Up   Home   Historic Sites   Models   Heraldry   Puzzles   Garden   Links

Contents
	Colourizing Clay How to add colour to white polymer clay.		Pumpkins Making pumpkins with coloured clay.		Oranges Making oranges with textured skins from polymer clay.		Sweetcorn Making cobs of sweetcorn from polymer clay.
	Cabbages Making cabbages from polymer clay.		Onions Making onions from seed beads and raffia.		Beetroot How to make beetroot plants from beads, wire and paper.
	Chives - Leaves How to make clumps of leaves for chives.		Chives - Flowers How to add flower spikes to clumps of chives.

Colourizing Fimo (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials:

Fimo SOFT white modelling clay

(This technique works equally well with white Sculpey clay)

Acrylic paint

Stage 1

Ensure your hands are clean before starting. Remove a small piece of clay from the pack, and work it around in your hands to make it more pliable.

Stage 2

Flatten the clay by pressing or rolling it out, and add a small amount of neat acrylic paint.

Stage 3

Fold the clay over the paint, then squeeze and fold the clay repeatedly.

This will be a little messy and you will end up with some of the paint on your hands.

Stage 4

Continue to work the paint into the clay - rolling the clay into a long sausage and then folding it back into a ball works pretty well.

Stage 5

Keep going until you have achieved a fairly uniform colour. At this point, if you require a darker shade you can add more paint and repeat the process from Stage 2.

The reasons for colouring the clay in this way may not be immediately obvious, but here are a few:

1) It saves having to buy a complete block of Fimo for a small amount of a certain colour.

2) The pieces do not need to be painted, although, if you want to add a few details they are already "base-coated".

3) The colours can be mixed just like normal Fimo.

Fimo Pumpkins (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials:

Coloured Fimo - orange and dark green

Modelling tool or knife

Cocktail stick

Stage 1

Remove a suitable piece of orange clay, and roll it into a ball. Pumpkins vary a lot in size, so you have a lot of freedom to experiment. This one is about 1 cm (0.4") across.

Stage 2

Using a modelling tool or the blade of a knife, make small indentations in the clay. Start each line at the top, and finish at the bottom of the pumpkin.

Stage 3

Continue to make indentations all around the pumpkin.

Stage 4

Using a cocktail stick, or other suitable tool, make a small hole in the top of the pumpkin.

Stage 5

Add a small stalk from the dark green clay into the hole. Cook the finished piece(s) as per the instructions on the clay.

Fimo Oranges (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials:

Coloured Fimo - orange

Coarse sandpaper (about P80 grade)

Stage 1

Remove a suitable piece of orange clay, and roll it into a ball. The ball should be roughly 2-3mm (about 1/10"-1/8") across.

Stage 2

Roll the ball around on the sandpaper to texture the surface, and cook as per the instructions on the clay. Other citrus fruits can be made using suitable colours of clay and the same technique to add texture.

Fimo Sweetcorn (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials:

Coloured Fimo - pale yellow and green

Fine sieve or other mesh

Stage 1

Roll the yellow clay into a sausage about 2-3mm (about 1/10"-1/8") in diameter. Cut a section about 12mm (1/2") long.

Stage 2

Press the clay firmly into the sieve mesh to produce the texture, and remove carefully.

Stage 3

Gently squeeze the edges of piece, to form it into a roughly cylindrical shape.

note that the back will not have any texture.  Place in the fridge or freezer to make the clay a bit less pliable.

Stage 4

Roll the green clay into a similar-sized sausage as the yellow, and then flatten it out with a suitable roller - a small jar or paint bottle works well.

Stage 5

Wrap the yellow piece carefully inside the green, covering the untextured portion of the cob. Cook the finished piece(s) as per the instructions on the clay.

Fimo Cabbages (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials:

Coloured Fimo - light green

Stage 1

Roll the clay into a sausage about 6mm (1/4") in diameter. Roll this flat with a suitable roller - a small jar works well. Try to get it as thin as you can without it splitting up.

Stage 2

Tear a strip of clay about 6mm (1/4") wide, leaving a jagged edge.

Stage 3

Roll up the strip. The rough edge should now give you the central leaves of the cabbage. Once the cabbage reaches a suitable size, tear off the end of the strip.

Stage 4

Tear off a couple more pieces from the flat clay piece - these will become the outer leaves. A gentle curved edge is better, like the one on the left.

Stage 5

Wrap the outer leaves around the outside of the cabbage. Try not to press on the upper edges, but make sure the lower parts are securely adhered.

Stage 6

The cabbage will probably be too "long" now.   If it is, carefully trim off the excess with a knife.

Stage 7

Gently round off the sharp edges where you have cut. Cook the piece(s) as per the instructions on the clay.

Stage 8

If you like, you can add veins to the outside leaves, with a fine brush and some thinned white paint.

