Polymer Clay - Craft

Painted

2012-01-03T06:12:00.001-08:00

still needs to be dressed :)

Once finished the picture can be found on my main site www.sugarcharmshop.com :)

Another one

2011-12-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

Already working on a new portrait doll. I started with the face yesterday and have finished the sculpting today. Hopefully I can paint and wig him today as well, and then have time for dressing him tomorrow.

This time I'm attempting to make Dirch Passer - a beloved (dead, sadly) danish comedian/actor.

Getting ready to be dressed

2011-12-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

in my previous post I showed you some step by step pictures of my current doll project. He's now getting ready to be dressed - I'll still make corrections to the face but I just really want to get the clothes done :)

Not dead ;) and new portrait sculpture

2011-12-15T06:58:00.000-08:00

it's been forever! I know, sorry. I update my main site a lot more frequently - www.sugarcharmshop.com
Well, yesterday I began working on my second attempt of a portrait doll - This time in miniature scale 1:12. Bet you can't see who it is ;D but that's okay. Super hard to recognize a person when there are no eyes, color, hair and other missing things. But here you have a few step by step pictures :) Is it weird that I really like the second picture? lol, I just think he looks cute on that one with that cartoony mouth :)

updates :)

2011-10-25T23:22:00.000-07:00

For those of you who ask if I can make updates showing what miniatures I'm making - I make updates like that on my site; www.sugarcharmshop.com :) I don't make post showing everything I make, but I show some of them. And once I feel I have enough different things I make a slideshow on my youtube account 'sugarcharmshop' :)

Liquid clay and Bake&Bond

2011-10-20T01:06:00.000-07:00

For a long time now I've been wanting to try the sculpey "Bake & Bond" to see how different it is from the liquid clay I use (Fimo deco gel). I normally use the liquid clay to attach food to plates and cutting boards and it works pretty well, but I wanted to see if the Bake&Bond would work even better.

I made a small test piece on a piece of wood. on one side I attached a piece of clay with the deco gel, on the other I attached it with the b&b. - Note: on the bottle of the b&b it says to prebake wood before applying it. I didn't do that...

I know the fimo deco gel is the most transparent of the liquid clays you can get (Fimo, Sculpey and Kato), while the b&b is opaque white in the bottle.

After baking:

Deco gel: It's clear and slightly shiny with a rubberish feel to it. It has a thin consistency and lays flat against the surface.

B&B: semi-transparent, a satin-ish matte finish to it and has turned hard/solid. This has not turned flat during baking, so for the next time I'll apply a thinner less visible coat.

How well does it stick?

Deco gel: because the liquid clay is more runny it had spread to a bigger surface and had more to grab on to.

B&B: it had stayed put during baking and was therefore attached to a smaller surface.

Deco gel: the rubber-ish feel helped it grab onto the wood and I had to pull it off

B&B: the whole piece lifted at once because it wasn't flexible, however it still stock really well.

What do I think?

I'll definitely start using the b&b to attach things instead of my liquid clay. I'll also experiment with using the b&b for other things - icing etc.

but I'm very happy with the product. you can easily use liquid clay instead but they both have pros and cons due to looks and consistency.

Please check my videos before requesting :)

2011-08-28T04:20:00.000-07:00

I often receive a request for something I've already made, so please type in a couple of keywords in the search box on my channel before requesting :) - a lot of the times it's requests for fruit canes and other popular items such as cupcakes.

Measuring for 1:12 scale

2011-08-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

Could it reall be? I havn't made a post on measuring for 1:12 scale??
oh my,... it might not be one of the most complicated or requested posts, but I really thought I'd done it already. Better late than never.

So, there are different ways to measure for dollhouse miniatures ( 1:12th scale) Some are more precise than others. Which way is preferred depends on the individual person. Some eyeball it, I personally prefer to measure each thing. In my tutorials you see me cutting out pieces of polymer clay and it looks very random, but each piece of clay is measured to the exact size I need it to be.
If you look at the posts I did on my first polymer clay tutorials (the ones where I wrote extra information) I've actually written how big each polymer clay creation was.

Measuring using the dolls:
One way to measure is by taking a 1:12 scale doll - choose the item you want to make, could be an apple, Imagine holding an apple in your hand, think of the size of it. look at the doll's hand and create the same size compared to it's hand :)

Measuring using plates:
Same as with the doll - you imagine the food on a plate, and then use the miniature plates to create a fitting size for the polymer clay replica.

