Make Valentine Candy Jewelry with Clay

Giselle uses cold porcelain clay to form Valentine's Day chocolate candy earrings and pendants.  See video demo at Valentine Craft - Mold Chocolate Clay Jewelry

Experiments with Coloring Air-Dry Clay

There are 2 main types of air-dry clays....those that are pre-colored and those that are not.  Most of the clays that are not pre-colored are white or off-white in color. (A few are terra cotta or gray.)   The question of what to use to pre-tint the "white-only" clays comes up quite often (the alternative is to paint after cured).  

The answer is:  Just about anything soluble!

Make Miniature Calla Lily and Dandelion

I know that many fans of air-dry clay are also fans of dollhouse miniatures...so today we'll show you how to make some miniature flowers with air-dry clay.   Pedro Ramirez says the Dandelion and Calla Lily are two of the easiest flowers to make out of clay. He shows us how to make the miniature flowers in this video demo. I think he's using polymer clay for the Lily, but he also mentions creating the flowers

Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD), Step by Step

BJD from BlueFairy dolls

What is a BJD?   A BJD is a ball-jointed doll .....any doll that is articulated with ball and socket joints.  Body elements are held together by thick elastic cords, making them fully articulated and highly poseable.  BJDs are capable of standing on their own, without a stand or other support, and are also capable of very natural looking poses.

WIP by Morezmore (OOAK)

Such a doll is sometimes called an 'articulated puppet'. A favorite pastime among collectors and hobbyists are posing their dolls and photographing them in various positions that imitate real life.

Photographing Your Clay Creations

Taking professional-looking photographs of small-scale objects can often be a challenge. I think the key is having good lighting and a plain background. Of course, a deluxe camera would be nice but it's not necessary. The photo above of some 3 inch tall clay snowmen was taken with a moderately-priced Kodak digital camera that I've had for a few years (7.1 megapixels). I think the photo came out pretty good for an amateur photographer! ;-)

I'm no expert, but this is what I did when I took the photo of the 2 snowmen above.