Little Cake Topper Experiment

The other night I was sketching some little characters and really wanted to make one with an awesome beehive hair-do.  Don't ask me why.... I just really thought it would be a fun attempt at making a hair piece with Polymer Clay.

A fun beehive hairdo with some flowers and curls
thrown in for a little va-va-voom

I would have to say that this was the favourite part for me, making her hair and styling it like I wanted it to be.  Maybe I should have been a hair dresser in another life?!?!

Putting together her body... I enjoyed creating the
dress's train and I figured out how to make some very
pretty bow pieces

After I've put together all the pieces, I'm left wondering if
I should give her eyes or not....

Yup... decided to give her some little bead eyes
as I've never really done eyes on a little character before
I'd always used clay but had seen the technique used by other
great polymer clay artists, I gave it a try too...seeing that I have so
many to pick from!

Her two eyes... yes, I'm still debating on whether or not to
add them to her, as it would be hard to go back once they've
been added!

... eyes added!

... and here she is... I think for a first attempt at making something
as complicated as this I did a pretty good job :)

I really enjoyed making her, it took me about 3 hours to complete and it was fun... but a bit frustrating on figuring out how to add the neck, upper shoulders and arms to the dress.  I finally figured to hollow out the dress at the top to create a bodice and then place the clay in it.  From there it was the arms... those darn arms were killer!  I think I worked on those the longest out of the whole dress (well maybe the bow was just as challenging... and took a bit of time) because I'd create them, they'd be to long and then I'd take some off and then the arms got too thin... sigh.   It was a bit of a round and round I did on them but at the end it did come together quite well.

... so I showed my daughter, she thought it was great and wanted to make one of her own.  She saw a cute topper from Feats of Clay and liked the girl with the purple hair and wanted to make one of her own.  Now she's never made one before and she's 9.... I was amazed!

Pretty Freakin' awesome for a first try!

Wedding Cake Toppers

I think I'm absolutely obsessing about Polymer Clay.  Since I've started just about a month ago I've been searching the Internet for ideas for my next creations I'm going to try my hand at.  I've been curious about those cake toppers that I've seen online.  I thought it was a great idea as we all know you get something like this done at a cake shop and then it gets put away in a container for a bit and then it has to be thrown out eventually. With Polymer Clay toppers you can always put it away, and then bring it out every year or whenever you have a special something happening... depending on the type of topper you have made. 

I found this video on YouTube and thought I'd share.  I thought the dresses were beautiful and I like the idea of the "not so realistic" look that they have.  I also found a great site called Feats of Clay by Sarah and I enjoyed reading a bit about her....

Not forgetting long suffering husband Allan, who seems to permanently walk around the house with bits of clay stuck to his socks!

For those of us who work with the clay... I know I get bits of it stuck on my socks and had a bit of a chuckle when I read it.  I think I may just have to give this a try and see where it takes me.  I like the idea of cake toppers and the idea that they can be kept forever really, first on your cake and then on a shelf... added to another cake... and it goes on and on. 

See, this is where I just start to get carried away and it's so much fun!