Miniature Horse/Unicorn

This is one of those things, that although measured out to be 1:12th scale, just doesn't seem like a 'miniature' anymore haha.
I'm playing around, having a go at making a horse. Well, I'm actually making a unicorn, but since I don't think a lot of dollhouse collectors need unicorns, I'm going to make the horn detachable - that way I get to make a unicorn, but if someone decides to buy it, they can use it as a horse (or unicorn, if they want).

I'm almost done with the sculpting - just need to make ears, a horn and some corrections/even out a few areas etc.
I'm sure that people who know stuff about horses can find tons of things wrong with it - that's what you get from sculpting partly from images and partly from your own imagination ;) but you know what? As far as I know, there aren't any rules for what a unicorn can and cannot look like! haha. And I don't think you'll even see all the muscles that well once the fur has been added.

I have been recording throughout the process and am hoping on being able to post the first video Friday... otherwise Monday :)

I guess I'll be spending my evening today, in front of the TV, cutting flocking powder for the fur *sigh*

I was thinking of, whether or not some sort of hair trimming device would be able to cut flocking powder faster... might go and ask a hair dresser what they think - I don't want to invest in a hair trimmer that I end up not being able to use...

but for now - I will continue to use scissors.

And yes, I know you can buy flocking powder,. but I want to be able to not only pick the color, but also the material. The look you get from eg. yarn or ribbon is different from the look you get from something like mohair.

I'm using the new doll clay from Fimo; "Fimo professional doll art". The color I'm using is 'sand' which really doesn't matter for this project because I'll be painting over it, but I really like the formular. It's nice and pliable, it comes in a resealable bag - which is always great so you don't need to worry about dust, and it doesn't really change color that much after baking.

It does say that you should bake it at a MAXIMUM of 30 minutes.... I'm a rebel! So I made a small test piece and baked it for 50 minutes *evil laughter*.. Honestly, I don't know why you shouldn't bake it for more than 30 minutes because the result I got was the same as with most brands of polymer clay; Baking it for longer makes it stronger. My test pieces, which was a 8mm thick snake, was really strong after baking, and I could bend it without it breaking - it just bent back into shape. Of course you shouldn't purposly apply stress to the clay after baking, but still.

Review and comparison; Mold maker

Review and comparison; Mold maker

 

Time for another quick review/comparison - this time for mold putty. I have 3 different brands, and I'll let you know what I think, pros/cons etc. Hope this will be helpful to some of you.

 

Sculpey mold maker:

It comes in a 'clay form' - 2 Blocks where you have to take however much you need, Push an item into it, bake and you have a mold. It's very soft and quite 'sticky'.

I got this in the beginning of 2011. I tried it out right away and made a couple of molds,. Haven't used it since, and threw out the molds. It claims to make flexible molds.. They really aren't that flexible, and it'll crack if you try to bend them too much. Besides that, you'll also need to apply some type of starch or 'mold release' medium, otherwise the clay will just stick to the mold, exactly as if you'd made the mold from scrap clay.

The only 'pro' I can think of is, that it can act as a clay softener as well. I really wouldn't recommend this for mold making.

 

I got mine from clayaround.com

Amazing mold putty:

This is what I've been using the most - it's a 2-part silicone putty that you mix equal parts of. You then have a couple of minutes to shape it and create your mold. it's easy to Work with and takes approx. 20 minutes to set, but I recommend leaving it for a bit longer, just to make sure it's completely hardened and not sticky anymore.

I've repurchased this product 3 times, I think, and I really like it. The molds are super flexible and pretty durable. The 'texture'/finish of the finished mold is slightly 'rough'. Hard to explain.. It's not really that noticable when working with polymer clay, but if you're using it for liquid clay or resin, you may not get that pretty smooth surface you want.

 

I get this from metalclay.co.uk

Siligum:

My most recent purchase when it comes to mold makers. It works the same way as the amazing mold putty - you mix 2 parts, create the mold and let it set.

The consistency is more on the sticky side and it takes approx. 10 minutes to set. I don't think it's as durable as the amazing mold putty - it can crack if you bend the molds too much and it's easier to cut through (so you can harm the molds when cutting off excess clay). However, it has a smoother texture when cured and seems to Work better for projects with liquid clay or resin.

Last thing I feel like mentioning about this is, and I don't know if  this is just me, but I feel like the unbaked clay releases from the mold as easily as with the AMP? Nothing a bit of starch can't fix, but could cause a problem for certain projects.

 

Got this from metalclay.co.uk as well

 

What do I recommend?

well,. Anything but the sculpey mold maker really. I will probably continue to have both the AMP and siligum on hand, so that I can choose the mold putty I want to use for each clay project. It's a matter of preference and needs.

Efcolor stove review

Today is the deadline of my giveaway - any entries entered today will be accepted. The winner will be announced the 25th of January.

