3 Ways to Koi

This week’s tutorial is going to focus on 3 ways you can create a koi texture/pattern in your polymer clay work. A couple of months ago, I created a koi merdragon. Originally, this tutorial was going to show you how to achieve the look I got by experimenting with powders. I’ve also seen koi created completely with polymer clay, and using acrylic paint would also certainly work, so I wanted to do a compilation here so you can choose what works best for you based on your supplies and what you feel comfortable using! I also talk about what I like and didn’t like about each method.

The coloration I’m using for my tutorial is based on my favorite koi pattern, the ones that are a shimmery white with orange and black spots. Feel free to change it up to suit your look! I recommend looking at reference photos of koi so you can get a feel for their patterns.

Supplies:

• You will need white clay for all three techniques

Using Powders

I used Pearl Ex powders for my piece, but this same effect could be done with other mineral powders, chalk pastels, or powdered eyeshadows/blush, so please feel free to use what you have on hand! For the best effect, use powders on unbaked clay. Be mindful of how much powder you’re putting on your brush at a time; if you load it up with powders, you’ll probably have an explosion of dust all over your piece once the brush touches it. You can always go back in and layer on top of it.

Step 1: Start with your first color

Choose one of your powders to start with, laying down splotches evenly around your piece. You’ll want to leave enough room for your second powder.

Tip: When switching powders, brush a paper towel to help get rid of any leftover color that could leak into the new powder color. Since I started with orange, I don’t have to worry about that tainting my black powder, but if I needed to go back to my orange and touch up afterwards, I’d want to make sure to clean my brush.

Step 2: Switch colors

You’ll repeat step 1 with your other color (in my case, black), filling in spaces with black splotches. For this pattern, make sure you aren’t completely covering the white background; in fact, I left mine quite open.

Step 3: Clean up

Depending on if your piece is 2D or 3D, and if your brush dispersed powders EVERYWHERE, you may have stray color, especially on white clay. Use a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol to clean up those areas. Once that’s to your liking, your piece is ready to bake!

When I created my 2D piece, this was much less of an issue, but when I was working on my merdragon, gravity was my enemy, and powder trickled down from the head/neck area to the areas underneath it while I was applying the powder. I found I couldn’t get it 100% clean with rubbing alcohol alone. Since I textured this piece (with the scales on the tail, and some smaller dotting patterns up the neck), wet sanding was not an option for me (if you’re working on a smooth piece, sanding is also a great way to clean up once your piece is baked). In the end, I decided to paint all of the white areas with acrylic paint to help it look cleaner.

Didn’t like:

• The color wasn’t as intense as I would have liked, and my orange wasn’t quite the shade I wanted
• Powder is hard to control
• Powder is hard to clean on 3D surfaces

Using Clay

With your unbaked piece, you can also use very thin bits of colored clay to create the spotted patterns on a koi.

Step 1: Roll out very thin sections of clay

Roll each of your clay colors into thin pieces. This is so your spots won’t bulge out from the rest of your piece. On my pasta machine where 1 is thin and 7 is thick, I rolled mine out to a 4.

Step 2: Create the spots

If you’re working on a miniature, you can use a needle tool to rip pieces off from your colored clay. I think this is a nice effect because it helps make the spots more random and natural.

If you’re working on a big enough piece, you may also be able to tear pieces from the clay with your hands so that they’re more proportional to what you’re working on.

Whichever way you choose, I recommend using your fingers to lightly soften the edges of these pieces once they’re created so that they aren’t quite as harsh.

Step 3: Place your spots

Using either your hands or your needle tool (for the really small spots), place the spots against your piece, smoothing them down with your fingers to adhere them to the clay and making sure they look like they’re a part of the white background, not something added on top. I ended up using my roller to lightly push the spots in and meld them into the rest of my piece.

If you’re planning to add texture to your piece, add that once all of your spots are on. Then you’re ready to bake!

Didn’t like:

• If I pushed my texturing tool too deep, the white clay underneath would show through
• Once you place the clay, because the layers are so thin, it’s hard to pull them up if you decide you want your spots elsewhere

Using Paint

Applying paint to your koi piece will be fairly similar to applying powders, but paint doesn’t get blown around and fall on your piece like powder can, so you shouldn’t need to clean up your piece. You can also paint either before or after baking. Acrylic paint can be baked with your piece in the oven, but if you’re worried about smushing details in your clay while you’re painting, prebake!

Step 1: Start with your first color

Choose one of your paints to start with, laying down splotches evenly around your piece. You’ll want to leave enough room for your second paint.

Step 2: Switch colors

You’ll repeat step 1 with your other color (in my case, black), filling in spaces with black splotches. When you’re happy with the result, you’re ready to bake (if you haven’t done so).

Didn’t like:

• Painting is personally not my strong suit, so I didn’t like the harsh lines between colors. The powders at least kind of faded out a little bit.
• While I didn’t try it because I didn’t want to smear the paint, it felt like it would be harder to clean up if I made a mistake
• Paint needed multiple layers for the color to look solid on the clay