Sunflower Plaque Tutorial Part VI

Sunflower Plaque Tutorial Part VI - Creating the Flower & Finishing the Plaque

Step 82

Next, I'm going to begin applying the leaves using the leaf cane that I created in Steps 40-49.

Step 83

Here, I've sliced the leaf cane into thin, even slices.

Step 84

Then I placed them around the edges of where I'd like the flower to be.

Step 85

I secured each leaf into place by pushing a line into with my needle tool.

Step 86

Now it's time for the flower petals. Here, I've sliced the petal cane from Steps 50-65.

Step 87

Then I began placing the petals around the border created by the leaves.

Step 88

I attached the petals by pressing the bottom of each one with a ball stylus.

Step 89

Next, I pressed the ball of clay down to form a dome shape.

Step 90

This will add height to the head of the flower and create a base for the the flower center to be pushed into.

Step 91

Next, I applied more flower petals until the head of the flower is almost completely covered.

Step 92

Here's a close up.

Step 93

In Step 13, I said I was going to use one of the cane ends from the brown cane as the center of the flower. This is what it looks like after curing.

Step 94

I applied some TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) to the back of the cane end and pressed it into the center of the flower.

Step 95

Then I checked for any gaps and filled them with additional flower petals.

Step 96

I also added some green leaves to the stem.

Step 97

Here's what it looks like so far - We're almost done!

Step 98

Since this is a piece that I definitely do not want to sand, I'm going to texture the entire surface area using a combination of texture applications.

First I smoothed over the whole surface using my fingers. Then I covered all of the exposed blue background with impressions from the ball stylus.

Step 99

Then I tapped the entire surface of the blue background with a toothbrush. This gives it a matte finish and removes any remaining fingerprints. (You could also use a paintbrush or coarse sandpaper to texture it.)

Step 100

The stem, leaves, and petals are a bit trickier - so for them, I gently brushed them with a dry paintbrush. The bristles leave a light texture and help to smooth any fingerprints.

Step 101

Here, I'm brushing the stem.

Step 102

Here's what the plaque looked like just before I put it in the oven. I baked this at 275 degrees for an hour.

When I created the background, I thought I would trim the edges all around the plaque to square it up before baking. When it came time to trim it though, I decided that I liked the edges the way they were so I left them as you see them here.

Step 103

Here's the finished piece.

I later attached a wire hanger to the back of the piece and then re-baked it. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the steps I took to do that. Since the head of the flower is the heaviest part of this piece, I placed the hanger right behind the center of the flower.

I used a mix of Premo and Fimo for the blends that were used in this project. Although I made this before Sculpey Utralight was available, it would have been a great medium to use for a project like this because it's lightweight. So keep that in mind if you'd like to try this project.

Thanks for following along! Happy Claying!

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