How to Make a Polymer Clay Quiggle
Written by Magenta


You will need
- Polymer clay. You need half a block of the main color (I used sculpey), as well as small amounts of white, black, and red (for the stripes)
- Sculpting tools. I have some clay tools I use, but toothpicks and your fingers should be fine.
- Something to cut the clay with. An old butter knife is fine, but it should NOT be used for food after using it on clay. It can also be easily cut with a strand of dental floss held taut between your hands.
- A surface to work on. I personally take a section of the newspaper and wrap it with wax paper. The clay tends to get stuck to whatever you work on, so make sure you aren't working on a surface the clay might destroy (i.e. carpet! :)
- Glue (not shown). This will be to attach the feet to the body after baking. I personally use a rubber type all purpose glue (it's called GOOP), but just about any glue should work.
- Clear nail polish (not shown, optional). This is to make the eyes look glossy.


Step 1
First, take the block of green clay, and cut it in half. Play with half of it until it is nice and soft (you will repeat this with any of the clay before using it). Roll it into a big ball.


Step 2
Now, start pinching the sides of the ball to pull out two little hills on the top, and two larger ones to the sides. This will become the base for the eyes and the arms later.


Step 3
Cut the remaining green clay into 4 approximately equal pieces. Two will be used for the feet, one for the knees, and one for the toes.


Step 4
Take two of the blocks and roll each into a ball. Then smoosh the ball down and pull some of it forward. Make it into a more or less bell shape. Then pinch and pull the toes out to make it look like a Quiggle flipper. Smooth it all down. (An alternate way of getting the feet is to roll out a piece of clay to a little less than 1/4 inch thick, and draw the general shape onto the clay and cut it out). Repeat for the second foot.


Step 5
Take another of the blocks from step 3, and divide it in half. Roll each half into a ball. Position the feet so that they are close at the heel and splay out some. Place a ball on top of each foot. Place the body on top of the legs (balls) and position it how you like. Then, keeping the legs stuck to the body, peel them off of the feet.


Step 6
On the BACK of the Quiggle body, smoosh the legs to the body.


Step 7
This is by far the most difficult part. Don't get too concerned at making the mouth perfect right away, because you WILL mess it up in the next few steps. Just shape out the general shape of the mouth, using fingers, toothpicks, whatever. Look at the happy Quiggle image on Neopets and shape the mouth more or less like that. Remember the mouth takes up most of the body. In this image I have also started to form the hands and fingers, much the same as the feet were made in step 4.


Step 8
While you do this step, it's not a bad idea to put the body into the refrigerator to let the clay stiffen up a little bit (it'll also numb it some so the next step doesn't hurt as badly ;). Also, wash your hands and rub them vigorously with a paper towel before handling the white clay, or the eyes will be tinged by the clay you've been using up until now. Take some white clay, and make two evenly sized balls for the eyes.


Step 9
Take the body back out of the refrigerator, lay it down, and use a toothpick to stab through the white ball into the bump on top of the head. Try not to pierce straight through the head. Wiggle the toothpick around a tiny bit to widen the hole slightly. The hole serves two purposes: it will become the pupil of the eye, and it securely attaches the eyes to the body.


Step 10
Now make some very tiny equal sized balls of black clay, and place them over the holes made in step 9. Push them down some to cover the hole and so they don't fall out.


Step 11
Use the final block of green clay from step 3. Pull off little bits of clay and roll them into balls that will become the toes. The ones for the feet will be larger than those for the hands. Smooth them to the bottoms of the feet and back of the hands the way you did with the legs in step 6.


Step 12
Pick the body back up and place it on top of the feet. Push down very carefully to make indentations on top of the feet, where you will glue them to the body later. Then carefully peel the feet back off of the legs and lay the body back down.


Step 13
Make 4 small balls (about the size of the big middle toe on the Quiggle's foot) out of RED clay. Put your finger on one side and roll back and forth till it is pointy. Do the same on the other side. Now flatten the whole thing down. Repeat for all 4 balls. Place the stripes on the sides of the body, wrapping to the back (look at step 15 for positioning).


Step 14
Mix some of the red clay with some white to make a bright pink. Take a piece of the clay about the same size as used on the eyeball, and roll it into a cylinder. Then make the cylinder into a U shape and flatten it slightly. Use a toothpick to push the center part down into the bottom of the mouth.


Step 15
Now, with the Quiggle laying down, you can do any smoothing out you would like to, and refine the shape of the mouth. I lay it down to bake and attach the feet afterwards, because the first time I made one, I tried to just bake it in one piece. Halfway through the baking, the Quiggle tipped forward, and bent the feet. I had to break them off and remake them separately. Bake the pieces in the oven according to the package directions for your polymer clay (ask for parental help for this if you aren't allowed to use the oven). I place my parts on a piece of typing paper so that the clay doesn't come in contact with the cookie sheet.


Finishing
After the clay has fully cooled, glue the legs to the feet. Once the glue has dried fully, paint the eyes with the clear nail polish, or other shiny clear paint. Voila! Your very own polymer clay Quiggle!!!

Try using different colors and shapes to experiment and see what you can come up with! The following are some others I have also made!







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