HOWARD THE TURTLE IS COMPLETE!- DIY Polymer Clay Unplugged: The Movie. From His Beginning To The End of Part 1 of 2

Creating HeArtfully
For the past 4-5 weeks, I have been working on my first Turtle, that is meant to be a Doo-Dad Holder or trinket box. Click here to see the first article when I first introduced him and here for the second article  when he was a work in progress. He didn't become Howard until I decided that the sea turtle I started out making for a young friend's special event, just wasn't turning out how I wanted it to be. So when my husband expressed his enjoyment of my turtle thus far, calling him "Howard the Turtle."  I decided I would make him just for my Hunny Bunny. That meant turning him from sea to a land or four legged turtle. Turns out his friend use to call him Howard the Turtle and Howard was a puppet turtle character on an old 50-60s kid show called RAZZLE DAZZLE on our national television station called the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). It was really neat to discover that he was an actual character!
Click The image below or here to see The Video I just completed on mt YouTube channel all about Howard's early beginnings :o)

Lessons Learned...

Howard has gone through a lot, I mean a lot! You will see more when I get part two of Howard's video done. I can tell you that it took about two weeks of trying to perfect his shell, to be a lid for the Art Safety is always important. doo-dad box part... no matter how much I carved away from his shell and his cheek, I could not get his shell to fit under his cheek. Yes, you can easily carve away baked polymer clay. If you are young, don't use sharp craft knives on your own.
So my BIGGEST lesson learned, I should have made his neck longer or left his head straight, no looking back. I know he wouldn't have looked so cute looking straight ahead right?! Or make sure the shell stays thin enough to fit.

Needless to say, I had to recreate a brand new shell and it doesn't look like an oval  real turtle shell. He has a heart like shell. But hey, this is HeArtfully creating, so that is appropriate!
I tried to add magnets but, I will share more in part two next week.

Finishing Touches
Acrylic paint was used to change his green mouth and tongue to pink. As well, to add some depth, I painted indigo over the places where there were crevasses like his shell. Then using a damp rag or wipe, I rubbed off the paint, leaving some in the deepest parts.Instead of a glossy varnish, I sanded Howard's head and other areas somewhat. Always use water and varying grits of wet/dry sand paper. Dry sanding is too dangerous because you can breathe in the particles. Then I put Renaissance Wax, let it dry for fifteen or so minutes and I rubbed him down with a piece of cotton denim type cloth.

Polymer clay is definitely, my newest favourite medium! Making my first critter or creature has been such a great adventure, Wanting to show you guys all the stages he went through, and make a video with the steps from the beginning to the end. Hundreds of photos were taken, edited and compiled in the video below. No, I didn't capture every exact step but, I have given hopefully enough information to help inspire someone out here to create their own critter or figurine.
So please enjoy and if you have any questions, thoughts or ideas, please leave them in the comments area below.
I took a tonne of photos to document the stages. Wanting to inspire others interested in all things creative, this is part one of two - all about Howard's creation. He is about the size of a hand, my adult female hand, that is!

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HeArtfully Creating!
Anita

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