In my latest delivery from 14 Craft Bar were two wonderful Stamperia moulds - Forest Underwood and Forest animals that I knew would be just perfect to create a wonderful woodland scene. The lovely Agnieszka tucked in a packet of extra light air dry clay and a little note asking me if I would do a tutorial on how to use the moulds so here it is.
Take a lump of clay and roll it into a rough sausage shape and lay it into the mould:
Then push the clay into all of the nooks and crannies of the mould - a dresden tool for cake decorating is helpful for small areas but is not necessary. Do not worry if the mould is over full at this stage
Use a rolling pin to push the clay over the mould and achieve a flatter back, at this stage you may not be able to see the edge of the mould you are using. Simply use your fingers to push and lift the excess clay off until you can clearly see the shape of the mould. Time spent at this stage means that there is less tidying up to do when the piece has dried.
Using your fingers gently pull back the clay from the edge of the shape, this helps to free the piece making turning out easier.
The beauty of the Stamperia molds is that they are soft which makes unmoulding easier. - use a combination of flexing the mould and pushing from below bit by bit easy your piece out. Do not worry if the mould inverts in the process of doing this as it is easily pushed back into shape once the clay has been removed.
Now leave your pieces to dry completely before adding colour to them which will bring them to life.
I chose to use my mouldings to make a reverse canvas. To disguise the staples in the frame I used a mixture of the new rustic paints by Fabrika Decoru using red rust, iron oxide and orche. These paints are gritty and add lots of texture to the piece making them ideal for hiding things like staples and the joins in mdf projects.
I coloured my clay pieces with shades of brown and yellow/orange paints wiping back the paint whilst damp to bring out the detail in the mouldings. Once the paint had dried I added a little white using a dry brushing technique.
For the back of my frame I used papers from Fabrika Decoru - Wood Natural 12 x 12 paper collection. Tearing strips of paper to fit my frame and overlapping them - I used strips of foam tape along one side so that the one edge was lifted up for added texture. I fussy cut out lots of paper elements from the Fabrika Decoru - Botany autumn 12 x 12 paper pack and tucked these in and around the paper strips and my clay elements. Shaping the paper images using my fingers and ball tools.
I added chipboard pieces that look a bit like spider webs to my project for another layer of detail
Finally I used some pieces of wood, acorns, cones and lots of moss and to create the forest ground for my animals to walk on.
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