Working Wednesday – Sculpey Adventures

Lately I have been experimenting with Sculpey. For those of you who haven’t heard of Sculpey before, it is a polymer clay that you can mold/sculpt and then bake in a conventional oven. It comes in every color imaginable, and is endlessly entertaining. There are definitely no problems when it comes to thinking up things to make, but I have absolutely no sculpting experience, so the process is a little slow-going. Nevertheless, I am enjoying the new medium and am very excited to create some new things (for me, and possibly soon the shop).
My first “big” project was a set of miniature mushrooms. I had seen a few different styles of mushrooms typically intended for terrarium use and wanted to try making my own version. I decided on red mushroom tops with painted white spots. I started the mushrooms wondering if the end product would actually resemble mushrooms (or even a mushroom-like object) in any way.
Though slightly time consuming, start to finish the mushrooms weren’t nearly as hard as I had anticipated. The most difficult part wasn’t actually sculpting the mushrooms, but figuring out how to put them together. After several visits to some Sculpey forums, I decided to glue the stalks and tops together after baking, mostly to ensure a solid seal of the two pieces.
I think they turned out pretty well, especially for my first foray into clay sculpting! Soon these little mushrooms will have new homes in my (yet to be made, but highly anticipated) terrariums, and I will be onto my next project.