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Materials:
- Miniature Sculpey Flexible
Doll Push Mold APM24 - Miniature Dolls
- Sculpey Super Flex Multi-Pack
- Translucent Liquid Sculpey
- Sculpey Super Slicer
- Colored String
- Eye pin or a set of
miniature hex Screw and nut (I use 1-72 hex screw With nut found
at hobby shops)
- Sculpey Clay Extruder
- Darlin Designer disks
(see www.simplydarling.com)
Baking
Instructions:
Bake
SuperFlex at 275 degrees for 20 minutes per ¼" of thickness. Please
note that this project has multiple bakings.
Directions:
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Choose colors of flex for mermaid. Here I used green, red, yellow,
orange, and beige. Condition and roll through pasta machine at #2
setting.
- Look
at the size of the miniature mold heads. Draw your paper templates
(following examples) to match proportionately.
-
Take a #2 sheet of beige Flex, and cut the torso. Add additional
clay to create a shapely female torso.
-
Using the Flexible push mold, create the head. Use chalks to color
the cheeks, and shadow the face. (You can also use powdered blush
and eye shadows.) Press the head onto the completed torso. Bake
the completed torso/head.
-
After torso/head has completely cooled, brush some Liquid Sculpey
onto the top and sides of the head. Use a garlic press to extrude
strands for hair. Smooth into a "hairstyle" and affix to the head.
Re-bake the torso/head. Use bright colored gel pens to color the
eyes and the lips. Bake again for just a couple of minutes to set
the gel pen ink.
-
Use the tail template and cut out the mermaid tail from green flex.
-
Bake the tail and body pieces.
- Coat
the cooled, baked tail with Liquid Sculpey, and then decorate the
baked mermaid tail with scales, being careful not to cover the hole
in the tail.
NOTE:
Here I have made a Skinner blend from yellow and green Flex. (A
Skinner blend was developed by Judith Skinner. You take two triangles
of equal size in the yellow and the green. Lay them together to
create a rectangle. Then, fold the bottom to meet the top. Press
together. Insert fold into pasta machine and roll through on a #1
setting. Repeat 25 times, always inserting the SAME WAY. For
complete Skinner Blend instructions go to "Autumn
Leaves Vessel" in the project listings.
- Turn
sheet 180 degrees. Set thickness to a #4. Run through, creating
a long ribbon of clay.
- Roll
the ribbon into a small log, starting with the light end. This will
result in the shaded log. Reduce to desired size by rolling and
pulling gently. Let rest for several minutes. Pinch into a rounded
triangle.
- When
clay has firmed up (place in refrigerator to speed process), slice
thin slices with Sculpey Super Slicer and lay onto tail, overlapping
to create scales.
- Bake
tail again. Thread a piece of string through the tail piece through
the pierced hole.
-
Insert a screw through the tail hole and then through the torso
hole. Secure the screw with a hex nut at the back of the torso.
Roll out a long, thin rope of red. Bend it to resemble a piece
of coral. Poke holes into the "coral" for realism. This piece
can be decorated in a variety of ways. Here I used a fish
disk for my clay
gun from Darlin Designer Disks available online at www.simplydarling.com.
 
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Bake the coral piece separately. Carefully glue coral chestplate
onto the mermaid's shapely front. Do NOT glue to tail. Add a glass
or polymer clay bead to the bottom of the piece of colored string.
Thus, pulling the string will allow the mermaid's tail to wiggle!
She swims!
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The piece can be made into a necklace by adding an eye pin through
the head and torso. It can also be a pin by gluing a brooch pin
onto the back.
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