Doll Size Grapes

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

 

This week I decided to show you how to make grapes. This project is a bit on the fiddly side but I love how it turns out and I feel it is well worth the effort to make them. They will be very fragile when completed, if you want to make them a bit stronger I would recommend covering the bottom of the bunch with more TLS and baking again to cure that.

As always it is a good idea to have the real thing in front of you while you are working if at all possible. That way you really see what it looks like, the color, the shape, the size, etc.

For the red grapes today I used Scupley III in Plum mixed with Sculpey III in translucent. You only need a very small amount of the plum, about 1 part plum to 8 parts translucent. This will tint the translucent to be “grape” colored and still allow for the light to pass through keeping the finished grapes looking like the real thing.

If you want to make green grapes I usually use a combination of a leaf green and a yellow (about equal parts of each) in place of the plum we used today. If you want to do other colors of grapes just play around with the clay colors you have to get the color you want. And be sure to bake a sample of the color since it can change when baked. Let me know if you would like a tutorial on mixing colors to match real life objects.

The first step after mixing the clay color is to make a core to build our bunch of grapes on. This step cuts the number of grapes we need to create but a huge amount. It also makes the finished bunch a lot stronger than if we just made the individual grapes and tried to connect them. This core needs to be approximately 1/3 the size you want your finished bunch to be. You are going to layer on a lot of grapes onto the core so you need to account for them when sizing the core.

At this point we also need to make our grapes that will go onto the bunch. For this roll the remaining clay mixture into a snake that is no bigger than ¼” in diameter. Don't make it uniform though, you want some variety in the diameter so your grapes vary a bit. Then cut this snake into pieces that are up to 3/8” long. Again vary it, you want your grapes to vary in size.

Now roll each piece into a ball then just use your finger to roll it a bit to make it more grape shaped.

Now bake the core and the grapes at 250°F for 5 minutes. We are not trying to completely bake the pieces yet just harden them enough that they keep their shape.

From this point on be sure you are working on a non-stick baking surface. I like these parchment squares I get at the Dollar Tree.

Now using TLS (Transparent Liquid Sculpey) add some of the individual grapes to the core. Work in small batches and bake often to harden the TLS. Again you are not baking this to cure it just enough to set the TLS and stick the grapes in place while you work. Keep the oven temperature at 250°F for this step and bake about 5 minutes each time. 

Once all the grapes are in place and you are happy with your bunch of grapes raise the oven temperature to 275°F and bake the entire bunch for 20 minutes. This will completely cure both the clay and the TLS.

Once cool trim any excess cured TLS from around the bottom of the bunch and give it a coat of matte Mod Podge.

There now your bunch of grapes is ready to place in your fruit bowl for your dolls to enjoy.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Doll Size Oranges

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

This week I decided to make a couple of oranges to put into our fruit bowl from last week. This project is pretty simple, only uses 1 color of clay (white), a tiny scrap of some brown clay, and some tools. The result in my opinion is not simple though, it is packed with details. I love the end result especially the fact that my oranges don't look perfect they look real.

Since this orange is going in the fruit bowl it is designed to stay in its whole form. If you want to be a bit more daring and make a sliced orange or some slices of orange I have an older video of that here.

So we start with the form of the orange, a ball about ¾” to 1” in diameter. It doesn't have to be a perfect ball either. A few marks are actually good, just none too large and out of scale.

Next we add the two end “markings” the stem at one end and the little dimple for the blossom end. The tool I am using is part of a large set of clay tools and if you are wanting to get serious about working with clay I do recommend it. I used a couple of tiny bits of clay from my scrap clay bag. If you don't have a scrap bag just use a tiny bit of any brown clay or leave it off.

Next we texture the skin of the oranges. I love using my wire brush for this. This brush is made for cleaning tools and was very inexpensive. I think it was purchased at a Harbor Freight store but I have seen them in most places that have tools (you can get similar cleaning brushes in the gun department too)

After I was happy with the texture I baked my clay oranges on a paper plate at 250°F for about 45 minutes. Then the clay needs to cool completely to room temperature before we do anything else.

