Purple hearts & Clay heads

My friend Malen bought this purple and gold heart pendant during the last ARTE Souq. Not being a jewellery maker, I made it as simple as I can so it's meant to be tied at the back when worn. 

However, the material of the necklace itself is plastic so it easily can slip off - which it did! Luckily, she noticed and did not lose the whole thing. So I took it back and added those thingamagigs, they are like wire coils that you put at the end of accessories. I put two, and run both ends inside each one so that she can just pull each them to the sides and adjust the length. Then I made a knot at the end of each and slightly burnt it to prevent them from slipping through. She's seen the photo and loves it! That's always good news :). So I have to do something similar to the others I've already made.

On another topic... I've had a stash of clay (Super Sculpey, Cernit and La Doll) hidden in my drawers for months now. Some of them are from the USA, I asked hubby to bring them back for me and the others were bought from the Philippines, when I went last November. I've been putting off using them because they are more expensive, and not available here. But the reason I got into clay making is because I fell in love with art dolls! And so far, I've only made one.

This is made from Sculpey Original, the same materials I've been using for all my clay works. The pumpkin head though is made from Super Sculpey - he was my first test for that clay, which I think I made before November last year (that's why it's a pumpkin). I just wanted to see how I can work with it, both sculpting and painting it.

So last night, while watching The Beastmaster, I sculpted a face. The eyeballs are pre-baked balls made with a combination of SuperSculpey and white Cernit. Underneath this face is a baked skull (with the eyeballs already embedded), a technique, I learned from the Madsculptor.

I've tried making faces before with just a ball for an armature (some with no armature at all) but they would sometimes look skewed. With the skull armature, I was able to even it out easier. This is far from what I would want it to be but I am quite happy with it.

I do need more practice (look at that uneven nose!), and most specially in keeping my workspace and hands clean! This head has tons of flecks and lints on it. But I am quite excited, I love how this clay is firm enough to work with, how the indents I make stays and that it is flesh colored so there's really no need to paint it, like what I've been doing with all my cutie clay work stuff. Now, I have to find a good wire to use for the body - all the wires I've been able to get are quite soft.

If you want links to tutorials, here's one by Nadiia Evans that I really enjoyed watching over and over again.  

And a great tip from Twinessence is to use reference photos even if you're just working on a face, and do not need to look like anybody, but it helps get details and a more realistic look (this is a three-part video so just follow the links to part 2 and 3). Didn't do that with my first trial face but I will in my next one. 

Hopefully, my next face would look much better!