Steampunk Swirl Shroom

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• Step 1

  Choose your clay. Condition both your colors. Run them through a pasta machine a few times is you have one. Mix different colored clays together until desired amount of swirlyness is achieved.

• Step 2

  Get a dime sized piece of clay for the stem and about a nickle sized piece for the cap.

• Step 3

  For the cap, roll a ball out of the clay between your palms. Place the ball on your index finger and gently push around the sides and down a bit to form a mushroom cap shape. Smooth out any finger prints that may occur from shaping.

• Step 4

  Roll the other piece of clay on a flat surface, like a notebook or magazine, and roll it into a cylinder until desired thickness for the stem is achieved. If necessary, cut off any excess clay form one of the ends if you want your stem shorter. Shape with bottom on the stem to have rounded edges on the bottom.

• Step 5

  Get all the tiny stuff you want to put on your shroom together. Carefully place the screws all around the cap. If this is not done very carefully and very gently, then the cap will warp and you may have to start the cap over. Just be careful. If you want to add gemstones or other pieces with a semi-flat back, gently push the object into the clay to make a slight indention, get whatever adhesive you decided on and put a tiny dot in the area where you made the indention. Place the piece back and push slightly. Let dry, or do this last if your using Liquid Polymer Clay, as it won't harden until you bake it anyway.

• Step 6

  Get an eye pin and flush cutters. Cut it in half. Place a dot of glue on the end of the piece that has the eye pin on it. Carefully push it into the top of the cap to put your mushroom on a jump ring to use as a charm or something. Put the straight piece of the eye pin into the top of the stem after you've placed the glue on the end. Place a bit of glue on the top of the eye pin and push it into the cap to attach the stem and cap.

• Step 7

  Any polymer clay you get is going to need to be baked according to the manufacturer's instructions. Make sure you bake a test piece of clay first if this is your first time baking polymer clay in your oven. Some run hot, some run cool. It's best to figure out how you need to adjust the temperature beforehand. I usually bake mine on 255 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12-15 minutes. I used Sculpey Premo! and Sculpey III for my shroom.

• Step 8

  When your mushroom is finished baking, take it out of the oven and immediately place the clay shroom in a glass of ice water. It's common to do that with translucent clay to make it look better, but I do ice baths after baking on all my pieces. It helps it kinda sets the firmness in place after baking, if that makes sense.

• Step 9

  Take your mushroom out of the ice bath after about 5 minutes and you have your Steampunk mushroom! If you want to glaze, now is the time. Make sure your glaze is formulated for use on polymer clay. Unless the bottle says it's for use on polymer clay, don't use it. Polymer clay needs a specific type of glaze. If you choose not to glaze, go back over both the areas where there eye pins are and make sure they're still set in place. Sometimes after baking they can come loose and you have to glue them again. Enjoy!

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