If you read my post about out mailbox you may understand, that I have had problems receiving my mail - which also means that I currently do not have the giveaway price. If it doesn't get here before the announcement, please have some understanding. But whoever wins, WILL get their price, and I'll ship it as soon as I receive it.

Review; Efcolor stove set/ "oven"

Some time ago I showed you this picture.

I ordered the Efcolor stove set from metalclay.co.uk And now that I've tested it out some more, I'll give you my review and opinion about it.

Why did I order it?

well, you can use a regular oven to melt the efcolor enamel, and it works perfectly! but I wanted to try out this set for a few reasons;

I bought the enamel powder mainly to use when making miniature dollhouse plates, pottery etc. and heating up a regular oven just to make maybe 4 plates is rather stupid. I also thought it would be more convenient - it's small and portable, meaning that you can bring it everywhere. It's powered by 3 tea-lights, so the heat is practically free! yeah, you have to buy some candles (the set comes with 3 candles) and you'll need matches or a lighter... but those are both very cheap. The fact that it's powered by 3 tea lights is amazing, you can literally do the enameling anywhere you want.

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In the set:

I looked up the enamel stove set on both a danish website and the metalclay site. The stove set you'd get from the danish site had the stove itself - not sure if it had the tea lights in it. The set from metalclay offered a set including all the pieces you see in the picture - and even though I live in Denmark, I ended up paying less than I would have on the danish site! amazing! :)

What you get:

-Stove

-3 stands to hold pieces. These are great if you're going to enamel both sides of a piece.

-"Tweezers" a very wide nosed pair of tweezers, I actually find it great for picking up my plates.

-Spatular, a small spatular to help remove items from the hot stove.

-A large round spatular/plate with handle; making it easier to insert and remove things from the stove.

They also included 2 small leaflets about the Efcolor products.

Baking polymer clay, and baking polymer clay with enamel powder:

On the box, I believe it said that this small stove has a surface temperature of approx. 160-180 celcius. In celcius the normal baking temperature for polymer clay is approx. 110-130. So this stove is quite a bit warmer.

For the first test I placed a prebaked polymer clay plate (had been baked for 5 minutes in a regular oven) on one of the spatulars and placed it in the Efcolor oven.. I don't recommend this - it didn't take long before the clay bubbled up a bit and got burnt. I then placed a plate on top of one of the small rectangular stands - this worked well. I did the same with a plate, this time adding enamel powder to it, and the result was a beautiful plate, just as if it had been in the normal kitchen oven.

The stove set is pretty hard on the clay due to the temperature (just like a toaster oven). The clay can therefore easily be discolored (eg. white clay turning off white).

One thing I noticed, is what you see in the picture above.. I baked a "cane" (left), cut off a slice (right). I was able to bend the slice as much as I wanted. the high heat apparently made the clay really strong.

I am not going to use this oven to bake my miniature food, because I don't want it to be discolored, but I will continue experimenting with both this stove set and my regular kitchen oven, trying to overbake and bake at higher heat settings. and I will let you know the results when I've tried it out.

Do I like the Efcolor stove set?

yes! - it gives you "free heat".. It heats up in just a couple of minutes..

I think it's great for making pieces with enamel on top, and it would work perfectly for baking stuff like sprinkles and other tiny decorations for your polymer clay creations. You can even use it for baking a master that you need to make a mold from.

I guess you can even adjust the heat by removing one of the candles.. but I wish there was some kind of indicator. I am extremely happy that I bought it, and will be using it a lot :)

Review: 'Olba Hobbybox' - paper punch set

Review of Olba 25 piece paper punch set

This blog has its main focus on polymer clay, but today I'll be reviewing a tool for a different category - paper, though still within the theme of miniatures (You can use it for other paper crafts as well).

Let me know if any of you are interested in miniature flower making and I'll make sure to have a post up this weekend, going through the materials and tools I use.. (And a couple of flower tutorials at some point).

I bought this set back in April when I was attending a miniature fair here in Denmark. One of my "neighbours" at the fair had a bunch of paper punches (and other things), and when I saw this set I just had to have it. The manufacturer is a dutch company, click to visit their website.

On the website this set costs 86,75€ not including shipping. It's a lot of money, and if I hadn't had a stall at the fair (thereby some extra cash for new materials), I probably wouldn't have allowed myself to purchase it without further consideration. BUT, you can buy the pliers by themself (+ 2 punches), and you can buy the  rest of the punches in smaller sets. Unfortunately you're not able to pick out the punches individually as far as I'm aware - which is a downside if you only want a few of the patterns.

