Saturday, March 30, 2013

Quick tutorial; Lettuce

Lettuce for polymer clay creations and miniatures

Lettuce is one of those things that you can use to decorate almost anything, seriously, anything! With the exception of cakes, ice cream, candy and... okay, so maybe not anything - but a lot of things.
I love using lettuce to decorate arrangements of meat, fish, cheese etc.
You can use this technique to make lettuce for your 1:12 scale miniatures, charms or other polymer clay creations :)


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Materials needed;
-Polymer clay in a lettuce color (various shades of green, white etc. can be used for this)
-Mold maker (I'm used Amazing mold putty)
-Sharp blade or exacto knife
-Mixed tools (embossing tools, craft knives etc.)


When making lettuce, I like to use various shades of green to achieve a more lifelike appearance. I use a mixture of different green shades, white (Cernit) and sometimes even 'champagne' or 'sahara' for mixing in with the green to 'dull' the "neon"-like-briiiiiight-ness.
Next you'll need to make some molds that can be used to make the texture of the lettuce - In the picture above you can see 3 of the ones I've made. They're actually really easy to make; Prepare a small amount of mold putty, roll it into a ball and flatten it (you'll need to work pretty fast). Use various toold to make the texture; emossing tools, needles, clay blade, tin foil - whatever you have lying around. It doesn't have to be perfect, and it doesn't have to follow a specific pattern. You'll need to make 2 for this method :)

Slice off some very thin pieces of green clay and place them on top of one of the molds. Place the other mold on top and use your hand or fingers to add pressure.
Then simply remove the top mold! - fresh, yummy (clay) lettuce, ready to serve! :)