In the age of technology, we often forget how much fun that simple, hands-on crafts can be for children and adults alike. Modeling clay, which comes in every color of the rainbow, is a great tool to expand your imagination, your spacial ability and your artistic creativity. Making figures with modeling clay is a great way to start. With the following instructions, it'll be easy to learn and will have rewarding results.
Instructions
1. To make a human figure out of modeling clay, there are a few basic shapes that need to be formed: limbs, torso, head, hands and feet.
2. To form a head, pinch a piece of clay off from the block, and roll it into a perfect sphere. Then, using the palm of your hand, roll the sphere on a flat surface to form more of a grape-shape.
3. The figure's torso is created more with pinching than with rolling. Take a section of clay two or three times as large as the head and, using your forefingers and thumbs on both hands, shape the piece into a trapezoid. The wider part is the chest, and the narrower part is the waist.
4. To create arms and legs, section off pieces of clay about the same size as the head. Roll them out into dowel shapes, so they look like long rolling pins, until they're twice the length of the torso.
5. Attach the head to the top of the wide part of the trapezoid-shaped torso, and the limbs to the sides and bottom of the torso. Pinch the ends of the arms and legs to form hands and feet.
6. If you have other colors of clay and would like to add clothes, facial features or other details to your figurines, you can do so by adhering different versions of the sphere and dowel shapes to create eyes, striped clothes, hair or anything your creative mind can think of.