Onions (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials & Equipment

Beads

Raffia

Scissors

PVA

Craft Knife

Paint & Brushes

Stage 1

Thread pairs of beads onto a piece of raffia, leaving twice the height of the foliage between the pairs. This is a fiddly process as it was not possible to thread the raffia with a needle.

Stage 2

Using a sharp pair of scissors, cut the raffia between the beads on an angle.

Stage 3

Stage 4

Apply a small blob of PVA glue to the end of the raffia, and slide the bead into place. Allow to dry.

Stage 5

Cut the raffia into a number of thin strips, and trim the top of each one to a gradual point.

Stage 6

Splay out the leaves, and paint in your choice of colours.

A row of finished onions in a raised bed.

The complete raised bed, full of onions.

Beetroot (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials & Equipment

Thin multi-core wire

Seed beads (about 2mm diameter)

Green paper or thin card

Flower punch (daisy)

Pliers, Tweezers, Craft knife

Scissors, Clothes pegs

PVA, Paint & paintbrushes

Stage 1

Strip the insulation from about 8-10mm at one end of the wire. Cut the wire, leaving a short length with the insulation still attached. This will allow you to hold the piece as you work on it.

Stage 2

Thread a bead over the bare wires, then splay out the individual strands. Clamp the bottom of the wire with a clothes peg to allow easy handling.

Stage 3

Set aside to dry.

Stage 4

Whilst the PVA is drying, cut a flower shape from a piece of green paper using the paper punch. This will form the leaves of the plant very easily, though you can cut them by hand if you wish.

Stage 5

Paint some veins onto the leaves in a burgundy red colour. You can paint veins on both sides if you wish, but it will make attaching them (Stage 8) more fiddly. I did this step later in the process (Stage 11).

Stage 6

Allow to dry.

Stage 7

Trim the leaves to a point with a sharp craft knife. You can vary the length of the leaves and the angle of the cuts to add a little variety.

Stage 8

Apply a little PVA to one of the wires and attach a leaf, leaving a short length of bare wire by the bead.
If you painted both sides of the leaf, you will need to ensure the wire aligns with the veins you painted.

Stage 9

Allow to dry. 

Stage 10

Apply more PVA to the joints. This will help to keep the leaves secure as you curl them in Stage 12.
Allow to dry.

Stage 11

Paint veins on the second side of any leaves which will be visible. 

Stage 12

Hold the base of a leaf with the tweezers and gently curl the leaf downwards. 

This is the most fiddly step - take your time.

Stage 13

Trim the wire "stem" to a suitable length to fit into your base.

Stage 14

Make a small hole to accept the wire, and a slight indentation in the base to allow the bead to sit slightly below the surface. Secure the plant in position with a small blob of PVA.

A row of finished beetroot in a raised bed and a second row made in the same way, but using a smaller craft punch.

Chives Part 1 - Leaves (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials & Equipment

Nail brush

Cotton, Thin wire

Pliers

Tweezers

Scissors

PVA

Paint & paintbrushes

Stage 1

Grasp a single tuft of bristles tightly with the pliers and twist the pliers to remove the bristles from the brush.

Stage 2

The bristles were held in position by a tiny strip of metal and fell apart when I let go with the pliers.

Stage 3

Place about half of the pieces of nylon over a pair of tweezers as shown.

Stage 4

Whist the pieces are still resting on the tweezers, thread a piece of cotton through them.

Stage 5

Tie a knot to secure the bristles back into a bundle. If you want to make them even more secure, thread a piece of thin wire through, and twist it tight.

Stage 6

.

Stage 7

Paint the bristles in a suitable shade of green. It might take a couple of coats to get reasonable coverage.

Stage 8

Make a suitable hole in your base. Since mine is foam, I used a cocktail stick, but you will need a drill for more solid materials.

Stage 9

. 

Stage 10

Insert the bristles into the hole. Use a cocktail stick to push them down, if necessary.

Stage 11

For a finishing touch, make and insert some flower spikes as shown below.

Chives Part 2 - Flower Spikes (Click thumbnails for larger images)

Materials & Equipment

Thin wire

Flock

Offcut of foam

Tweezers

Scissors or wire cutters

PVA

Spray primer

Paint & paintbrushes

Stage 1

Cut a number of pieces of wire to about 12mm (1/2") in length. Insert the wires into an offcut of foam, to make handling much easier.

Stage 2

Apply a small blob of neat PVA onto the end of each wire and allow to dry.

Stage 3

Depending on how dilute your PVA is, you may need to repeat Stage 2 to build up the size of blob you require.

Stage 4

Once dry, apply a final coat of PVA to each wire.

Stage 5

Liberally sprinkle flock onto the glue blobs. Be sure to turn the foam in different directions to get good coverage.
Allow to dry.

Stage 6

Apply a coat of spray primer onto the pieces and allow this to dry.

Stage 7

Paint the stems green and the flowers in your choice of colours - for chives I opted for a red/violet colour.

Stage 8

If necessary, trim the bottom of the wire to length, then inset the flower spikes into the pre-made bunches of leaves.