Christmas Nativity Set
Design by Michelle Lott

Tools:

Figures: (Refer frequently to picture)

Baking instructions:
Use an oven thermometer to check oven’s accuracy, particularly with toaster ovens. Sculpey III and Super Sculpey bake at 275 degrees F for 15 minutes per ¼” of thickness. As a rule, pieces can bake longer, just not hotter. Pieces may also be baked more than once. For example, you may want to add some of the embellishments to a baked animal to allow for easier handling and draping of the blankets, bridles, and to avoid fingerprints. Re-bake depending on the dimensions of the embellishments. To increase adhesion between baked and raw clay, use a little Translucent Liquid Sculpey brushed on the back of the raw piece.

• Body: Roll a 1.5” ball of the appropriate color of clay into a teardrop shape 2.5” long. Cut 3/4” off of the pointed end. Press ½ of a flat toothpick into the top of the body, leaving ½ of it exposed. (Note: for Mary and Angel, cut just a bit shorter)

• Head: Roll a .5” ball of Super Sculpey into a round shape.

• Nose: Roll a 1/16” ball of Super Sculpey into an oval shape and press onto center of face. Blush cheeks and nose with blush or decorator chalks; gray chalk can be used as well for shadowing if desired.

• Eyes: Use the round toothpick to place seed beads in the center of face for eyes. Press into face. Use round toothpick to add the lines around the eyes. Note: You may want to practice a couple of times with placement of the eyes. Closer set eyes or wide apart eyes? It is a matter of choice! You may also want to chill the heads in the freezer before inserting eyes and adding the “character lines.”

• Press head onto the toothpick at the top of the body.

• Arms: Roll a 5/8” ball of tan clay into a worm shape 1.25” long. Cut in half. Add the arms to the sides of the body with the points at the top. Note: Some characters have arms at sides, some are at 90 degree angle, some are at 45 degree angle. For characters with bent arms, use the back of paring knife to create a crease in the arm.

• Hands: Roll a ¼” ball of Super Sculpey into an oval shape and flatten slightly.

• Cut in half and add to the ends of the arms.

• Each character will have different embellishments, adornments, clothing features. These will be explained in further text for each character. Feel free to adjust colors if you desire.