Actual measuring:
the title says it all, this is my preferred way of measuring dollhouse miniatures. I go around the groceries, supermarkets etc. with a measuring tape/ruler and litteraly measure the food. I then write it down in my notebook after calculating the life size into miniature, which is simple - devide by 12 :)
Funny, I've had employees looking at me like they were suspecting of being some kind of critic - like if I was in the middle of writing down bad things about the shop ;) haha. Others probably just think I'm obsessed with measuring the food I eat. I don't care.

Eyeballing:
this is a lot like the first 2, I use this method sometimes though.
There are things that I'm not always able to find in the local supermarket, could me a leg og lamb. For that I simply visit my best friend 'YouTube' and type in 'leg of lamb' in the search bar. you'll then see tons of videos with cooking recipes for that dish. I then just look at how big the leg of lamb is compared to the hand or arm of the cook. This can be hard for younger persons because their hands are smaller than an adult's, but you could always ask a sibling or parent if you could borrow their hand for a few minutes. :)

About requests + quick answers + help?

2011-08-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

Let's start with the questions shall we? :)

Q: Can you use cold porcelain to make canes?
A: I've never tried using cold porcelain, but I don't think it'll work for making canes. Can't imagine any air drying material being that good for cane making but I honestly havn't tried it out.

Q: Can you do tutorial for the tortilla wraps from your slideshow?
A: Reason why I havn't made a tutorial for it is because: If you go to my pancake video you can use that technique, and then just fill them the same way as I did with my tacos in the taco video :) it's all about combining the different things

Q: Tutorial for spagetthi please?
A: Already have :) there will be more eventually but I already have one with salmon and pesto.

I was looking over my request list and adding the most recent ones, and oh my, I don't know if I'll ever be able to make all of them, especially not when new requests keep coming haha ^^ but it's okay! I'll do my best to make as many of you happy as possible.
there are some "categories" that are requested a lot! so I'll probably make some more of those soon - ex. Asian food in general. lots of different dishes, desserts etc..... There's also whole bunch of different cake requests such as wedding cake, chocolate cake, strawberry cake, tarts and angel food cake... loads more... and then there are the ones that stand out a bit more - such as beef stroganof, crab cakes and grilled cheese sandwich. I got a lot of work ahead of me, eh? ;D

and.. I could use some help :) I got a request for party food. now, I know for sure that it varies what type of food people consider party food, so please. if any of you know what type of food you could use for that request please let me know in the comments below! :)

Work in progress update... 4?

2011-08-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

hmm,. I'm behind with the updates haha ^^This was surpose to have been posted Monday.. oh well :)
I've begun with the hair attachment, and I'm looking forward to being able to style it! right now he has witch hair or something o.o
I was out shopping for the last materials today. not a visible material :) I needed things like fabric stiffener and stuff like that, need it for the clothing. So here are a couple of pictures of the hands I finished sculpting and the partly attached hair. beginning to look more like a human now, eh? :)

The hands still need to be blushed though, and I'm not done with the face either. it's all still work in progress, but I just like working on different parts at the same time.

Pasta machine, gloss/satin glaze :)

2011-07-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

I got a couple of questions on my request list so I hope you (who left the questions) sees this :) and others who might find this information helpful.

What pasta machine do I use, does it work properly?
I use a pasta machine from a shop here in Denmark that sells mostly kitchen things. I don't know the brand, sorry, but I'd still like to say a few things about it - Any pasta machine will work for clay. it doesn't matter if it's expensive or cheap, old or new, as long as it can roll the clay flat. All pasta machines are able to roll out pasta dough and will work for clay :) it's definitely worth investing in a pastamachine if you make a lot of uniform things, however as I've mentioned before it's not an absolute necessity.

What is the difference between satin and gloss glaze?
well, as the names says - one is glossy /shiny) and one has a satin finish. BUT,.. I bought the sculpey studio satin glaze and the sculpey studio gloss glaze.. and I can tell you right away that I don't even recommend that satin glaze - in a thin coating it does give a satin look, but so does the gloss glaze! when you add a thicker or multiple coatings of the gloss glaze it becomes shiny... so does the satin glaze ;) the difference is minimal I think, and so if I were to add a shine without making something glossy I'd just apply a thin layer of the gloss glaze.

charms and the pastel-colors I use

2011-07-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

I still get requests once in a while for posting tutorials on charms. and I'm sorry, but I won't be doing that - and I won't change my opinion :) my clay channel is for 1:12 scale miniature dollhouses, you can put headpins in them if you want and make them into charms, but I lost the interest for charm making because I didn't see any challenge in it. To be honest I don't think it's challenging to make the miniature food either, but I feel it's a lot more rewarding making something that looks realistic :)

For the pastels.

