Paper Clay Giraffe

Materials:

paper clay
wood block (roughly 1" x 1" x 3")
20-gauge wire (1 piece 2’ long)
18-gauge wire (4 pieces 2’ long)
acrylic or other water-based paint
leather string (2" or so)
feather
small flat head nail
varnish or acrylic coating
basic clay sculpting tools
needle tool or nail
small paintbrushes
needle nose pliers
wire cutter
craft knife
sandpaper
instant glue
paper
pencil

1. Sketch ideas for a giraffe. Refer to a photo or search the Internet for ideas (figure A).

2. Work a handful of paper clay in your fingers to make it pliable. Make a cylinder with a ball shape at one end for the giraffe head (figure B). Make a depressed ring around the base of the neck as a place to wire the neck to the wood block torso (figure C). Pull up the back of the neck and shape into a rectangular mane.

3. Shape the snout on the head, make depressions on the front and pull up slightly with sculpting tool for nostrils. Poke eye shapes with the same tool and depression lines above and below to form each eye (figure D). For ears, roll a pinky nail sized piece of paper clay into a cone shape. Moisten the flat side and the side of the head and attach the cone. Smooth the seam. Poke in the center of the cone toward the outside to create the ear hole. Repeat on the other side. For antlers, roll pinky size pieces of paper clay into cylinders with balls on the ends. Attach flat sides toward the top of the head slightly forward from the ears.