Polymer Clay: Christmas Tree Ornaments

In our family, it’s long been a tradition to put up our Christmas tree on the Friday after Thanksgiving, its designated spot being the only open space available: in the center of the large bay window in our living/dining room. The problem with this, as I suddenly realized this past November, was that it’s the same space where I had been doing all of my dollhouse work. Aside from the kitchen, the window is the only un-carpeted area in our home that is large enough for me to spread out on the floor. And just as important, it’s the only spot with decent lighting, at least while the sun is shining.

So having been temporarily displaced by a noble fir, I was forced to take a hiatus from my dollhouse projects. What did I do with my free time instead? I delved into polymer clay! I had been planning to immerse myself in making mini food eventually, once my dollhouse shops were assembled and furnished. I started watching YouTube videos on polymer clay miniatures but soon began gravitating toward some of the non-food techniques, such as mokume gane and mica shift. I decided to spend my break playing around with clay, the result being a collection of ornaments for our tree. Here is what I’ve created so far.

This was my first attempt at mica shift, using Premo silver and peacock pearl, along with the Kor roller Tri Spiral Skies for the design.

I used Premo opal swirled with a mix of pearl and peacock pearl for these snowflakes. While I love the aqua color, the swirl effect got a bit lost due to the translucence of the opal.

I made some more snowflakes, this time mixing a little Premo opal with both white and a mix of white and ultramarine blue. Then I swirled the two opal mixes together. The opal gave it some glitter while retaining the white and blue swirls.

I had a little of the above swirl mixture left over, which I used for these tiny snowmen. The hats are Premo twinkle twinkle, the scarves are Fimo glitter green and glitter red, and the pointy noses are Premo rose gold glitter.

Can you guess the theme of these gingerbread men? They represent the four houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (in the Harry Potter world, of course). I used Premo raw sienna for the bodies, burnt umber for the faces, and frost white glitter for the trim. Gryffindor scarf: Fimo red glitter and Premo yellow gold glitter. Slytherin scarf: Fimo green glitter and Premo white gold glitter. Ravenclaw scarf: Fimo blue glitter and Premo rose gold glitter. Hufflepuff scarf: Premo twinkle twinkle and a mix of Premo yellow gold glitter and zinc yellow.

For the first side of these two ornaments, I used Premo black clay, textured with the Kor rollers Rapunzel’s Weave and Japanese Fans. Then I “painted” them with Pearl Ex mica powder. The reverse is mica shift using the same textures and Premo 18k gold and bronze. I should mention that the ornament on the right was directly inspired by the YouTube tutorial on inlaid mica by Valerie Evans (a.k.a. Unruly Housewife).

I did two versions of watercolor (a.k.a. torn paper) technique using the six Ranger Adirondack alcohol inks I had at the time. (I’ve since ordered more colors!)

Since I had so much of the watercolor veneer, I used more of it in this pair of ornaments, inlaying strips within Premo black clay. (The blue-green one on the right snapped near the top as I was sanding it, but I was able to glue it back together using translucent liquid Sculpey.)

This is my attempt at crackle technique (inspired by another Unruly Housewife tutorial), using Premo white on black, then painted with the same colors of alcohol ink. I must have gotten too carried away with the ink because it remained sticky for quite a long time. The reverse is yet more watercolor veneer.

These two are from my first attempt at mokume gane, using Premo silver, white, and purple, plus some Fimo turquoise.

More mokume gane. I realized too late that I inserted the eye screw in the wrong end of the ornament on the right – it’s actually supposed to be a candle-shaped ornament. Oops!