Polymer Clay Wonder Woman

In honor of the movie that recently came out (okay...so maybe it's not that recent), I modeled Wonder Woman out of polymer clay! This time, I'm even providing a tutorial! Yay!

Get your polymer clay ready!

You will need:

• White (optional) and yellow, red, bue, and skin colors of polymer clay
• Tools (a plastic knife is fine, and a rolling tool helps as well)

Take some of the skin color clay and flatten it out into a circle as shown below for Wonder Woman's head.

  Roll some red polymer clay into a cone for WW's top. Stick a toothpick through one side of the head, making sure it doesn't come out through the other end. Then, slide the cone up to the head.

Is it a kebab? Not really!

Roll out some blue into a rectangle that is fairly thin for the skirt. There is an example below, but I didn't use this exact one. Make the rectangle fairly large, definitely large enough to wrap around WW's top a few times.

Fold the longer side of the rectangle accordion-style. Do not do anything with the other three sides. The skirt will flare out automatically if it is folded right. This may take a few tries, and you might need to change the dimensions of the rectangle used and go back to the previous step. Take your time on this step so the skirt looks nice :) !

Attach the skirt onto Wonder Woman by pressing its edges onto the top. (The picture below already has arms, but the making of those is demonstrated in then next step.)

Now, you can make the arms and legs. For the arms, take two pieces like shown below, roll them into cones with a large heights and small bases, curve them slightly, then stick them on. Refer to the picture above to see how they look.

For the legs, take another piece like below (but slightly larger). Wrap some red clay around the tips, with a yellow stripe going up the middle of them (or use a white stripe, but I ran out of white clay and made due with yellow).

Your Wonder Woman should look like this now:

Bold and beautiful :)

  Now, there's the hard part: the hair! You can do any style you like. I was trying to make curls, but since I'm not so experienced with hair yet, they didn't turn out that way. To make curly (but primarily wavy) hair like I did, take strips of brown and lightly wear your plastic knife down, being careful not to cut through them. Then, twist the ends of the strips. Before attaching them on one by one, take some clay and add it to the back of her head in a dome shape for depth.
Also, I added a yellow collar between her head and top. Just roll out yellow clay into a noodle-like shape and wrap it around WW's top.

  To make the cape, take a large piece of red clay, roll it out so it is quite thin, then cut it out into a trapezoid shape. Attach it to her shoulders.

To make the "W" on the back of her cape, flatten out an oval of yellow clay a bit and make some cuts for the letter.

Can you find the "W" among all of these lines?

Pop it out and cut three lines through the sides of the letter.

Attach it onto the back of her cape. 

  Make her shield by taking flat circles of red, yellow, and blue (largest to smallest, respectively) and stacking them together. Make another "W" with the steps above to attach them onto the shield.

Now you're done! 

  I have made this project using some techniques (such as the skirt folding) I've learned during this tutorial I before mentioned for making Hermione Granger. I am also providing the link for the image that inspired me to create the shield of this craft (the image was actually two earrings).
For the inspiration of shields

I know I've made the skirt a bit long in comparison to how it really is on Wonder Woman, and other small parts may not be as accurate, either (she went from having black hair to brown because I also have no black clay at the moment). However, I think she turned out quite well! The Harry Potter gang and Belle can welcome another friend now :).

Have you created any Marvel or DC Superheros out of clay? What about with other mediums? Tell me below!

New Polymer Clay Dragon

I am pleased to welcome my second dragon creation to my collection!

Isn't she beautiful?

It took me a few hours to make her, but this was primarily due to the fact that I was short of clay and was mixing different colors for so long, and that it was late at night when I started. The designs of both dragons are very similar, but I decided to change where I put more detail for the second dragon. I'll need to bake both of them now...

Stay tuned for a tutorial for a different polymer clay craft, coming soon!

Book Review: Ungifted by Gordan Korman

The bad news is, I haven't posted in about 3 weeks.
The good news is, you have a post right now to read! Check out the review of Ungifted, by Gordan Korman, below!

Ungifted

By Gordan Korman

Cover Courtesy of Goodreads

Goodreads Synopsis: The word gifted has never been applied to a kid like Donovan Curtis. It's usually more like Don't try this at home. So when the troublemaker pulls a major prank at his middle school, he thinks he's finally gone too far. But thanks to a mix-up by one of the administrators, instead of getting in trouble, Donovan is sent to the Academy of Scholastic Distinction (ASD), a special program for gifted and talented students.

It wasn't exactly what Donovan had intended, but there couldn't be a more perfect hideout for someone like him. That is, if he can manage to fool people whose IQs are above genius level. And that becomes harder and harder as the students and teachers of ASD grow to realize that Donovan may not be good at math or science (or just about anything). But after an ongoing experiment with a live human (sister), an unforgettably dramatic middle-school dance, and the most astonishing come-from-behind robot victory ever, Donovan shows that his gifts might be exactly what the ASD students never knew they needed.

My Review: I''ve been meaning to read this book since a few years ago, and I'm happy I finally got around to it during the break. I think the most striking things about this book is the diversity of characters and their relationships. Donovan is a pretty strong protagonist, and actually seems to be the best described risk-taking character I've ever read about! His impulsiveness is explained as if it just exists! He wants to be reckless just because, and in my opinion, there's no other way to explain that. I think some authors put in a background story sometimes to explain why the character is like who they are, but I love the fact that Donovan's character is the way it is because that's just who he is! No one explains why some characters are nice, so why should an author dive into depth why someone is reckless?

The author also does a good job with the characters, especially the characters from the ASD, who undergo a large amount of character development. The plot is also engaging, and it moves forward at a comfortable pace.

There were a few complaints I have with this book. I don't understand Noah at all, and why he is trying to fail out of school and try to end up in a place that would be even less stimulating to him. It makes me wonder why his parents didn't enroll him in a school that was even more challenging to his mind. I also thought Katie's POV sounds like she was 14, not 26. The language she uses did not reflect her age well. In addition, I don't feel very convinced Donovan impacts the school very much. Though he made his peers feel more like people with actual lives, I need more proof that he was important to them. I simply don't buy that he changes their lives. I also don't understand why Donovan chooses to be friends with the Daniels, who may be nice occasionally, but get Donovan in trouble quite often.

Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars. It's an enjoyable read!