This week’s dragons are indeed polymer clay, although they’re done in a technique you may not have expected to ever see in polymer clay. They are made with origami folds.
Click on any of the photos for a closer look.
I first got the idea when looking in my summer issue of The Polymer Arts magazine. It was an article by Izabela Nowak (izabelanowakdesign.wordpress.com) on origami folds and making jewelry with them. She made some very simple folds, but put them together in really fascinating ways. (You can an example of this in her blog header.)
I wondered if I could make a simple origami sculpture with polymer clay.
If you’d like to see my other dragon creations so far, I’ve made a Thursday’s Dragon Pinterest board just for them.
The first thing I did was look online for a relatively simple origami dragon. Then I made it twice in paper to make sure I understood it. Then I went to bed and woke up in the morning thinking I was insane to even try it. 🙂
However the next day, after rolling out my clay very thin, cutting into a perfect 6 inch square and dusting it lightly with cornstarch, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was fairly easy to manipulate into origami folds.
The really tricky part is where the folds stack up and get thick. Of course that’s going to create even more bulk in clay than it would in paper.
If you want to try origami and polymer clay I would highly recommend using the Sculpey Soufflé brand as it just seems to have the right feel. A light dusting of cornstarch or baby powder is all you need. The second dragon made with my leftover faux abalone clay mix needed a more heavy dusting of cornstarch which I think dried it out and made it crack. It was generally more difficult to manipulate.
If you’d like to see my other dragon creations so far, I’ve made a Thursday’s Dragon Pinterest board just for them.
All in all it was a fun experiment and I’ll definitely consider trying it again with different origami forms. Maybe simpler ones this time. 😀
Check out this post on Errol, dragon #1, for the details on why I am making one dragon for every week in 2015.
I’m impressed! I can’t do origami with paper!
A few years ago a friend gave me an Origami-A-Day calendar, so I got pretty good at it. I was surprised at how well it translated to polymer clay.
Must confess that I’m not into dragons, but this one is fabulous. Very much a piece of art.
Thank you, Margaret!