Fake Plastic Trees

* see the bottom of the post for update*

After answering a pile of questions for Carina the other day and signing up for the ornament swap – sorry folks its closed – I got to thinking, thinking about clay, polymer clay to be specific. I used to have quite a stash of clay – well, I still have it actually, all packed up nice and neat in a Coboodles of all things, but it has lived in the garage for almost 6 years and the seasonal temperature extremes out there have effectively cooked it out of any use I might have for it. Sure if I want permanent, cut up, misshapen block of colored clay I’m all set.

An idea started to roll around in my head and today I got the stuff to do it with, well I only needed the clay, the rest I had out in the garage. As soon as I got home, from a lovely lunch with my Mom and Dan and one child lighter (they were kind enough to take responsibility for my youngest for 24 hours), I tore into the perfect little square packages. I had forgotten about the one line that divides the block evenly in half on the one side and the seven on the other. I had also forgotten how freakin’ hard this stuff is! After five full minutes I still had a ball with large visible swirls of color. I should mention that I made this “return-to-clay” project easy on myself by deciding to mix 3 colors to get the one I wanted. You will please note that there is virtually NO difference between the two mustardy-brown colors other than the fact that one has sparkle. The white? It’s actually translucent; I remember liking what this did to colors when mixed in.
  
Right. How did I use to do this? After knocking down the door on the storage shed of my memories I remembered the snake method. Roll it out, twist it up, squish it together and roll again. Less than a minute later I had a nice homogenous ball 🙂
  
Three hours later I am done with the project. No I don’t have finished pics yet, the damn things are 230 degrees! …cuz polymer clay has to be baked to be firm…

I’ll show you what I made tomorrow when they are cool and I have decent daylight to take pictures with. I hate using the flash. Now I just have to figure out how I’m going to work out the other part of the ornaments… and connect them…

Update  : pics of finishes bits, enjoy! 

  

Conceptually they are bittersweet berries. I wasn’t aiming for complete realism, just the impression of them with some pretty sparkle. And these are totally being accompanied by chickens, I found the perfect fabric at the Salvation Army yesterday – an old sleeping bag!

Toots