ROBOTOID Backpack Charm by Patricia Krauchune

ROBOTOID Backpack Charm
Designed by Patricia Krauchune

I have always been fascinated with robots and I love to up cycle old bits and pieces of found objects. This is my version of a backpack charm fashioned from a mint tin, gears and an old fuse.

Supply List:

Altoids® Smalls® Tin	Various sizes of gears	Krylon® Silver Leafing Pen
4-5/8" Eye Screws	Beacons™ Tacky Glue	Americana® Triple Thick Gloss Glaze™
4-1/2" Eye Screws	Beacon™ Power-Tac	Decoart® Metallic Lustre™ in Silver Spark / Polished Coral / Elegant Emerald
Sandpaper	Loctite® Epoxy Instant Mix™	Makin's Clay® Black / Light Adobe
Small piece of copper wire	Gorilla® Super Glue	Dremel® Power Tool
Old watch case	Americana® Primary Yellow	3/64" Drill Bit
Clip	Decoart™ Patio Paint™ Foxglove Pink	Craft Knife
5-Jump Rings	Faber-Castell Black Artist Pen	Decoart® Silver Paint

Recommended Makin’s® Tools:

Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder® Discs Set C #17	Makin's® Texture Sheet Diamond Tread B
Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®
Makin's Clay ® Cutting Mat

Remove the cover from the tin and bend the hinge tabs in. Set the top tin cover aside for another project. Sand the back of the tin bottom to give it some "tooth".

Using the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine® roll out some black clay on the # 1. setting. Cover the bottom of the tin's back side with Beacons™ Tacky Glue then place the rolled out clay over the back. Immediately texture the clay using the Makin's® Texture Sheet with the Diamond Tread B pattern. When the clay is dry, drill holes to accommodate the arms and legs of the robot and insert the 5/8" larger eye screws with epoxy to hold them in place. Let the epoxy cure overnight. I used a Dremel® Tool with a 3/64" drill bit to make the holes.

Using the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder® with the Discs Set C #17 disc in place, extrude some Light Adobe clay. This will be used for the arms and legs. Let dry completely. When the extruded clay is dry, cut (2) arms 11/8" each and (2) legs each 11/2" long. Use some epoxy to glue the smaller 1/2" eye screws into the ends of the arms and legs.

Next you will paint the arms and legs with the Americana® Primary Yellow paint. Using your craft knife trim the ends of the arms to look like a sharpened pencil. Then paint the "lead" of the pencil with the black marker.

The legs will be the other end of a pencil, so trim the end to look like an eraser and paint the end with the Foxglove Pink paint and the silver paint to give the look of the metal band on a pencil top.

At this point I attached the extremities with the jump rings and also added the clip to the top. I drilled another couple of holes where the head: (the watch case) will go, and made a loop from some copper wire to attach to the loop on the watch case bottom. Then I epoxyed the "head" in place. Here is where you make the robot your own. I used the Beacon™ Power-Tac on the metal watch case and tin body then pushed black clay into the watch case and the "body" of the robot. Gears were added to the face and various metal parts where pushed and glued into the clay for the body parts.