"Holiday Santa Plate"
Design by Karen Prince

Materials:

• Sculpey III -
  • #1086 Gold
  • # 093 Beige
• Premo! Sculpey -
  • # 5259 Red Pearl
  • # 5305 Sea Green mixed with Sculpey Green Pearl
  • #5299 # 5101 Pearl
• Scraps of gray and white clay for Santa's hair, beard and mustache
• Pearl-Ex powdered pigments:
  • #664 Super Bronze
  • #657 Sparkle Gold
  • #665 Sunset Gold
  • #680 Duo Red Blue
• Sculpey Molds:
  • #APM 12 (For Holly & Berries on Santa's hood)
  • #APM 18 (Edging design around board)
  • #APM 23 (Angelic/Young Adult) Face Molds
• Sculpey TLS
• Sculpey Diluent (Clay Softener)
• Container for water
• Talcum powder
• Small disposable cups
• Toothpicks
• Wooden skewer
• Acrylic roller/pasta machine
• Super slicer
• Garlic press or Sculpey Clay Extruder
• Wooden plaque ½" thick (8 x 10" oval)
• Decorator's chalk (pink tones for cheeks and lips, browns for aging of face and hands)
• Stylus
• Acrylic paint - small amount of white and black for Santa's eyes
• Small paint brush with fine tip

Instructions:

• Condition the red golden clay very well. Roll out with pasta machine or acrylic roller. Cover the wooden oval with TLS beforee you begin covering the board with the clay. The TLS helps the clay to adhere to the wood and after baking becomes permanent. Work with pieces that are sized comfortably for you and with your acrylic roller press the seams together. Continue until the front and sides of the board are completely covered. Trim excess clay from the back of the board because you will find it wants to stick to your work surface and will try to pull loose if it is not neatly trimmed. You may even want to powder the back at this time with some talcum power.

• Now that your board is completely covered, texturize the clay. You may do this in several different ways. I used a Dryel dryer sheet and rolled it over my clay with the acrylic roller. After texturizing, bake your piece according to mfg. Instructions (275 degrees F in a calibrated oven) for at least 20 minutes. It will be much easier to work with for the remainder of the project. Cool completely.

• Make the face first using the smallest of the three faces of the molds #APM 23. Powder the mold first and press in the beige clay level with the mold.

• Repeat this same procedure for both of the hands. With the super slicer, slice between the fingers, slightly separating them for a more realistic look.

• Roll a small ball of beige clay and form into a pear shape and flatten. This will form his neck. Place the Santa head approximately 1" from the top of the board using TLS to adhere, and press into place, adding the neck also.

• The front of the inside garment is next. Roll out a sheet of gold clay, rolling down the top edge at the neck for a collar. To add fullness to his garment, roll up a piece of aluminum foil and place underneath the piece of clay and press only the edges down.

• Now take some scrap white and gray clay and press both into a garlic press.

• Begin placing longer strings of clay on his head first, ending with the shorter pieces. Using a toothpick makes this go a little faster. Use your fingers to pinch the ends of the strings the look more like hair. Add hair, then beard and before you add the mustache you can at this point go ahead and age the face. I used pink tones of decorator's chalks and a small brush to lightly brush color onto the lips and cheeks. After that I added some brown tones to the entire face and hands. The raw clay takes the chalk very well. The eyes are done after baking.

• Using a stylus or toothpick, begin texturizing the hair, beard and mustache.

• Cut a piece of the green clay to form the hood for his head.

• Mix together equal portions of the pigment powders and the TLS in small plastic cups. Add just enough diluent to make a creamy consistency. Fill a container with about 3" of water and drop the pigment mixture on to the top of the water with a toothpick Lay your prepared sheet of clay on top of the water and immediately lift up. The pigment is adhered to the clay. Set aside until ready to use so it can dry.

• Cut sleeves from the gold clay. These will be completely covered up, so nothing really special needs to be done. Insert the hands into the openings of the sleeves and place into position as shown.

• Using a strip of pearl clay that has been treated with the pigment powder also, trim a long narrow slice to run along the edge of the hood. Press onto the green slightly overlapping using the acrylic roller. Now place the clay around Santa's head crimping and curling as you go. Repeat this procedure on the edges of the two side panels of the cloak.

• Make a braided rope of scrap clay from two skinny snakes of clay, one pearl and one green. Place down the front of his garment. Use the super slicer to fray the botton of the rope to look like a tassel.

• Using the leaf mold #APM 18, press out 3-5 flower shaped pieces from scrap clay for the bottom of his garment. I found that my finished project only showed three of the flowers.

• Join the top edge of the side panel to the neck edge, turning under all raw edges and press into place. Crimp the side and bottom and place to your liking and put TLS where you want the cloak to be permanently adhered.. The outer garment should appear full and billowy also. Repeat other side.

• Cut a wooden skewer 6 ½" long. Roll the skewer in a scrap of brown clay, completely covering. Make a tiny snake from green clay and wind around the clay staff. Add small balls of red clay for berries. Roll small balls of green and point the ends to represent leaves and add these to the vine also.

• Place staff in Santa's hand showing separation of fingers around staff.

• With APM #12 mold, press out the holly and berries and place on the right side of Santa's head.

• Using APM #18, press out 15 leaf and flowers as shown from green and red clay. Place these around the perimeter of the board using TLS to adhere.

• Roll out a long snake from the red golden and put around the outside edge of the board using TLS to adhere to the clay. This gives the piece a finished look. Bake placque again according to manufacturers instructions for at least 30 minutes at 275 degrees F in a calibrated oven and cool completely. Because you are using a combination of Premo and Sculpey III, you need to vary the time of baking.
• Using #664 Super Bronze pigment powder lightly brush on the leaves to highlight or any other areas of your choice.

• To paint the eyes, using white paint, cover the entire eye area first. Let dry. Next using a very fine tip brush or even the end of your stylus, dip it into the black paint and dot the middle of the eye. Mix a little white and black paint together and paint the eyebrows.
• I finished my piece off by gluing felt on the back, placed it in an easel and put it on display.