HeArtfully Creating: figurines

Showing posts with label figurines. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

My Personal Art History: Part 5b - Polymer Clay Days. Figurines

When I put the last video together, I was restricted regarding the polymer clay section of My Personal Art History. Just couldn't find the photos that I thought I had saved. Well lo and behold, the next day I discovered a pile of photograph records tucked away on my back up hard drive. So of course that meant I had to make more parts, or should I say segments to this Personal Art History series. Must say, creating figurines both hman and other kind were great fun. This Art History series is basically a trip down memory lane, sharing or journalling about my Art making experiences. So if you get inspired even a little, great. If you want to learn more about how to create clay figurines, there's a link to my figurines below.

While I enjoy memory lane, may you be even a little inspired to create in whatever way you wish.

Watch Below

Interested in the tutorial/learn with me videos? Here are the links to a few of the featured projects:

💓Figurines here are all on one page, just click the project you prefer.

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Friday, September 28, 2018

HeArtfully Creating. Polymer Clay Journey - Made With Love Wedding Figures

This summer was extra special as two precious sisters we love were married one week apart. I was honoured to be able to create extra special one of a kind wedding figurines for them. They are both off to a happy new life beginning. If you want to see other figures I have created just check out the posts with videos on this blog. It is something I only do for people I deeply care for. Some have asked me if I would do them to sell and my answer so far is no. They are a work of love and I am still learning. If you love sculpting or painting in three-d, then be sure to try creating figurines.
To Watch The Video About Creating Wedding Figurine Number Two Below!

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Saturday, July 14, 2018

Polymer Clay Journey: Here Comes The Bride (And Groom)- Personal Handmade Gifts

Hi guys! It's been a while and watch the video below to find out why!!

I tried sculpting with heads on but...

It was much easier to sculpt separately, more control that way.

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Wednesday, January 25, 2017

POLYMER CLAY JOURNEY: Part #1 - JJ's Beginning....

Come With Me ...

Hi guys!

Even though Anita doesn't like sharing her work before it is all done, she wants to encourage all of you artists of all ages, by showing the "ugly" stages we creations go through in order to turn into something pretty darn handsome (well, in my case that is :o) Yes, we turned out pretty cute, so come along and see part one of our long road to becoming us!

Now on with the show, This is it....

To begin a three dimensional figurine or sculpture, it always helps to do some research, depending on what you want to create. In this instance I wanted to make something special for our most favourite of letter carriers. Even though we see him every day we don't always remember the details of uniform. So I researched or Googled" Canada Post uniforms" and from that had a better idea of what I needed to do.

To be honest (not that I'm usually lying, But you know what I mean.), I am terrible at doing preliminary sketches and drawings because, usually I have an image in my head and work from that.

Step number one: what you see here is the very Basic beginning I my style of an Armature. Using toothpicks or skewers and wire, tinfoil, and masking tape or even scotch tape, I begin to lay out basically a skeleton of my figure.

Step Number two: Sorry I kind of jumped ahead too quickly. I love the art making process so much that I get caught up and forget to take pictures of important steps. So I hope you get the just from the photos that I do have.

As you can see, once the Armature or skeleton is made, I add scraps of polymer clay to cover up the foundational part. The part that has the little green blob of clay and toothpick, is just a temporary support to hold JJ up while I bake him at 275°F for about 30 minutes. Yes, the package directions do give a different time, but I like to follow the polymer clay tutor, as well as others. The longer you make the clay the better or the stronger I guess. If the oven temperature is correct, you can NOT burn the clay.

Because this is the first bake of many, I won't be keeping it in for one hour, which would be my usual time regardless of how thick the clay is.

Step Number Three: because unbaked polymer clay doesn't seem to stick well to baked clay, I use Sculpey's bake and bond or liquid clay. So voilà, here are the beginning of JJ's facial features. Remember, it is just the beginning.

You have no idea how difficult it is to share incomplete artwork with others. As you can imagine, it is because it won't actually look like it does now once all is said and done. But it is important to me to share this with anyone who might be encouraged or inspired to make art. I am forever telling my husband, "it isn't finished yet!" Plus this also helps me to document my work in progress therefore giving me a record to referred to in the future.

Step Number Four: Hee hee, if only I could do this to my husband, Ha ha! Create some warm hair covering for his bare head!

