As I mentioned in the last blog post, I was going to do a couple of wing tutorials based on interested from my seasons series. My favorite set of wings from the series was the ones I created for winter.
The very important “ingredient” needed for this effect is the new clear liquid clay from Sculpey. This was my first time using it, and I’m very excited to see what else I can do with this stuff. If you aren’t able to get it, TLS will work as well, but it’s not as clear.
My goal with using the clear liquid clay was to provide support for the bare branch wings I wanted to create (if you didn’t notice, every season’s wings are a play on parts of a plant–spring is flower petals, summer and fall are leaves colored accordingly, and winter is empty branches). I was worried that branches alone would leave the clay susceptible to breaking easily with the more delicate twig parts. This was a great way to give a “not there” appearance while providing that extra support, and I really ended up liking the affect it gave as well, as if the wings were a frosted glass (or ice).
Supplies:
- Clay you want to use for the branches–I used a blend of dark and medium brown to help create more of a wood look
- Wax paper
- Wire
- Clear liquid clay (Or TLS if you can’t get it)
- A ball point or needle tool
- Exacto knife
Step 1: Create your wing shape
You’ll want to create your wing shape with the clay you’ll be using for the branches. I’m using two main “branches” to create the top and bottom edges of the wings. These will be the thickest pieces of clay. These are created by rolling out snakes of clay and tapering one end.
Blend them where they attach. This will be the base of your wing and where you will insert your wire so you can attach it to your sculpture later. I recommend working on wax paper, as that will make things easier once it’s time to add the liquid clay.
Step 2: Filling in your wings
Once you’re happy with your base branch wing shape, it’s time to fill it in with your clear liquid clay! For this part, place your wings on wax paper if you haven’t yet. This will give us a space to contain the liquid clay, and it pulls off very nicely from the paper once it’s all baked.
Squeeze out liquid clay along the inside edges of your branch wings, and start filling in the space you’ll want for your wing. You can use a ball point or needle tool to help spread out the clay and make sure it’s getting in the nooks and crannies of the branch. This will make sure your wing is attached to the clay.
I worked my wings in two layers. Working with a transparent clay, it’s hard to tell what you’ve covered or how thick it is until you do a first bake and are able to look at it off of the wax sheet and see what you missed.
Step 3: First bake
At this point, I baked my wings for the first time. As I mentioned, I didn’t end up creating a very even or thick layer because I couldn’t tell where I was spreading the liquid clay. Make sure you are following your package instructions when setting temperature and baking times, although since we’ll do a second bake, you should be able to cut the time on this first one a little shorter as we just need to set everything up. Please note: thr liquid clay recommends baking at 300 to 325 degrees F for increased translucence. I haven’t tried baking it at this high of a temperature yet; I’ve only used the temperature of my clay since it’s lower.
Step 4: Adding a second layer
Now that we can see where the liquid clay is at, we can go back in with another layer. You can also add in your twig features and any other branchy bits you’d like to add to your wings. I chose to keep these particular ones pretty simple.
You can back again at this point to finish your wings, or keep baking to layer up the liquid clay to your desired thickness. Make sure your last bake is a full bake so that everything gets baked all the way through.
Step 5: Clean up your edges
If the liquid clay seeped underneath the clay to the outside part of your branch wings, you can use an exacto knife to trim it down. The edges of my liquid clay areas weren’t as neat as I was going for, so I also used a blade to give more of an even curve to this part of the wing.
Step 6: Glaze
Once you’ve attached your wing to your sculpt and finished baking everything, you are set to glaze everything. This helped the liquid clay appear even clearer than before!
This is what my project looked like once everything was finished:
Feel free to post what projects you created using this tutorial in the comments below! I’d love to see them!