Frosty or Rudolph, anyone?

Right-o!
Christmas is coming and I decided it was time to get down and dirty....with some paper clay!

I dropped by the art supply store in my neighbourhood to hunt for paper modeling clay.
The good news? They had it!
The bad news? All the instructions were in Japanese.
Ever the optimist, I bought it anyway, planning to visit the website and do a 'google translate'. Unfortunately, the instructions were not on the website.

Oh well...nothing like experimenting.

A couple of slippery, messy moments later, I figured out that I didn't have to use a lot of water. Just a tiny smidgen would do to help mould, shape and smoothen the clay. I began with Rudolf...

Rudolph's head taking shape

Project Rudolf was on its way...

What I learned at this point?

1. To be thankful that I had placed a plastic covering on the table.

2. That taking pictures whilst your hands are covered with plaster is okay...only if you do not mind having powdered flakes all over your camera.

3. That it's true. One's nose always itches when one's hands are filthy.

4. That the clay can be smoothened with a wet finger.

Next came Frosty...

I added half a body and an arm. Then made a hole in the hat for easy hanging later.

 

Project Frosty was on its way too....or so I thought.

I left the clay to dry overnight...just to be safe.

Happily, I whipped out my paint and paint brush the next day, and started on Frosty's hat.

Sadly, that was when things began to go wrong.
Frosty lost his arm.
I had planned to stick on a coconut shell hand to his "stick" arm. But I guess I hadn't secured the arm to the body as well as I thought. With Rudolf, I used more water to mold the antlers and ears to the head. With Frosty, I kept picturing a branch sticking out of snow. Looking back, perhaps I should have attached a part of the arm to the back of Frosty's body.

Consoling myself with my ever brimming reservoir of optimism, I finished painting Frosty's hat....and that's when a second accident happened to Frosty...he lost his head (perhaps I should have moulded Humpty instead).

Lessons learned at this point?

1. Ensure you use sufficient water to mold the clay to each other.

2. One piece of dried paper clay will not stick to another piece of dried paper clay with the help of glue.

3. I found out later that you can use glue to help stick the pieces together while it's wet.

One consolation is that he didn't melt and I still had his head in one piece. I finished painting his hat, then tried on a buckle for the hat, black rhinestones for the mouth, black pearl beads for the eyes, and a peach pearl bead for the nose.

Next, I brushed on clear varnish and stuck on all the embellishments before it dried.

It was Rudolf's turn next. I painted him...

 

...tried on different embellishments....google eyes and red globe cut rhinestones, black pearl beads, black rhinestones and a red pearl bead...

Rudolph with google eyes and a globe cut rhinestone nose

Rudolph with flat back pearl eyes and a globe cut rhinestone nose

Rudolph with flat back rhinestone eyes and a flat back pearl nose

I liked the way he looked with black rhinestone eyes and a red flat back pearl for his shiny, red nose. I applied the varnish and stuck on the embellishments.

All I need to do now is to glue on a magnet to the back and Rudolf would be ready for Christmas.
Ho! Ho! Ho! 

(Note: This post is taken from our Facebook page notes written in November 2010)