pastel with a little bit of Liquid Fimo, for the filling. It didn't turn out QUITE as filling-like as I'd hoped but it looks good regardless!

And this is when I realized I had made the bite mark on the wrong side! CURSES!

Oh well.

Second Verse, Same As The First

First of all; I HAVE FOLLOWERS! *dorkface* Yay, I am luved!

Secondly; since it's my day off I decided to make a second attempt at the Dango and it went pretty well! Except I forgot to adjust the temperature of the toaster oven for the Fimo (which bakes at a lower temp.) which resulted in tiny cracks through my Dango. Sadface.

This time I nailed the colors. They actually look like the proper shades for Dango. The pink might be a little bright but, personally, I like it.

I made smaller ones this time, though I'm still not really working in an intentional scale size. They seem about right for Pukifees. I probably should've made the sticks bigger. They poke into the green, rather than run through all three colors. Might affect their structural integrity, but so far it's doing fine!

I'm not really sure what to do with them now. I could probably put some headpins (at least I think that's what the ones with the screws are called) in and turn them into earrings. I definitely want to keep two for my Pukifees, but I also want to make a not-cracked batch...

Shiny

Yesterday was an 'off' day for clay, but today I decided to try making Dango, following this tutorial. It's quick and easy, but didn't turn out quite the way I expected.

I took pictures, but none of them turned out. I have a feeling that if I'm going to be working in my room a lot I'll have to either change my bulbs to something a bit less yellow (been meaning to do this for awhile, actually) or get a desk lamp of some kind.

This was pre-glossing. The green turned out quite nice, though I may use a slightly darker color next time. Definitely going darker with the pink, too. I used SculpeyIII's Apple Green and Ballerina, with Primo for the Translucent. It took a bit of work to condition, and kept losing it's pliability when I switched to rolling/blending another ball. The 'white' balls (top) are not the color I thought they would be when baked. I was definitely expecting something less fleshtone. I will probably use Fimo's Translucent White next time.

The construction of the Dango was easy. Put round balls on stick. I'll have to work on being able to keep round clay actually round. I put a eyepin through because if they'd turned out well enough I was going to give them to my friend Michelle. But they didn't, so I decided to test my glazes.

 Left: Gloss ------------ Right: Satin

There isn't much visible difference between the two, but texture-wise the Gloss is definitely smoother.

Lesson One - Bowls

Ta-da!

I meant to take pictures as I worked, but I forgot! Next time!

I followed Talty's Polymer Clay Bowl Tutorial, and the results were pretty good. The bowl is a bit lopsided, has an uneven rim and some air bubbles on the inside. I'll have to remember to make sure the clay is flush against the marble, next time.

My first time working with clay was pretty fun. I used Primo Accents. I don't have a point of reference to work from, but it seemed easy enough to condition. I had to start over, though, once I realized there was no way I would be able to get the marble out and the bottom had been squished. This was my second attempt.

I hadn't assembled everything I needed initially, and I had to snag some cardboard pieces to make sure the clay had an even thickness. I also forgot to lotion my hands and dig out some sandpaper. ^__^;;

Baking the clay was easy. I purchased a new toaster oven for my mom and abducted the old one. Since the Kitchen is a pretty well ventilated area, and I was worried about fumes if I overbaked, I just set it up on the stove. Primo bakes at 275F for 30 minutes per 1/4th inch thickness, so I baked the bowl first for 10 minutes, and then when I realized it was still a bit soft I gave it another 5.

I used the Gloss Glaze, which air dries. It's instructions were more detailed than the Satin Glaze. When the bowl was cool I quickly sanded it and applied one layer. I'm not sure what I'll use it for, yet, but it's the perfect size for my Pukifees!

Starting Equipment - Tools

 

The following is a list of what I'm starting out with! It seems like kind of a lot, right now, but with the considerable shipping delay I experience when ordering from the internet I figured it couldn't hurt. Plus, Michaels (craft store) had an awesome 2 for $3 deal on polymer clay.

As a bonus it all fits in one container... except the pastels. Oh well.

The Clays:

FIMO
My dominant choice for clay is Fimo, as you can clearly see. I did research, and for the most part Fimo seems to be generally preferred. I think I've got all my bases covered as far as colors go. (If you're curious, I list the colors on my Flickr.) But it's not the only brand I purchased...