If it isn't already obvious, I got this set for 1:12 scale miniature flower making, paper punches are not an absolute must, but I very much recommend them, if this is something you want to make (You can buy cheap, awesome punches in various stores, so you don't need this particular set to start out with).
I've only made a few flowers, so I don't have a huge collection of punches - which is one of the reasons why I decided to buy this set. I thought it was really convenient to a lot of the tools needed, gathered in 1 practical plastic case, and at the same time get a nice variety of punches.

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Here's a closer look at the tools included;

you get the pliers (thumbs up for the mm measuring part) and 21 different punches. You get a sharp exacto-ish knife with extra blades and you get a very fine pointed pair of tweezers and scissors.

And as you might be able to see in the first picture (first picture in this post) there are actually built in ball tools on the pliers at the end of the handles. I still use my regular dotting/embossing tools but I think it's a cool detail.

I don't feel like saying a whole lot of things about this set because it is what it is - paper punches. You can definitely find just as great tools by other brands, which are most likely cheaper and can be bought seperately. This is the kind of thing you have to consider whether or not it'll be worth it for you to buy. However, I'm very happy about this purchase and I'm sure this set will last me a long time. I have used it for a couple of flower projects and I like it a lot. I think it's a good quality product and if you ask me, it's worth the money.

Efcolor cold enamel - swatches

Efcolor cold enamel swatches

Earlier this week my second Efcolor enamel order arrived. This time they sent me a small booklet as well, showing how to use the powder, the different colors available and some examples of jewelry made/decorated with the product. I don't know why they didn't send me one of these booklets when I ordered the first batch (I ordered from metalclay.co.uk). Maybe it was because my other order had other things in it other than the efcolor powder, or maybe it was due to the size of this order?

Doesn't matter, I'm not going to use it for anything anyways :)

I now have 23 of the 29 regular (opaque) colors. Other colors available include a few transparent, metallic, texture and glitter shades. Unfortunately the site I ordered from does not have the metallic or transparent ones.

So here are the swatches. The first picture was taken in daylight, the second is daylight + flash. I intentionally picked the second one where you can see the light reflect on the surface of some of the bottom swatches.

The colors I have swatched:

Row #1: Dark red, red, strawberry, Rose pink/bright pink, Old rose, Light pink

Row #2: Brown, Cognac, Orange, Golden yellow, Yellow, Ivory

Row #3: Black, Dark grey, Silver grey, Sand, White, Mallow

Row #4: Dark blue, Pigeon blue, Turquoise, Olive, Light green

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I'm in love with the earthy tones - bet they'll look great as coloring on many different types of miniature plates, cups, bowls and pottery. Will be playing around with some plate making today or tomorrow.

You can expect a couple of posts from me this weekend :)

Review: Foil

Testing out foil on polymer clay

In my first haul on this site I'd received a few packages, and one of the things I'd ordered was foil. I got the 'Lisa Pavelka' foil for polymer clay to try out since I've never used that kind of foil on my clay pieces before, but I figured it could create some nice effects for steampunk charms.

I no longer have the packaging, but I read the back which told you to use the foil on unbaked clay, using your finger to burnish and then sealing with a thin layer of liquid clay to protect it.

The foil sheet I used to experiment with is not the lisa pavelka sheets (later in the post I'll tell you which ones I used for the testing, but they work the same).

In this first picture I'd used my finger to quickly/lightly burnish the foil onto the clay. It worked well, it gave the clay an awesome metalic finish,.. but I hated how this didn't really give me much control as to where the foil was applied. To be fair, it would make an AWESOME background, both if you're covering the clay completely in the foil with no bare spots, or if you make a "cracked" effect like in my second picture by only applying the foil to sections of the clay.

I like knowing where the foil is going to be applied and I wanted to be able to make small patterns and other details, so I made a few experiments - which explains the dented heart shape you can see.

My first test was a embossing tool that I used to burnish instead. Now, I was aware that this method maybe wouldn't work how I wanted it to - the foil uses heat to transfer, and the embossing tool is cold metal, but one thing I don't understad is why the foil seemed to stick to every other spot than the place I'd burnished...

Oh well, I had one more tool I needed to try out;

After receiving the Lisa Pavelka foil in the mail I bought a "hot stamping/caligraphy"-ish pen. The supermarket I work at gets a bunch of new items each week, and once they sell out we don't get a new batch in weeks, months or maybe even ever. So at the time my foil arrived in the mail we coincidentally had these pens in the store. They came with 20 (I think) small sheets of foil and are meant for decorating envelopes, gifts etc.. I decided to buy one, even if I wouldn't end up using the pen I'd still have 20 lovely sheets of foil! :)

I first tested out the pen on unbaked clay which gave me the same result as the embossing tool. Finally I decided to test the foil on baked clay - I used the back of one of my charms.

With the embossing tool I was able to transfer a bit of foil but I wasn't able to make good looking patterns, so Iremoved it.  However, the heated caligraphy pen worked really well on the baked clay! I was able to easily make swirls and dots. I guess you could heat up an embossing tool and then use it the same way but it would probably take a bit longer.

