Polymer Clay Icing for Donuts!

 (edit: if the text formatting it wonky near the bottom then blogger must of exploded on me. I tried to fix it with no solutions)

Hey there! Another week has passed so that means a new posting. Before I go into it you will notice that I changed the design of my blog! This super pink design is to celebrate the cherry blossoms and the coming of spring! I decided to "simplify" my graphic design style and do something more simple and clean. I loved how it turned out so I hope you all enjoy it to!

I want to show you my experiments with donut icing. I don't make donuts often or often enough, but I know there are several way to make icing for donuts. I'm a perfectionist so I always want my clay food to look as real as possible. I want to achieve that icing that's smooth, thin and well, perfect haha. I never went through all the ways I knew how so when I was looking at all my naked donuts I thought "This is my chance!".

The three donuts that you see are the three ways that I did it. I wanted to find a sure fire way that I can make that donut icing perfect all the time. That and just expand the ways I can make icings and glazes.

Before I go to the method that obviously worked I want to talk about the other two. The first method that I tried is what I normally use. I took a bit of some already made white icing made from white polymer clay and TLS. I revived its "icing" texture again since it was like a super soft clay texture from not being used and being dried out. From there I used a brown chalk pastel to color it, I didn't want to thicken it up again so I didn't use brown clay to colorized it. I used a small knife to shave as much pastel as I wanted in the clay then mixed it up. After the color was completely mixed in, I got a tooth pick to start laying down the icing on the donut. By the time the whole donut was covered with the icing I noticed that the icing was too "stiff" and I added more TLS to thin it out. It was easier to try to smooth over but again the icing was too stiff. So I did what I could to make it look nice and called it a day haha. Needless to say unless you like the "cake look" icing on your donuts I would skip this method for donut icing.

The second method was a really out there one that I wanted to try for about a year. This is more of a chocolate "glaze" look rather then an "icing". I took some Liquitex Gel Medium and added the same chalk pastel to it. I mixed it in really well since it got a little lumpy. After I mixed it all in I put the gel on top of the donut and try to smooth it out with a tooth pick the best I can. The end result when it dried was pretty good! It wasn't the perfect icing look that I wanted but I love how nice of a glace it turned out. Doing this specific experiment have open my eyes to the gel medium!

The last and best way to make donut icing is the same method I explained in the first process. But instead of using old icing clay, I used all TLS with "maybe" a tiny bit of clay to thicken it up. I just got some TLS and added the pastel. Then I mixed both up till I had the shade I wanted. Then I used a tooth pick to lay it on. I spread it around to all the areas till I had it the way I wanted. Since this was my second technique at the icing, I had the unbaked donut sitting around. So I the icing dipped down more while I was working on the other methods. So my tip here is once you get the icing the way you want it throw it in the oven asap! Or the icing will pour down onto the surface of whatever you got it on.

Overall, I learned a lot from this experiment and I'll definitely will be using my last method to sweeten up my donuts every time. I hope this was useful to all of you as well.

Before I go I want to give you all a sneak peak at some new rings that will be on sale soon. I like to call them "Yummy Rings" haha. I used some unused waffles and other clay pieces and made them into rings!

I hope you all enjoyed this post, take care!

Polymer clay cupcake tutorial

How to make a polymer clay cupcake.

Polymer clay cupcakes are one of my favorite things to make. There are countless ways you can make them and just as many styles. You can make them cute, creepy, silly, Japanese deco style, just about anything. Not only that but they make very popular charms for cell phones, bracelets, necklaces, and pendants. So if you’re planning to make cute jewelry to sell, cupcakes are a way to go.

On ways to make a cupcake it’s pretty simple. There are tons of tutorials and methods to make them. These are great for the beginners to start out and it’s easy to follow. After you master the basics of these you can move up to making better looking cupcakes and different ways on making them. Then I will show you something that all beginners what to learn, “how to make polymer clay whip cream!” But I will leave that to the next post. ;3

For now here are the polymer clay cupcake tutorials that I promised you

The clay store

http://tutorials.theclaystore.com/miniature-food/polymer-clay-cupcake/

E-how

http://www.ehow.com/how_4908064_polymer-clay-cupcake.html

Video tutorials!

MsKreant’s tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcpatZx5Td0


I hope you find these polymer clay cupcake tutorials useful and goodbye for now!

Polymer clay lollipop charm tutorial

How to make a polymer clay lollipop

Clay lollipops are super easy to make and makes the cutest charms. You can make them any color and add anything you want to them. I’ve seen a lot of clay artists and Jewelry makers do awesome things to lollipops. Add cute animal heads make cute hair clips, and so on.

The best thing about these lollipop tutorials is that it’s awesome for beginners. Also it’s easy to make charm bracelets, necklaces, and cell phone charms out of!

Video tutorials!

marianne1586

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oSDDaTxr_M&feature=related

alleycat1694

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-ZkRSGiKEE&feature=related


I hope to see some pretty clay lollipop charms out there.

Thanks again for visiting Cute Clay tutorials!

Polymer Clay Chocolate Charm Tutorial

How to make a chocolate clay charm.

Its time to make a cute chocolate charm! Since you got the ideal things to start making some cute jewelry out of polymer clay, its time for the good stuff.

