Bunny n' Carrot Pencil Holder

Bunny 'n Carrot Pencil Holder
By David Master

Materials:

Directions:

Face:

Begin by rolling out two small, identical balls of terra cotta and place them side-by-side.
Cut out a small triangle of dusty rose and place it in between the two balls of terra cotta.

Using terra cotta, create an egg shape at least twice the height of the identical balls.
Flatten this egg shape a a little, and place them above the dusty rose triangle.

Shape two flat, identical circles using white, and place them above the dusty rose triangle.
Roll out two small balls of black, and place each one on each of the white circles.
Cut out two diamond shapes of terra cotta. Stretch each diamond to make them slightly longer. Place them on top of the rabbit's head. Bend these slightly to give a more natural look.

Roll out a small, thin snake of terra cotta. Place this right above the eyes for eyelids. To give the rabbit a personality, change the shape of the eyelids. Play around with this and have some fun!

Cut out a flat rectangle of white. Place this underneath the nose area of the face. Draw a line down the center of it with a toothpick. Teeth!

Body:

Shape an egg out of terra cotta. This should be larger than the head. Attach this to the bottom of the head.

Arms:

Shape two logs out of terra cotta. These should each be about the same length as the height of the body. Attach to the top of the body.

Legs:

Make two slightly flattened egg-shaped feet out of terra cotta. These could be any size as long as they are smaller than the head. Attach to the bottom of the body so that they lie level with the table.

Carrot:

With the sweet potato clay, roll out a log. Taper one end. This log should be a little smaller than the height of the rabbit.
Take a pencil, and stick it through the center of the carrot, but not all the way through!

With one hand, hold the pencil, and with the other, roll out the carrot to make the area closer to the top of the pencil smaller than the bottom.
Pull out the pencil to leave a deep hole.
With green clay, make any shape you want, and then flatten it slightly.
Stand the carrot upright and place the green clay underneath it so that it sticks out the side. This is the carrot foliage or leaves.
Use a toothpick or skewer to make scratches into the green to create a leafy effect.

Completion:

Take the carrot and place it right next to the rabbit. Put one of the rabbit's arms around the carrot if you like. Play around with the angles of the arms, feet, and head to make the rabbit more alive.

Place your completed rabbit on an index card and put it into a glass baking dish.
Ask your parent to use a separate, metal, oven thermometer to check the temperature of your oven. You need the temperature to be an exact, 275 degrees in the center of the oven.
The rule of thumb is to bake Sculpey III 15 minutes per 1/4" of thickness. This means that you will probably need to bake the rabbit and carrot for about 45 minutes. IMPORTANT: The clay can bake longer, BUT NOT HOTTER!!! Do not turn up the temperature to make it bake faster. IT WILL BURN!