Mermaid Tail with Clay Sea Shell Accents

Design Team Member Steph Ackerman recently shared this fantastic mermaid tail mixed-media piece.  Steph used Makin's Clay® and the Makin's® sea shells push mold to embellish her fancy tail.

Light House Wall Plaque

Lighthouse Wall Plaque by Panarili

Tools and Materials:

Makin's Clay® white and red 
Makin's Professional® cutting mat
Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder®
Clay machine or a roller
Blade
White acrylic paint
Paint brushes
Superglue
Cardboard coaster 
Round Cutter
Brown and blue chalk pastels
Plastic bag

Instructions:

Take some white Makin's Clay® out of the package and roll out a thin sheet either with a roller or a clay machine. Place the rest of the clay in a zip lock bag with a wet paper towel or moist towelette inside. Cut out a shape for the light house with the help of the blade.  For the clay not sticking to the blade, use a plastic bag that you place over the clay.

This is what we get. The shape could differ. 

Apply some water with a brush over the base.

Extrude white and red threads with the help of Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder®.

Place threads over the base white, red, white, red, alternating as shown. 

Once you get near the top, make a white thread kind of twisted at the ends.

Cut a circle about 2.5 cm from white clay. Use a plastic bag again for the clay not to 

stick to the cutter. Cut off about a third and place as a topper part of the lighthouse.

Take another piece of white clay and add some brown chalk pastel powder. Do not mix it much, we do not want a solid color. 

Make small balls of different sizes and place them at the bottom of the lighthouse.  These will serve as the stones.  

You may add some texturing with a rounded tool for the stones to fit better.  Do not forget to brush some water to help adhere the fresh clay to the lighthouse. 

Add some shading to the upper part of the lighthouse.

I have some leftovers from another project (Shabby Chic Box) – this is white clay coloured with blue chalk pastel with a gradient. I kept in a zip lock and now can use it for this project.  I just flatten in and rip off a bit, the ripped edge will mimic the waves.

Place those pieces overlapping each other at the bottom of the lighthouse.  

Add some windows.
Let it dry for at least 24 hours.

Take a cardboard coaster and cover it with white acrylic paint.  Let it dry.  Write whatever you would like for a phrase.  

Once dried, glue the lighthouse to the coaster.  Your little motivation board is ready!

 

Spring Bloom Polymer Clay Magnets

Spring Bloom Magnets by Naomi Scarparo

Spring will be here soon in Australia. I already see the first signs of flowers blooming in my garden and it inspired me to make these colourful flower magnets for my fridge and to remind myself to stop and smell the flowers...

Materials:

Makin’s Clay® - White

Makin's® Clay Roller or Makin's Professional® Ultimate® Clay Machine 

Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat 

Makin's® Clay Push Molds - Floral Item #39005

Small, Soft Tip sculpting tool

Black Stamp Inkpad

Stamp with Quote - used ‘Have a Blooming Good Day’

Circle cutter 5cm diameter

Soft small tip paintbrush

Lumiere By Jacquard 573 Pearlescent Magenta, 557 Halo Violet Gold, 571 Pearlescent Turquoise, 554 Sunset Gold, 572 Pearlescent Emerald Green

Weldbound glue

Magnets 

Instructions:

Roll out your Makin's Clay® White, to the thickest setting on your clay machine, put some plastic wrap on top of your sheet of clay and press down firmly with the Circle cutter. This will give you perfectly rounded edges… (which I forgot to do, oops… but no big deal… just smooth the edges with your fingertips).

Ink your saying stamp ‘Having a Blooming Good Day’, then gently press the stamp into the clay and remove it leaving the stamp impression (don’t worry if the ink did not press into the clay clearly).

Using the Lumiere paints, Starting with the lightest colour - 571 Pearlescent Turquoise dab with a slightly damp small brush apply over the whole circle. 

  

Then using Lumiere - 573 Pearlescent Magenta, dot along the edges of the circle as if a blooming branch is leaning over.

Apply Lumiere - 554 Sunset Gold with a fine tip paintbrush in the impressed stamped quote. Then apply Lumiere - 572 Pearlescent Emerald Green around the base of the circle as though there is bush or shrubs around.

Allow the pain to dry. As the paint for the Quote magnet paint is drying, start making the flowers using the Makin's Clay® Clay Push Molds - Floral Item #39005. 

