I finished the birdie ornaments and decided to put them on swinging perches because they are swinging birds. In fact, their first stop after they left the workshop was a party where Mr. Green found a home on a Christmas tree
I managed to catch the birdies in candid shots before they flew off to their new homes.  They are made of polymer clay with  newspaper and foil armatures,  I painted them with liquid clay stained with alcohol inks-a technique I’d never tried until I saw Kate Clawson‘s work and attended the class she gave for the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild
I managed to catch the birdies in candid shots before they flew off to their new homes.  They are made of polymer clay with  newspaper and foil armatures,  I painted them with liquid clay stained with alcohol inks-a technique I’d never tried until I saw Kate Clawson‘s work and attended the class she gave for the Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild
The birdies chat before they depart for their new homes.Â
Ornamento 
These are so cute! I never have luck using foil as an armature….I love the way they came out! Beautiful.
Thanks. You use foil to make the basic shape. With the birds, I started out with large and small balls of aluminum foil wrapped around crushed up newspaper. I made everything as tight and compact as possible and then reader and coaxed them into birdie shape connecting them with some scrap clay. I then added another layer of clay wo work out the basic shape and I made the heads by taking a mandrill and forming a head emerging from the shoulders. These birds don’t have big heads and the heads come right out of their shoulders so I didn’t need to add much more clay to get the heads. I did need additional clay to elongate the tails. I painted the birds with white acrylic paint so the muddy scrap color wouldn’t deaden the appearance of the next layer of clay.
One thing that helped was that my scrap clay was quite warm and pliable because I conditioned it in a food processor.
I find that clay is less likely to crack when it is well conditioned and built up in thin layers rather than one thick one.
Does anyone else have tips for using foil armatures with polymer clay? I would be interested to hear.
Very nice, Martha! I love birds (our last parakeet lived to almost 14!). I had an idea to make earrings of clay birds on a copper wire swing, but, of course, they wouldn’t be this large. Haven’t completed them yet; too many distractions. Merry Christmas!
I love these birds! I’m sure they are happy in their new homes. I wish I’d been able to be at Kate’s demo. Maybe someone will show me at Clayathon. Happy New Year