These chocolate clay tutorials are great for beginners and you learn great but simple techniques that you can use later on. One of my first clay charms was made from these tutorials and it loved making them. You can make necklaces, bracelets and rings out of these cute chocolates. Just about any kind of cute jewelry.


Chat noirs tutorial:

http://chat-noir.deviantart.com/art/Chocolate-Charm-Tutorial-80693342

Keigylf’s tutorial:

http://keigylf.deviantart.com/art/Chocolate-Bar-Charm-Tutorial-125512929



Some clay video tutorials!

GentlemanBunny Chocolate bar tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MvWd2xT-C4&feature=player_embedded#t=192

Garden of Imagination tutorial chocolate bar tutorial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qumSWBv6ZdQ&feature=player_embedded


I hope you guys are as hungry for cute clay chocolates as much as I am. Thanks for stopping by Cute Clay Tutorials and I will see you tomorrow!

Cute clay tutorials: More tools

The essentials on making cute jewelry

Welcome back to cute clay tutorials! I hope I’m not going too slowly for some people that want to get to the good stuff. Please bare with me ha-ha its all will be fast and painless. So now you know what polymer clay is, the next step is to get some tools to help you sculpt, paint, add effects, and glaze your cute clay creation then finally make some jewelry out of them!

First you’ll need some cheap acrylic paint to paint your cute clay charms after its cured (meaning baked). These go around 50 cents a bottle depending on brand and size. What a treat! Any brand will do its all pretty much the same. Here are some brands of acrylic paint: Folk art, Apple Barrel, and Delta. The brand I use is the Craft Smart.

Some cheap set paint brush to paint with. Get the ones that have numerous sizes it will make it easier to paint bigger and smaller charms. When I started making my clay charms I already had a paint brush set. Originally for using watercolor but that never happened so they were perfect for painting charms with! If I remember the set cost around 10 and 15 dollars. I’m sure that got kids set too I you’re a cheapo like me so just look around at what’s available.

Some glaze to protect your charm. This is very important to have if you want that glossy shiny finish to your piece also. If you’re in the clay section and see that Sculpty brand of gloss, DO NOT GET IT. The kicker with this is that it’s WAY over pieced for such little quantity. You can get much bigger sizes of gloss for a much better piece. Just get a glossy interior varnish from the brand “Delta Ceramcoat” or anything of the sort. Another gloss you can use is the Krylon triple-thick crystal clear glaze. Get the jar kind so you can just paint it on. They have the spray on kind as well but in my experience you have to use it outside because the strong fumes that is harmful to you. I use to get head aches because of the smell and that scent stays on your cute clay charms for a long while too. Not fun if you’re making these for a friend or business. There are more kinds and brands out there just make sure the kind your using won’t ruin the paint or clay and is safe to use.

Jewelry Findings for attaching your charms on to bracelets, ear rings, pins etc. There are dozens and dozens of brands that sell these but the kind of findings that you want starting out are head pins, ear rings, jump rings, eye pins, and clasps. If you can’t find a set that sells these together at a good price, you can simply get head pins and ear rings to start.

Jewelry chains that you can make necklaces and bracelets out of. Once again there are many kinds and brands so just shop around. Also, I would recommend a jewelry making tool set. So you can cut and bend jewelry wire as well as chains to make bracelets and necklaces.

Whew, that was harder then I thought but I made it through. All these items can be found at any craft and art store. And everything I listed here I’ve gotten for no more then 10-15 dollars. I will go over more tools of interest later on. Remember, I’m starting at the very beginning for the beginners as well!

Thanks for visiting cute clay tutorials and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Cute clay tutorials: What is Polymer clay?

The basics on making cute jewelry and charms

To start making cute clay charms you’ll need polymer clay. But what is it? It’s a type of clay that you can sculpt and mold then throw into the oven to bake and harden. You can find polymer clay in any art and craft stores. Its really cheap around 2 bucks depending on brand you use. Speaking of which there are a few you can test out. People use different brands depending on personal tastes and what they are making.

The best brands for beginners and the one I use personally was Sculpey III. It comes in 44 colors, shades, and special effects. It’s easy to handle and mold, perfect for a beginner like yourself. It comes in a block that you can break off into 4 rectangular pieces also. Doing research on the brands and such they say that’s its more brittle then most clay brands and likely to break especially when you’re making thin sheets and extensions. But in my experience it held up pretty well so I think that should be the least of your problems.

Another really popular brand to start with is Fimo classic. It comes in 24 for colors. It’s much firmer and tougher to soften up but it’s harder and sturdy after it’s baked. If you want a softer version they have Fimo soft. It comes in over twice as many colors then Fimo classic and even has special effects kinds. I never used the Fimo brand because it costs a bit more and the tougher quality of it. Still, a lot of crafter used it with great results.

There are more brands of clay out there and both brands holds a lot of other types of clay as well, depending on what you what to do. But as far as making cute clay charms and jewelry, Sculpey III as well as Fimo does really well.

Another thing I want to point out is the translucent and pearl kinds of clay. Those are really useful in getting awesome effects like using translucent for making sundae glasses and cups. The pearl is great for mixing so that your cute clay charm has glittery effect. We will go over this more as time goes on but I just want to get the bare basics out there.

All in all, polymer clay is the kind of clay you want to use for making clay charms. Try and test out many out to see which one you like best.

Thanks for taking the time to visit cute clay tutorials. And I will see you tomorrow!