Supplies:
- Fimo gemstone clays—I’m using rose quartz, ice quartz, and jade
- Exacto knife
- Chalk pastels in coordinating or contrasting colors. I’m using orange, pink, and purple
- Small fluffy brush to apply powders
But you can also use a mold to create your succulents too. I’ve seen these around on Etsy, but I recently bought one from Piper Pixie Designs, a shop that creates polymer clay jewelry and molds.This one has succulents with a variety of different sizes and shapes. I decided to split out these tutorials because they started getting on the longer side, so stay tuned for part 2 next week!
Step 1: Prepare your clay
For each of these succulents, I start by tearing off 7 somewhat similar balls of clay. If you look at a typical succulent, the older leaves are the ones on the outside so they are bigger, while the ones coming up in the center are the baby leaves. You can simplify it by making them all similar sized or you can make 3 that are the biggest and 4 that are smaller. Roll these pieces into balls.
The first time I made succulents, I tried going into more detail and differentiating the individual baby leaves in the very center; a lot of this I did by hand and by the time I was finished with my first succulent dragon, my hands were spent. What I ended up doing this time around is much simpler, and I think it still gave the succulent a really cute look. Again, this will be up to you to decide if you want to take the center ball and split it into 3 individual leaves that are curled around each other.
Step 2: Make your shapes
Step 3: Assemble your succulents
Now it’s time to put everything together! I found it easiest to work from the center out, starting with my simplified leaf shape and layering around it. I take the tear drop, point down, and wrap my 3 smallest teardrop leaves around it, also with the points down. They round top parts of the leaves come pretty close to touching each other all the way around the center.
With my 3 bigger leaves, points down, I place them over the seam where 2 of the leaves in the first row meet. This outer layer doesn’t quite touch once all 3 are placed, but I think they look nice the way they are.
Pinch the bottom of your succulent carefully to make sure everything is going to bond properly.
After I know the leaves are properly bonded together, I’ll trim the bottom. This needs to be done carefully so you don’t smash your leaves. I like to let the succulent sit for a few minutes to cool off a bit, or you can put it in the freezer to make it easier to slice). This gives your succulent a flat bottom to give it more surface area to bond with wherever you’re putting it.
Step 4: Brush with chalk pastels
While I enjoyed using chalk pastels to add some dimension to the succulent leaves the first time I made succulents, I could not get over how realistic they looked with the translucent clay dusted.
Shave your chalk pastels onto your work surface. You can use reference photos to decide what colors to use; I used orange for my blue clay, dark purple for my green clay, and a dark pink for my pink clay.
Dipping your brush in some of the chalk, hold your succulent at an angle so you’re just brushing the edges of your succulent leaves. For the baby toes, dust the tops of each little “leaf.” I also dusted the very top of the middle simplified leaf.
Step 5: Bake
Once you’re happy with how your succulent looks, you’re ready to bake according to your clay package’s instructions.
While I normally recommend glazing, especially since we used a surface treatment, keeping these pieces unglazed helps make the succulent more natural.
