My Polymer Clay Flower Garden is complete

I completed my Flower Garden sculpture and  listed at CreativeCritters.  In my last work in progress post I had finished sculpting and placing the roses, Hydrangeas, daffodils, tulips, and Irises.  The pink, white, and blue Hyacinths had been sculpted, but hadn't been "planted" in the garden yet.  I chose to group the like colors together in a semi-circle in front of the tulips.

After the Hyacinths had been "planted" I decided to add some ground cover for a bit of added color and texture.  I don't remember what the plant is called, but Gramma has an evergreen groundcover with little blue flowers that grows vigorously in the flower beds.  It's just loaded with tiny blooms in the spring and summer months!

I sculpted vines, leaves, and flowers underneath the tulips, daffodils, and Irises, and had a little bit creeping under the fence.  It does like to try to escape the beds whenever it can. ;-)

I also sculpted five tiny little polymer clay butterflies in shades of blue and red.  I used Lisa Pavelka's foils to add a beautiful shimmer to the clay before cutting out their wings.  After baking I sealed the butterflies with high gloss glaze.

The butterflies are perched on the roses and on the white picket fence.   This little flower garden invites you to take a closer look, and discover all the tiny details it hides.  This is the kind of scupture you're meant to get lost in.  Thank you for joining me on this creative journey!  To view this listing in my shop, simply click on any of the pictures.
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

Progress on my flower garden sculpture

If you read my first post you know I'm sculpting a flower garden in honor of Gramma, who passed away last May.  When I last posted I had sculpted the base, fence, roses, and hydrangeas in polymer clay.  The flowers I wanted to sculpt next were the Irises and daffodils.  Because I'm working on such a small scale I simply bent the end of the stem wires and dipped them in purple paint for the Iris centers and yellow paint for the daffodil centers.  I tried sculpting polymer clay centers around the wire, but they were just to big.  So I figured  the painted wire would work better.  After the paint dried I sculpted the first set of petals for the irises and the trumpets for the daffodils.

I'll be baking these flowers twice before adding them to the sculpture.  Baking them after adding each set of petals makes them much easier to work with.  After the outer petals have been added for all the flowers and baked I painted the edges of the daffodil trumpets orange and the centers of the Iris petals yellow.  You can see how I textured the petals to make them as realistic as possible.

The next step is to give them leaves and "plant" them in the garden..  You might notice there's a tiny bunny hiding between the Hydrangeas.  Gramma has always had bunny rabbits in her yard, so I thought it was only appropriate to add one in this little garden.  The bunnies have usually been pretty good about not eating our plants (the neighbor's poor tulips seem to be their preferred snack- LOL).

I'm trying to keep the flowers looking natural and of course I want the piece to look balanced.  The next flowers I want to add are Tulips and Hyacinths.  From there, I'm not sure what flowers I'll make.  I have quite a few to choose from, but some make be too difficult to sculpt, at least on this scale.  So far I'm very happy with the way this is turning out- it feels "right" and it's flowing well.  Plus studying all sorts of flowers online and in my yard is sure to put me in a good mood ;-)

Thanks for following yet another creative journey!  Stay tuned for the next installment!

-Michelle of CreativeCritters

New Work in Progress- Polymer Clay Flower Garden

My newest polymer clay project is a flower garden sculpture, and I'm creating it in honor of my grandmother, who passed away last May.  Gramma always loved her flowers, and I took good care of them for her.  For her birthday I would always pick her a bouquet of daffodils and hyacinths, the first flowers to bloom in her yard each spring.  Each flower I'm sculpting has a special signifigance to Gramma.  This is the beginning of the sculpture.

I started by prebaking the white fence, which had wire running through it for added strength.  I set the baked fence into the clay of my base, then started adding rose vines and rose leaves.

Here you can see I've added most of the leaves on the rose vines and started on two Hydrangea bushes.  Every one of these leaves was cut out one by one and thinned and shaped by hand.  I know this is going to be a very time consuming piece.  This sculpture has a lot of meaning for me, and I plan to do the best job I can.

Now lots of pretty red roses have been added.  Each of these flowers is unique and was sculpted by hand.  Gramma has always had red roses growing in the back yard, and they would get absolutely full of blooms in early summer.  I'd pick her big bouquets of pretty red roses so she could enjoy them in the house.

Now I've started adding the blue Hydrangea flowers.  Gramma had a Hydrangea plant right next to the front door.  That was the one plant she was able to take care of herself, for the most part.  She used to take small buckets of water and make sure her Hydrangea always had plenty of water.  Of course once I moved in I made sure all the plants and flowers were well taken care of.  Gramma loved her plants, but she wasn't physically able to take care of them.  She had bad arthritis ever since I was a child.  It made her happy to know that her plants were being taken care of though.

I created the Hydrangea flowers by attaching lots of tiny blue flower shapes to balls of clay.  The effect is very realistic.  It really helps that I'm very familiar with all the flowers I'll be sculpting.  I see these plants on a daily basis, and enjoy taking care of them.  They're like family ;-)

And this is where I'm at right now.  The roses are finished, and the Hydrangeas have plenty of big beautiful blooms.  I think I'll add some daffodils and irises next.  With some of these flowers I'll have to figure out how to sculpt them as I go.  I've been spending a lot of time studying the flowers in the yard very closely to see what shapes they're composed of and how they're put together. 

Stay tuned to see how this piece progresses! =)

-Michelle of CreativeCritters