I use a set with 48 different colors/shades of pastels - I use a mix maybe between 2-5 colors each time I color a loaf of bread or anything like that. I really don't know the exact shades I use, I pick very randomly in the monent and when I'm done I can't point on the ones I used.

It doesn't matter though, which exact shades you use - for making something look baked I recommend using a variety of brown, orange and somewhat yellow and ecru colors. but I have probably 6-7 different browns, 4 different oranges etc. My best tip is to mix and match to get the color you want.

And for those who ask - I use "Faber castell" pastels for my clay projects :) it's just some of the ones I had between my drawing supplies. Derwent is another good brand, but the cheap ones can work just as well, after all it's just a chalk. ^^

Give me a hand? update 4 - And tools I use

2011-07-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, So I've begun sculpting the hands :) and even though I'm still making corrections to the face it's coming together. I also have to make the shoes since I don't feel like sewing those!

Also have to make ears.. I had made them, and they looked realy good, but I ripped them off again after I realized how hard it would be to make any changes to the cheekbones when they were there ^^''

I thought I'd talk briefly about the tools I use when making dolls :)
I always begin by making an armature from wire, in this case the armature isn't a full body but usually you make the whole skelleton - I use tin foil on top of the wire in some places, ex the head, the chest, arms and other thicker places - I never use it in the neck though. This saves clay and makes the figures more light weight.
In the picture you can see some tools - these are not all the tools I use when sculpting dolls, but it's the ones I use the most.

There's my knife, 2 embossing/dotting tools, a meat pin, and a "dental" tool - I bought a pack of 12 dental tools in a pack from ebay, so they've never been used inside someones mouth ;D and I'm pretty sure these are meant more for sculpting.

Work in progress, update (#3) -Body building :)

2011-07-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

haha okay, body building was just an expression I thought of and it's not entirely wrong! ;) I mean, I AM making shoulders and chest area :) I'm beginning to like the face, even though it's still harder to see without any hair, eyebrows and such. but it's actually not far from the pictures I'm using for refference, and I'm really proud of my first portrait-sculpture! ^^ *yay for me*. I was out buying the last materials today, can't wait to sew the clothes! ^^ but better finish the sculpting before thinking of all the fun stuff :)

I asked one of my old class mates who he thought it might be... Brad pitt?,.. nope hehe ^^
I admit though, it has potential to become brad pitt lol. maybe if I changed the nose a bit, but I'm not really a brad pitt fan so I'll continue with the original idea ;D

So here's a picture of,.. better stop calling it "it".. Him.. should be obvious since there are no boobs, right? ^^

He's not going to be a "full scupture" don't know if I mentioned that in a previous post. His body will be covered with pants and a couple of shirts so I see no reason for making an entire body sculpture in the size of a barbie doll o.o

Work in progress, update (#2)

2011-07-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Soo, seems like I'll be making a few updates with my project in progress :) I'm still far from done with the face, but at least everything looks a bit more human now, right? ^^
I'm not doing any more work on this today. It's good to put things aside and start fresh the next day. Also going to get the last clothing materials tomorrow.

Definitely helped adding some eyes,. instead of having 2 empty holes o.o

haha, don't worry, still not expecting anyone to be able to see who it is ;) it can be really tricky when you're just looking at a one-colored piece of clay without any hair or detailing in eyes etc.

But compared to the pictures I posted earlier I'd say that it's getting there. Almost believe my first attempt on an actual non-imaginative person will be a succes. But we'll see! ^^

Work in progress - Project at the moment

2011-07-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

I know some of you love seeing work in progress, so I thought I'd make this post on my most recent project. I actually began workin on it today and as you can see from the 2 pictures it's still just an unrecognizable blob of clay :) I'm not going to tell you who I'm making, so if you can see it from the pictures I'm very impressed ;)
It's my first sculpture which is surpose to become someone and not just my imagination - I'm not working in scale 1:12 this time but closer to 1:6 (Barbie doll size) - I'm not working in an exact scale though, kind of just eye-balled a nice size. Oh well, here are 2 pictures.

hehe, this first one was taken shortly after starting. Kind of looks like an old grandparent with that mouth? ^^''

On this next picture I've made more definition in the face and I'm slowly starting to build the right shapes and expression. I should probably fix the eyes soon,...

And as I said, it's still just an unrecognizable blob so I'm not trying to make anyone guess who it is :)

Taking a break, don't want to rush through this one as I tend to do..

