This week we are making the dolls some corn on the cob. And I have to say I had problems, not because the project is very difficult my problems stemmed from the fact that the only package of clay the correct color I have in my stash is so soft it was almost impossible to work with. I spent an entire day experimenting with different options and came up with the only workable solution for this clay. If your clay ends up being this soft hopefully you will benefit from my trials here. If your clay is acting like is should your corn on the cob will go much better.
As I talk to you in this blog post about the steps I took to make the project I will also go over how I would have normally done this and how you can make the project no matter how soft your clay is.
The fist step this week was to make the base corn cobs that we will be building our corn on the cob on. This was a simple process and it was very much like the way we started last week when we made the ears of corn. I started by conditioning some Original Sculpey but any slightly off-white clay would work here. Then I rolled that clay into ¼” snakes which were cut down to 2” long pieces. If your dolls want to serve their corn as half cobs cut theirs into 1” pieces. (growing up one of my friend’s mom always cut the cobs of corn in half and it thought it was strange, my friend thought it was strange that my mom didn’t do that)
Then bake these corn cob bases at the temperature recommended for your clay for 10 minutes and allow to cool to room temperature.
Now we can cover the cob bases with the corn kernels. This a fairly easy process. First pick the color clay you want to use corn comes in a few different tones of yellow and even white. The one I am making today is the bright yellow I remember from my childhood and what I consider to be “normal” corn color. From time to time I see lighter colored corn in the produce department at my local store but not often.
Normally at this point I would mix my colored clay with a translucent clay, about equal amounts, to give a more realistic look to the finished corn. However, the package of Sculpey III that I had in my stash did not act nicely at all. I am not sure what is wrong with this batch of clay but it is much softer than any other clay I have ever used. I even double checked the label and I don’t see anything indicating that it is different. When I did what I consider the “normal” step of adding the translucent clay to it I got a clay that would not hold the texture I added to it. When baked the corn kernel texture had pretty much disappeared. So that was not going to work. So I decided to just work with this clay on its own with no translucent. It still looks pretty good with baked and it held the texture really well.
So roll the colored clay out into a sheet using craft sticks to make a nice even layer and cut pieces that are 1” by ¾” Now normally I would be adding a very thin layer of liquid polymer clay to the back of this piece before adding it to the cured clay. However, that was the other issue I ran into with this particular clay. When I tried that I ended up with something that was almost the consistency of pudding. It was just a mush, no longer a sheet of clay. Since this clay is so soft and so sticky I decided to skip the liquid clay and it seems to be holding just as well as normal clay would with the liquid clay.
So my advice to you is if you are using a normal package of clay that is a normal consistency add some translucent clay to the colored clay and roll that mixture out into a sheet of clay. Cut the pieces to fit your cob bases and add a very thin layer of liquid clay to the back and carefully add the layer of yellow clay to the base.
Now it is time to add the corn kernels. to our ears of corn. To do this I am using a wire mesh strainer from the dollar store. (remember you can never use it for food again once you use it for clay, it is now a clay tool) Add a bit of cornstarch to the surface of the wire mesh and holding onto the very ends of the ear of corn roll it on the mesh pushing down to get a good texture. Just keep rolling until you are happy.
Then carefully transfer to your baking surface and bake at the recommended temperature for 10 minutes and allow to cool.
And there it is, corn on the cob for the dolls to enjoy this summer.
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