marydell | Shrunken Heads

I'm still feeling a little blue, so I planned to cheer myself up by doing something creative tonight. However, the computers at the office had other plans for me, so I didn't get home until 10 pm. Work cheers me up too, though, so it's all good.

Anyway, since I didn't get to do anything cool, I'm posting a picture of something I made a couple of years ago. They were a gift to my friend Emma on the occasion of her getting her M.A. in Psychology.

How: They're made of Crayola Model Magic clay. The first step is to take a large wooden bead (about 1" across) and loop some wire through it - the wire is what they hang from. Then form the head around the bead, with the wire coming out through the top. Use glass beads for eyes and other beads and stuff for decoration - if the clay doesn't encase the beads you'll probably need to glue them in place once the clay is dry. Which will be soon! This clay dries very quickly, and also doesn't really blend much, so you get a kind of chunky, marshmallow-snowman look to the finished product, as you can see. But it's very light and airy and fun to work with--I tend to overthink things a leetle bit, so working in a medium that forces me to move quickly is fun. Anyway, once it's dry, put some bundles of yarn together and knot them around the wire, and glue them into place for a nice topknot. Voila, creepy mojo-filled trophies for your friends.