Since I can with polymer clay sculptures, here is how I added hair to JJ's head. You can do it however you like. I have seen some clay artists add a foundation of clay and then roll up strands of hair using polymer clay, placing them where ever they want. In this case I add a bit of the bake and bond or liquid polymer clay and then lay on my Clay pieces. Using whatever tool I prefer, a then shape or cut the sculptures hair accordingly.

Really and truly there are no rules when it comes to sculpting or making art. For me personally, I watch other people to create online I'm Using channels like YouTube, and books and articles and blogs and then apply all that wonderful wisdom add hope I too can create something wonderful. The choice is up to you!

Part Number Five:

Okay so I skipped a few more photos. So he went from having a cold, Bald head to having some hair and a whole bearded face!

Part Number Six: Even though JJ's hair was going to be covered with a couple of hats, (as you will see in part two or three) I still gave him a full head of hair first and then started to add on the first hat. Yes I could have left the hat areas bald, but I find it helps to treat my human like sculptures as if they are just that, human. It helps to play a more realistic foundation. That is just my opinion. Of course if you want to leave out anything the choice is totally up to you!
By the way, "two hats?" you ask. Well, we live where it is actually winter, where there is Snow and these days rain, Hail, freezing rain, and therefore some very cold days, so our letter carriers often wear more than one hat, not to mention sweaters long johns and whatever it takes to keep them warm and dry. Quite the challenge!

Just ask my dear husband, he was a letter carrier for almost 2 decades up here in Canada. He knows what it's like and fully understands why one would choose to wear two hats. He wants me to let you know that he would wear an all in one hat covering his beard and his Head. That is actually called a bellaclava sp? And on top of that his second hat of choice was a big, furry and warm. :o)

Important Tip:

Because you do not want to damage the work already done, I bake as I go.

Yes, you can work on your figure without baking at all until the end. But based on experience, as well as all that internets wisdom I have learned, I highly suggest that you bake at key stages. Turns out it is very tricky to add details like the perfect nose or ears, and then still work on clothing, shoes, all that fun stuff - without damaging other areas of your sculpture. So trust me, bake as you go! Or learn like me, and find out the hard way.

Step number Seven is really another Tip:

Avoiding damage to your great creation, can be a challenge. Sometimes if there our air bubbles in any of your layers of clay or trapped in the Armature when you bake your clay, things can crack as you can see in JJ's elbow here.

Just do your best to make sure that you squeeze out or poke a teeny needle hole wherever you suspect or see an air pocket. Trust me it will save you a lot of additional work. Actually this is nothing, Come back for to see what I mean!

This is just the beginning.

Thanks for stopping by! Will be back soon with part two. You won't want to miss it !

POLYMER CLAY JOURNEY: Sneak Peek! Who Did I Make In Polymer Clay?

Happy 2017 everyone! Hope you are all creating and enjoying it! Life has been busy with....life so I haven't been able to post what I have been working on in a while. Every day I have to create in some for or another. But as you may know, photographing, recording video, documenting, movie making and writing, as fun as it all is takes time. On that note, I wanted to share a fun, sneak peek at a project of love (for our bestest letter carrier ever!). It is all done, but I am not done with all of those above tasks. So for right now here is a look.
If you haven't noticed, I tend to take too many photos and then have a hard time deleting them. They all look so great. It matters to me, to document my work. It isn't just to document the whole process for my own record but because I love sharing and encouraging creativity out here in internet world!
So there will be a video, featuring the project in process. Soon.

Meet Justin Junior....(More To Come Soon!)

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

POLYMER CLAY ADVENTURE: Works In Progress- Howard The Turtle

Sea Turtles are so beautiful as with all of God's incredible creations! It is a special friend's grade eight graduation soon so I was hoping to make something I knew he might like, a turtle figurine. New to sculpting critters, I wanted to share what I have done so far for fun. As of today, I decided, it wasn't perfect enough so I am making a brand new one.
Now my husband is calling this one Howard the Turtle and he really likes it. So, I will be doing all the finishing touches and giving it to him! So here is where it is at right now.
The eyes are polished black onyx stone. Inside, I made a support using wire and tin foil as well as some inexpensive sculpey clay in the large box. It comes in white and terracotta. I do mix the weaker clay with Premo clay to lay down the foundation.
Pre- Bakes:
It really helps to bake each stage of your sculptures to avoid accidentally smooshing your completed areas. If your oven is the correct temperature, you can never over bake your pieces. When all is said and done, you still need to bake the clay for the entire amount of required time, as if you never baked it at all.
Here is Howard, so far.... Oh ya, I turned him into a doodad box. His shell is the lid!