A work in progress

Here is a brief step-by-step guide on how I create my Toca Boca elements. I completed these four elements (Roentgenium, Iron, Chromium, and Arsenic) in the weekend and got them to tip-top condition. My first step is to roll out the coloured balls of clay. A few of the colours required mixing before establishing the true phenotype, whilst others had natural colours established already. The next step was to shape the balls of polymer clay. I completed this task by using my clay modelling tools and my fingers. Repeating many molding steps as I went along. In addition to creating the shapes, I squeezed on the white of the eyes and the pupils delicately, spaced apart from each other at equal distance.

  

I then constructed the facial features of the creatures. A teal nose for Chromium, blush pink cheeks for Iron, mouth for Roentgenium, and an orange nose and teal mouth for Arsenic. After adding in the pre-baked rods for Iron and Roentgenium, I baked all four elements in the oven for 15 minutes under 135C. Tinfoil is always ideal for placement on the pan or else the clay may burn in the corners, or points where they make contact with the oven tray.

Assembling molybdenum

Below is a visual demonstration of how my work station functions. The test subject for this particular case is Molybdenum and I have using Sculpey glue to bond the leaves to the hexagonal object. The process goes as follows, the foundation of the creature begins with moulding a shape a few centimetres of size by each side, and then compressed down to the last detail. The white of the eyes are rolled from clay and pressed onto the surface to begin the structuring of the face. Similarly, the pupils are compressed on top of the stable eye whites. From here, the mouth is rolled into a cylindrical oval shape and pressed onto the soft clay, an additional roll of clay wraps around the mouth serving the purpose of lips. With the final product is established, it is placed on a tray and baked in the oven for 15 minutes.

   

Sculpey Premo!

After discovering that the Warehouse Stationery in South City didn't hold the colours I needed for my Premo! clay, we drove to the Warehouse Stationery at Eastgate and there on the shelf sat fixated the blush, raw sienna and turquoise shaded Premo! clay. This clay type is extremely durable and has a much smoother texture than the Sculpey III clay.

      

Sculpey 'bake and bond'

Finally, a fundamental tool has been purchased, this is Sculpey 'bake and bond' glue. This glue is essential for my oven-bake Sculpey clay as it binds parts together before baking in the oven. Whilst in the crafting section, we also bought some more Sculpey rectangular blocks, these coloured purple, tranquillity and just orange. These are a few of the colours left to collect on the periodic table. Note, more information on the clay mediums are featured on the 'Preparation' page.

   

Sculpey gloss glaze

This afternoon I trialled with the newly bought Sculpey glaze and it layered onto my clay figures nicely. The texture of the glaze is incredibly silky and can be painted on using a normal brush. I lathered the ingredient onto my remaining clay figures, that including my most recently made element 'Lanthanum' - a plump blue creature with spikes. Unlike clear nail polish, the glaze provides a more 'natural' shine, which does not smudge or bother the pre-drawn felt as much.

   

New art supply

This evening I went on a trip out to Spotlight and found purchasing paint brushes and paint to be a necessity. The products consist of a series of paint brushes, some paint palettes, and a Reeves painting set. The paints are made up of complementary primary colours, and the paint brushes are an assortment of varying sizes which come into use quite easily. I was also allowed to purchase some new Sculpey III clay by mama. The colours go as following: pearl, lemonade, turquoise and emerald. These colours help to complete common hues on the Toca Boca periodic table as there are many elements in the green and blue shade category. The pearl coloured clay block would be one of my favourites in this set because it has a shiny tint applied to it, and is applicable for mixing with other clay blocks.

      

Receiving clay parcel

I received this wonderful gift from my Aunt and Uncle, it has a Jovi Air Dry block, Sculpey 5-in-1 tools and BIC metallic markers. The BIC metallic markers come in platinum silver, yellow gold, emerald green, sapphire, amethyst, jade, pink topaz and bronze. The Sculpey 5-in-1 tools are excellent with interchangeable tool heads complete with a blade, cone tip shaper, chisel tip shaper, ball end and needle tool, these differ slightly from my other clay sculpting tools. I was really happy to receive this gift as it made my day having new clay tools and felt pens to acquire to, and of good quality for use.

   

Mini storage compartment

A small storage compartment for my clay elements was purchased by my parents and posed as a utility for placing completed or uncompleted figures. The storage compartment cost $8.00 in total and is of reasonable quality. Each section provides space for the placement of up to four clay elements. I believe that I will need to expand my utility space once I create elements over the mark of 50 as this current storage compartment makes up for that approximate value.

