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Polymer Clay on Greenleaf Trim


MLPMagic13

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My Vineyard Cottage will be coming in the mail this week and I am so excited about it. I am doing 4 holiday houses (Halloween, Easter, Valentine's and Christmas) and this one is going to be my Christmas one. But since I will be doing it to my tastes, its going to be Krampus' Twisted Toy and Sweet Shoppe. Its going to be a muted color palette and have creepy snowmen outside and broken gingerbread men as employees. I am planning to possibly add a second story to the open section so as to have more room for sales items. I have been rolling ideas over in my mind and one thing I have been thinking about is using polymer clay to make the gingerbread trim look like black and white candycanes. Has anyone ever used polymer clay on Greenleaf houses by putting it on the wood and baking it? In my mind it looks awesome, but I am thinking I would probably need to reduce the wood in places so that there is room for the thickness of the clay. This is something that if I screw up, I will probably have ruined it for good, so I am hoping that there might be some thoughts about it or maybe someone has already done it. Thanks

Here comes Krampus, Here comes Krampus, right down Krampus Lane......

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I wouldn't bake the clay right on the wood. I'd bake the clay elements separately and then glue them in place to get the raised effect. Have you considered using paperclay instead of polyclay? That would be lighter overall, easier to remove if you don't like it, and eliminate the baking process.

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I've seen polymer clay "candies" used to trim "gingerbread" houses, glued on.  I certainly wouldn't bake poly clay directly onto the wood; you would still have to glue it on to get it to stick.  I think you would be happier with paperclay.  And how would you fit the trim into  toaster oven?  You certainly weren't thinking of using the oven of your kitchen stove that you use for food!

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Thanks for the input guys, its definitely giving me food for thought. In some ways I really liked the idea of glossed polymer clay for the trim - nice clean stripes. I hadn't even thought about using paper clay. It would give it a more decayed snowy look that might actually fit the character of the house better. I could paint the black and white stripes on and could make it more worn looking. That is almost where I am starting to lean to. 

I am going to be getting  a mold kit tonight at Joanns. I have never made a mold before, but I'm not going to hand sculpt a zillion jellybean bricks! If I like using it, then it would make all the candies easier for sure.

And don't worry Havanaholly, I haven't put Polymer Clay in the oven since we got our clay oven. :) 

I think I'll have to experiment with the unused Orchid trim before I touch my Vineyard Cottage.

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10 minutes ago, sparklepuppies said:

I painted the window trim on my Buttercup Gingerbread House with red and white stripes. No clay.  I just painted directly on the wood. Actually, I just did red stripes... I painted the base color white.

The Buttercup makes for a really cute gingerbread house. Do you get it out at Christmas only or keep it out all year?

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You can bake polymer clay on wood if you wish, there are lots of projects on YouTube showing how. I found it when I was looking for a way to add a brick effect to a fireplace. I didn't use the wood I  found a topic that used a couple of layers of corrugated card board  then baked the clay on so I did it that way.

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I can’t envision how the polymer clay would stick to the wood. It seems to me it would be making something relatively easy more difficult than necessary. But maybe I’m just not understanding. 

I love the Krampus Christmas movie, looking fw to seeing what you come up with. 

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My (dearly departed) Polymer Clay book that was written in the 90's had instructions on how to use clay with wood. Its something that I have always wanted to try but never did. I think baking it on the wood instead of gluing it afterwards would keep it from possibly warping out of shape in the oven or from separating it from the wood. You just put some of the liquid sculpey or glue on it and it bonds nicely. I am going to do a test run on it and I can share pics of the result, if anyone wants to see how it turns out.

1 hour ago, sparklepuppies said:

My gingerbread house lives on a bottom shelf of a side table in my dining room all year. If I'm adventurous, I remember to bring it out to more central location at Christmas!

My Krampus house will be out all year as well. :)

1 hour ago, WyckedWood said:

 

I love the Krampus Christmas movie, looking fw to seeing what you come up with. 

I loved that movie as well. :)

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I have used Paperclay on a wood house. I refurbished an antique dollhouse that had no finish at all on the back, just plain bare wood with paint runs and scratches. I used the Paperclay, which does not have to be baked, and put down a good base of glue first, then applied the clay, making a rough-stone finish.  After it is dry, it is easy to paint. 

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