My work area - Polymer clay storage/setup

2011-07-09T03:10:00.000-07:00

This was originally a video request but I honestly don't feel like putting up a "clay collection/storage" video on my channel. mostly because I don't see much of a point in showing clay collections. I mean the stock of clay you have varies, the tools you use are more up to the individual - I started out with very few tools like my 'meat pin', craft knives and a brush. The more things I made the more often I was in a situation where I thought "I wish I had a tool that . . . . " and I then found tools to fullfil the need. Especially after I started sculpting figures I wanted tools I hadn't had a need for earlier.

My setup/craft area is in the corner of me and my boyfriend's living room :) It's not a huge and overly impressive setup as you might have seen other places, but I like it the way it is.

On this first picture you can see an overview of the corner. The drawer unit you see at the left used to be for my nail supplies but I got one twice as big for that now. On the top of it there's my acrylic paint for painting my dolls/sculptures and extra containers. In the drawers you'll find my soft pastels, wire, jump rings, headpins, and all the other "findings". You'll also find tools I no longer use, supplies for miniatures, fabric for making doll-clothes, hair for the dolls, glue and lots of other small things.

Moving on to the table itself. If you look at the second picture you might be able to guess what the last thing I was working on was? (judging from the clay on the glass plate).. probably not ^^ I made more strawberry canes. I thought I wanted to make a couple but ended up with 94!..... 94 strawberry canes o.o

Okay, so on the left side of the table I have a unit with all my clay. There's between 1 and 3 packages in each little drawer - the 3 containers on top are for clay as well. In the picture you can also see string (for baskets), lots of white+colored sand, all my glazes, acrylic medium, liquid fimo, clay extruder (don't use, regret buying), a belt with most of my tools, a miniature table and a few other things :)

On the right side you can see all my homemade canes, cane slices, clay icing, brushes, work surface (glass plate for candles), pasta machine and all my ceramic miniature dinnerware. In case some of you are wondering where I get my things - stores here in Denmark, online, A youtube friend from the US helped me get one thing I wasn't able to get here etc. but no matter which supplies you're looking for you can almost be certain that you can find it one of these 3 places: Craft stores, Supermarkets or online.

whipped cream/ Icing

2011-07-03T03:13:00.000-07:00

I was asked if I could show how to make the whipped cream / icing. There's a reason why I havn't showed how to make it - because there are so many videos on youtube already showing howto :) and it's really not that difficult. you need liquid clay and solid clay. simply mix it together in a small container or even on a flat surface. if you want it to be like thick whipped cream add more of the solid clay, if you want it to be more like thin icing add more liquid clay ^^

Clay colors I recommend + another question

2011-06-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

I got a question asking which Fimo clay colors I recommend. I use Cernit and Fimo, The majority of my polymer clay is Cernit so I'll just recommend some colors - this will apply to ANY brand :) The colors I recommend in this post are just some of the ones I use the most when making miniature food.

White - I use white all the time, it's rare that I make something without mixing a bit of white into the other colors.
Dark brown - For chocolate - and you can mix it with white or other light colors to get a lighter brown shade :)
"Caramel" - this is a name of a Cernit color. it's a brown in a caramel/milk chocolate shade and I use it a lot.
Flesh tone - use it ALL the time when making something with dough. I never use it alone though, I mix in a bit of yellow and orange to give it a warmer appearence.

Those are the colors I use the most. I also recommend you to get all the primary colors; Red, Yellow & Blue + Black/white - this way you'll be able to make any color you want by mixing :)

I rarely use blue or purple, don't use a lot of black either or the metallic shades. I of course use many other colors such as pink, red, light green, dark green, cream colors etc. and I have a lot of shades (you'll be able to see most of them when I make the "storage" post)

I also got requests for a couple of the charms I've shown in some of my slideshows.
I'm sorry, but I'm only posting tutorials for 1:12 scale miniature food. You can of course make those into charms if you want, and you can change the size of them to make them more charm-like but I won't be making tutorials for any of my actual charms.

Contests on youtube... My thoughts

2011-06-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

This is just going to be a ramble I feel like putting out in the open, it has nothing to do with clay techniques, tips or stuff like that so if you don't feel like reading I'll understand.

It's a known fact that many youtubers host contests, and that's awesome! giving others a chance to win something is really nice - no matter if it has been sponsored by a company or with their own money. I have had quite a few contests on my nail art channel, and 1 contest on my polymer clay channel - I was counting on making another contest on my clay channel in November but I honestly don't think I will anymore. In fact I'm not even sure if I'll be hosting any more contests on Youtube ever.

