whoever pulls the sword from the stone…
IMG_20180419_194845 by honey hatter[/url], on Flickr
This is the long sword, there is some special history behind it, i made a miniature female mouse archer for a lovely lady on a show called critical role. This is the sword i was going to send but decided against it, the bow and arrow was excellent, anymore and it would have made the statue look off. Fast forward a couple years and my niece is getting the sword i made for a celebrity. I’ll add clay to the blade, and maybe a unicorn head for the hilt guard. Also i’m thinking about making a claymore or some other weapon that will be on the racoon’s back.
how do i edit my posts… i missed an apostrophe on my last post LOL.

Hi PC! “YES” to full time creator, never thought of myself as one but it fits.:) The sword I add sculpey bake and bond glue to the blade & shape it, after I’ve done the hilt guard in the same way I bake. If I need to I carve away at it to add sharpness. I have thought of doing Etsy, I may do. No posh friends here except you PC lol. I have too too many projects I have to create, after I finish this one I’ll do a lion king scene with rafeeki and pumba. After that I have a project I’m anxiously awaiting to create its a passion project, a vampire stalking prey. Can’t wait.

Hi PC I taught myself to create armatures out of necessity as my skill at making miniatures evolved, I started making miniatures 5 years ago, I’m 45 now. Before that I drew a lot, although I was never as good at drawing as I wanted to be. Getting the creation from my mind to page never seemed to work however I could draw still life drawings all day. I gave up drawing for a few years, when I picked up some polymer clay it was like my hands instantly knew what to do. At first I wasn’t very good at making wire armatures, I’d seen people on YouTube make them, it wasn’t until I put some concerted effort that I made my first armature, after I did I saw how much better it was posing the piece I was working on. The clay would naturally cling to my armature, I usually add aluminum foil around the armature to give the piece more body to the skeleton. I use sculpey bake and bond all the time, I’ll apply it to the aluminum body and add the clay around it. I used the same process for the sword with an extra added step. I go to my local hardware store for metal flashing, they use it on roof construction so roofs don’t leak I think. I use this easy to cut metal flashing, it’s nice because it’s a thin sheet of metal, but nice because it’s sturdier than aluminum, when I made the sword I made a paper template drawing out the shape of the blade I wanted, I traced that onto the flashing and cut it with my metal shears which I also got at the hardware store🙂 I took a section of straight wire, wrapped it around the bottom part of the blade, wrapped some more wire around the straight section which is the handle you see. I applied some bake and bond to the blade, put some aluminum over that and baked it viola there is the blade you see. It’s a simple technique that works well whether making armature or weapons. To me, my imagination is one of the most important tools in my art. It wasn’t until i stopped drawing, I loved it very much and still do. But knowing myself and what I’m good at finally, I was able to fully connect with my mind and imagination. Like soooo many great artists I see who can draw/paint they have that connection to there imagination that I was seeking for a long time. Now when I go to create a piece, I don’t make anything until I imagine it fully in my mind first, there is some wiggle room there. Sometime my hands will know what to do, and something better than what I imagined will appear… I hope I made some sense… Oh look a white rabbit!

Thanks selected, I love that mad hatter’s clock your working on. Come to think of it I love the mad hatter. I don’t know how you do what you do but it is very skillful and brilliant workmanship.

PC I’m happy to wrap my brain around this for you and see if I can come to some solution, also when I do my blade work I’ll add some more detailed pictures step by step. I’ll see what I can come up with the straw of clay. I’m just thinking out loud here, when I apply clay to my figure that has wire and aluminum, my fingertips can get sticky I use the handy wet wipes to clean my fingertips, when I go to touch the clay again it will still be tacky to the touch but my clean and dry hands take some of the tack out of the surface of the clay. I’m then able to manage the clay on the figure and shape it to my liking, I do this in sections with small portions of clay. Clay does tend to have a mind of its own when it’s baking it does expand and contract. I’ll see if I can come up with something.

I’m still going to try something with the clay straws, actually I’m laughing very loud at you trying to talk me out of it now. Thank you for my joke of the day PC
Getting clay to stick to sculpey glue is the easy part, using to much glue can turn the clay to mush, the less you manipulate the clay after you have applied it the less chance the glue has to work its way through the layer of clay you have applied. Because I’m always making armatures I’m creating a foundation for the glue and clay to be applied to. The stronger the foundation the more chance you have for your clay to be strong as well. Going from one strength to the next. For the blade I roll out a thin sheet of clay lay the sword out on top of the sheet, cut around it like you would a cookie on a cookie sheet. For the other side I cut the same shape section, carefully pick up that piece and lay it over the top of the blade gently pressing the clay onto the glue and joining both sides of the clay together with my fingertips. My favorite tools are my hands. I’m sorry if I didn’t explain this well enough before PC, my mind is often chasing rabbits down holes:) I’ll add lots pictures for this process. It’s not a hard process, I always tell people anyone can do what I do with polymer clay. The hard part is bending wire around wire to make whatever foundation you wish to make. After that, the foundation/armature what have you, the wire support tells the clay what shape it should be. Whether it’s a miniature wire sword or a miniature statue, the wire, aluminum, and glue are all tools and technique to bend the clay to your will, or smush the clay, or gently press the clay:angel: