Zen Bee - presented by Poly Clay Play

©2010 Poly Clay Play -Trish Hodgens All Rights Reserved ~ www.PolyClayPlay.com Zen Bee This Zen Bee will look great in our “Kinda Sorta, Not Exactly, Zen Garden” project coming next month. Supplies *Clay Ball Flowers tutorial *Yellow (203), Black (801) and White (905) Pardo Red Chalk or Powder *Daisy Poly Press (optional) *Needle Tool *PYM II Spray Varnish The Bee For this project, I prove you don’t have to own every cutter imaginable to do a project... it just makes life simpler. I am using Pardo but, just as with the cutters that you don’t necessarily need, you are welcome to use whatever clay you have. 1. Condition a ball of Lemon Calcite clay (a ball of clay is slightly smaller than 7/8”). 2. Roll it into a log and cut off a little less than 1/3 of it. 3. Roll both pieces into balls. You may decide to pinch off a little more from the smaller ball. This will be the head of the bee. 4. Set the head aside. Roll a thin black snake. 5. Wrap the snake around the larger ball of yellow. 6. Roll the ball in your palms to embed the stripe in the bee’s body. 7. Roll the end to a slight point for his stinger. * Note: Watch which direction the stripe is going around the body before you make the stinger. You want the stripe going horizontally around his body, not vertically (if he were standing up that is).©2010 Poly Clay Play -Trish Hodgens All Rights Reserved ~ www.PolyClayPlay.com Zen Bee Page 2 8. Press the head to the body. 9. Pinch off a small bit of black clay and cut it in half. 10. Roll the pieces into tiny balls and press them to his face. * Tip: Cutting a piece of clay in half instead of just pinching off two separate pieces makes it easier to get the pieces uniformly sized. For an even easier way, roll the piece into a short log before cutting. You can tell what is half much easier! 11. Put a smile on his face using the edge of a circle cutter or, as I did, you can use the end of a straw. 12. Dust his cheeks, at the ends of his smile, with red or pink chalk or even makeup blush that you won’t be using for your face again. The chalk can be found in the scrapbooking section of your craft store. 13. Pinch off white clay and roll a ball. (I used Pearl 905) Cut it in half. 14. Roll each half into a teardrop and press each one to flatten them. Test the size against your bee. If they are too big for wings, try again, adjusting the amount of clay. 15. Mark lines in the wings just as you would for a leaf. 16. Press the wings to his body and shape them. Flowers Remember the Clay Ball Flowers Project?... You can make flowers any size! 17. Roll about half a ball of white into a fat log and cut it into five equal pieces. Don’t stress too much, they don’t have to be perfect. 18. Follow the instructions for making Clay Ball Flowers. 19. Make another smaller flower. 20. Press the bee to the large flower and the smaller flower in place as shown. 21. Bake following your clay package directions. I baked for an hour since the clay is pretty thick! 22. Spray varnish your project if you like. * Note: You can use a needle tool to mark the center or for a more uniform look, try my Daisy Poly Press.