Now time for some of the magic. We are going to add layers of paints to build up the realism of our oranges.

I started with the bit of green my orange had at the stem end. I know this can be seen on lots of oranges and I really like the look. Just a little bit of green and in just that small area.

After the green dries it is time dab on some yellow paint. I used a stencil style brush for this and it worked really well for this color and the effect I was going for. Don't cover the whole orange but cover more that you did with the green.

Now for the orange color of our oranges. I sadly didn't have an orange color of paint that I really liked so I started with what I had and added in a bit of white and a bit of yellow. I mixed then compared the color to my real orange and adjusted until I was happy with the color. You really can color match whatever color your orange has. Cover the entire orange with this leaving some of both the green and yellow showing. Try to not get a perfect even coat of paint just try to not have any white showing when you are done. It is better to do 2 light coats than one heavy one.

Now I mixed some of the leftover orange with a touch of brown and some water (I used too much water) to form a wash to apply to the orange. This wash is just a shade or two darker than the orange itself and will highlight that texture and the imperfections we added to our oranges.

For a topcoat I used some mat Mod Podge, on the last orange I made I had used satin finish and I felt it was way too shiny. The mat was perfect.

Lastly I used some cream paint to give the end of the stem a little highlight in the middle just like my real orange has.

I am in love with this project and I hope you like it too. Remember if you make any of the items in my tutorials I would love to see pictures of how yours turned out.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Doll Size Fruit Bowl

 

Watch the video here.

This week I am starting a short series of clay videos on the channel. Don't worry we'll get back to sewing again I just need to take a break. I had a bunch of sewing to do and as much as I love to sew I am totally burnt out on it at the moment. I have however, been wanting to get back to my polymer clay so I decided to do that on this channel.

I asked on the Facebook group for suggestions of things people wanted to learn to make from polymer clay and one suggestion in the comments of that post was a fruit bowl and some bananas. I will start with the fruit bowl today and we will get to the bananas in a future video. I did get a couple of suggestions private messaged to me also for some other fruit so we will be able to fill up the fruit bowl over the course of the next couple of months.

If you have never worked with polymer clay before I have some clay 101 videos on the channel. You can find the playlist here, so if you haven't worked with polymer clay a lot I do suggest you start there.

I did do an apple tutorial on the channel in the past and you can find it here.

For the fruit bowl I am going to keep it really easy. We are using just regular Sculpey III in white. Any brand of white polymer clay would work, I happen to have this one and it is easy to work with since it is fairly soft.

The first step after conditioning the clay is to roll it out. I used my acrylic clay roller but in one of those clay 101 videos I mentioned earlier I gave you some ideas of alternatives if you don't have the roller. To make sure I got my clay to an even thickness all over I placed a regular craft stick on each side of my clay and rolled until the roller was resting on them. This way you will have a nice even thickness throughout the clay.

To cut the bowl I used a 3” scalloped cookie cutter that is dedicated to use with clay. 

 

 

I did use a pointed clay tool to add some decorative holes around the edge but this is optional.

 

 

 I then used a small glass bowl from the Dollar Tree as a form for our fruit bowl. I made sure that the clay was centered as much as possible and pressed to the shape of the bowl.

Next I took a bit more of the same clay and rolled it out, this time using some bamboo skewers from the kitchen as thickness guides. 

 

 

 

This was then cut with a ¾” round clay cutter and place on the bottom of the bowl.

 

 

 I then dusted my work surface with a bit of cornstarch (prevents sticking) and made sure the bowl would sit properly.

The bowl on it's form was then baked at 275°F for 10 minutes.

After the bowl cooled I removed it from the dish and gave it a very thin coat of gloss Mod Podge to finish it. Just use a very thin coat of the gloss as it has a nasty habit of remaining/becoming sticky if it is too thick.

Once the Mod Podge dries you can add your doll size fruit.

Be sure to let me know what things you would like to see tutorials of on the channel clay and otherwise.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.