There are multiple reasons for this and I'll let you in on a couple of them. In general it's annoying to receive comments like this "when will your next contest be?!?!?!? I really want to enter a contest!!!!" and I've received a loooot of comments similar to that one, one thing that bothers me more though is when I receive comments asking for the next contest a few days after, or while I have a contest open - I actually think it's rude. especially considering that most contests I've had has been sponsored by me.. my own money, and let me tell you - it's not cheap to ship out big prizes from Denmark.

I think it's great that so many people on youtube host contests, but I think it's wrong to exspect people to host contests.

Another reason for me not feeling like hosting more contests is that I was planning on giving out some charms and miniatures as prizes for the next contest, but I saw a video at some point with a girl who'd done a trade or something like that, and had received a few charms from a different girl. That's nice, I mean trading charms is good idea. but this girl had used one of the charms to make a mold from. no offense but that's wrong! you don't copy others work like that - make your own recreation if you want but don't make a mold from that exact charm! :/

That's just how I feel, I'm sorry if you don't agree but that's a couple of the reasons for me not wanting to make contests anymore.

Something else (nothing to do with me or my contests) I've watched a lot of polymer clay contest videos, and what I've noticed is that the majority of them has the same or a similar rule that I just don't like. the rule is either "has to send (#) of charms to enter" or "has to send (#) of charms if you win"

now,. if you ask people to send you things it's not really a contest is it? it's a trade. The point of having a contest is to give others a chance to win something from you without them spending money on shipping or other things like that. Otherwise I guess it's better to offer a trade and not make a contest.

Polymer clay storage

2011-06-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

I've been requested a while back, and again recently to show my polymer clay "collection" and storage. The original request was for me to make a youtube video on it, but I'll be doing a blog post on it instead - next weekend hopefully. I'll be showing you my work area and where I store my things, even though it's really not that exiting haha ^^

I will be showing pictures of the clay I have at the moment, even though the amount of clay I have in stock varies depending on when I last did some clay shopping ;P

but if you have anything special you'd like me to include in that post let me know and I'll see what I can do :)

My most recently posted tutorial on youtube was bacon and beans from thr rnglish breakfast :) the rest of the things are some I've already made tutorials on - check it out if you havn't already ^^

Tutorials on youtube and blog posts

2011-06-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

You've probably noticed that I don't do posts for each tutorial anymore. there's multiple reasons for that, but I won't be naming all of them :) one of the reasons is that very few actually read the posts before asking me questions, another is that not all tutorials need to have a post with more information than already given in the video :)

1:12 scale polymer clay doll

2011-06-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Finished up the doll ^^ if you saw the post with the head you probably understand hehe.
my first 1:12 scale doll sculpture finished! yay! Already know what my next one will be :)

Don't have anything else to say about it, it's hard to work with stiff synthetic hair.... but oh well, it can be done. and for practicing it's ok! :)

Stupid pictures, don't do it justice, you can't even see her lip color, or blush... Need to work on taking doll pictures I guess

3 questions answered quickly :)

2011-06-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

1, canes that are brittle after baking. what to do?
I'm sorry but I honestly don't know - normaly I'd suggest kneating the clay very well before using it, but since you kneat it a lot when aking canes I don't know why they would come out brittle :/ I always bake my canes for 5minutes and they come out flexible as the ones you can buy.

2, can you make a tutorial on an irregular shaped cane?
I already have :) The strawberry cane I made - it was made with the technique I think you're referring to.

3, tutorial for the apple slices I had on my apple video?
well, I showed how to make the apples so if you mean the slices on the small plate I simply cut one apple (without stem) in half, then cut each half into 3 pieces :) There won't be a tutorial for that, sorry. only because it's explained very easily.

Playing around with clay

2011-06-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

I'm behind with posting about the tutorials, I'm aware of that, but only because the last couple of videos didn't have much need for a blog post. it will be posted though :)

I'm not making a lot of miniature food at the moment, I'm working on one of my bigger projects ^^ Some of you know I started getting into sculpting human figures. I've made head, torso, and legs, but I won't be showing off a naked lady (she won't be dressed until after baking) so here's a picture of what she looked like when she was just a head ;P not even a finished head, I havn't given her ears yet haha.

I've already been shopping for materials for the clothes. and I've decided on what hair color, the makeup and all the other things :) can't wait to be done sculpting so I can "decorate" her! ^^

now, when I say clothes... hmm, depends on how you look at it I guess - she won't be wearing more than 'lingerie', underwear if you will.

She is being made from a mixture of white and fleshtone polymer clay - looks more pale in the picture because of the lighting, really - if you compare my skin to the dolls it is darker than me ;D not saying that's tan in any way, I'm very, very, faaair... ;P

And as always I'm using Cernit and Fimo. the only 2 brands I use :)