Doll Size Grilled Steaks

 

Watch the video here.

I do want to apologize up front because I didn’t manage to take any pictures until about half way through the process. I am so sorry I just totally forgot.

I think a lot of us think of steaks on the grill in the summer so I figured the dolls should join in too. This is the first time using the grill mark tool we made a while back and it worked just as I wanted it to. I love how easy this simple tool makes getting nice evenly spaced grill marks on the food. It was a bit messy but well worth it.

So this is a really easy project to make even though it might not look easy when you first look at the finished steaks. So let’s talk about the process step by step.

We only need a couple of colors of clay for this project. The main color is Fimo in Caramel, this in my opinion is the perfect base color for the cooked steaks. The other color we need is our “fat mixture” a combination that is 1 part white clay (any brand) mixed with 2 parts translucent clay (again any brand) I actually keep this color mix in a bag in my clay stash mixed and ready to go since I use it so much. The brands of clay don’t matter so if you run into a good polymer clay sale grab the two colors and mix a batch to have on hand.

Start by rolling a fat snake of the caramel color clay. At this point the size is not really important just make a fat short drum like shape. It should be more than ¾” wide since that is the size we will roll it down to be later.

Now use your clay knife and start a cut going down one side. Just start the cut then use your fingers to tear the clay into 2 pieces. Add a thin layer of the fat mixture and put the two pieces back together. Don’t worry about the bits of clay that extend on the sides of the snake those are good.

Now add another cut/tear to the drum but don’t go all the way through stop part way into the drum and add more of the fat mixture. Repeat this as many times as you wish, I like to do just the one all the way through and one part way but you could do more depending on the look you are after.

Now add more of the fat mixture to the outside of the drum. You don’t want so much that it wraps all the way around but do as much as you want. Also it is be better if it isn’t perfectly straight because you want to have each steak you make look a bit different with a different amount of fat in/on each one.

Now reduce the snake down to ¾” in diameter. Just keep rolling it between your hands and one your work surface until it reaches the correct size. You don’t have to be exact just get it close to this size.

Now cut off the very ends of the clay to get rid of those sunken parts that always form. Now measure how long the remaining snake (or more correctly I should be calling this a cane at this point) is. You want to cut off individual steak pieces that around ½” long. Again they don’t have to be exactly the same size, steaks in real life are not the same.

Today I am just showing you how to make a very generic boneless steak. If you want to make something specific find a photo and go by that for fat placement, shape and size.

Now we are going to take those round pieces and make them look like steaks. First I like to use my fingers to make them be a bit more oval shaped but not a perfect oval just not perfectly round. Then use your fingers to flatten them our to be around ¼” thick. This gives a nice size and proportion when finished. We are using our fingers instead of rolling with a roller because our fingerprints will make the clay resemble the real meat a lot better with no extra texturing needed.

Now we get to use our artist chalks to add some color and make these steaks look more realistic.

Start with a combination of some red chalk and some rust colored chalk. Mix these together then use a cotton swab to add a line going around the meaty part of the sides of the steaks. Don’t go all the way to the top or bottom stay in the center and stay of the fat areas. This will be that line on the side of a correctly cooked steak.

Next we need to coat all sides of the steaks with a coat of yellow ocher chalk. This color on the steaks does so much to bring them to life. After the fat areas get the yellow ocher chalk they suddenly look cooked, so does the meat it just makes them look so much better.

Once you are happy with that layer of color add some dark brown chalk to the meat areas of the top and bottom of each steak. You just want to darken up the meat a bit don’t go overboard with this step.

Now the messy part we are going to add some grill marks to our steaks. Start by getting paper towels and wet wipes ready. Then get a piece of black chalk and apply it directly to enough of the bars on the grill mark tool to cover the size of your steak.

Then carefully press the tool into the top surface of each steak. Reapply chalk as needed and be very careful about not getting the black chalk where you don’t want it. I try to only touch the black chalk with my left hand and everything else with my right. I still clean my fingers often.

Once this process is finished bake the steaks at the recommended temperature for your clay for 15 minutes and allow to cool to room temperature.

Off camera I made some black sand, we’ve colored sand in other videos so I decided to not do this on camera this time. It is a simple process, you just use an alcohol marker to color an area (I used some aluminum foil this time. Then spray on some isopropyl alcohol to create basically an alcohol ink, then stir in some white sand and allow to dry.

Now brush a thin coat of a clear mat finish, I’m using Mat Mod Podge then sprinkle on a bit of the black sand. This will add some texture to make the steaks look more realistic, I do just the top and allow to dry.

Once the Mod Podge dries give the edges of each steak a thin coat of the same Mod Podge then brush a thin coat over the layer of sand to seal that in place. Once this all dries flip the steaks over repeat the layer of Mod Podge with sand and allow to dry. Then give that side a top coat of the same Mod Podge and allow to dry.

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.