| DIY People: Sculpting with Polymer Clay |
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Among the many ways that Charlotte Jenkins has found to express her creativity, working with polymer clay is certainly one of her favorites. Polymer clay has many advantages. It comes in a variety of colors that can be combined without blending. The clay doesn't dry out and can be baked in your own oven rather than a kiln. The only disadvantage with this clay is that it's toxic. Polymer clay (figure A) is actually polyvinyl chloride (PVC) suspended in a plasticizer and toxic if ingested. Care should be taken if children are working with this clay. All tools and surfaces used in this project must not come in contact with food. Charlotte enjoys making small woodland figurines, whimsical frogs, bunnies and ducks. She starts by building an aluminum foil form for her figures and takes aluminum foil and compresses it into the rough shapes of the head and body of the figure ( figure B). When she's satisfied with the initial shape of the foil figure, Charlotte flattens out the clay with a rolling pin that can't be used for cooking. She then takes the flattened clay and wraps it around her foil form. "This is where you get to mold your figure into the shape that you want," Charlotte says. "When you're finished, you have a basic form, and then the fun begins." Charlotte takes more polymer clay and creates arms, legs, ears and clothing for her figures. She does this by shaping the individual items and then presses and molds them onto the form. When she's satisfied with the additions to her figure, Charlotte uses an awl to create the facial features (figure C). The next step is to bake the figure. Charlotte places the clay figure in to a disposable aluminum foil pan. For every quarter inch of depth bake the clay for 15 minutes at 275 degrees. She advises not to over bake clay because it will turn brown. When the baking is complete, Charlotte decorates her figures with acrylic paint. Two coats of paint are necessary for the figure to hold up well. After drying, apply a coat of polyurethane, which will help protect your figure. To create an aged look an antique wash can be applied prior to the polyurethane coat and allowed to dry for a day. "I try to give a little animation to my characters, some personality, and people seem to enjoy that," Charlotte says. "Anybody can do this type of thing. You don't have to worry about it being perfect, just have fun." Charlotte enjoys giving her figures to the neighborhood children and often invites them over to her house so they can do it themselves.
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