American Art Clay Company - AMACO.com May E-News

Top 10 Tips for Creating Bottles of Hope

by Helen Bradley and Michelle Zimmerman

Designers Helen and Michelle were both finalists in the CHA Winter show Bottles of Hope competition and here they share some of their top tips for making clay covered Bottles of Hope. You can see more of their work at http://www.http-design.com

1. Warm it up
When curing your bottle place the bottle on a surface such as a tile and place it in a cold oven then turn the oven on. This way the bottle will heat gently and is less likely to crack than if you put it into a hot oven. Likewise, give the bottle plenty of time to cool down in the oven after curing and before removing it.

2. Using armatures
If you have pieces that you want to attach to the bottle such as arms for a character, use a wire armature to support it - AMACO makes a great armature wire. Bake the wire for the arm into the base clay that you place on the bottle and then build the arm onto the wire. Always support things that stick out, like arms, when curing. Using a wire armature gives the piece more strength.

3. Wire makes great hair
For cute hair for a doll bottle, AMACO Fun Wire works particularly well. This is plastic covered wire which can be baked with the clay piece. Embedding the wire in the clay before you bake it ensures that the plastic surrounding the wire bonds with the clay while being cured.

4. Antiquing clay
To antique a piece, we like to use Plaid Decorator Glaze. This is available in 2 oz. bottles and in a wide range of colors including metallics and can be brushed onto the piece and then wiped off. The Olde World Bronze color goes well on both black clay as well as white. Being a glaze it dries more slowly than acrylic paint so you have more time to work with it. If it dries where you don't want it, paint on another coat and wipe both off.

5. Build on a solid foundation
When you're making a face for a character bottle, pre-bake a round ball of clay just smaller than the final size of the head. Bake it on a piece of wire or on a stem that will ultimately be the bottle stopper. Then build your face on the solid clay foundation using the wire or stopper to hang onto while you work on the more delicate features.

6. When you can't draw hands
There's an old adage that says if you can't draw hands draw characters with their hands in their pockets. In the clay world it means that if you're not confident about creating faces or hands, then grab a set of Maureen Carlson's molds and use these as a starting point. Cast the face, hands, feet or even boots using her molds and then pose the hands or rework the pieces so they look like you want them to look. It's a good way of getting a head start (pun most certainly intended!) on a character piece.

7. Bake once Bake often
When you're creating a piece that has lots of layers, don't think you have to bake them all at once. Bake one layer, build onto it and then bake the next layer making sure to time the baking appropriate to the thickness of raw clay you've just added. We might bake our pieces 4 or 5 times or more.

8. Haute couture
When making clothes for a character bottle, cut the clothes just as you would real clothes just at a smaller size. Make darts where you want to fit a piece to a figure. For sleeves, determine whether the shoulder will be square or raglan and cut the shape to suit. If you're unsure how to cut clothes, head to the library and source a good book on making human or doll's clothing.

9. Worried about finger prints?
To remove finger prints, brush the final piece with a paint brush. We keep special brushes just for this purpose - we never use them for paint - and find large soft bristle brushes work best. Dust the brush gently across the surface to remove the prints. Brush lightly - don't expect to get rid of all the prints the first time.

10. Texture magic
Need the look of fabric for clothing? Dig out an old piece of cloth and use that to texture the clay. Choose cloth that is well washed and that doesn't have a lot of fluff - you want the texture in the clay - not fluff!