To use the molds

Lightly dust the push molds with cornstarch, shaking the excess off. This will help to keep the clay from sticking to the mold. Using the white clay, roll into a smaller size ball than the mold. Press the clay into the mold starting in the centre and working towards the edges. 

Tip - the clear view mold can be turned over to check for any air bubbles that need to be pressed out and to make sure that the areas are all filled.  

Remove excess clay that overlaps the edges of the mold. Remove the moulded flower gently by pressing the mold from the front side or use the clay chisel to help lift the mold out. You can clean up the edges using your fingertips and a soft pointed tip sculpting tool. 

Set some of the flowers in an arrangement that you like, an example of what I used is in a photo below. I used a mix of the 3 vine leaf and Roses (opened flower and bud). Place then together using some tacky glue or if still slightly damp a spritz of water. 

Paint the flowers using the Lumiere By Jacquard paints. I painted the flowers individually and once touch dry, I added 554 Sunset Gold to highlight areas like the centre of the flowers.

 Cut the clustered flower (pictured below) using the circle cutter, to add the top and bottom decoration, attach them sing tacky glue, and reshape if needed using the Soft tip sculpting tool.

Paint edges of the flowers and allow to dry for 24 hours.

Once dry turn over and paint the backs of the flowers. Allow to dry. 

Attach magnets to the back of the flowers with tacky glue. 

Tip - Check which side of the magnet is magnetic and ensure that it is glued facing out. 

Makin's Clay® is light weight and perfect to make magnets with as I didn’t have to worry too much about what strength of magnet is needed. I used an old business card magnet, cut into strips. 

Enjoy making your magnets to pretty up your fridge...

Silkscreened Summer Polymer Clay Pendant

Silkscreened Summer Pendant by Leila Bidler

Using silkscreens you can make a very quick and very eye catching pendant for this summer in no time!

For this project you will need:

Makins's Clay® Earth Tones Colors Package (I used the colors Olive and Straw)

Makin's® Clay Roller

Cookie Cutters (Makin's® Clay Cutters are great for this project)

Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat

Makin's® Clay Tool Set

1 Jump Ring

Silk Screens (I used one of my own and MOIKO brand)

Squeegee (you can use an old credit card if you have none)

Acrylic colors of your choice (I used Lumiere Metallic Grape, Halo Blue Gold, True Gold, White)

Pearl Ex gold pigment powder

Necklace cord

Extra for the silk screen: a bowl of water

Instructions:

Take your two colors of Makins's Clay® out of the package and mix it with a small amount of gold pigment powder. Start with a small quantity, remember you can always add more if you think you need more, but not take it out if you did add too much! Mix both colors individually with the gold pigment powder to get it nice and sparkly.

When you are satisfied of the mix roll out the clay with the clay roller.

Now take your silkscreen and place it shiny side downon your clay. Be careful to place the correct side up and read the manufacturers instructions. Rub very slightly with your finger to make sure id adheres well to the clay. Also prepare a small bowl or dish of water to rinse your silk screen right after using it. 

There are several different approaches to doing silk screen, I like to add the color directly to the border of the squeegee (if you do not have one a rubber or silicone texture sheet or old credit card work well also). As shown here, if you want some color variations you can add two different colors: 

Now pull the squeegee and the color across the screen, from top to bottom. Go firmly in one motion but do not push too hard to not indent the clay underneath. As you can see the colors mix nicely on the screen:

This is the result on the Olive Green Clay - after using your silk screen put it immediately in your bowl of water so the paint will not dry and cloak the mesh before you get a chance to properly wash it. 

Choose a different pattern for the second piece of clay and proceed with a first print, using a dark color:

Let's add a special effect: le the color dry, wash and dry your silk screen, place it exactly on top of the previous print, then move it very, very slightly and print again using a light color. This way we will create the illusion of a shadow image on the clay: 

 

Cut out two shapes you like and place one on top of the other, putting a drop of water between them to help the clay stick together to create your pendant. You can put it on a slightly curved surface to let it dry in a curved shape to add more interest.

Have fun experimenting with different shapes of silk screens and different colors, layering them in different ways to get very interesting designs, here another example using different colors and silk screens. 

Poke a hole in your pendant before it dries. Let your pendant dry and then add a jump ring and string it and it is ready to be worn. Optional: you can add clear varnish or resin on top of the pendant but you do not really need it as the acrylic colors will not rub easily.

Go to the beach and have fun!