      

Revisiting my website

There has been some inactivity present over the past couple of days due to me being hospitalized mentally. The holidays had me break down under pressure for personal reasons, but now that I am back in a learning environment, I can post more to my blog. I am currently underway with creating more clay elements in my supervised hospital area but will attempt to continue updating when the time is necessary. I'm still working on my grey coloured creature elements and have yet to use my oven-bake blocks of clay, these ones being the coloured blocks. I have a plentiful of time to work on my project within the youth wing of the hospital, its a therapeutic activity I find.

New sharpie pens

Sharpie Electro Pop:

• Techno blue
• Nano blue
• Optic orange
• Electric pink
• Ultra violet

Additional Pen Types:

• Black
• Metallic silver
• Red
• Neon blue
• Neon green

Du-kit mailbox arrival

The clay I ordered from Warehouse Stationery arrived today, and because it was the Easter holiday sale, I got it delivered for free. I wasn't at home at the time to grab it, but my sister picked it up and brought it to me. The Du-Kit blocks are flatter than the previous blocks, but also much wider in surface area. Postage occurred a day after the order was placed, and the estimated delivery time took 5 days, so it arrived in no time, and around the time I predicted, as my neighbourhood postal service delivers on Mondays and Wednesdays.

   
 

Putting materials to use

This morning I began clay sculpting for the first time! It's a very slow process, but I managed to mould the basic shapes of four different Toca Boca elements - sodium, potassium, magnesium and strontium. From there I began to create more basic shapes. I added in basic components, such as their eyes, noses, and even the leaves on their heads. The remaining facial features will most likely draw on by crayon or felt. My first task is to complete modelling the majority of the grey shaded elements, then perhaps move onto to completing the multi-coloured elements on the periodic table. Being a first-time clay sculpturer I also picked up some basic long-term skills, for example, incorporating the use of water to moisten dried clay when exposed to air for particular periods of time, or creating intricate indents for the placement of eye or mouth parts. They all look very simplistic at the moment.

 

Ordering clay online

It's the long Easter weekend and while shopping online, I came across a sale on Warehouse Stationery. The store had a selection of Jovi, Premo! and another clay brand which I had seen elsewhere called Du-Kit. Du-Kit is locally produced, in New Zealand, and relatively affordable. I purchased three clay shades, dark brown, pink, and light green. I received my order confirmation via email and will receive my products between 1-3 business days.

Rectangular toolbox

Late this afternoon I re-visited Spotlight and bought home a "Crafters Choice Large Toolbox Clear". I found it to be of decent quality. Being a plastic and rectangular box, there's not much which can go faulty. Whilst I was out buying a toolbox, I had another look at the clay selection. This time I decided to buy home another "Jovi Air Dry" rectangular block, except in grey colour. I can't open the packaging however until I start modelling the clay in real time.

   

Discovering all elements

Tonight I completed my Toca Boca periodic table and unlocked all 118 elements! I completed my hand-drawn diagram too, which can be referred to under the "Element Progress" tab! Below are various screen-caps taken from the application, a broken periodic table. The app enables you to experiment with many tools, either to heat up, cool down, generate wind, electrocute or apply chemicals to the elements. I found the most fascinating elements to have wonderful graphics displaying their radioactivity. This was applicable to elements on the seventh and ninth row.

      

      

Now that I have completed my periodic table to the full extent, I have the option to reset my game data and discover all the elements all over again! Confetti falls from the top of the screen when you complete the game. Throughout the process of completing my game, I have recorded my element data down in a hand-drawn table in my drawing book. Here the creatures look a little shabby, but they have been outlined to the best of my ability. Tonight after waiting a substantial amount of time, I have successfully completed my table with no empty spaces.

Colour differentiation

The primary task of today was to sort through the colours of the creatures on the periodic table and separate them into multiple "shade" groups. This was only applicable for the grey, green and blue colours. Green and blue had an assortment of 'dark', 'light' and 'teal', whilst grey had shades of various integrated hues. All 118 elements were identified and assigned a solid block colour, for which a few were allocated via the use of the "dropper" tool.

   

Finding the materials

After a long time of planning, I purchased the first few materials needed for the Toca Boca project - 1x Jovi Air Dry, and 3x Sculpey III. I really like the feel of the new clay, although I did, by accident, gather a mix of air-dry and oven-bake clay types. The clay modelling tools bought appear to be helpful too, with curved and pointy ends.