A good thing about using the foil on baked clay is that it won't make the same dents as if the clay is raw and soft. You'll still need to protect the foil with glaze or liquid clay (I recommend liquid clay because it's more resistant to wear and tear).

I'll definitely be using this foil on some steampunk pieces and other charms/miniatures in the future :)

Review; Liquid clay and Bake&Bond + making...

"Review";Liquid clay and Bake&Bond

+ Making frosting, icing, syrup, soup, blood, slime etc.

Excuse the long headline, haha.

In this post I'll be reviewing the liquid clays I have (+ bake&bond because it's pretty much the same thing). I'll also talk a bit about what the different liquid clays work well as, when it comes to making frosting, icing etc.

I frequently get questions about what type of liquid clay I use, how I make icing etc. So I hope this will answer any questions you may have - if not, feel free to ask! :)

About a year ago I made a post on my old blog comparing Fimo deco gel and the Sculpey bake&bond, but at that time it hadn't been very long since I purchased the bake&bond while the Fimo deco gel was something I'd gone through numerous bottles of... so I've now had quite a bit of time to really try out the bake&bond.

You're probably not able to see by looking at the picture but the Bake&Bond is almost full, after all this time. It just hasn't been a bottle I reach for that often - Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the product as far as liquid clay goes, but for the "bonding" I really don't find it better than Fimo deco gel or the regular Translucent liquid sculpey.

As I wrote in my review back then, when comparing bake&bond to the deco gel (tested how well they held together polymer clay and wood);

"The bake&bond is hard after baking while the deco gel obtain a more rubber-ish feel and stays very flexible" - which I found helped it grab on to the wood even better.

But what have I been using the bake&bond for then? *Drum roll* - Ketchup... yup, ketchup! pretty sad, isn't it? but on the bright side I really think it makes up for great ketchup/burger dressing and BBQ sauce because it's thicker than the other liquid clays I've tried. Just mix in some red, orange and maybe a bit of brown soft pastels (for ketchup) and voila! :) - it can be mixed with other things as well such as acrylic paint.

Color: Bake&Bond is white in the bottle but has a semi clear color after baking.

As far as I know there are 3 brands that makes liquid clay; Fimo, Sculpey & Kato.

Unfortunately I have yet to try the Kato liquid clay - and I intend to! at some point. But I feel the other ones provide all the qualities I need for now.

Comparing Fimo deco gel and Translucent liquid sculpey

For a long time the only liquid clay I'd tried and used was the Fimo deco gel, and it is still my favorite one! 

Colors before baking: TLS is white while the FDG is the only liquid clay which is clear while uncured. Colors after baking: They're both translucent after baking but the FDG reaches a higher transparency. Consistency while unbaked: TLS has an almost honey like consistency while the FDG is more runny. Consistency after baking: Both the TLS and FDG obtains a good flexibility after baking though the FDG is more clear.

Frosting/Icing; If you want a nice thick frosting or whipped cream you can mix some solid clay with liquid clay. Both TLS and FDG are good for this. You can do it the hard way; break some clay into tiny pieces, pour in some liquid clay and mix... and mix... and mix... and.... mix...

after doing this every time I figured out a couple of other ways of doing it.

Tip#1, if you're not in a hurry you can break the solid clay into pieces, pour in the liquid clay and let it sit for a day or so (maybe less time) - the liquid clay will 'break down' or soften the solid clay so it's easier to mix :)

Tip#2, The fastest and easiest way I've found might get your hands a bit sticky (Or you can use rubber gloves when doing this) - condition some solid clay in your hand till it's nice and soft, flatten it and drizzle on some liquid clay. Fold the clay and begin mixing the 2 between your fingers. You'll need to flatten the clay and add liquid clay a couple of times. When it gets to the point of being super soft and sticky put it into the container you want to store your frosting/whipped cream in, pour in some more liquid clay and mix with a tool. This is a more messy way of doing it but it's a lot faster, especialy for making larger portions.

*more solid clay will make the frosting/whipped cream thicker, more liquid clay will make it thinner and more like icing for cinnamon rolls and sugar cookies.

TLS makes good icing on its own - not the thick whipped cream effect, but its great for icing, blood, slime etc. Just mix in some soft pastels. (I used TLS and green pastel for the cupcake in the picture).

Syrup and soup: Though you can use TLS for syrup and probably soup as well, I don't think it gives you a result nearly as nice as when you use FDG. Leave it as it is (for a clear soup) or mix in pastels to get the perfect effect for melted butter, syrup and more.

If I had to choose only 1 type of liquid clay, I'd go for the Fimo deco gel. You can achieve everything from the clear soup to thick frosting + any other cool uses you can think of :)