Polymer Clay "The Poet" Sculpture

36. Process a quarter block each of white clay and black clay through the pasta machine. Trim the black and white clay with the razor blade to make them uniform in size. Cut the sheets in half. Lay one on the other and cut the clay in half again.

37. The clay should look like stripes on the sides. Cut a long stripe to reveal the pattern. Then cut it in three pieces, one large piece and two equal sized smaller pieces (figure J).

38. Cut a 3-inch piece of floral wire and cover it in beige clay. Keep the wire straight. Form the arms and hands with your hands and cut the excess clay off so not to look too muscular.

40. Cut a large piece of the black and white clay in half so that the pattern remains intact on either side.

41. Place the beige arms in the top middle of the two black and white halves.

42. Press the two halves together around the arms.

44. Roll white clay into a snake for piping for the sleeve cuffs; bottom of the shirt and for the collar (figure M).

45. Make the watch using a very small amount of brown clay, roll it into a short thin snake and wrap it around the wrist.

46. For the watch face, place a small dot of silver clay on the brown clay wristband. Use a very, very tiny sliver of black clay, hand roll it into a very tiny snake and put it on the watch face on the wrist (figure N).

47. Form the right hand open to hold the book.

48. To make the book, roll some gold clay into a ball, and then process through the pasta machine.

49. Cut a 1-inch rectangle; press a crease in the middle to shape the bookbinding. Process the white clay through the pasta machine on setting #5. Cut the sheet into three 1/2-inch pages. Lay the sheets into the book, center so the pages resemble an open book. With the blunt side of the razor blade, push the middle of the pages into the binding. Scratch word lines into the pages with the sharp side of the razor blade (figure O). Do not place book into poet’s hand yet.