Doll Size Basic Bread

Watch the video here.

This week we are basically doing some prep work for some future projects. I have several projects in mind that take slices of bread. Since it is so much easier to make the bread slices from a cane I decided to present the cane for them this week. I do show you how to make a slice of bread from the cane just in case the dolls are hungry this week. If you made the jars of jam last week then they have the start of a nice snack.

One thing I want to talk to you about today is what clay I choose for each project and how that can vary depending how I am using the project. I started out doing polymer clay in the smaller dollhouse miniature scale of 1/12, that is if something is 12 inches in real life it will be 1 inch in that scale. That is a lot smaller than what I do for this channel/blog. Here we are working in1/3^rd scale or what is 12 inches in real life is 4 inches in scale. This changes several things in how I approach the projects.

In the smaller scale I tend to stay away from the Sculpey III clay brand all together. The smaller scale requires the details to stand up to being made very tiny. Also the amount of clay is so much less. For this larger scale my details can be a little less defined and still show and the pieces take a lot more clay.

Sculpey III clay is much softer, it is much easier to condition (get ready to work with) and to work in general. But because of this softness it is much harder to make small items that are highly detailed because the details tend to disappear as you work to get the item smaller. In the larger scale we don't need to worry about that so much.

Also because our items here are a lot larger and many stores carry the Scupley III clay cheaper than the other brands that is definitely an advantage. If you watch your sales you can get the clay for a much better price. Just watch the adds for the stores you regularly shop at.

That all being said there are still times that I will recommend Fimo for a project because it is firmer and works better for somethings.

For this project in this scale I really feel the Sculpey III is the best choice. The colors that I used were perfect and it was easy to work. The colors by the way were white and beige.

Now the age old question of do we want to add things from the real kitchen to our clay to add texture. I will say I only do this when I feel it is important to the finished project. In this case I used some cornmeal to start our texture. I almost always add the cornmeal to the clay mixture if I am making a sliced bread. I personally have not had any problems in the 20-25 (or more??) or so years that I have been working with clay. I do have friends that live in other climates that have had problems mostly with bugs (or a few mice) taking a fancy to their projects. I am not sure if that is because of the differences in the climates we live in or in the critters that also live near by or if it had to do with how things were stored. Everyone I know that did have issues lived in the south-eastern United States. So if you are nervous about adding the cornmeal leave it out.

One of the biggest challenges of this project will be keeping everything clean. The smallest speck of dust will show up on the white clay. So clean your work surface and your hands thoroughly before and during the time you are working.

Once you have the clay conditioned and the cornmeal worked in (if you are adding it) it is time to shape our cane. This cane will be shaped pretty much like a loaf of bread. Take you time and get it the way you want it.

To add a “crust” to our bread we are using the same chalks that I use all the time. Work up the color in layers until your bread looks like it was baked.

Now the hard part. This cane needs to set up for at least 24 hours before we even try to cut it. After all the work we did to knead the clay and mix it together it has gotten warm and soft. It needs to go back to a firmer state before we cut or it will smash out of shape.

You saw in the video my cane cut just fine and I didn't need to re-shape my slice at all. That is because it sat on my table for about 48 hours before I sliced it.

If you want some plain slices follow the steps in the tutorial to texture then bake the slice.

Now wrap up the rest of the cane in a plastic sandwich bag and put it somewhere safe so we can make some fun things from it.

All that being said if I was going to create a loaf of bread I would make the same shape from Model Magic and use the chalks to color the outside. The plain white is fine as long as it isn't going to be sliced.

If we were to make a loaf of bread from the polymer clay it would take a long time to bake and the clay gets expensive. My cane is about the size of a scale loaf of bread and took 2 full packages of polymer clay to create. If I was going to bake it I am thinking it would probably take at least 30-45 minutes at 250 degrees Fahrenheit, but that is a guess. It is way bigger than anything I have ever tried to bake so I am not sure how it would do.

So that is our bread cane. Next week we are going to make something else out of this.