Making Doll Food Polymer Clay 101 pt 2

Watch the video here.

This week we are going to be talking about conditioning your polymer clay. When you open the package of clay it needs to be warmed up, kind of like when we stretch before we exercise. Just like an athlete's body needs to warm up so does your clay.

It doesn't matter if you are opening up a brand new package of clay or if you are picking up a block of clay you used before you need to condition it every time you work with it.

Don't worry, it's really easy. Just work with it in your hands to make it more pliable. Depending on the brand and age of the clay this process can take a while. Some brands (Fimo) take longer and so does clay that has been around a while.

If your clay is really cold and or hard try warming it up a bit. I usually tuck the package into a item of clothing against my skin for a while. Body heat can do wonders for getting you clay ready to work.

Now if you have some really hard or dry clay and you have been trying for a while and it just isn't coming together some of the clay manufacturers have products that can be added to help with the process. If you are really desperate and want to get the clay softened quickly add just a drop or two of oil. You can use mineral oil or vegetable oil for this. Remember I said a drop or two. Don't add much just a tiny drop and try to work it in.

Now what if you have the opposite problem and the clay is too soft. Yes, this does happen, some of the brands are very soft and hard to work with. For this take a plain sheet of paper and lay the clay on it for overnight. In the morning you should see an “oily” stain on the paper and the clay should be a slight be firmer.

Now you may be asking why would we want clay that is harder, of more correctly firmer? When you are trying to make items with really fine details you need a firm clay. You just can't get the details to stay with a soft clay. On the scale we are working with for the 18” dolls this is not as big of an issue as it is with my dollhouse miniature work.

I hope this information was helpful, let me know if you have any questions. 

Making Doll Food Polymer Clay 101 pt 1

Watch the video here.

Ever since I posted the very first polymer clay tutorial on this channel people have been asking me to create a series of tutorials on the basics of working with polymer clay. I finally got around to it, so welcome to week 1 of Polymer Clay 101.

First I feel like I should say that I bought my first block of polymer clay around 30 years ago so I have been playing with this clay for a while. The things I am going share in this series, just like my other tutorials is based on my experiences from working with the product.

If you have questions on what I covered in the video be sure to ask. 

Doll Size Cinnamon Rolls

Watch the video here.

This week I thought it would be fun to make some cinnamon rolls for the dolls to enjoy. These are really easy but a bit on the messy side because of the liquid polymer clay.

For the bread part we are just using an off white color clay. Mix any white polymer clay with a little bit of beige polymer clay, just enough to “warm up” the color. The idea is you don't want a bright white color, slightly off-white looks more realistic.

For the “cinnamon” mixture I just mixed some Transparent Liquid Sculpy with some of the two darker colors of chalk we always use for our baked goods. (the brown and the reddish brown) You will have to play around to get the right color.

Then assemble the cinnamon roll like I did on the video. These are super easy to make.

I used a bit of the liquid clay to adhere the roll to the craft stick to make it easier to handle. That way my fingers stay a lot cleaner and the roll doesn't get smashed by my holding it.

Since the rolls are rather thick you do want bake them long enough to get all that liquid clay baked. I recommend 275 degrees for about 15 minutes.

For the frosting use a 3-D type fabric paint in a white. This stuff takes while to dry so be prepared and don't touch it for several hours.

Doll Size Garlic Bread

Watch the video here.

This week I decided to show you how to make the dolls some garlic bread to go with that spaghetti we made last week. This is a really easy and quick project and really fun to do.

If you want specific clay recommendations for the bread check out my Basic Bread video on my channel.

Basically you need an off-white color polymer clay for the bread and you get that by mixing white and beige. Add something for texture this time I used white sand because it was already on my table but for the basic bread tutorial I used cornmeal.

Form a loaf that is about 1 ½” wide and ¾” tall in a basic oval shape. We don't need to freeze this one because we actually want this bread to be slightly flattened. So we are using that tendency of the clay to help us.

Use your chalk to add the crust color and slice in kind of thick slices.

Texture your slices and bake according to the clay directions.

For the “garlic butter” I am using a yellow transparent glass paint. Just lightly brush it onto one cut/textured surface of your bread slices and allow to dry.

That really is all there is to it.