This month on emuse

This month has been pretty much all about my obsession with the Clangers! I got the month off to a start with the first post of my series on how to create Clangers miniatures from polymer clay, and this continued all through the month, with ten projects in total!

1. Clangers' planet

2. Tiny Clanger

3. Music cloud
4. Metal leaves

5. Soup Dragon

6. Clangers logo
7. Eggbot
8. Soup tankard
9. Blue string pudding
10. Froglet
And I reviewed the new Clangers toys!

There have been a couple of other arty/crafty posts:
Retrocraft: Art
Elasticated bracelet
Double exposures (travel photos)

Some Sunday self-portraits:
Double exposures
Totally tropical
Summer pastels

And I posted about my love for my local libraries, and my first Birchbox.

This month I have been mostly...

Watching:

The Clangers, Cordon, Hair, University Challenge, Only Connect. And I tried Hive Minds but didn't like it.

Eating:

Salad!

Reading:

After a few months of reading very little, I got going again. I'm reading the Brunetti novels by Donna Leon, which are a great substitute for the Montalbano novels which I've been reading for the past few summers. I have also read The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and Bossypants by Tina Fey.

Buying:

Pens. Lots of pens.

The Clangers in Clay: Froglet

As the end of the month nears, finally we've come to the last post in my series of Clangers craft tutorials - I hope you've enjoyed them. I've left one of the best for last, as I've always found the Froglets really cute!

Over the course of July I've been showing you all the techniques I used to make my Clangers scene. Please remember that this is an ornament for nostalgic adults or older children - it's not a toy as it has many small and breakable parts. If you did want to make it for a young child's room, I'd recommend gluing the pieces together and mounting the scene in a box frame which could hang on the wall.

Here's what you need to make a Froglet (or why not make three!)

• Black and orange clay (e.g. Fimo or Sculpey)
• Cocktail sticks
• Black paint

1. Make a piece of orange clay into a flattened egg shape.

2. Use a pen lid to make a semicircular marking as a smile.

3. Make two holes in the bottom using a cocktail stick.

4. Make two small balls of black clay, and flatten them. Make them slightly narrower at one side, and make an indentation with a cocktail stick at this side.

5. Make two small balls of orange clay.

6. Flatten two tiny pieces of black clay, and use a craft knife to cut slits into one side.

7. Place the black eyelash pieces on top of the froglet's head, and add the orange balls on top.

8. Bake!

9. Cut two lengths of cocktail stick and paint them black.

10. Glue the black foot pieces to the cocktails sticks, then glue them into the holes at the bottom of the froglet's body.

11. If you like, varnish the froglet for a glossy look.

 

And here's a roundup of all the other projects in the series! I've really had fun with this, thinking of which items I wanted to make, and working out how I could make them. I have to admit that the scale is a bit off on some of them, with the container of blue string pudding, for example, being far too large to fit down the craters, but I hope that adds to the charm of it!

1. Clangers' planet

2. Tiny Clanger

3. Music cloud
4. Metal leaves

5. Soup Dragon

6. Clangers logo
7. Eggbot
8. Soup tankard
9. Blue string pudding

Elasticated bracelet

I'm loving peach and rose-gold this summer, so I made this bracelet in those colours.

1. Form a bead shape from peach polymer clay, and use a sharp knife to cut facets.

2. Bake.

3. Cover part of each bead with masking tape and spray paint with gold paint.

4. Thread the beads on elastic, tying knots in between. If you like, hide the knotted ends of the elastic inside one of the beads.

Sunday self-portraits: Summer pastels

I'm really getting into pastels this summer. There are some beautiful peach and mint tones around this summer that remind me of some of my favourite summer outfits from the 1980s. This dress was quite a cheap one from Peacocks, and the print has a bit of a 1980s look to it.

I also got myself some pretty peach nail polish, Resort Fling by Essie, and I made use of some of the gold temporary tattoos that came in my Birchbox. I also wore a peach belt and mint shoes that I've had for years. And I got pink bands on my braces this time - which are now going a nice peachy colour!

The Clangers in Clay: Blue string pudding

I showed you how to make a tankard of soup for the Clangers earlier this week, and now it's time for the other part of the staple diet of the Clangers - blue string pudding!

Over the course of July I'm showing you all the techniques I used to make my Clangers scene. Please remember that this is an ornament for nostalgic adults or older children - it's not a toy as it has many small and breakable parts. If you did want to make it for a young child's room, I'd recommend gluing the pieces together and mounting the scene in a box frame which could hang on the wall.

You'll need polymer clay (e.g Fimo or Sculpey) in:

• Silver
• White
• Blue
• Gold or copper

1. Roll out a long piece of silver clay and a also a disc shape.

2. Use a lid to cut a neater circle from the disc, and use a craft knife to neaten up the edges of the strip of clay.

3. Cover the lid with a strip of paper.

4. Place the strip of clay around the paper, and trim the ends.

5. Place some small balls of gold clay at the join, and press them down with a ball tool.

6. Remove the lid from the middle, and bake.

7. Place a thin snake of clay around the join between the base and sides, and smooth it out.

8. Mix together white and blue clays, but don't mix them completely. 

9. Roll out long thin snakes of the blue and white mix, and place these in the silver pot.

10. Make two thin snakes of silver clay, and attach these as handles. Add dots of gold clay where they join the pot.

11. Add a length of cocktail stick as a wooden spoon.

I think I made rather too big a pot of blue string pudding! Tiny Clanger looks rather daunted by it, and the Soup Dragon is eyeing it up!

Clangers' planet

Tiny Clanger

Music cloud
Metal leaves

Soup Dragon

Clangers logo
Eggbot

Soup tankard