If you've been paying attention you know I got a custom order for a World of Warcraft Pandaren wedding cake topper recently. I've been having a lot of fun working on this project and things are coming along quite nicely. You can check out
this post to see how I started the armatures for the bride and groom. Once the armatures were complete I made the base. I wanted it to resemble a stone floor so I mixed several shades of brown and gray polymer clay together and then used my stone texture plate to create the look I wanted.
I do love those texture plates- they come in mighty handy for things like this! I just cut a free form shape from the clay, making sure it was large enough to hold the bride and groom, but not too large. This does have to fit on top of a wedding cake after all.
Then I set the base aside and got back to work adding a base layer of clay to the bride and groom. I used brown clay for no other reason than the fact that I had an ample supply of it. This base layer will be covered anyway, so it really didn't matter what color clay I used.
Instead of giving the bride separate legs I just made one solid piece in order to make her more sturdy. Her dress will completely cover her lower half, so I just wanted to get the shape right and make sure she would attach solidly to the base. She will have feet, though, which I'll sculpt right onto the base.
Here you can see the groom attached to the base with his feet sculpted and wearing his fancy black and gold spats. I even made sure to sculpt toenails!
There's a heavy gauge wire that runs through his body, out the bottom of his feet, and into the clay base. I want to be absolutely certain that this wedding cake topper is going to be a strong, solid piece. Next I made some Pandaren pants, a first for me- LOL
I think he looks pretty good with his pants on! I actually use my sewing and pattern making skills to make the patterns for these clothes in clay. It's the same process really, only you're using thin sheets of polymer clay instead of fabric. It helps to be skilled in a variety of different crafts. These things do tend to overlap. And here's a shot of the groom's back side. Of course I had to add that cute little tail ;)
In my next Pandaren post the groom will finish getting dressed in his tuxedo. So far this project has gone quite smoothly and I hope it continues like this. I have most of it planned out, although sometimes I need to change my plans as I sculpt and come across issues. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I want to sculpt their arms. I'd like them to be holding hands, but that's not as easy as it sounds. Any time you're working on two sculptures simultaneously things can be a bit complicated. Their arms will have to be positioned perfectly and I'll have to measure constantly as I'm sculpting. But I'll cross that bridge (or those arms) when I come to it. Until then, thanks for joining me on another creative adventure!
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