Showing posts with label working with molds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label working with molds. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Craft a Humpty-Dumpty Easter Egg


The Humpty egg from different view points.

    This Humpty-Dumpty Easter egg is much easier to make than he looks. I used a small face mold and a bit of Sculpey clay to make his face. Although, some of you who do not like to paint, could use a bit of flesh colored polymer clay instead. After un-molding the clay mask, I then pressed it onto a wooden egg with a generous amount of wood glue sandwiched between the clay and wooden surface. Then I baked the entire egg in an oven for only a few minutes at recommended temp. on the package. If I had to make the Humpty egg again, I would probably opt for air dry clay. 
      I then let the egg cool and glued on a simple white collar and a bow tie, after I painted the head in flesh colored paint and lower portion of the egg in blue to suggest his shirt.
      Humpty-Dumpty named after a famous nursery rhyme was actually a relatively popular character to craft during the mid to later half of the 20th century during Easter and also for nurseries. I've included more examples of this funny egg fellow below.

Above are examples of face molds from my vast collection.

Humpty Dumpty's Easter Surprise by Dick Clarke

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Eggs decorated with both real and fake candy

What to do with old decorator cake candies?

      I decorated this large Easter Egg with the candy sprinkles people normally use on holiday cookies. I worked on a styrofoam egg with white school glue. Because the colors in the candy sprinkles are made with food dyes, a slow drying glue or a cold room temperature may react with the delicate sprinkles to create a mushy mess. It is very important to use fast drying glue and to set the egg out to dry in front of a warm vent.
      I then sealed the surface of this Easter egg with Mod Podge in order to prevent the surface from crumbling. This egg will probably only last a few years at best, but I had fun working with different materials.
       The design reminds me of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." If I were to craft an egg similar to this one again, I would use seed beads instead and save the candy for an Easter desert.

Perfect looking chocolate eggs that will never melt.
Faux Chocolate Eggs
Perfect for The Egg Tree
 
       These flat cardboard eggs decorated with chocolate treats are in fact quite artificial! The chocolates look just like the real thing because these are made with real chocolate candy molds, however, the faux candy is molded with Sculpey oven-bake clay instead of butter, cream and cocoa.
       After unmolding the clay, bake it as directed on the package. Let it cool and then paint a thick coating of chocolate brown acrylic paint on the top half only. Glue the flat side of the faux candy to paper covered cardboard eggs and wait for everything to dry before doing the next steps.
       Then layer Mod Podge on top of the brown paint before painting on the pastel detailing. After applying several coats of the paint to the raised areas, brush on one last coating of Mod Podge. The chocolate will look so real that a little child may try to eat it! So keep these decorations up high on the egg tree limbs where they cannot be plucked from the branches by unsuspecting toddlers!