Finished Hedgehog and Bird Wedding Cake Toppers

Yay!  The little hedgehog wedding cake toppers are done!  Cute, huh?  I made them in Fall-themed colours.

These are the finished bird wedding cake toppers.  They are also ready for an orange and blue-green almost Fall-themed wedding.  I made these two sets of toppers in preparation for my wedding, but I think I made them too small.  They are only about 1.5 inches tall.  I think they should be about 3 inches tall to be visible on a cake from a distance.  These would be perfect for a little cake  :)  So I will call them my prototypes for now. 

Here are some pictures from when I first painted them.  

At this point they were missing some detail on the eyes.

This is after the detail for the eyes was added.

 He looks very lonely when there is no one standing next to him. 

Here are the birds after I painted them.

 I gave them some cute, rosy faces.

 And lots of detail on the wings.  My paint brush magically creates a weird indentation as it dries and it makes the perfect feather stamp.

 The blue bird leans a little to the side.  For future birds, I will need to make a flatter bottom so it does not want to roll.  However, the leaning works with the interaction between the two birds. 

Here they are drying the night before.

Today I gave them their clear coats.  Now they are glossy and protected.  I love them.  Now I will make more (but bigger).

Have a great day!

New Sculptures in Progress - Hedgehog and Bird Wedding Cake Toppers

I am working on some new sculptures.  This time, I'm making wedding cake toppers.

I started with a bunch of foil balls.  You just scrunch up foil and roll it into a ball.  Fun to do  :)  Then I cover them with a layer of Sculpey and start to add the details.

For the two birds, I added a hemisphere for the head.  Blended the sections together, and molded and added two wings.  I can't find my clay tools, so I just used a big hat pin to cut/draw details in like the feathers on the wings and tails.  I used the head of the pin to make the indents for the eyes.

The finished pair is pretty cute.  

Next I made a hedgehog couple in the same way.  The quills are not a separate piece.  I just use the pin to draw the shape of the quills in and then use the pin to push extra clay towards the quills.  Then I smooth it all out and use the pin to drew indents for quills.

The flowers are circles with petals cut in.  Then I add a little circle of clay in the middle. 

 I put them on a tray for baking and off they went into the oven.

Bye bye, Birdies!

About half an hour later, the models are cured.  They are sitting on my desk now waiting to be painted. 

Have a great day!

Sculpey Creations Completed

The sculpey creations that I have been working on are finally complete!  Here they are in all their glossy goodness:

Sapelli the rabbit

 A reddish orange pumpkin

 A green and brown acorn

 A whole gang of hedgehogs

 Roly, Pip, and Sally the hedgehogs

Dewbert the mole 

 Irko the monkey

 A yellowy orange pumpkin

A reddish brown acorn

 Petunia the pig

 Hermione the sheep

 A small orangy red pumpkin

 A tall squash pumpkin

Meero the tiger

Ta da!  All done!  Now you can find them in my shop.

Have a happy day!

More Clay Animals, Acorns, and Pumpkins

Remember the little acorn, hedgehog, and mole ornaments I was painting a couple days ago?  They are almost done now!

I gave them a clear, non-yellowing outdoor gloss sealer and they look pretty awesome!

The pumpkins are still getting their final gloss coat.  

It's a bit tricky to paint them since I have to do one coat for the top, wait for it to dry, and then flip it over to give it a coat from the bottom.

My desktop looks like chaos, but it's kind of pretty too in a an artist-at-work kind of way.

In hindsight, I probably should have made all their metal loops reinforced with clay like this version.  The plain wire version is not very secure because the wire is too flexible and it can break through the clay.

The other option is to make them with no wire loop like the mole.  His glossy coat is spectacular.  I am quite fond of him.

I started painting some other ornaments too.  There is a monkey, a tiger, and a pig. 

There is also a sheep that looks a bit like Lambchops the puppet, and a brown bunny with a cute face.

I'll post more pictures when I finish giving them a glossy coat.

Have a great day!

Little Hedgehog Ornaments and a Mole In Progress

Tomorrow will be the last day of my preceptorship.  The thank-you cards are written, I've had a nice few days of break, and it's time to work one last very busy day.  I didn't really know what to do with myself, so I did a little painting.  

I used white Sculpey to make a number of little hedgehogs and other things a while back (maybe two years ago?).  It seemed like a good time to paint them.

 Watercolour paint doesn't seem to adhere well to the Sculpey surface, but mixing it with white acrylic paint for the first coat seemed to help. 

 They have a dark brown coat first all over, then I use a moist brush to remove most of the paint from the face, legs, and underside.  It leaves a pale brown area.  Then I added a thicker reddish brown layer to the quills.

For the face, I gave it a lighter yellowish brown layer, then added a wide small brown nose and dot eyes.  Then I gave them a light pink blush to the cheeks, top of the nose, and feet.

Oh, and I made a mole too.

All of them are very small.  That little cup of water is a bottle cap.  I'll post more pictures when they are done.  I might put a glossy outdoor coating on when they are dry.

Have a great week!