How to Make Illustrative Handmade Clay Brooches

Name: How to Make Illustrative Handmade Clay Brooches
Rating: 4.8 (8 reviews)

Work with air dry clay, paint and use resin to finish your pins

Created byAmy P. Stoddard

Last updated 3/2023

English

What you'll learn

Learn how to work with air dry clay
Learn about different paints and techniques
Get the basics on using UV resin as a topcoat
Make professional looking clay brooches

Course content

1 section • 9 lectures • 48m total length

Introduction1:00
Introduction to myself and the class, giving you a brief overview of the course.
Lesson 1: Creating and Cutting out your Design Patterns2:51
In this class we will discuss what makes a good clay pin design, print out our "patterns" from our designs, and prepare them for use.
Lesson 2: Transferring your Designs to Clay6:38
In this lesson we will go over how to best roll out your clay into an even thickness and cut out your pin design bases using the "patterns" we created in the last video.
Lesson 3: Sanding and Patching the Clay8:20
This lesson will go over working with dried clay, specifically sanding the work smooth, adding patches of wet clay to dry areas and using craftsmanship to refine the pieces before painting.
Lesson 4: Priming your Pieces4:41
Lesson 5: Applying your Base Colors3:37
Lesson 6: Adding Your Detail Paint6:24
Lesson 7: Touching up the Backs and Applying UV Resin to the Tops8:09
Lesson 8: Adding Resin to the Sides and Attaching Your Pin Backs6:34

Requirements

All you need is your creativity! I will teach you all the skills you need to finish your projects
Tools needed will be air dry clay, gesso or primer, paints, UV resin and brooch pinbacks

Description

Learn how to turn your own illustrative designs into handmade, hand painted clay pins. I will guide you through the entire process from transferring your designs to clay, sanding, priming, painting and applying a UV resin coat in the end to make them strong enough to last a lifetime.

In this class you will learn a trio of skills. First and foremost you will learn the basics of air dry clay, including tooling of the dried clay. Secondly you will gain more knowledge of paints like gouache and acrylic and learn best practices when applying them to clay. Lastly you will also learn about the properties of UV resin and how to apply it to your projects with ease and confidence.

Aside from learning these great skills, you will also gain the ability to turn your illustrative ideas into wearable art. These final pieces can be used to add a new product to your store’s lineup that goes beyond wall art and doesn’t require a large investment to get started. It’s also a fun project to create unique and custom gifts to give family and friends during holiday and beyond.

This class is designed to be fun for everyone from the beginner, to enthusiastic hobbyist, and even artist entrepreneurs. Prior experience with paints and clay can be helpful, but is not necessary.

Here is a list of supplies you will need in order to get started:

Air dry clay: any brand will do, but DAS and LaDoll are both excellent.
Clay tools: specifically cutting and carving tools. Often these come in packs, but even a single clay blade tool as seen in my video will suffice.
Sandpaper: around 400 grit will suffice.
Paints: Acrylic, Acryla Gouache, Gouache and Posca work great. No oil paint or watercolor paints.
UV Resin: any should work as long as it’s UV cure and not 2 part epoxy.
UV Lamp: the higher the wattage the better
Various Resin tools: silicone mat, hand protection, silicone mixing cups, resin applicators like toothpicks or other wooden resin tools.

Who this course is for:

Beginner artists will easily be able to follow along and create a finished product.
Advanced artists seeking new avenues for handmade products or wishing to round out their skills