Sculpey Primo Accents
I only really snagged the Transparent so I could compare it to Fimo's, but I got the Grey Granite so I could possibly try making one or two plates/bowls. It would give me a chance to test the two glazes I bought...

SculpeyIII
 I chose colors that seemed somewhat unrepresented amongst my Fimo clays, like a lighter green and a solid yellow. And white, for comparison with Fimo's white. They feel a bit smooshy in the packaging, so we'll see how well they work. (Color List on my Flickr)

The Liquids:

Clay Softener
I don't imagine I'll need too much of this, especially at first, since I don't plan on letting my clay dry out! I'm sure it has other uses, and it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it!

Gloss Glaze & Satin Glaze
I know I'll be using the gloss, especially if I attempt Snowfern Clover's Eclair tutorial. As mentioned previously, I'll probably make something especially unimpressive using a bit of the Grey Granite clay and use that to compare the results of the two glazes.

Translucent Liquid Sculpey
I actually have the Fimo DecoGel fighing it's way through Canada Post but, again, I wanted to compare the results of Sculpey and Fimo. I read somewhere that the Sculpey is slightly less translucent than it's Fimo cousin.

Bake & Bond
From what I understand, this works much in the same way as the TLS/DecoGel does. I bought it anyway.

The Tools:

Brushes
Predominantly for the application of glazes, but also to add color texture using pastels! Two seemed like enough to start with and paint brushes are one of the few things I can buy where I live.

Tissue Blade
So glad I got the last one! I don't relish the thought of having to search Nanaimo for one. This flexible blade should come in useful for even slicing and dicing. If not, I've got a few razor blades and...

Xacto Knife
Useful for pretty much every craft I can think of. Seems like it'd be good for precision cutting.

Sculpey Tool Set
These are the black items at the bottom of the picture. Various double-ended tools for cutting, poking, texturing and smoothing. Nice little set, but I'm curious about how well they'll work with the clay.

Embossing Pointer
Not something I initially intended on getting, but the narrow ball-tipped points struck me as something that could be extremely useful if I ever get ambitious and try to make blueberries or something. It looks like a tool that could add very fine detail without being all needle-pointed.

The Miscellaneous:

Soft Pastels
These should come in handy for adding a bit of color to the TLS/DecoGel or adding texture detail.

Roller
Ah, so important. Gotta get that clay smooth and flat SOMEHOW!

Every Quest Has A Beginning... Here's Mine. - Introduction

Now first and foremost, I feel must lay the majority of the blame for this entire expedition on my very good friend, Naomi. See, it was Nao who first linked me to a tutorial to create Polymer Clay 'cake' charms, early one morning after I had gotten home from work. Specifically, this one on DeviantArt; Polymer Clay Cake Tutorial by the extremely talented Talty.

I collect Asian Ball Jointed Dolls (or BJD, colloquially) and for quite a while I've wanted to get my dolls some in-scale miniatures for them. Like toys, books...

And food! I've been fascinated by the works of Snowfern Clover since she first appeared on the BJD Forum, Den of Angels. (Possibly before that. My memory isn't all that great sometimes.) Stalking her on Etsy has also introduced me to other miniaturists like AiClay and Asuka Sakumo. Their work is just... epic. I've wanted to try and make my own miniature food for quite awhile now but in addition to the fact that neither of the local craft stores carries polymer clay, I'm kinda... intimidated (and inspired!) by just how GOOD these people are at this.

But they've had loads of practice. And I've had none.

So it's mostly Naomi's fault that I am trying to do this in the first place, because she's the one who linked that tutorial and got me thinking about it more seriously than I had before. Which led into ideas about what I could make, followed shortly thereafter by placing a small order for some Fimo. And then a quick trip out of town to a craft store that DOES carry polymer clay, as well as tools and other equipment for my modest little venture. (I was getting impatient for my order to arrive, and of course it arrived the day of my trip! The day AFTER I got the tracking number. X_x)

I've got most of what I believe I need to set off on this quest, at the outset anyway.

I'm only a level 1 newbie, but hopefully I'll start racking up the EXP!

-- Saryn